Raheem Morris Fired by the Buccaneers After Dismal Finish

Last season, Raheem Morris famously said that “stats were for losers” when some measures didn’t favor the Bucs despite a winning start. Morris looked like he was going to get the most laughs when the Bucs finished 6-4 to have 10 wins, then started 4-2 this year with a similar formula (close wins, not looking impressive). After I wrote this post about their poor point differential relative to their record, again questioning them, Tampa Bay shockingly won against the Saints, but have not won a game since, going 0-10. Eventually, your record reflects how you play, if you go long enough. This was a bad team that was getting worse by the weak, unable to overcome injuries.

Stats are for losers, so here are some losing stats regarding this Bucs team.

• They allowed the most points over the last 8 games of any team since 1978. They surpassed the 1984 Buffalo Bills, and were 20 points worse than the 2008 Lions, the team that went 0-16.
• They were equally bad at stopping the run and the pass, ranking 31st in each. They join those same 2008 Lions as the only team to allow more than 7.5 net yards per pass and over 5.0 yards per rush.

The Bucs are a somewhat rare team at the very bottom of the league that has a quarterback, but needs just about everything else, particularly on defense. The positive–it’s easier to turn around a defense. Josh Freeman is still only 23, and though the interceptions are up, and his yards per attempt are down, they are still not the problem. Freeman is still as young or younger as many rookies this year. He has a career 6.8 yards per attempt before his 24th birthday. The most similar player through the same age is now Drew Bledsoe (except Freeman has been across the board better other than raw attempts), as Bledsoe regressed at age 23, before bouncing back at age 24 and quarterbacking the Patriots team that went to the Super Bowl.

I don’t see a Super Bowl in this team’s immediate future. They are young but also apparently just not that good. The defense needs an overhaul. The team needs to spend money to shore up key spots, something they have not done recently. A new coach will have the quarterback, but may question the organization.

[photo via Getty]