Morris' candor may cause waves, but he's correct

Raheem Morris has proven he will say what's on his mind and he doesn't seem to care who is listening. He keeps on talking even if it rankles people (which it frequently does), causes discomfort in the locker room (which it has), or gets him fined by the National Football League (which it did).

But the price of candor was raised to a new level last week for the Bucs' rookie head coach. He protested too much when officials botched a call late in the first half last week at Miami, costing the Bucs 15 yards and perhaps the game in the process. It helped Miami score a touchdown instead of a field goal, and since the Bucs ultimately lost 25-23 you can do the math.

The NFL did the math and took a $20,000 bite out of Morris' bank account for his on-field tirade. That was just the beginning, though.

When he said the next day that the current defensive players aren't physical enough (translation: not good enough), and then added, "We'll find those (better) guys and go out and get them," people around here went nuts. The consensus seemed to be that Morris was shifting blame for the 1-8 start from himself and the coaching staff to the players - which I guess he was.

That's not exactly the best way to prepare to face an offense like New Orleans, which the Bucs do today at Ray-Jay.

"I'm not sure if he was misquoted or what happened but he is a great coach with us," rookie defensive tackle Roy Miller said. "We've just got to do our part. As players, we can't blame it on the coach. We have to take it upon ourselves and fix all the mistakes we made."

Morris addressed the team later about his comments while his bosses went into damage control. They're familiar with that drill by now.

"I think what Raheem was trying to say is that we've got to get our guys to be that way. I think his mindset - much like he does with so many players - is that Raheem is willing to say whatever is on the top of his head," General Manager Mark Dominik said.

"Our feeling and estimation is that the best thing we can do is to get our players to play as well as possible and continue to evaluate them throughout the remainder of the season. There are still seven games left. You've got to take it all the way through - everything has changed. We're going to be playing a lot of division opponents and we're a different football team right now. I hope this is the football team we are for the remainder of the season."

Let me address the elephant in the room, though.

Uncomfortable as Morris might have made his players, was he really wrong?

We saw Dallas scorch the Bucs for 462 yards. We saw Carolina take more than eight minutes to drive 80 yards in the fourth quarter of a tie game and score with 29 seconds left to beat the Bucs. We saw what happened in the final minute last week at Miami. The Bucs had the Dolphins backed up inside their 20 but couldn't stop them and lost on a field goal.

This isn't exactly Steel Curtain II we're dealing with here. They need better players. They tend to be blown off the ball by power teams. It's a problem. We've all seen that.

Jon Gruden used to take public relations beatings for trying to tell us that what we were seeing with our own two eyes wasn't really happening. It seems a little hypocritical to rip Gruden for being disingenuous and then rip Morris for being candid.

That's just me.

Having said that, the safe play might have been to tone it down in public and just let the outside tongues wag where they will. After all, Morris still has to coach the players he has and no one likes to be called out the way he did.

"I don't know if embarrassing is the right word but I take it to heart," defensive end Stylez White said. "I take it personally that we're 1-8. We're still going to be there for each other. I don't play with Raheem, I play with 10 other guys. That's all that matters for me.

"He's probably saying it as motivation to us and we should take it personal. Maybe we'll go out and play better."

Maybe.

But this team will truly be better when it gets better players. The coaching hasn't been great and Morris has made more than his share of rookie mistakes. He made a whopper last week after the Bucs scored to take the lead with 1:14 left in the game. He was celebrating like they had just won the Super Bowl. Hopefully he learned that it takes 60 minutes to win a football game in the NFL.

As for the rest of it, you can argue that he should have been more politically correct. You can argue that he created a problem in the locker room by being too honest in public. You also have to admit one essential fact, though.

He wasn't wrong.