Glazers, Coaches Root Of Bucs Problems
October 19th, 2009
Joe always enjoys reading Michael Silver of Yahoo! Sports dating back to his Sports Illustrated days. Despite the fact he’s a Maoist, Silver’s a good guy and a damned fine football writer.
This morning, Silver does a Phil Mushnick: He takes only one paragraph to torch the Bucs, albeit a very long paragraph.
Silver claims the Bucs problems are both mishandling from atop by the Glazer family, and piss poor coaching.
Two years ago, I flew to London to watch the Dolphins fall to 0-8 (en route to a 1-15 season) and apologized to the good people of England for having to witness such a jolly bad show. This year? Apologies in advance. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers (0-6) should be similarly atrocious when they face the Patriots at Wembley Stadium next Sunday, a matchup that has the potential to be as brutally lopsided as Austin Powers’ teeth. It might be cathartic for those Man U fans who are still mad at the Glazer family for daring to own a cherished British club – and, truth be told, the Bucs’ owners deserve to be booed for the way they’ve let their American football franchise deteriorate. With twice the cap room of any NFL team, Tampa Bay predictably has struggled against more talented foes and didn’t give rookie coach Raheem Morris much of a fighting chance. That said, the Bucs have been outscored 47-7 in the third quarter this season, the lone points coming in Sunday’s 28-21 defeat to the Panthers on Sammie Stroughter’s 97-yard kickoff return. Two words: bad coaching.
Joe is not as down on Raheem the Dream as some people are. His coordinators? Now those are the guys that are giving Joe irritable bowel syndrome. The fact that the Bucs have been outscored in the third quarter 47-7 — 47-7!!! — tells Joe one guy on the Bucs sideline is getting absolutely schooled by opposing coaches.
October 19th, 2009 at 10:06 am
Joe,
Isn’t Raheem the head coach. What good is Raheem if he can’t game plan and tell defensive coordinator this is not working, we need to change this, or make the calls instead in this series or this game, etc? Wasn’t he promoted to defensive coordinator before head coach?
Really, Bates IS absolutely to blame he need to go, but what good is Raheem then if doesn’t provide authority, leadership, or input during the crucial moments of the game? What does he get paid to do, walk around the sideline look pretty for the camera?
October 19th, 2009 at 10:11 am
Joe,
Consider me on the bandwagon to fire Bates. A good coordinator can adapt his game plan to fit personnel. This is obviously not happening. This defense has been a cover two for over a decade with a smaller line slanting d-line. Now we go to a two gap d-line system with our middle linebacker getting swallowed up by the center or guard. Olson, I’m not as down on because since we as fans don’t get to watch coach’s tape, is it the playcalling or the QB not reading the defenses properly missing open receivers?
October 19th, 2009 at 10:24 am
Yeah Joe… who hired those coordinators again?
October 19th, 2009 at 11:02 am
Jim Bates: Dead man walking!
October 19th, 2009 at 12:01 pm
Was it not Morris that was also in on hiring Jags? So if Bates is a bad hire as well that is both OC and DC that he chose to be his coaches and base his success on. Morris is RAPIDLY becoming one of the worst HC in the history of the NFL.
October 19th, 2009 at 1:22 pm
I’ve already commented on Bates having to go. How can you not game plan defensively against the run when your facing a quarterback who has thrown 11 interceptions and couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn with a John Deere and has been horrible for the last 10 games(ya think Steve Smith is having a bad year because HE’S so bad?). If you can’t gameplan against Delhomme who can you game plan against? Bates is a travesty and as much as I like him as a person Morris is in WAY over his head.
October 19th, 2009 at 2:36 pm
The reason the Bucs have been beat in the 2nd half so badly is because of poor coaching.
Good coaches go into halftime and make ADJUSTMENTS to what is working and what is not.
The Bucs don’t make any adjustments because their coaches SUCK. Maybe Clayton made that statement about money in the bank because he overhead Bates saying that to Morris.
This coaching staff is turning into the Keyston Cops of the NFL.
October 19th, 2009 at 2:52 pm
Hooraaayyy for Mr. Lucky that kinda says it all.
October 19th, 2009 at 6:51 pm
Look. The dude is overmatched. So is Dominik. I have been here since ’76 and have never seen anything this bad. Including ’76!