THE QB BLAST: Hope Must Start With Effort
December 17th, 2011
Former Bucs QB Jeff Carlson
Former Bucs quarterback Jeff Carlson (1990 & 1991) writes The QB Blast column here at JoeBucsFan.com. Joe is ecstatic to have him firing away. Carlson is often seen as a color analyst on Bright House Sports Network, and he trains quarterbacks of all ages locally via his company,America’s Best Quarterback. Plus, he’s a really cool dude.
By JEFF CARLSON
JoeBucsFan.com analyst
The “Us vs. The World” bunker mentality has been used successfully to help teams play with a chip on their shoulders, producing a more intense, closely-knit team effort.
This kind of concept was probably used to get the much-improved Bucs effort against the Green Bay Packers after looking so bad against the Houston Texans the week before.
It was short-lived as they got blown off the field by teams in the cellars of their respective divisions in the Panthers and Jaguars. Can Raheem Morris find that chip again and put it back up on their shoulders tonight as the Bucs show their brave home fans and a national television audience that they are not the Colts of the NFC?
Enough “gray-matter” talk
Does anyone find it as hard to listen to Morris tell all the long-time Bucs beat writers that everything they write is just gray matter and nobody outside of their palace means anything? I was taken aback to hear just how sunny it is inside One Buc Place and how it is everyone else making it seem so gloomy. Really? I’m all for positive attitude and the power that it has in life, but getting ready to set an all-time NFL record for giving up 9.1 yards per (first half) play should be a time for sober reality-checks.
Tim Tebow showed up at my house this week on the cover of Sports Illustrated and I was immediately inspired! His accomplishments this year have been simply amazing. He has taken on every naysayer with grace and is simply playing unbelievably hard-nosed football.
He has smiled all the way while stuffing everything back in the face of every “expert” on all the networks, newspapers, magazines and blogs. In the face of never-before-seen levels of scrutiny, he is going about his business with a similarly sunny disposition as well, but he is succeeding (7-1 starting record), not failing miserably. He has his teammates, coaches, management and fans believing in his intestinal fortitude, hard work and maybe even his God.
The Broncos’ coaching staff decided it was better to win in unconventional (ugly) ways than lose by trying to make Tebow play a game of football ill-suited to his abilities.
Amazing how the same players that started the season 1-4 could go 7-1 with the switch of just one player. Almost as amazing is starting the season 4-2 and going on to lose seven straight, some in pretty embarrassing fashion. The embarrassing fashion has been in effort level for many and some of those same players now telling those gray matter reporters that it would be sad for Morris to lose his job.
How about this Kellen Winslow? Go out and give a speech like Tim Tebow did after losing to Ole Miss (that was commemorated on a plaque at Florida Field and followed with a national championship) and better yet, give an effort anywhere close to the lip service speech you gave a years ago about being a soldier.
Tebow walks the walk of his talk and, although many get turned off by it, the Denver Broncos are on the verge of the playoffs and even a division title after starting off the worst in the league if it weren’t for the Colts.
This season may be lost for our beloved Buccaneers, but spreading some of that sunshine outside the walls of Buccaneer Island by leading your young teammates on pure effort level might be the way back from the black hole that all of us in the gray matter watch each week.
It is serious time for a sober response to the dire circumstances of the future of this franchise and just how far the fans can be pushed before mutiny.
Like children so eager to believe in Santa Claus, just give us your best Tebow-like effort against the Cowboys and we will believe too. Make the gray matter writers put something in the paper that gives all of us hope that there is more in our stockings than just coal.
December 17th, 2011 at 10:27 am
At this point, no need to pile on, but another example of the reason some fans find it difficult to understand what is being said at press conferences. I’m not one of them because I understand what he is attempting to convey even when he uses terms like “gray matter” whch appear to be out of context. I agree that he uses it too much, but I think he is trying to convey something that he believes to be nebulous, meaningless, and not germaine to the subject at hand. However “gray matter is most often associated with intelligence. Anyway I hope the Bucs make a good showing tonight!
http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-gray-matter.htm
December 17th, 2011 at 10:40 am
Far too true in those last two paragraphs.
December 17th, 2011 at 11:06 am
I was taken aback to hear just how sunny it is inside One Buc Place and how it is everyone else making it seem so gloomy. Really? I’m all for positive attitude and the power that it has in life, but getting ready to set an all-time NFL record for giving up 9.1 yards per (first half) play should be a time for sober reality-checks.
Wow 9.1 per play, an NFL record for sucktom. What is the yards per play from our offense in the first half? About 1.9??????
December 17th, 2011 at 11:34 am
This “gray matter” phrase is confusing at best and nonsense at worst. It sounds like our clueless coach uses the phrase “gray matter” in reference to things that “dont matter.”
The concept of gray matter comes from the part of the brain that appears gray, the neuron rich portion portion – it “matters” a whole lot.
Not that this is a huge deal, it isnt, we all have mixed metaphors or misspoke before. But when speaking publicly most of us try to be careful when we speak so that our message is clear and that we dont say things that we dont understand so that we dont sound foolish
Rah Rah cliche too frequently says foolish things publicly and I am sure to the team as well, this may contribute to way the team plays so confused.
From saying publicly: that he was speaking with players during the lockout and getting fined, to setting the team goal last year at a place that missed the playoffs, to saying his bosses names end in G, to making up silly words that seem to encourage undisciplined football and on and on . .
Rah is good at getting excited, almost hyper hut he is a terrible communicator.
December 17th, 2011 at 12:09 pm
I’m an FSU fan and I can’t wait to see what Tebow will do tomorrow! It would be nice to get that excited about the Bucs. Raheem has got to grow up. Stop being adversarial with the media. The gray matter line is up there with youngry as another tired and awkward Raheemism. Get a grip on reality and quit extolling the virtues of your talented team which at this point is neither talented or virtuous.
December 17th, 2011 at 2:01 pm
Funny how it’s not “gray matter” when he’s always talking about not getting respect (last year). You get the feeling Raheem is curled up in the corner of his office reading every last word.
December 17th, 2011 at 2:30 pm
I’ve gotta be honest. I’m about Tebowed out.. The Broncos are the Broncos. Leave them in Denver. Funny how some of the same bs artist that claim they now are.” inspired” by Tebow are the same, so called QB experts that said that his game would never work in the NFL.. Just keep it real man.. Just keep it real. You’ll gain more respect that way. Nobody was saying these things about Winslow last season after any of his 66 receptions or 5 touchdowns. Production Tampa hasn’t seen out of the TE position since Jimmy Giles. Nobody had anything to say after Morris guided a 10 win season with the youngest team to ever post a winning record in NFL history. However, now that they are in the mist of struggle everyone who thinks that they are qualified to be analyst has something to say. What are you gonna say if Morris is retained and finds a way to turn this around? I’m just saying dude.. A lot of what i’m hearing is not analysis it’s a lot of BANDWAGON BS THAT SHOULD NOT MAKE THE EDIT CUT!!