Ravens Closed Out Bucs “Without A Fullback”

November 28th, 2010

Classy postgame press conference by Raheem Morris.

The head coach didn’t point fingers at officials or players and kept himself steady after an emotional loss. But Raheem did show a little frustration in the closing seconds of his media chat by saying the Ravens “outexecuted us in the four-minute drive without a fullback.”

Emphasis was on “without a fullback,” referring to Baltimore losing Le’Ron McClain earlier in the game.

The Bucs shut out the Ravens in the second half and clearly knew Baltimore wasn’t going to get fancy on their final drive with 3:05 to play. But Baltimore Jim Batesed the Bucs and put up three first downs on five plays and took a knee.

Essentially, the Bucs knew what was coming and were outplayed. Obviously tough to swallow for Raheem after such a strong defensive performance.

19 Responses to “Ravens Closed Out Bucs “Without A Fullback””

  1. HIRE GREG OLSON! Says:

    Aqib Talib got into it with the official (Boris Cheek) who threw the flag against Myron Rolle in the 2nd quarter that led to the Mason TD.

    http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2010/11/28/aqib-talib-and-official-exchange-heated-words-after-game/

  2. HIRE GREG OLSON! Says:

    GEEZ,

    Aqib Talib got into it with the official (Boris Cheek) who threw the flag against Myron Lewis in the 2nd quarter that led to the Mason TD.

    http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2010/11/28/aqib-talib-and-official-exchange-heated-words-after-game/

    (help me out Joe)

  3. Will the Beast Says:

    who cares the ref called Talib a pussy

  4. HIRE GREG OLSON! Says:

    @will the meager

    Umm…I don’t know if you know this, but you’re reading a Tampa Bay Buccaneers Blog. It contains news and discussions of all things Buccaneers.

    Idiot.

  5. Rob Says:

    Bucs fans- don’t be upset.. be encouraged. Even without Grimm they held the Ravens (not too shabby of an offense.. not great, but very reliable) to only 2 touchdowns. The offense had an off day… each game they get a little better in a different aspect. Today they got QB pressure, and didn’t allow any 2nd half points. They are really setting up for next year… draft an LB to push Ruud who consistently underperforms, a S for depth, some DEs.. add a Free Agent or two- maybe a posession receiver to mentor Benn and we have instant contender. This team reminds me a lot of the 97 team but with way more potential on offense.

  6. BamBamBuc Says:

    Two things from this game….

    The D continues to improve, though Grimm’s injury is a set-back.

    The offense was off today, and I’d put it on the O-line for the most part. I know most want to put it on Olson or Freeman for a bad game, but the O-line gave absolutely no time to throw, opened no holes to run. Blount made something (about 5 yards a time) out of nothing several times, but that’s about it. I’m wondering if the loss of Joseph early was bigger than I thought it would be. I was thinking Zuttah should be fine there, but it looked like every pass play the O-line thought it was a screen play and let the guys through. As for the “bombs” on 3rd down… I don’t think they were intended to be that way. There is almost always a WR going deep on every pass play. That’s not usually the first read, but Freeman didn’t have time to go through progressions, and usually if it’s a blitz the over-the-top throw is there.

  7. Rob Says:

    good observations bambam.. I just read that the bucs played 11 rookies today. Think about that for a minute… 11 rookies and still were in the game until the last drive. I’d love to see stats on other teams that played that many rookies and what the results were.. can’t imagine that any other teams did this well against any competition.

    Losing Joseph looked to be huge.. against most D-lines maybe not as big of a deal, but Baltimore is pretty good.

  8. BamBamBuc Says:

    Yeah, we’ve had a lot of rookies contributing every week. And the thing to understand with rookies is that you’re going to have a roller-coaster ride. There will be great weeks, and bad weeks. The D has looked good two weeks in a row, but the offense has an off week. Earlier, the D wasn’t quite getting it, and the offense was carrying us. We’ll have a few games where both click, and some where both are bad. The fact that we’ve won 7 games this year is a testament to how well they’ve done overall. The rookies and the team.

  9. Gavster Says:

    I feel we win out. yeah i said it. But seriosuly i think we are going to win out the season. freeman is gonna play out of his mind these next weeks. 12-4 i called it

  10. Hawaiian Buc Says:

    I agree Joe, it was a classy press conference. After all the emotion of a tough loss, it had a Coors Lite commercial written all over it, but he made no excuses and didn’t call anyone out. I thought it was especially classy that he took the blame for the blown coverage on Heap, instead of pointing the finger at the players. I just can’t help but wonder if Grimm was in the game, would they have picked up those first downs to seal the game. That’s going to be a real challenge for us in the home stretch.

  11. Apple Roof Cleaning Says:

    Anyone care to speculate WHY Heap was uncovered ?

  12. BamBamBuc Says:

    I think the announcers nailed that call. Pulling the LG made the play look like a Power O run to the right, Ruud bit on that and left Heap wide open. It was a bad move by Ruud, because that left nobody on Heap, but with all the criticism of Ruud not playing the run well, can you really blame him for wanting to get in on every play he can? Yeah, I suppose he can be blamed, it wasn’t his responsibility to stop the run there. Unfortunately, people don’t realize that when he makes tackles 10 yards downfield either.

  13. Capt.Tim Says:

    All the Bucs turned and looked at sabby once they were stopped in the end zone. That’s ussually a sign . . Sure looked like his trade mark coverage from last year!

  14. Pete Dutcher Says:

    This game was lost by poor coaching…Olson should have spread out the offense along the line forcing the defense to spread apart, which would have opened holes. This is what other teams did against the Ravens and were successful.

    The one time the Bucs did it was successful too. Yet Olson did not learn from it. He did not adjust.

    Don’t get me wrong, I’m not calling for anyones head. But I do believe in facing reality. This one is on Olson. Had he watched tape from the Ravens previous (and recent games) he would have seen the way to beat them.

    The other factor were the WRs. It was a nightmare yesterday. The only guy out there catching the ball was Winslow. Even Mike Williams did poorly. Freeman was off a few times, but other times the WRs had hard hands. At least one time, Freeman threw to where the WR should have been along the sideline, but after the ball was released the WR slowed down to stare the ball down…and watched it pass overhead…where the WR should have been.

    The bright side is that G. McCoy now has 3 sacks one the season. Everyone that was calling him a bust can eat crow now. The measuring stick was 3 sacks (like Sapp) in his rookie season. There is every chance he will end up with more than Sapp now.

    That doesn’t make him better than Sapp…but it should at least shut the naysayers up.

  15. Pete Dutcher Says:

    On the Sabby thing…nay, I say thee nay!

    We’re doomed! Bring out the dead! Bring out the dead!!

    Sabby is going to get a second chance…and all of the blame when things go badly from here on out.

  16. gottbucs Says:

    “This one is on Olson. Had he watched tape from the Ravens previous (and recent games) he would have seen the way to beat them.”
    C’mon Pete, I normally agree with most of your observations, but that’s not a very well thought out accusation.
    I don’t think the Bucs are the only team in the league that has fits with that veteran defense in Baltimore. We are still a young team with a few holes and will grow from this loss. If anything, I think this loss will make them realize that they really can play with the best and they will be even more hungry to finish out this season strong and prove all the naysayers wrong. I look for a very hungry pissed off team coming out next week.

  17. Sgt Mike Says:

    We were OutCoached once again. This time I saw it on TV as most Bucs games are not on here in D.C.. I also saw first hand that Ruud’s play is very suspect. Why Olson didn’t spread out the Ravens defense early on is simply poor game planning by Raheem and his OC Greg Olson. Freeman and his rookie crew have proven to be pretty darn good when unleashed. While I certainly wasn’t on the bandwagon for Freeman when and at what number he was drafted, I do think that he is much further ahead than his two other first round QB brothers. Freeman is a winner and these coaches need to get off there asses and let him win. Raheem is nothing more than an up and coming D-coordinator and Olson needs to spend a couple of weeks with Mike Martz to find out how to use his offensive weapons. Unfortunately for the Winners on the field they will continue to struggle due to the fact that they are pretty darn good and that will keep the current coaching crew on the job to continue to learn how to coach (OJT). Wonder if there is a coach that would or could come in and keep Raheem as DC and not change the offensive scheme to drastically. Won’t happen but a fan can wish. They have shown me that they finally have an offense that is better than there defense and can hang with almost any team out there even if the game planning and coaching are not conducive to winning. Go BUCS!!!!!

  18. McBuc Says:

    SGT Mike…Morris is a big reason why these guys are overachieving. Changing coaches is not the answer. They played a pretty good game against a good team in a hard place to win. The Ravens are crazy good at home. I am not sure why they did not spread it out a bit more either, but the passing game was not sinked up anyway, that may not have worked out as well for this young team as it did for Atlanta. I see these young Bucs taking it out on Atlanta next week at home. TB has already beaten the odds when it comes to winning on the road, now let’s take care of our house against ATL.

  19. McBuc Says:

    Oh, not to mention…last week in SF the game plan was brilliant. No coach is going to have the perfect plan every week. Allot of this loss is on execution as well as the game plan.