In light of controversial call, Raheem Morris stepped onto the playing field and jawed with the officials. Morris obviously felt the call was incorrect, and given them time remaining (under 2 minutes in first half) and field position (inside the 20), wanted to make sure his voice was heard by the referees.
Morris has since taken ownership of those comments, and while he didn't explicitly detail what he said, he had this to say in response to the penalty.
This loss is solely on me. At the end of the half, getting a personal foul is totally unacceptable. I’m taking those points, that’s on me, that’s how much we lost by. I should be given all the blame for that. That’s a discipline issue on my part and I didn’t do the right thing. That’s a great lesson for me as a young coach, that’s a great lesson for my team
Without knowing what he said, it's tough to say if he went over the line. The officials obviously thought he did, but I can't think it was just a few "F" bombs, as we've seen just about every coach outside of Dungy drop some of those.
Morris did go on to say this.
He was trying to tell it to me. I didn’t want to hear it at that point. I didn’t matter what the explanation was, I really didn’t care. I thought it was the wrong call, he disagreed and he’s the official. I gave them an extra (seven) yards to make it an easier touchdown. Put that on me.'
I certainly was not thrilled about the penalty on Morris and would like to know the justification, but at the time, I don't know how else he would have reacted. This wasn't a case of a bad luck type of play, but of an interpretation that was not favorable for the Bucs.
Would the Fins have scored a touchdown if they hadn't gotten those free 7 yards? Who knows.
This may be biased speculation on my part, but with Morris' penalty at the end of the first half and Winslow's at the end of the second half, it seemed like we saw the brunt of these touchy calls.
What do you think? Should Morris have gotten the penalty? Did that cost us the game?