“Media Fired Schiano Too Early”
November 18th, 2013
You gotta love the rollercoaster of the NFL. Greg Schiano was dead coach walking a few weeks ago, especially after NFL Network spent days pounding the Bucs’ head coach before and after the Bucs were embarrassed on Thursday Night Football.
But now Schiano is turning around the national media with his team’s admirable and surprising performance in Seattle, followed by two consecutive home wins.
Olive oil-lapping, popcorn-munching, coffee-slurping, fried-chicken-eating, oatmeal-loving, circle-jerking, beer-chugging, cricket-watching, scone-loathing, college football-naïve, baseball box score-reading Peter King, of Sports Illustrated and NBC Sports fame, devoted lots of time to Schiano in his renowned Monday Morning Quarterback column.
King named Schiano his “Coach of the Week” and went on to sing more praise.
4. I think the American sports media fired Greg Schiano too early.
5. I think running back Bobby Rainey deserves a load of credit for sticking with it and taking advantage of his opportunity in Tampa Bay, after their myriad running back injuries. That was a Greg Schiano, grind-it-out running performance by Rainey, 163 yards on 30 carries, with two touchdowns. Schiano loves to grind teams down with his backs. But this performance, to me, also says a lot about the Falcons. Rainey is not fast. He’s not a Bettis-type tackle-breaker. The Atlanta defense has much to answer for this morning.
Well, with that last note about the Bucs’ running game, it’s clear to Joe that King didn’t watch the Bucs-Seattle finish, when running Mike James dominated but was not given a regulation carry in the final 7:50. (Why? That still steams Joe.)
Regardless, Schiano is the comeback coach of November in the world of perception. How much Team Glazer cares about media musings is a mystery.
Joe just wants to see the Buccaneers keep thriving. That means Mike Glennon and Schiano beating good football teams and playing winning football over there next six games. Let’s see it, Coach.
November 18th, 2013 at 10:59 am
Schiano has the team playing hard, and winning.
If this keeps up, he aint going nowhere.
November 18th, 2013 at 11:04 am
It is still too early…
Seattle has issues with Run Defense
Miami has issues with its offensive line- almost beat us
Falcons- Injuries have decimated the team. The defense/Offensive line is bad
The plus point is the the bucs are playing spirited football. The upcoming games will tell us a lot. Detroit and Carolina. A win against Panthers would make a statement.
I still think the coach needs to go. The team is playing hard because of the leadership that is on the team.
November 18th, 2013 at 11:06 am
No, the media did not fire Schiano too early. It is what you would expect from a 0-8 season and 1-14 for the last 15 games. And let’s be real, Schiano is not, by design, an endearing personality – easy to not like!
It is also the nature of a What-have-you-done-for- me-lately sport. With the success of the no-name Bucs RBs lately, look for the media and some fans to start to question the value of Doug Martin. It will be undeserved and unfair scrutiny, but I can assure you it will happen.
It is simply the reason why the adage – Patience is virtue – has survived the course of time!
November 18th, 2013 at 11:06 am
I love the change in tone from “lets see what our draft position can be” to “let’s see how many games this team can get”. As much as I want mr. Clowney to wear pewter and red i love the thought of the Bucs knocking teams out of the playoffs so so much more
November 18th, 2013 at 11:11 am
The man has won two games,any other coach would have been fired,and the only reason he won those games was because the player’s stop listening to him. Teams with winning records are coming to play,we shall see.
November 18th, 2013 at 11:12 am
Its nice getting some wins late in the season but let’s face it the falcons are a bad football team right now and that win still doesn’t change that this coach knows how to win a close game against a good football team. I still Dont want him here next season
November 18th, 2013 at 11:13 am
lets go 8-8! It’d be a nice momentum swing headed into 2014.
Plus it would mean that Glennon turned into something special, therefore negating any need we have to draft a QB.
Hey, a guy can dream. The Bucs have the talent on this roster to beat anybody, they’ve just been trying to put it together all season. Maybe they finally found their winning formula. Or maybe it was just us beating up on sub par competition, who knows.
November 18th, 2013 at 11:14 am
I think/hope Schiano’s eyes are finally open. for the first time yesterday I saw our coach call a game more towards the strength of his players rather then force them to do it only his way. and the result, GMC had arguably one of his best days as a pro and we blew out the falcons. granted it is the falcons, but this team is playing so much confidence I think it can beat a good team. I dont know if all of this will be enough to save his job, but even if he does still get fired, he has my respect and so does the rest of this team. they’ve been through alot and yet they are persevering.
November 18th, 2013 at 11:18 am
well Joe they say a win in the NFL is special but you are selective
what about all other teams. I guess only certain wins count
No clue what you’re talking about.–Joe
November 18th, 2013 at 11:27 am
The Seattle performance let me know that the Bucs can play with anybody….If we play anywhere close to the way we played against them….we have a chance against Detroit….if Revis shuts down Megatron…we will win.
November 18th, 2013 at 11:36 am
Joe you seem to say only wins against certain teams count, I apologize
if I didn’t understand
November 18th, 2013 at 11:43 am
This is the NFL. This is professional football at it’s highest level. You have a team loaded with talented, big money players. Do you want a coaching staff that is slowly learning as they go, against broken teams?
November 18th, 2013 at 11:43 am
Two wins against two bad teams with a team loaded with talent? And you’re saying he was fired too soon? Talk about the recency effect on understanding the events around you. P. King’s an idiot.
November 18th, 2013 at 11:51 am
Coach is not going anywhere. He has brought order and discipline in year one and loosened up in year 2. Yes – I believe these “fans” chants were waaaay to early. I believe these “fans” have no idea about football nor “their” team. It is glad to see that these “fans” have rallied “their” team behind their coach, as well as us other fans. Yes, losing sucks, and jumping from college to NFL is a big jump. I wonder what would have happened if Bill Belichik eventually was pushed out of the NFL for his poor coaching start?!
http://www.facebook.com/dontfiregregschiano
November 18th, 2013 at 12:13 pm
@ Brian Jones
Totally agree Great post
November 18th, 2013 at 12:51 pm
Is this a different writer? the articles before wanted us to get the #1 draft pick???
Joe would still like the No. 1 draft pick, but that doesn’t mean Joe roots against the team. Two different animals. –Joe
November 18th, 2013 at 2:49 pm
Full disclosure: the 0-8 start infuriated me and I’ve written more than my fair share of tweets that included #FireSchiano.
That said, the common retort of “we just beat two really bad teams, what’s the big deal?” got me thinking. I just sat down and took a much closer look at that 0-8 start. Yes, I know all about “lies, damn lies, and statistics” and how “stats are for losers”. And while “the only stat that matters is wins”, has anybody bothered to take a look at how tough our first half really was?
Remove Atlanta from the equation (they are not good and the Bucs’ loss to them earlier in the season was putrid, plus they don’t fit my narrative and the Bucs beat them yesterday and yadda yadda yadda… It’s my stat and I’ll exclude who I want to), and the remaining 7 teams have a combined record 49-23 (that’s including the results of tonight’s Pats-Panthers game, assuming their will be 1 win and 1 loss, not a tie). 49-23! The average record of seven of the teams that beat the Bucs this year is 7-3!
If you want to be fair about it and take out both outliers – Seattle’s 10-1 along with Atlanta’s 2-8 (the old “throw out the highest and lowest scores” – the records of the remaining 6 teams is still 38-20, which averages out to roughly 6-3.
I’m not making excuses for the team or the coaches. What I’m saying is this: maybe that 0-8 start was the result of more than just ineptitude and some credit can be offered to strength of schedule. I follow this team very closely and have yet to see or hear or read ANY discussion about the quality of the opponents the Bucs faced in the first half of the season. Yes, they beat two bad teams and lost to seven good ones (plus Atlanta… LOL), but I have to believe that this team is finally gaining some confidence that will help pull out some victories against those “good” teams remaining on the schedule. Remember: of those 7 losses to “good” teams, 4 were uncomfortably close to being victories.
November 18th, 2013 at 3:09 pm
The media may have fired Schiano too early because the Bucs fired Freeman too late.
November 18th, 2013 at 7:01 pm
@Brian Jones:
Belichek learned under Parcells, and he has Tom Brady.
He is also fortunate to have a super owner, and good assistant coaches. I would really like to know his secret about replacing the great coaches he has lost. That really amazes me. His record speaks for itself.