Zuttah “Was A Game-Changer”
September 19th, 2011
Joe’s quite confident the Ted Larsen era officially has ended, at least until Jeff Faine gets hurt.
Back to his 2009 home at left guard, Jeremy Zuttah started against Minnesota and was a huge factor in the revived running game. Joe’s watched the game again, and Zuttah surely was no liability out there was a big part of several key plays, including a block on LeGarrette Blount’s game-winning score.
Raheem Morris jumped head first on the Zuttah love train at his Monday news conference.
“Zuttah really stood out. You know, he was a game-changer. You know, he went up there in the run game and played really physical and played tough, played nasty,” Raheem said. “He had the one penalty, the holding. You just can’t throw a guy to the ground. But you got to like the physicality of Zuttah going up there and throwing a guy to the ground. It’s illegal, but you’ve got to like his effort, everything he gave us in the run game, everything he gave us in pass pro. I don’t think he gave up a quarterback hit or quarterback pressure or anything of that nature. He went out and played well, played nasty, played physical. Those guys up front played like a core. I like that when they do that.”
Now the Bucs truly have a veteran offensive line that showed it can be dominant, as it was in the second half yesterday.
It’s time the Bucs do what they were built to do in 2010. Pound LeGarrette Blount and let Josh Freeman work off all the glory that should bring.
September 19th, 2011 at 1:51 pm
You know what was missing yesterday? Some boneheaded mistake by Trueblood. Who is that guy on the field, and what has he done with our right tackle?
September 19th, 2011 at 1:54 pm
Zuttah actually played really well. But he’s a good player so I was expecting that out of him. Trueblood Ive been really surprised about @jack because he hasnt made a mistake and hasn’t gotten beaten to much over these past 2 games.
September 19th, 2011 at 2:02 pm
Zuttah played really well at Left guard yesterday. I’m really impressed. It’s hard to play both sides of the line. He must have put some real time In to improve that much. Bravo Jeremy. L
September 19th, 2011 at 2:04 pm
Trueblood had a great block on the first LGB TD. Zuttah is awesome and looks like an offensive lineman from “Any Given Sunday” or that old “Playmakers” show.
September 19th, 2011 at 2:05 pm
Damn it!
Looks like we found our left guard. And Larsen can play his natural position of Center( soon I hope!) now if we can just get Joseph and Trueblood on the same page, and replace Faine! Then we might be dangerous this year!
September 19th, 2011 at 2:08 pm
@Jack
Yeah, as a learned reaction, after all positive plays for the offense I wait for the whistle and the ref “Holding/Personal Foul on offense #65” He is playing mush better and much smarter this season, he seems to also be finishing his blocks which is a good sign from him.
September 19th, 2011 at 2:26 pm
“looks like an offensive lineman from “Any Given Sunday” or that old “Playmakers” show.” – C CAL
I hope you’re kidding.
September 19th, 2011 at 2:41 pm
Now we just need a C and RT.
September 19th, 2011 at 3:25 pm
@Chris, I see a center as our 3rd pick next draft. I believe next season is the season we delve into FA and pickup a solid young RT.
September 19th, 2011 at 3:40 pm
I completely flabbergasted by how well the line played yesterday. Best I have seen in a few years.
Faine was great in both facets of his game. Zuttah was a wrecking ball on runs. Joseph did well in the run block but still struggled in pass protection. Trueblood was dominating Robison and Awasom one-on-one for the entire game. Penn looked very weak early against Allen and Griffen but that didn’t matter as the Bucs ran far more in the second half rendering them useless.
Its funny that the OL two spots I have been harping “we need an upgrade” for the past couple years are dominating at their respective positions this year- Trueblood and Faine. Hey, if they can keep it up, I’ll change my tune. It would be awesome to see this line get back to 2007-2008 form.
September 19th, 2011 at 4:33 pm
Just thought this was an interesting bit. According to the Bucs twitter feed, through the first two weeks of this season, the D has yet to give up a third down conversion in the 2nd half of either game.
Of course, if you go back to last year, the team always had a better D in the second half, shutting down many opponents allowing Freeman to make the comeback. Looks like that trend is continuing this year. We’d all still like to see the team start the game better (both offense AND defense), but it’s still nice to know that the D will keep us in games in the 2nd half and the O will make a run at catching up and winning the game.
September 19th, 2011 at 5:42 pm
Funny how in the previous article Thomas 2.2 was saying Zuttah looked bad and was wanting Larsen back…. I thought Thomas knew more football than everyone… Weird
September 19th, 2011 at 8:14 pm
Ah, for everyone singing the lines praises- did you guys see the game??
First half- Blount- 5 carries 4 yards. . . 4.
If your happy with That performance, then the team should stop practing, and just saw plays in the dirt.
Line was horrible first half. Played well second half.
That would end up a D to C –