Bucs Show They Can Hang With Elite
September 16th, 2012
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — Remember how bad, awful, rotten, pathetic the Bucs played in 2011? Remember how badly the Bucs were alley-beaten by the dregs of the NFL such as the Jags?
Sure, the Bucs suffered a painful loss, almost like a wrestling script where a grappler seemingly rises from the dead just before the bell to render his foe defeated? That’s what the loss to the Super Bowl champs felt like in the Garden State this afternoon.
The loss actually proved something to Bucs rookie safety Mark Barron: That even if the team folds in the fourth quarter, it showed the Bucs can hang with the NFL’s uppercrust.
“We feel we can play with anybody as long as we can execute,” Barron said after the crushing 41-34 gut-wrenching loss to the Giants. “I feel if we can come out and execute, we can play with or beat any team in the league.”
But the Bucs picked the wrong team to toy with in the end, a team that had a week and a half off, a team looking for its first win, a team that hoisted the Vince Lombardi Trophy aloft in victory last February, a team with two Super Bowl MVP trophies on his mantle, Eli Manning.
“He came out and played a great game,” Barron said. “He is smart. We came out and pretty much had to go back and forth on the play calls with him all night. He just played a great game.
“Things just didn’t go our way today. [The Giants] played hard all the way — so did we — they are a tough team.”
September 16th, 2012 at 5:48 pm
Blame this loss on the Offense (Sullivan and Freeman). The Defense spent to much time defending.
September 16th, 2012 at 5:49 pm
Barron is player for real for real !
September 16th, 2012 at 5:50 pm
Manning was excellent when he wasn’t committing mistakes. Pretty amazing though to effectively give up 21 points and win the game. I don’t know if the Bucs proved anything except that they don’t have the capability to cover the Giants WR core, the center of the field or the run up the gut.
September 16th, 2012 at 5:55 pm
This is week. There are no moral victories in the NFL. A loss is a loss. That ‘bad, awful, rotten, pathetic’ team from 2011 — what was its record after 2 games?
September 16th, 2012 at 5:56 pm
*weak
September 16th, 2012 at 5:57 pm
I’m still pissed.
September 16th, 2012 at 6:05 pm
There is no moral victories, but there damn sure are demoralizing losses. This was not a demoralizing loss. We were competitive, and we should have closed this team out. Easier said than done, but I have very little doubt we will learn how. It’s a long season. This one stings though. 2-0 would have been amazing.
September 16th, 2012 at 6:09 pm
I loved the game. Not so much the ending, but I loved the game.
I expected a rough first quarter to the season, figuring we would be 2-2 at best. But with the way this team is playing, we might see a win in Dallas. Any given sunday and all that.
Barron’s words here remind me of Warren Sapp back when he, Brooks and Lynch decided it was time to turn the team around. There are several parallels to be found between then and now. Wyche = Morris for example.
September 16th, 2012 at 6:12 pm
Yep, offensive play calling was scared and defensive play calling was insane and non sensical. You can’t blitz everyone every play and expect to win with Eli throwing and nicks receiving. What’s scarier is the comment from Talib that this is how we play defense, all or nothing. No, that is just wrong. If the d coordinator doesn’t know how to adjust and just blitzes every play we will not beat any good teams.
September 16th, 2012 at 6:12 pm
Joke, I understand the high emotions after a loss. The thing to remember is we had a dominating defense for ten years. When Dungy came, we had 21 losing seasons straight. Under Dungy we had another. His first year I’m sure fans were upset. But they finished strong that first year.
And from then on, it was all good.
Patience.
September 16th, 2012 at 6:22 pm
Patience wont fix an idiot as d coordinator. Sciano will have to have a long talk with Blitzin Bill.
September 16th, 2012 at 6:24 pm
Nice to see but before getting carried away remember we almost beat defending SB champ packers on the road last year.
Right before the total collapse.
September 16th, 2012 at 6:35 pm
“YEAAAAHHHH!!! We didn’t get blown out!”
– The 2012 mantra of Bucs fans
September 16th, 2012 at 6:43 pm
Snook I would have rather been blown out than lose in an almost impossible situation to lose in due to the worst play calling in history. Mike Martz and Marty Mornhinweg could do better than hat. Jus disgusting.
September 16th, 2012 at 6:48 pm
There are no moral victories…wah wah wah…
Remember we almost beat Green Bay last year Wah wah wah
nobody called this a victory, some of us understand that even though it’s not the result we wanted it’s a step in the right direction. You would have to be a darn idiot to not see an improved team from last year. I don’t mind fans being upset because we lost, but some of you are just spouting out nonsense. Find another fanbase to irritate.
September 16th, 2012 at 6:50 pm
Mark Barron played for a multi national champion defense in Alabama. He knows a good QB when he sees one.
Eli lit it up today. Thank God we don’t play him every week.
The Bucs NEEDED this loss to teach them their mistakes.
Now the defense will have to figure out how to stop those slants, sideline posts and TE passes over the middle… because Romo is coming next week… and he is lighting defenses up too.
Moral of the story… I hate the new pass happy NFL. The refs are calling incidental contact on every play and the good QBs know it. The QBs just toss it to a heavily covered WR hoping to get the call. And since everybody loves the Mannings, they get all the calls.
It blows.
September 16th, 2012 at 6:53 pm
Ridiculous, we played the gmen and the refs, no defenseless call on vjax and no catch by mike willy gimme a break. The offense is to predictable and the D got no pressure even withe the blitzes. I’m encouraged but frustrated.
September 16th, 2012 at 6:54 pm
What it comes down to is the Bucs got beat. They beat themselves, Talib held Nicks on every play it was obvious he needed help, yet we continued to leave him on an island. Point your finger here, point it there, it was a collapse after what seemed to be a half of great football. They stayed in it, competed, fought hard, but somewhere in there the pass defense fell apart.
Not to complain, but one of the biggest turning points was the non-call on the helmet to helmet on Jackson….to me at east. It was a first down, ball dropped due to a blatant helmet to helmet, and no call…interception. I bet you $1mil that Robinson gets a package from fedex, $21,500 on a no call
September 16th, 2012 at 6:57 pm
I agree 100% Colorado Buc. That non-call was critical. Complete nonsense. Couldn’t have been more obvious. Talib needed help, but it seemed like everyone needed help out there, not just Talib. Our secondary isn’t as good as they appeared to be last week, and Manning made that painfully obvious.
September 16th, 2012 at 8:37 pm
Not sure I agree with the moral victory premise. This was a rare opportunity to go 2-0. So many chances….if only Rod Jones and Tim Wansley would have been in the Bucs’ defensive backfield….
September 16th, 2012 at 8:42 pm
The Bucs showed they could play with the best. They offense just got to predictable. They went vanilla at the wrong time. It would have made more sense to score quickly as opposed to try and run out the clock. The run game against the Giants D-line is a tough sell. The Bucs showed heart and determination something they lacked last year.
Go Bucs!
September 16th, 2012 at 9:43 pm
The disturbing trend I see is that we have a dominating team in the 1st half and hopelessly stubborn head coach that just mails in the 2nd half.
Maybe, he can chew some Nicorette gum instead of hitting the Marlboros at halftime, and make some adjustments. They’re getting outcoached badly and according to Talib, nothing’s going to change.
Wonder if Talib’s hitting those Kool filters with his pal Greg.
The decision to not play LGB was premeditated.
September 16th, 2012 at 10:33 pm
there goes grande with his lies and insinuations…
yes, they needed to play blount. heck, even the blount haters and “he dances at the line” posters want to see blount.
what’s crazy, is that we should have kept going after their corners. we had a few good plays against their secondary and stopped. perhaps we could have used the pass to set up the run.
September 16th, 2012 at 10:42 pm
It was great to see such a close game, but looking at the stats the Giants dominated. Bucs hung in there with toughness and a series of very good fortune.
September 17th, 2012 at 12:30 am
I think we simply lost to a better overall team. The Giants are the Super Bowl Champs. We were only in this game because of Giants turnovers.
It was a fun game to watch, but I didn’t really expect Tampa to win.
One thing is for sure, this is a much improved team over last year!