Bucs Can Be NFL Darlings Overnight

November 6th, 2010

Yeah, sure, Joe knows the Bucs got run over by the Steelers like a scared German infantry division in from George Patton’s tanks, and then played the part of Georgia in a reenactment of Billy Sherman’s march to the sea against the Saints.

But those horrible memories of being pistol-whipped at home can vanish with a win in Atlanta Sunday.

eye-RAH! Kaufman of the Tampa Tribune can just feel it. He believes if the Bucs pull off a win in the Georgia Dome, the Bucs will be the toast of the NFL, as he Twittered on the TBO Bucs Twitter feed.

If the Bucs upset the Falcons at the Georgia Dome, their cloak of anonymity will be gone and the national media will be jumping aboard.

So for all those Bucs fans that feel empty because that drip Chris Berman can’t yell stupid, scripted nicknames in his decades old and tired schtick, and those sad because Stuart Scott can’t babble even more unintelligible gibberish about the Bucs and Trey Wingo can’t launch more slurs at the Bucs head coach, your wishes can come true with a Bucs win Sunday.

44 Responses to “Bucs Can Be NFL Darlings Overnight”

  1. jdouble Says:

    In 2005 when went 11-5 we got spanked by the patriots 28-0

    Just sayin

  2. Aldo Says:

    i really love the underdog situation!!! so i guess we are fine right now!!!not even in the super bowl game we were the favorites!!! so im fine with that!!!

  3. Mr. Lucky Says:

    I agree with Ira. IF the Bucs win THEN the national media will sit up and notice the team.

    That’s a BIG IF!

    However IF the Bucs lose (which I think will occur) then the national media will feel vindicated and say, “see didn’t i tell you those Bucs are just not ready for Prime Time?”

  4. admin Says:

    Joe here,

    Mr. Lucky – Depends how the Bucs play. If this is a tight game, and not a clunker of a game, i think the Bucs will be taken seriously.

  5. Snook Says:

    Have to disagree, Joe.

    If the Bucs lose this game… even if its by 1 point at the end of the game, everyone will still discount the Bucs.

    Everyone’s high on the Falcons though. They’ve beaten so many good teams… Oh wait. No they haven’t. 3 of their 5 wins are against the same teams the Bucs beat. They got pounded by the Eagles and a gift from Garrett Hartley and the Saints.

    I’m predicting a Bucs win tomorrow. But no respect will follow. And I’m fine with that. The Bucs don’t have a flashy player to cover so the media isn’t going to go crazy over them. Tomorrow, we’ll be 6-2 and still have no respect. Just the way I like it.

  6. Snook Says:

    I can’t wait to watch tomorrow night’s post game national shows.

    Top headlines:

    “What happened to the Falcons?”

    “What’s wrong with Roddy White?”

    “What’s wrong with the Falcons’ defense?”

    Wonder which one BSPN will run with… Peter King’s report will go something like this:

    “Yes, the Bucs beat the Falcons. But I still can’t get past their 25 point losses to the Saints and Steelers. Beat a REALLY REALLY REALLY good team and I’ll take you seriously.”

    If only Josh Freeman was skinny and looked like Tom Brady… then he’d get the love of Matt “Zero Playoff Wins” Ryan.

  7. Snook Says:

    Keep in mind that the Falcons are probably cheating a little and doing a little bit of preparation for the Ravens as well. They’ve got a quick turnaround for a road game on Thursday night.

    Hopefully, that helps out the Bucs.

    Then again, that might be another headline tomorrow night:

    “Falcons caught looking ahead to Ravens”

  8. Capt.Tim Says:

    “The Tampa Bay Fishbones cause another superior team to choke!” , “QB Ryan says this one slipped thru fingers”. ” Roddy White-Best team lost today!”. Owner Blankenship gives Coach Vote of confidence, despite loss to inferior Bucs!”. “Bspn’s Chris Berman has inside scope- entire Atlanta team had Food poisoning, Claims Berman!” . Final score 42-10, Tampa, lol!

  9. BigMacAttack Says:

    Is Eye!-RAH a slur? It is surely more work than Ira. Does he prefer it?

  10. Capt.Tim Says:

    ” NFL demands apology from Bucs, for defeating obviously superior Matt Ryan and the Pretty Atlanta Falcons!!” ” these teams are Pretty for a reason,exclaims Commissoner,” and they don’t get that way by accident!”

  11. Snook Says:

    “Falcons lose… thousands of fans show up late because of time change”

  12. Snook Says:

    “Falcons lose… Must’ve thought they were playing outdoors.”

  13. Snook Says:

    “Falcons lose… Players say turf at Georgia Dome too much like real grass… Demand painted concrete”

  14. Mr. Lucky Says:

    Hey who broke out the Pewter Kool-Aid?

    Lots of smack talk without a lot to back it up….

  15. Capt.Tim Says:

    5-2 , Mr. Sucky. Best young QB in the game. 8-8 with this young team. You’d have to really suck not to notice how well this team is doing! Notice how all the haters have either left, or climbed in the band wagon? Intelligent people already knew. Now even the dumbest ones are starting t ge

  16. gitarlvr Says:

    What are you talking about “cloak of anonymity”? The national media is already talking about the Bucs. Josh Freeman was on Jim Rome for god’s sake. Between Freeman and the best in the NFC comment everyone has already been talking about the Bucs.

  17. Rican Says:

    I blame u if we lose snook. Way to jinx us! lol

  18. JDouble Says:

    I’m predicting a 27-30 OT game. Just not sure who wins yet.

    I do believe if we manage to win this game, or even make it really tight, we will get more love from the national media. Personally, I think more attention just means more distraction. I like being the under dogs that are totally focused on football with no real outside distractions/attention.

  19. Patrick Says:

    Win this game and we’ll be 6-2. Then we have a 2 week vacation against Carolina and San Fran.

    WE COULD POSSIBLY BE 8-2 through 10 weeks!

  20. Mr. Lucky Says:

    Patrick – let’s see if the Bucs win this week first ok?

  21. Mr. Lucky Says:

    Captain Tina – God you are spinning like a TOP. Do you work for the DNC when you aren’t hitting the sauce? You sound like you’re a speech writer for Nancy Pelosi [we tried to reduce the deficit]

  22. Mr. Lucky Says:

    Is it just me or is anyone else worried about the D-line and lack of depth?

    I’m sorry but we are facing Michael Turner this week folks. He’s averaging 4.5 ypc this year. You’re not expecting a large dose of Turner?

    Then when’ he’s tired they bring in Snelling who’s averaging 4.3 ypc as a breather?

  23. Buc You Says:

    And the Bucs know who snelling is… he ran for a Buck fitty last year… and this year our defense is actually WORSE than last year. Amazing how the defensive coordinator is getting a free pass with the worst defense in the NFL.

  24. admin Says:

    Joe here,

    Mr. Lucky – Of course. They’re going to jam it right up the gut and probably be very successful. We’ve got to sit around and hope the Bucs can hold them to field goals, get a lead, get some turnovers and finally have a breakout special teams game.

  25. admin Says:

    Joe here,

    @BucYou — You can’t discount the turnovers. The coach isn’t getting a pass. For goodness sakes, the guy’s not exactly sitting on a pile of established talent on defense.

  26. Mr. Lucky Says:

    Joe – that’s what has me concerned about this game. YOU know Atlanta’s going to pound the ball. I know Atlanta’s going to pound the ball, the Bucs know Atlanta’s going to pound the ball, heck even Captain Tina knows Atlanta’s going to pound the ball.

    The question is HOW do you stop them?

    Holding the Falcons to field goals – THAT would be a victory.

    Keeping the game withing 7 points going into the 4th Quarter – THAT would be a victory

    I just think that Atlanta’s going to give up an easy pick like Arizona and the Bengels did. Matt Ryan is not Jake Delohme (Browns). Heck Matt Ryan is worlds better than Charlie Batch and look what HE did to the defense.

    I expect the worst and hope for the best.

  27. Pete 422 Says:

    Enough! Lets play ball man, I’m ready!

  28. Capt.Tim Says:

    ” oh gawd! They are gonna run the ball down our throats!” follow this with shy is falling panic and arm flailing! Yeah, so? EVERYBODY runs the ball down our throat! Not something new! I’ll explain this again. First, because I never get tired of dissecting defenses- especially unusual weird one! Secondly- the people I’m arguing with this time aren’t stupid, like some of them. They might actually watch for this in the game tomorrow. During the preseason, Raheem knew what we all knew. This D-line, with a first year and two Rookies, was gonna struggle to stop the run. Not much pressure either when another 1st year DE is starting. Team has very good veteran secondary. Good pass defense. Most coaches would cheat safeties into the box, and pull linebackers up two steps, to try and fortify the run. Would have hurt the CB’s. But helped the run. Raheem did something. Something revolutionary. He strengthened the secondary!! We play a 3 man front so often, it really is our base defense. He keeps both safeties in coverage, and pulls Gino Hayes into coverage every down. Basically a 3 d-linemen, 2 Lb’s, and 6 in coverage. Morris basically let’s other teams know- you can run against us- but if you try and throw, we’ll take it all

  29. BamBamBuc Says:

    They haven’t been playing near as much 3-3-5 over the past 2 weeks. Maybe that’s because they figured they had rookie QBs in Arizona and St. Louis. They may go back to it more this week with Ryan, but I think they’ve gotten better pressure the past 2 weeks from the base 4-3. They just needed to quit stunting and moving the D-linemen so much. They’ve simplified the assignments for the D-line the past 2 weeks, and it seems to be working.

  30. Capt.Tim Says:

    Sorry, I didn’t have time to finish. – if they pass, we will be there for interceptions. This requires a team to sustain a 12-14 play drive, no errors, no penalties. 5 teams so far haven’t been able to do so. They either get a penalty, or get impatient! That’s why we lead the league in interceptions. It’s something I’ve never seen before, and it works amazingly well . One problem. In a 3-2-6 defense, our youg rookie lineman aren’t gonna shine, and won’t have good numbers. Their are tons of guys in the media who understand this, but would rather tell you our D-Line rookies are flops than tell you the truth. Pisses me off so bad! Bambam is correct! Against bad passing games, like Max Hall, we played a more base Tampa2. That’s why our linemen got more pressures, tackles, and sacks- less 3-2-6, more 4-3-4. This week will be mostly 3-2-6 again. Especially with Sims out. We pretty much give up against the run, and totally deny the passing game. It’s something new, and already the intelligent anaylist in the NFL think it’s genius. Every game we win has more people impressed with the concept. If we beat Atlanta today, every defense in the league will have a 3-2-6 package of some kind. Now you understand why teams seem to run at will on us. Basically, we are letting them. We don’t think they can win doing it. So far, we are right

  31. Ish Says:

    What Capt. Tim says is backed up by Morris’ quotes following the Bengals game. He said then that we’d let Benson go nuts but take away Palmer.

    As long as the offense gets into groove (and with Blount getting 20+ carries that should happen), we’ll score enough to overcome any points they get from those drives where they are patient enough to run every down without penalty.

    I’d love to see Turner with gaudy numbers but Ryan and White shut down as the Falcons lose. Yeah, you can run. We can win. Deal with it!

  32. Pete Dutcher Says:

    gitarlvr Says:

    November 6th, 2010 at 5:26 pm
    What are you talking about “cloak of anonymity”? The national media is already talking about the Bucs. Josh Freeman was on Jim Rome for god’s sake. Between Freeman and the best in the NFC comment everyone has already been talking about the Bucs.

    While you are right in your comment, the truth is the Bucs are getting media attention because the media wants to see Morris proven wrong. They consider the Bucs a joke.

    Yes, Freeman is getting good press, but even so, we still here how the fans do not fill the seats (like almost every other stadium in the NFL right now) and how Freeman only has one good weapon…Williams (who they do not fail to mention did not have much last week).

    I have no doubt that if the Bucs win today, we will not hear how the Bucs might actually be the best in the NFC…we will hear “Are the Falcons as good as we thought?!”

  33. Pete Dutcher Says:

    @Capt.Tim
    When you type that much, please put paragraph breaks, lol. I can’t read the words all jumbled together like that. Old man here.

  34. Pete Dutcher Says:

    @Ish
    How do you get an avatar like that?

  35. Tampa2 Says:

    “Morris can only hope the Bucs are ready. His team has played just two opponents with winning records this year — Pittsburgh and New Orleans — and didn’t fare well in either matchup. Even though both games were at home, the Bucs lost 38-13 to the Steelers and 31-6 to the Saints.” TBO quote.
    @tugboat timmie. 5 powderpuff teams weren’t ready. This is no powderpuff team! This is a division rival with a decent QB, not some rookie with no name. And this is also a team that Raheem has fired up with his “Best in the NFC” boasting.
    So today will tell us whether the Bucs are for real, or just another Dream of Raheem’s. So far Raheem’s defense has allowed yardage that compare to Bates defense. For which Bates was fired. Raheem can ride on superman’s (Freeman) cape only so far. Then he has to show that he is the defensive coaching genius that you think he is! Today will show all of us the answer.

  36. Pete Dutcher Says:

    @Tampa2
    You know, I heard Steve Duemigg mention you on the radio (Friday?) the other day? Not in a good way, but he did mention you.

  37. Pete Dutcher Says:

    @Tampa2
    As to your comments, under Bates, there was zero improvement and none of the defense felt comfortable with his coaching, as they (the players) said once he was gone.

    Yes, the Bucs have a weakness in stopping the running game. So did the last generation of Bucs when they first started out. Shoot, it took them a while to learn how to bring Dante Culpepper when he ran.

    But they eventually improved that area of weakness…and so will this generation. Remember, we are working mostly with rookies this year.

    The fact that the Bucs are actually winning some games is a great plus this year. At least they are watchable. In this off season, they can address the DEs and such.

    As to the run stopping
    I would like to see Quincy Black play the roll of spy to stop the run. He hits hard and is fast.

  38. Snook Says:

    Don’t worry about us stopping the run. The Falcons are going to be able to run. That’s for sure. What’s also for sure is that the Buccaneers will be able to pass all over the Falcons 27th ranked Pass Defense.

    Get ready for a shootout!

    I’m so jacked for this game today.

  39. JDouble Says:

    Is Turner better than Mendanhall? DeAngelo Williams? Steven Jackson?

    Turner and Snelling will both get their yards today. They’ll probably have 150-200 total rushing yards today. Doesn’t mean anything. We’ve giving up a metric sh!t ton of rushing yards every single game this year. It’s a given. But somehow aganst all odds we’ve managed to win 5 games. Maybe we’ll pull one out again today.

  40. Ish Says:

    @ Pete Dutcher. I have a WordPress account (for a blog I’ve long neglected), and that’s the avatar I set up for it. I think it just recognized it, I don’t remember setting it up.

    OT: Is your novel published yet?

  41. gitarlvr Says:

    @capt. Tim- maybe you should pay attention to whats going on in the games before you comment. The Bucs have abandoned the 3 man front. I think I saw them in that front maybe once or twice in the entire last 2 weeks combined. They aren’t going back to it against the Falcons either. It was a failed experiment and its over. Pay attention today and you will see the defense with four lineman on virtually every snap.

  42. Capt.Tim Says:

    Pete, sorry! Always did that with old Iphone3G. The new Iphone4, everytime I hit “return”, it enlarges the type size so big that I can’t See what I’m typing! And the”Dolman Law group Ad” covers the Submit button. I haven’t been able to fix it. It’s a pain in the butt! But only occurs when I post

  43. Capt.Tim Says:

    Gitarwannabe- OR you should learn to read. As both Bambam and I already posted, the Bucs didn’t use that defense against two rookie QB’. It will be their primary Defense again today. Frankly , having read your post, I don’t think you’d recognize it if you saw it. Which is fine, until you start throwing out already posted info to try and look informed.

  44. sensiblebuc Says:

    @ gitarlvr

    Take a look at the matchup piece from NFL.com on our run D. We used some 3-4 last week against the Cards with Stylez lining up as an OLB and Q. Black in a middle linebacker role.