#1 2009 (3-13) 2010 (10-6) a 7 Game Improvement!
You have to have witnessed the great Bucs games of the Tony Dungy era to understand that 2010 was no fluke as most would have you believe. There were crazy come from behind wins, but there were also missed opportunities to come from behind that did not succeed, @ Baltimore, Detroit, 2 Atlanta Games for starters.
Its easy to call a winning season a fluke when the same team the next year goes 4-12 but that 2011 team was 4-2 and in first place with a 2-0 division record after wins over the Saints and Falcons. What the 2011 team didn’t have was veteran leadership anywhere that could have stopped the turning of the team away from the program and to their own individual selfish needs. There was no Rich Bisaccia to play bad cop to Raheem’s good cop, and the few veterans on the team were quiet leaders like Ronde Barber.
This same formula worked in 2010, and it began at the end of 2009, which was the season Josh Freeman was brought in as the starter after the team started out 0-7. Freeman won his first game at home in Throwback uniforms over the Green Bay Packers and the Bucs played competitive football, especially after Morris scrapped the New Defense and went back to the Tampa Two, or a variation of it. The end of the year produced two amazing upsets, first at Seattle, then at eventual Superbowl champion New Orleans Saints. That dynamic was brought over to 2010 where the Bucs started out 2-0 with a miracle win over the Browns on opening day.
Jake Delhome led the Browns to a 14-3 lead and was driving for another score that probably would have put the game out of range. Instead Ronde Barber picks the ball off and returns it to inside the 10 where rookie Mike Williams made an amazing tip and catch for TD. The next week the Bucs handled the Panthers before losing badly to the Pittsburgh Steelers, but two things came out of that game. Cody Grimm (after looking lost on first TD pass given up) looked solid at safety replacing the suspended Tanard Jackson for Drug violations, and the Bucs found a new running back: LeGarrett Blount.
The first miracle game came the next week in Cincinnati where the Bucs went up against Carson Palmer, Chad Johnson and T.O. coached by Marvin Lewis. How do you call coming out of that stadium with a win of any kind a fluke? Lewis was outreached by Morris, as Marvin called a pass play on 3rd down that was picked off and gave the Bucs another shot to which they did not lose an opportunity on. The Bucs scored 10 points in the final 1:26 including a FG on that blunder to win. After getting blown out by the Saints, ammo for the “Fluke Season supporters”, Tampa Bay won two more miracle games.
1) Vs St.Louis Rams, Tampa Bay kept in the game until the 4th quarter seeking out and taking advantage of FG opportunities when possible. Coming down to the wire, Josh Freeman hit Cadillac Williams in the end zone for the winning touchdown with 10 seconds left. Blount had 72 yards in 10 carries when Bucs decided to run Blount instead of Cadillac when possible.
2) @ Arizona the Bucs had a 31-14 lead near the end of the 4th quarter when the defense and crazy plays (talk about flukes, these were fluke plays AGAINST the Bucs) led to a Cardinal 21 point run to take a 35 to 31 lead, but LeGarrett Blount went in from the 1 with 5 minutes left to take the lead: Blount had his first 100 yard game as a Buc.
Mid season saw the Bucs win some amazing games, a 31-14 trouncing of the Panthers for a season sweep, and first win at San Francisco for the franchise since 1980 in a 21-0 shutout! Missed opportunity No.1 presented itself in a 7 point loss at Baltimore when Sabby Piscitelli took a bad angle and wrong coverage in allowing. Sandwiched around these games were two mind-blowing losses to the Atlanta Falcons who swept the Bucs.
1) Week 8 down 21-27, Bucs go for it on 4th down and inches and Blount fails to achieve the first down, first sign Blount was not a goal line back.
2)Bucs scored in 4th qtr to take a 24-14 lead with 10 minutes left, but a Falcon kickoff return for a TD and quick score by Jenkins gave Atlanta the lead. A late rally by the Bucs and Josh Freeman (with an amazing 4th down conversion) failed when Freeman was intercepted by Brent Grimes with under 2 minutes to go. The Bucs wasted another throwback uniform game as they were swept by Atlanta, however the next year Tampa Bay got the win over the Falcons on a 4th down cadence call by Freeman that drew ATL offsides.
With two losses in a row, the Bucs were starting to fall behind, and losing 10-9 to the Redskins in Maryland Josh Freeman hit Kellen Winslow II for a TD with 3 minutes left in the game. The Redskins scored a TD in the last few seconds, but a mishandled snap/Xtra point attempt cost Washington the game, and inched Tampa Bay closer to playoffs.
Then came Detroit: and a single event that killed the Bucs playoff chances. Josh Freeman threw the ball to the corner of the end zone where Kellen Winslow II was there. Both K2 and CC.Brown were both caught with hands all over each other, but last second you see K2 push just a little more than CC, if not even Brown pushing K2, before Winslow grabs the Ball and TOUCHDOWN is called. Then Flag comes out…Nullified. The Bucs were down 17-14, instead had to settle for a FG to tie the game. The Bucs would take the lead with 1:44 left in the game, but the defense couldn’t hold Detroit which tied the game, sent it into overtime where the defense couldn’t stop Detroit there either, and the Lions won it there in OT.
At that point the Bucs needed help. They defeated the Seattle Seahawks handilly with a big day from Freeman and his 5 TD passes, and upset the Saints in the last game of the Season in which New Orleans pulled Drew Brees later in the game when they had little to play for (the Bucs were already in the lead).
But Tampa Bay and Bucs fans everywhere had to wait for the NY Giants outcome and the final whistle of the Chicago/Green Bay game. Both scores went against the Bucs who were eliminated from Playoffs, instead the wild card spot went to eventual SuperBowl winner Green Bay Packers. How would the Bucs have fared in the Playoffs? Safe to say the team could win on the road, and they had a running and passing game, and the fire and determination to compete well. A playoff appearance may have made a huge difference in the dismissal of Morris the next season, from Coach of the Year candidate to fired. Adding insult to injury, the next season after hiring disciplinarian Greg Schiano from Rutgers, the Bucs spent money in Free Agency getting a solid Guard, Wide Receiver, and Corner to name a few.
Morris players would be let go, as Schiano’s players were let go by Lovie Smith, and the coaching game has continued to deplete the Bucs roster of talent. Now in year TWO of Smith regime, the Bucs are starting to assemble talent again to be able to compete in the NFL. But in 2010, the Bucs with a group of the youngest players in the NFL, won 10 games and completed the single greatest season turnaround in Bucs history; 7 games! What will 2015 have in store? When you only win 2 games in 2014, even an 8-8 record is a 6 game turn around. Should the Bucs go 10-6 somehow, it would be an 8 game turnaround, and now talking about one of the greatest turnarounds in SPORTS history.
But we have to kind of curb our expectations, even 8-8 would be a stretch and great accomplishment. Speaking of which… were going to start our next series just before camp opens…EXPECTATIONS. Stay tuned!
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