Raheem Morris is ready to start the offseason and help the Tampa
Bay Buccaneers turn things around.

Whether he will get that chance remains to be seen.

Dropping their season finale 45-24 to the Atlanta Falcons on
Sunday, the Bucs closed the year with 10 straight losses _ the
franchise’s worst in-season stretch since the 1977 team lost its
first 12 games.

Morris, though, isn’t planning for Monday to be any different
from the day that followed last year’s encouraging 10-6 finish that
left Tampa Bay barely out of the playoffs.

“If I was in the business of worrying about my future, I
wouldn’t be coaching,” the third-year coach said. “I’m going to go
to work tomorrow. It’s not the time to talk about that type of
stuff. That’s for mental midgets. For us, we’ve got to go out and
play football and do what we have to do.”

Center Jeff Faine indicated that Morris’ postgame speech made no
mention of the meltdown that began with the Bucs trailing 42-0 in
the second quarter. Instead, the focus of his talk was to encourage
players to dedicate themselves in the offseason.

As the NFL’s second-youngest team, the Bucs (4-12) might have
not handled last year’s NFL lockout as well as an experienced club,
but Tampa Bay still managed a 4-2 start that included an emotional
16-13 win over Atlanta. That Week 3 victory ended a five-game
series losing streak that gave quarterback Josh Freeman his first
win over the Falcons.

But this time, Freeman threw a first-quarter interception to
Dominique Franks that set up Julio Jones’ 48-yard touchdown catch
on the next play to put the Bucs in a 21-0 hole.

Tampa Bay ran four plays on the ensuing possession before
defensive end John Abraham sacked Freeman and stripped the ball
away for a fumble recovery. Michael Turner’s 1-yard run six snaps
later made it 28-0.

Freeman’s next drive ended with linebacker Curtis Lofton picking
him off and running the ball back for 35-0 lead.

“It’s always tough when you fall behind and fall behind early,”
Freeman said. “Today was no different. You have to, as an offense,
find a way to keep the game close. Early turnovers don’t allow you
to do that. They capitalized on every single turnover and with
that, you aren’t always going to win football games.”

When Tampa Bay struggled badly in Morris’ first season of 2009,
the Bucs still had a reputation for playing hard despite their 1-12
start.

But they won 16 of their next 25 and seemed ready to challenge
New Orleans and Atlanta for supremacy in the NFC South.

Everything began to unravel, however, after they beat the Saints
26-20 on Oct. 16. They lost their next 10 _ the franchise’s worst
stretch since the 2008-09 teams combined to drop 11 straight.

Sunday marked the seventh loss this season by 16 or more
points.

“The team was prepared to play today,” Morris said. “We got
outplayed by a better football team. They went out there and played
hard, got out of the box quickly and we couldn’t tackle them.
That’s an issue, and when that snowballed and got away from us and
went back and refocused and played a little bit better in the
second half, it wasn’t good enough.”

Tampa Bay’s defense struggled fundamentally and trailed 42-7 at
halftime after allowing 186 yards rushing and 133 passing.

“It boils down to guys not doing their jobs, and it all goes
from there,” linebacker Geno Hayes said. “If everyone isn’t doing
what they’re supposed to do, it doesn’t work. We get paid to a job,
and it hasn’t been working.”

Cornerback Elbert Mack returned an interception of Atlanta
backup quarterback Chris Redman for 40-yard touchdown to make it
42-18 late in the third quarter, and the Bucs went on to score 24
unanswered points against a Falcons team made up mostly of
reserves.

But the effort wasn’t nearly enough.

“You’ve got to start fast in this league,” Mack said. “We didn’t
execute what the coaches have been preaching all week.”

Morris hopes he gets a chance to keep coaching these players
next season.

“There will be a 10 a.m. meeting, there’ll be another one at 11
and there will be a noon press conference and I’ll see you there,”
Morris said. “I’ll go to the Outback Bowl in the afternoon. I’ll
come back and do a radio show and be ready to deal, ready for this
offseason and get back and attack it.”

Morris was then asked if he expects to coach the 2012 Bucs.

“That’s like asking you if you expect to be a work tomorrow,” he
said. “Correct.”

By T.J. Doyle

– Newsdesk contributor

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Jan 1, 2012 – The Tampa Bay Buccaneers (4-11) travel to Atlanta Sunday to face the playoff-bound Falcons (9-6), looking to avoid a season-ending 10-game losing streak.

Atlanta has already clinched a playoff berth, their second straight, and a franchise first. Tampa Bay, on the other hand, has completely fallen apart after a 4-2 start to the season that included a 16-13 victory over the Falcons on September 25.

The last time the Buccaneers lost 10 straight games was in 1977, when Tampa Bay failed to win in its first 12 games, extending the franchise’s losing start to 0 for 26.

Here is everything you need to know about the Buccaneers vs. Falcons game:

Game Date/Time: Sunday, January 1, 4:15 p.m. ET

Location: Georgia Dome, Atlanta, GA

TV: FOX (Dick Stockton, John Lynch)

Distribution Map: The506.com

Radio: Buccaneers: WFUS 103.5 / WDAE 620 AM

For more on the Buccaneers, please visit Bucs Nation, SB Nation’s Buccaneers blog. For the perspective from the other side, please visit SB Nation Atlanta and The Falcoholic, SB Nation’s Falcons blog.

Read More: Atlanta Falcons, Tampa Bay Buccaneers

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By T.J. Doyle

– Newsdesk contributor

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Dec 24, 2011 – The Tampa Bay Buccaneers (4-10) travel to Charlotte on Sunday to face the Carolina Panthers (5-9), looking to snap their longest losing streak in 24 years. After beginning the season 4-2, Tampa Bay has lost eight straight games, their worst run of futility since 1985. The Buccaneers have been outscored 256-134 in that span, while turning the ball over a NFL-worst 24 times.

In order to win, Tampa Bay will need to slow down Carolina’s rushing attack, something the Bucs were unable to do two weeks ago when these two teams met. Carolina rookie quarterback Cam Newton burned Raheem Morris’ defense for three rushing touchdowns in a 38-19 Panthers victory. Carolina has won three of it’s last four games, behind 171.8 yards on the ground per contest.

Here is everything you need to know about the Buccaneers vs. Panthers game:

Game Date/Time: Saturday, Dec. 24, 1:00 p.m. ET

Location: Bank of America Stadium, Charlotte, NC

TV: FOX (Sam Rosen, Chad Pennington)

Distribution Map: The506.com

Radio: Tampa Bay (620 WDAE ), Charlotte (610 WFNZ)

We’ll have plenty more on this game throughout the day in this StoryStream. For more new and notes, head over to the NFL hub at SB Nation. Also check out Bucs Nation for more on the Buccaneers and Cat Scratch Reader for more on the Carolina Panthers.

Read More: Carolina Panthers, Tampa Bay Buccaneers

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The Carolina Panthers will host the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Dec. 24^th. Carolina will look to continue its strong end of season run, as the Bucs will look to end their eight-game losing streak. Here are some keys for a Panthers victory.

Attack The Buccaneers Defense

The Bucs defense ranks 26^th and 30^th in passing and rushing yards allowed. The Panthers who rank 10th and 5^th in passing and rushing should be able to have their way against Tampa’s defense. Carolina also has two players poised to break records. With 17 more passing yards Cam Newton will break Peyton Manning’s rookie record for passing yards, which he set in 1998. Also, Steve Smith is on the verge of breaking Mushin Muhammed’s record of most receptions in franchise history. Smith needs five more to do it. Carolina has also averaged 171.8 yards per game over the last four games. The combination of Newton, DeAngelo Williams and Jonathan Stewart don’t look like slowing down either. The rushing attack should be able to control the game for the Panthers and open up space down the field for Smith and the other Carolina receivers.

Contain LaGarrette Blount

The Buccaneers rushing attack hasn’t been very good all season, averaging 97.4 yards per game. However, other struggling rushers have found success against the Panthers, although the defense has been better of late. The Buccaneers will no doubt want to get Blount going early and try to set their tempo in the game. The Panthers need to get after him early and if the Panthers can get a few early scores, the Buccaneers will have to focus on their passing attack, which has struggled to eclipse 200 yards the last three games.

Don’t Commit Turnovers

For the Panthers it is a plain and simple winning formula. If they don’t turn the ball over they’ll win. Newton has 16 interceptions in losses and zero in Carolina wins. If Newton and the offense can protect the ball, they should be able to put up points against a struggling defense. However, if they fail to protect the ball, it could give Tampa Bay momentum and a short field to build a lead. Giving a struggling team opportunities is not what the Panthers will want to do and I don’t believe they will.

*All stats found on espn.com

Although living several hundred miles from Charlotte, Matthew Levine bleeds Carolina blue. He has followed the Panthers since their inaugural season in 1995 and was absolutely heart-broken over the 2003 Super Bowl loss to the Patriots.

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