The QB Blast: Schiano Showing He’s No Dungy
November 10th, 2012
Former Bucs QB Jeff Carlson
By JEFF CARLSON
JoeBucsFan.com
Former Bucs quarterback Jeff Carlson (1990 & 1991) writes The QB Blast column here at JoeBucsFan.com. Joe loves when Carlson fires away. Carlson is often seen as a football 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.
Greg Schiano certainly marches to the beat of his own drum and it is clear that Buccaneers’ players are marching right along with him and the results are quite impressive.
Although I was against the kneelgate fiasco against the New York Giants, maybe, just maybe, it was a significant piece in helping to establish the personality of Schiano’s football team, a hard-scrabble group that will play hard each and every down, even when the game is all but over.
Schiano came into a team early this year much like Tony Dungy did in the 1990’s, with much the same gameplan for turning the team around. A tough defense and a conservative, run-first offense were the keys to success.
Dungy was successful building his stellar defense, but fought against improving his low-scoring offense with coordinators Mike Shula, Les Steckel and Clyde Christiansen. They all ultimately failed to beat the Eagles in the playoffs in successive years and it led to Dungy’s dismissal.
What seems to separate Schiano from Dungy, not only in their significant differences in personal demeanor, but is his willingness to embrace a more wide-open offense that has produced record-breaking numbers recently.
Dungy was able to win a Super Bowl when he took his defensive philosophy to the big-strike offense run by Peyton Manning. Schiano is ahead of Dungy’s curve by allowing Mike Sullivan to evolve quickly from the ultra-conservative concepts of the first month of the season to one of the more exciting big-play offenses in the entire league.
Tomorrow, the San Diego Chargers come to town with the multiple Super Bowl winning offensive coordinator (Dallas Cowboys) Norv Turner as head coach. I gained a lot of respect for Turner as a rookie QB with the Los Angeles Rams, when he was their wide receivers coach. He was learning his offensive strategies well from Ernie Zampese at the time, but now the Bucs have one of his best weapons in Vincent Jackson, who I am sure would like to impress his former coach and team with another stand-out game of big plays!
November 10th, 2012 at 10:21 am
Been a while since I’ve read a Jeff Carlson article and liked it.
November 10th, 2012 at 11:01 am
Always like QB insure from former NFL QB’s thanks Jeff.
Coaches Sullivan & Turner do share a few experiences, like being WR coaches of super bowl winning teams. Learning from successful OC like Zampese & Gilbride. That sounds like a sound long term team plan. Coach Schiano has brought back the bite to our team not yet so much on Defense it is still looking for unity and players not being on the field due to injury or bad personal choices. Our Offense is biting hard & often. We have good depth and players on both sides of the ball who play 60 min of smash you in the mouth football. I can’t wait to see the rest of the season.
Of Coach Dungy’s OC’s I would like to have had Les Steckel have a few more seasons.
November 10th, 2012 at 11:26 am
Info… Darn little keys…
November 10th, 2012 at 3:51 pm
Agree that Schiano has been refreshing for being willing to open up the offense when it was clear that was not his first choice. Long way to go. Doug Martin won’t be running wild like he has the last two weeks every game. No chance.
November 10th, 2012 at 5:26 pm
Don’t lose your head Kennedy, 🙂 Doug could run like that every week. You never know.
November 10th, 2012 at 5:41 pm
@Pete: He has always written good stuff. You just happen to be the kind that has to agree with everything a writer writes in order to consider it a good read.
November 10th, 2012 at 6:43 pm
With all the negative stuff said in the beginning about college coach’s notoriously failing at the NFL level only helped fuel Coach Schiano’s drive to prove he can survive at this level. Kind of reminds me of “The Little Engine That Could”, but just like a rookie, he sorta stepped on a few toes in the process. So some of the “old coachs,” in the NFL and “media pundits” felt they had to put the new rookie in his place, but the worse thing that could happen, happened. Every so-called “bush league” play Schiano called was perfectly legal, and that was the last thing he needed. Upstaging these critics and proving them to be wrong went viral. They gave Schiano the “red headed step-child treatment”, trashing him with negative articles, player polls, and constant verbal jabs, but through it all, he still remains steadfast strong, decisive, and stands on his laurels. As long as he continues to win tough games, and proves he belongs here, he will eventually get the recognition he deserves, on his own GD merit….. 🙂
November 10th, 2012 at 11:36 pm
I disagree about Dungy in Tampa. He wanted to have a better offense (Tom Moore couldn’t come, Bruce Arians turned him down, tried Les Steckel) Ultimately he had Dilfer, Shaun King, and finally Brad Johnson. None of them had the talent of Freeman. No receiver was Mike Williams, or Vincent Jackson (including Me-Shawn). I think his conservative offense was akin to bluffing with a hand of 2’s and 3’s.