Good Decision, Wrong Timing
November 21st, 2011
Yesterday Joe watched the Bucs-Packers game from the comfort of his leather couch. The first time Bucs coach Raheem Morris used an onside kick, Joe raised his mug of coffee (no beer, it was a very long Saturday night).
The onside kick didn’t work but Joe was OK with it. It was a nice bold move.
The second try at an onside kick didn’t seem as smart. Not to Joe and certainly not to veteran St. Petersburg Times columnist Gary Shelton who wondered if Morris had gone cat crazy.
Hey, I like bold. We all like bold. For most of the years, the Bucs have been far too conservative as their season has landed far short of expectations. Too many 4-yard passes on third and 8. Too few throws into the end zone when within sight of the goal.
On the other hand, aggression is no good unless it is wrapped inside of reason. You can run an end-around on fourth and 17 and call it aggression, but that’s just another way to describe silliness. Hey, the Titanic was aggressive. Amelia Earhart was aggressive. Spartacus was aggressive. And we all know what happened to those guys. They didn’t make the playoffs, either.
Yeah, Jordy Nelson roasting Myron Lewis on that bomb on a short field after the botched onside kick sealed the Bucs fate.
It would have been interesting to see what the Bucs would have done if they made the Packers work for a long drive.
Joe has yet to see anyone rag on Morris for the first onside kick.
Joe has yet to see anyone praise Morris for the second onside kick.
November 21st, 2011 at 9:14 am
Bad call Rah. They were expecting an onsides kick and you gave it to them. We had all the momentum at that point. Shows me you have no faith in “YOUR” defense to get the ball back.
November 21st, 2011 at 9:18 am
Especially since they had picked Rodgers on the previous series.
November 21st, 2011 at 9:33 am
Not as bad as the decision to go for 2-points with 14 minutes left. did nothing except put us in a position where we needed two scores instead of one with 5 minutes left. (ended up in a TD putting us 2 points behind). In the end, dont know if it would have mattered but with a full quarter to play against the packers…take your easy points when you can get them.
November 21st, 2011 at 9:35 am
I agree, bad idea! We had momentum, we had time on the clock and we had stopped them on the previous two drives. However, hindsight is 20/20, if it had worked Morris would be a hero today!
November 21st, 2011 at 9:35 am
The bottom line is: you dont try to gimmick teams more than once unless you think you cant win otherwise. With that said, you have to use your brain and apply your desire to gimmick the other team to the situation – both going for 2 and the second onside kick were idiotic and put the team in a big disadvantage.
The game would have been a 1 score game if the dumb-ss had kicked the extra point early in the 4th quarter. You know that there are 2 possessions each left in all probability – so keep it within 1 score and try to get a stop – odds are much better that you get a stop during an 80 yard drive than a second onside kick.
November 21st, 2011 at 9:47 am
Amazingly the bucs match up pretty good against Green Bay. They have a weak running game, their defense isnt all that good, and the Tampa-2 seems to slow Rodgers down a bit. Similar to Brees in that respect.
I think if they played again it would be close. They even beat them in 2009.
NFL is really all about matchups, isn’t it.
November 21st, 2011 at 9:47 am
I thought the second one was idiotic. The defense had held GB to one score the entire second half until that point. Why give them a short field… potentially? There was over 4 1/2 minutes and2 timeouts in hand.
Made no sense.
None.
November 21st, 2011 at 9:56 am
These days it’s all about accountability in BucLand and Morris is showing us just what happens when a head coach has no accountability. He knows the Glazers aren’t going to fire him! I firmly believe with the performance we got from our team yesterday minus Lewis’s ineptitude we could’ve easily won that game with a real head coach?
Hats off to a tremendous effort by the team! It’s doubtful that even Morris can screw things up if the team plays Sunday against the Titans the way they played the Packers.
November 21st, 2011 at 10:30 am
Go back and read what I posted a few days ago Eric, we match up with Green Bay FAR better than Houston and SF. Chicago slows down GB as well with the Tampa 2. Going in I didn’t fear a blow out just for that sole reason. I knew Raheem would amp his guys up, just like he did.
You’re right, the NFL is totally about matchups it seems.
Regarding Raheem’s decisions, the only two mistakes were the 2nd onsides kick and the blitz on 3rd down on the last Jordy touchdown. Learn from the mistakes, move on, ignore the clowns that don’t understand that young 30 year old coaches don’t start off as Bill Belichick and have to learn.
November 21st, 2011 at 11:33 am
Going for two points wasn’t stupid, it was absolutely the right call. If we kick the extra point we’re gonna still need a field goal to win. If we miss the 2 pt conversion…still need a field goal to win. How is that stupid?? If we convert we’re tied. I don’t agree with the second onside kick and I would venture to say that most think it was a bad call but again, had it worked, you would be saying it was bold and you loved the call wouldn’t you. You guys are so funny. All week long you post about how the Packers are gonna blow us out and then when we lose you act like we were supposed to win. Let’s face it…most of you feel like you could do a far better job of coaching the team but alas…life has relegated you to bag boy at Publix or whatever. Tough seeing all the ‘genius’ posts on here go to waste but I suppose the Bucs will have to try and trudge forward without the crucial insight you have to offer. It’ll be difficult but maybe Gruden is scanning these comments and passing the info along to Morris and Dom. We can only hope….
November 21st, 2011 at 11:47 am
This game is a PERFECT example of why Raheem is clueless as a head coach. Look I liked the hire. Everything I heard is that this guy was Tomlin-lite…sorry, I’m off the wagon Raheem. You really really don’t have any feel for the reality of situational thinking…sorry
November 21st, 2011 at 12:05 pm
I thought both onside kick calls were unwise. Why?
Because you just don’t risk giving a high-scoring tem a short field. If the Pack had to go the full 80 yards on those possessions, anything could have happened. We could have gotten a turnover.
If our defense was more developed and our offense playing better, it would be another matter entirely.
November 21st, 2011 at 12:11 pm
The thing that annoyed me more than the kicks yesterday, was everytime there was a stoppage of play Raheem was out on the field playing “grab ass” with the Packers, laughing, slappin hands. Towards the end, Aikman even said something about it. You don’t see Belichek or Coughlin or anybody worth a crap doing that. He’s more worried about being friends with all these guys than coaching. Embarrassing!
November 21st, 2011 at 12:32 pm
raheem doesnt have a good feel for the game. he takes unneccessary risks at the wrong time constantly.
November 21st, 2011 at 12:34 pm
lightningbuc, I didn’t have a problem with that at all. It’s not like Raheem tries to lose a game because he doesn’t want to offend anyone.
If anything, when certain players on other teams become free agents, they might decide they want to become Bucs players because of stuff like that.
He’s sewing seeds for the future, whether that’s his intent or not.
November 21st, 2011 at 12:36 pm
gotbbucs,
assuming the onside kicks were his call. He usually focuses on the defensive side of things. It could be that Olson or Dwayne Stukes made that call.
But I agree whoever made the call was wrong.
November 21st, 2011 at 2:38 pm
The second onsides kick was a non-verbal statement about what BLAHeem thinks about his defense. It was not about what Aaron Rodgers COULD do, it’s what his defense COULDN’T do.
November 21st, 2011 at 2:52 pm
Had the Packers not been waiting for it, it might’ve been a good call.
November 21st, 2011 at 3:26 pm
In hindsight, the onsides kick didn’t matter. The defense didn’t get the stop it would’ve needed. Jordy Nelson would’ve taken that pass 80 just as easily as he took it 40.
Heck, at least with the onsides kick, we had two shots at it — first shot was recovering, second shot was D stopping them.
But it any case, I liked the first call but not the second. It wasn’t a terrible decision, just not the one I would’ve gone with.
I thought the worst decision all day was the punt in the 4th quarter. The odds are minuscule of winning when you give that offense the ball back with your team down 2 scores and only 6 minutes left. But then Rodgers turned around and threw an INT on the first play, so sometimes bad decisions work.
November 21st, 2011 at 4:12 pm
No worries Raheem…your apologist Deuhmig has got your a55….note to players and coaches in this market. If you want cover, have dinner with Steve Duehmig…ever notice that people that want nothing to do with him don’t get the benefit of the doubt……
November 21st, 2011 at 11:00 pm
The problem is that you can’t have a head coach and DC learning on the job with such a young team with marginal talent and character issues. There’s no guidance at the top and for all those you think the Bucs hung tough and gave good effort, it shouldn’t have to appear in game 10 of the season. Same consistent problems appeared by falling behind quickly and costly penalties and turnovers. Are we supposed to be encouraged that they didn’t “loaf” as much as prior games. I guess that’s the new standard for Bucball.
November 22nd, 2011 at 1:11 am
I liked the first onside attempt. I liked the 2 PT conversion attempt, I liked the second onside attempt.
Packers have great STs. (Cobb nearly had a TD earlier in the game) Rodgers was slowed down most of the game, but lets face it, He’s the best QB, in the best Offense in the league. if you have a chance to keep the ball out of his hands, then your chances of winning go up.
The execution was great on that second onside. But then they got unlucky and the ball took a bad hop and jetted away from the bucs. (not to mention one of the players was offside so even if we did recover it, it still would have been packer ball. :facepalm: )