The good news? The Buccaneers may have a diversion from this year’s distraction involving coach Greg Schiano.
The bad news? It’s last year’s distraction involving coach Greg Schiano.
Schiano’s habit of instructing defensive players to “blow up” the opposing team’s “victory” formation has once again reared its head, with the Bucs doing it for the final snaps of Sunday’s 13-10 loss to Arizona.
A caller to Schiano’s weekly radio show accused Schiano of engaging in “bush league” tactics, via JoeBucsFan.com.
Schiano defended the strategy, which first was introduced by him during a 2012 game against the Giants. Schiano expressed a desire for people to quit complaining about it.
“When it’s a one-score opportunity, and especially a field goal opportunity and there’s time left to do it, that’s part of our beliefs,” Schiano said. “And guys can disagree with it, call it, you know, there’s no bush league to it. You know it’s coming. And if anybody saw it, Gerald McCoy was shaking his head telling [Arizona], ‘We’re coming.’ So I mean, you know what, run the play. If there’s time on the clock, run the play. I’d like people to quit complaining, and that’s what we’re going to do, and get ready for it.”
When Schiano says “I’d like people to quit complaining,” chances are he meant it more broadly than people complaining about his hard-charging approach to the NFL’s equivalent of a “gimme” putt. Indeed, most of Schiano’s problems in Tampa wouldn’t exist if people didn’t complain.
Of course, they wouldn’t be complaining if he gave them nothing to complain about.