“I Am More Confident”
August 29th, 2015
It’s been hard to get Doug Martin to talk about himself and his transformation this year.
But Martin flashed a sly grin in the locker room tonight and admitted he’s not quite the same guy.
“You could say I’m a little more confident in my game,” Martin said. “Yeah. What’ different? It’s a new year. Last year I was hurt. Like I said, it’s a new year, a fresh start. We have a lot of guys around here who want to win. There’s a passion and a fire to win. And I just feed off that.”
That sure sounds like Martin has been inspired by his rookie quarterback, and he likes having an offensive coordinator eager to use him.
Martin finished up against the Browns with nine carries for 40 yards and a stunning 19-yard touchdown run, Tampa Bay’s only score. The goal for the Bucs offense, he said, was four yards per carry. Martin exceeded it, but the team fell short with a 3.7 average.
The new Doug Martin gets a full game against the Titans in 14 1/2 short days. He’s going to be one giant X-factor for the Bucs, but as was evident tonight. He can’t do it alone.
August 29th, 2015 at 11:33 pm
Like I said last year he was injured so he wouldn’t make cuts because he didn’t trust his knee. Near the end of the season he was running with more purpose and authority. It’s obvious he’s fully healed and trusts his body. We’re truly going to need him to do more than he did as a rookie because this o line is going to get Jameis murdered.
August 29th, 2015 at 11:48 pm
I hate to rain on everybody’s bittching here at Joe Bitching Fans but in addition to Martin who has clearly returned to form…Sims flashed as well. RB is looking good. Again though I’m starting to worry about our WR corps..or I should expand that to our corps of receivers including TE.
I had to watch through NFL Gameday highlights here in the middle of nowhere. So I missed a lot of detail. I don’t get to see the game until 6AM tomorrow.
But I saw some great VJAX highlights..Murphy with a 22 yarder but did ASJ play tonight? Did he show up at all? Where has he been?
August 30th, 2015 at 1:47 am
Why’d we get rid of McCown??? 17-23????? 2 TD
PRO BOWL!!!!!! 😛
August 30th, 2015 at 1:55 am
I have been saying this all along that Doug will give us 1200 yards rushing this season, and we should get another 1200 from the rest of the committee. I actually like the way we play in the first half tonight, we did a lot of good things tonight in the first half. Our special team play in the first half was our downfall, but i’m please other wise. In 1979 I picked us to win the NFC Central, and people thought I was crazy. We had went 0-14 in 1976, 2-14 in 1977 and 5-11 in 1978. But John McKay had promoted Tom Bass from LB coach to DC, so he was LB/DC coach. Joe Gibbs had left as OC and went back to the Chargers, so McKay call his own plays. We had drafted Jerry Eckwood in the 3rd round of the 1979 draft, so I knew McKay was going to run, run and play good defense. The same strategy he had used at USC,and we only had 3 defense coaches. Abe Gibron, D-Line coach and Waynes Fontes secondary coach. After 3 preseason games we were 1-2, but we were playing low scoring game. The key to the season was the running game,McKay kept saying that he needed 2000 rushing yards. We ended the season with over 2400 yards rushing, and we had the number 1 defense in the NFL.We gave up less than 15 points a game, and this strategy by John McKay gave us one the biggest turnarounds in NFL History. We won the NFC Central with a 10-6 record, we beat the Eagles in the 1st round of the playoffs. Then we lost to the Rams in the NFC Championship game. But I remember John McKay, preaching about how to build a winning team. And he did it,in our 4th season. We had overtook the Minnesota Vikings, The Chicago Bears, The Detroit Lions and the Green Bay Packers to win the NFC Central.
August 30th, 2015 at 2:07 am
I’m going on the record saying that we win the NFC South this season. But it will take a good ground game to go with good defense. And I believe we have both, i’m telling everyone to watchout. Dirk Koetter haven’t show anything yet, just wait until the season start.
August 30th, 2015 at 3:35 am
St. Pete… I’ll be right there with you at 6am to watch our team… Gotta say, I love your posts… Not just the positive, but also the common sense along with it… Not to mention the balance you bring to all the gloom and doom! And Lakeland, I’m digging all the facts and history you post, I grew up in Lakeland… You’re doing me proud!
August 30th, 2015 at 3:39 am
doom and gloom
August 30th, 2015 at 2:37 pm
Doug M looks explosive and quick !
August 30th, 2015 at 3:17 pm
Doug is the highlight of the pre season.
August 31st, 2015 at 10:36 am
We just traded Tim Wright for a kicker… SMH