If only Raheem's optimism could play safety Gary Shelton, The St.Petersburg Times, published 14 September 2009 At first sight, it looks like trouble. At first sight, it looks like turbulence. At first sight, it would appear Raheem Morris has a lot of work to do. So this is what being a head coach is all about? For most of an afternoon, Morris stood on the sideline and watched breakdowns and touchdowns and defensive backs chasing wide receivers across the goal line. In his first day on the job as head coach of the Bucs, Morris saw all the shortcomings and all the flaws and all the burn marks. He saw mistakes and he saw miscues and, in the end, he saw defeat. Also, Morris will tell you this: He saw possibilities, and he saw hope. Ah, if only you could see through his eyes this morning. You knew it was coming, of course. You told your friends, and they repeated it back to their friends, and everyone agreed that Sunday's game against the Cowboys would be a very long day followed by a very long season. Still, it is one thing to anticipate ugly, and it is another to see it up close. For Morris, this is how it starts. It starts with his team showing all the shortcomings — defensive breakdowns, the lack of a pass rush, special teams miscues — that everyone feared. It starts with reminders of why the expectations were so low. It starts with, perhaps, the worst defense the Bucs have had since the invention of the pewter helmet. It starts with Dallas saying, "Hey, Raheem, your team needs to get better there … and over there … and there … and there." And it starts with Morris, his jaw set and his eyes fixed, telling you that he still believes. "I feel more positive than anything," Morris said after the game. "That was one of the best teams the NFC has to offer. We'll get better. We have no choice but get better." He believes. Say that for Morris. He arrived at Raymond James Stadium on Sunday morning, and he was certain his team was about to upset the Cowboys. "No question," Morris said. "I was looking for the upset of the week so you guys could talk about it and I could listen to it for about 12 hours until it was time to get back to work." There is a charisma to Morris, a sincerity that makes you want to believe him. Certainly, his players do. Take Ronde Barber who, moments before the game began, stuck his head into Morris' office. "You were made for this," Barber said. So what happened to Raheem's Dream Day? Zero pass rush happened. Plays where you would swear the Bucs didn't have enough defensive backs on the field happened. Bad special teams happened. Tony Romo happened, and now, it so happens, Sabby Piscitelli has some clue about Jessica Simpson's heartache. In other words, Morris now has a clear idea of how much he has to clean up. Just a thought: He's going to need a very, very large shovel. No, it isn't just that Morris lost in his debut. Heck, Jon Gruden lost his first game with the Bucs, too, and he ended up winning the Super Bowl the same season. Tony Dungy lost his first game, too, and he ended up turning around a franchise. Of all the Bucs head coaches, the only two to have won their first game were Ray Perkins and Sam Wyche, hardly a ringing endorsement. Still, there was too much confusion to offer comfort to Bucs fans. The Cowboys scored with such ease, and from such distances, that you could not help but wonder what kind of numbers Tom Brady and Drew Brees and Matt Ryan and Donovan McNabb and the rest might ring up against the Bucs. How much of this can you blame on Morris? Well, all of it, of course. That's the job description of a head coach. To be fair, no one coaches a defensive back to let a receiver run behind him, and no one coaches a defensive line not to rush. If you want to criticize Morris, however, that offensive mess just before the half, when the Bucs led 7-6, seems like a good place to start. The Bucs could run only 58 seconds off the clock before punting away; the Cowboys then scored in 16 seconds. No, it wasn't the best use of time management. Young coaches often struggle with that. "I saw an offense establish an identity," Morris said. "We know who they're going to be and what they're going to be. I saw a defense that played fast and aggressive. We have to have more pass rush. We've got to have more out of them. The secondary can't give up big plays." In other words, there is a lot of work to do. For a coach, doing it during the season is like working on the engine while someone else is driving the car. One game in, and it's fair to wonder. Is Morris a good coach? Answer: He had better be.