Bucs Never Improved As Season Went On
January 1st, 2012
When Joe hears people say that the Bucs were not stocked with the requisite talent to win on the NFL level, it perplexes Joe.
For example, this team with allegedly no talent won 10 games last year. Oh, but those teams had rotten quarterbacks, OK, good to know that the NFL has gone to the BCS ratings scheme.
Second, this team with allegedly no talent was at one point 4-2 this season with wins over two playoff teams. Yet they collapsed.
Rather than blaming the players that prior to the London trip were somehow able to win games, Bucs radio analyst Dave Moore put the blame where it belongs, not on excuses.
“People around the league kept improving and the Bucs did not,” Moore said.
Bingo. And that goes straight to coaching. Simple as that.
Joe doesn’t care if a team has Division-II talent on the roster. If they are coached up, they won’t mental mistakes on virtually each play.
Can anyone say with a sober mind or a straight face the Bucs improved as the season went on?
January 1st, 2012 at 8:27 pm
Fire everybody!
January 1st, 2012 at 8:28 pm
Coaching staff I mean
January 1st, 2012 at 8:28 pm
Oh of course they improved! They got better at letting the other team score.
Optimism my man. It’s all a matter of perspective.
January 1st, 2012 at 8:33 pm
The lockout truthfully helped the bucs bc free organized practices in a way that other teams didnt.
If it wasnt for the lockout assistance this would be a 1-2 win team.
January 1st, 2012 at 8:36 pm
Improved no…regressed yes
January 1st, 2012 at 8:40 pm
Raheem’s buddy buddy style of coaching was his downfall. It was good to see some players want to be back next year and show the emotion it takes to win. I really think Freeman will be a very good QB, but the poor coaching this year has done some damage that may be hard to correct again. There is some promise for the offense, but you need to check the D for a pulse. The only one I saw upset was Bennett and he’s been one of the few positives on that side of the ball.
January 1st, 2012 at 8:45 pm
Maybe we’ll get lucky and the team will “accidentally” leave Morris in Atlanta when they return home.
January 1st, 2012 at 9:02 pm
The players got worse as the season went on…. but the players also started to quit as the season went on. They have no resilience to bounce back from a couple losses. You can pin that on coaching if you want, but it has just as much to do with a lack of veteran leadership on the field to keep these guys in games (like we had last year with Ruud and Caddy) and has a lot to do with individuals giving up.
I saw several players today that never quit. Ronde Barber will never quit, only a broken arm took him out of the game, not lack of desire to fight when down. Michael Bennett, DaQuan Bowers and even Adrian Clayborn didn’t quit. Elbert Mack didn’t quit. Freeman, K2, Briscoe and Parker didn’t quit.
There was absolutely no drop off when we inserted Asante and Black at Safety from Jackson and Jones. I think the tackling actually improved, it was just 10 yards downfield.
Mason Foster got trucked by Jaquez Rodgers. Yeah, little 5-6, 196 Rodgers. So much for having a physical presence in the middle instead of Ruud. Foster actually got pushed around a LOT, I saw several times by Snelling. I think we’re still looking for that MLB, Foster would be better suited outside and may not be any better than Black or Hayes.
So, regression or quit? Definitely not improvement, but regression is coaching, quit is individual players. I saw a LOT of quit.
January 1st, 2012 at 9:08 pm
Players subconsciously quit when they know, but don’t want to admit, that the coaching is causing them to fail.
January 1st, 2012 at 9:13 pm
Sad when your two most consistent players are you kicker and punter…
January 1st, 2012 at 9:27 pm
“If they are coached up, they won’t _____ mental mistakes on virtually each play.”
Sometimes I think we could all use a little coaching up.
January 1st, 2012 at 10:33 pm
The Bucs were bad all year. Advancednflstats.com (whose model has outperformed Vegas since its inception in 2007) has had them near the bottom since the first rankings were published after week 3.
They looked OK in two of their first six games (Falcons and Saints), barely beat two awful teams, and got stomped by the Lions and Niners. We were outscored 145 to 113.
January 1st, 2012 at 10:57 pm
Glad to see Joe finally state that Coaching is the problem. Now maybe the Glazers will give us a belated xmas present in the form of a “real” Coach!
January 2nd, 2012 at 12:52 am
Let me preface by saying I don’t care about the coaching staff one way or the other….
In this article, the word “coach” could replace the word “player” or “team with no talent”, and vice versa throughout.
“this team with allegedly no talent won 10 games last year.” could be “these team with allegedly no coaching won 10 games last year”… and then go into the excuses of the schedule, backup QBs, etc.
“Second, this team with allegedly no talent was at one point 4-2 this season with wins over two playoff teams.” could be “Second, this team with allegedly no coaching was at one point 4-2 this season….”
So, what happened after week 6? Did the players change? The coaches? No, the coaches were the same. Some players were different. McCoy went on IR after week 8, was inactive weeks 5 & 6, and our DL depth was pathetic. We even had to bring in Haynesworth to have some semblance of talent there. Price’s production dropped significantly when GMC wasn’t in the game next to him. Grimm was our starting FS to start the year, but only played the first 3 games. TJack resumed his starting role in week 6 and held it since and the tackling has been horrible and his coverage hasn’t been anything to write home about either.
So, the coaches have pretty much been the same (different OL/DL coaches last year) and our players have been pretty much the same, except for some injuries. So how is it obvious that the collapse is the coaches responsibility? I’m not saying to keep Morris, just saying it doesn’t make sense that the collapse is a coaching thing. What did they do? Start coaching poor play 6 weeks in? Teach these guys to turn the ball over and not tackle? I seriously doubt that. Coaches will coach assignments and fundamentals and game plan. Players may or may not execute those things. It has gotten to the point that the players are flat out quitting on the field. They’re getting benched for it too (Hayes earlier in the year, Jones and Jackson today, etc.). When players think they know more than the coaches and begin to free-lance, the whole thing falls apart. Even Ronde has stated that players are “doing their own thing” on the field. I doubt the coaches are saying “Hey, go do whatever you think is right”.
Fire Morris, and Olsen. I don’t really care. Change may be good, may not. But again, don’t expect miracles if the players are mostly the same.