TAMPA, Florida (AP) — The Tampa Bay Buccaneers fired head coach Raheem Morris on Monday after he posted a 17-31 record over three years, including a 10-game losing streak to end the current season.
The team announced the change one day after the Bucs lost their final game of the season to the Atlanta Falcons, 45-24.
The 10-game winless streak was the longest in a single season since 1977, when the Bucs lost 12 in a row to extend the longest losing streak in National Football League history to 26 consecutive games over two years.
At 32 years old, Morris was the league’s youngest coach when he was hired in January 2009, replacing Jon Gruden after Tampa Bay lost the final four games of 2008 to miss the playoffs following a 9-3 start.
Morris guided the team to a 10-6 mark in 2010, with the Bucs narrowly missing the playoffs. The team also had a strong start to the current season, posting a 4-2 record with wins over playoff-bound Atlanta and New Orleans, before collapsing.
“In these things it is not just one thing, but I will point to just the progress of the team and where we’re at,” Bucs co-chairman Joel Glazer said at a news conference. “Again, you can’t point to one thing or another. You look at totality of the situation when making your decision.”
While injuries did contribute to the season-ending slide, so did inconsistent play — starting with quarterback Josh Freeman. He threw for 16 touchdowns and 22 interceptions after tossing 25 TD passes and being intercepted just six times in 2010. The Bucs turned the ball over a league-leading 40 times compared to 19 last season.
The defense also surrendered a franchise-record and league-high 494 points and the Bucs lost eight games by double-digit margins and allowed 31 points or more seven times during the season-ending skid.
Glazer said there’s no timetable for naming a successor.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.