Times-Picayune reporter Bob Fortus ran around yesterday asking Saints players what they made of the Bucs getting mauled by the 49ers.
You can read about it here. Saints cornerback Tracy Porter also elaborated on this Sunday’s game and is excited to see New Orleans colors in the stands.
“Playing on the road, all the odds are against you,” Porter said. “We look at it as adversity. We’re pretty good playing against adversity. And our fans travel good. That helps a lot.”
Joe sure hopes there’s not a mess of black and gold among the home crowd Sunday, though it’s probably inevitable.
Word is supposed to come down today from NFL owners meetings on who will host the 2015 Super Bowl. Tampa and Arizona are the supposed finalists.
In Joe’s mind this should be a lock for Tampa since Team Glazer took one for the NFL by hauling a home game to London again this year, putting its team at a competitive disadvantage for a pivotal conference game and stripping its hometown of all the revenue generated by a regular season game on Dale Mabry Highway.
What other team has bent over for the NFL like this?
Joe’ only concern is that somehow the NFL might make more money on a Super Bowl in Arizona, and the owners’ votes might reflect that. Joe knows the NFL is all about money.
Any league that would drop a Super Bowl in an outdoor stadium in New Jersey (2014) in February clearly doesn’t care about the quality of the game or the experience for fans.
The way the 49ers beat down the Bucs Sunday, it was as if they were avenging a personal affront.
In a way, they were.
Partly with the memory of the Bucs shutting out the Niners last year and partly remembering Bucs coach Raheem Morris’ words, the 49ers had ample ammunition to chain-whip the Bucs yesterday, per Matthew Barrows of the Sacramento Bee.
It seems Morris calling the Bucs “West Coast Killers” didn’t go over so well on the west coast.
“It came up a little bit,” said 49ers safety Dashon Goldson. “They called themselves the West Coast Killers, they came into our home, and we had to defend our turf (against) the West Coast Killers.”
If the Buccaneers pushed the 49ers around last year, San Francisco more than returned the favor this year.
The 49ers held Tampa Bay, which relies on its ground game, to 86 rushing yards and three points. The defense sacked Freeman twice and forced three turnovers, one of them a fumble that occurred at the end of the third quarter when Goldson leveled wide receiver Mike Williams after an eight-yard reception.
Later in the same article, Niners running back Frank Gore believed it wasn’t so much Morris’ words, but Morris’ team’s actions last year in smothering the Niners that had San Francisco licking their chops to get back at the Bucs.
Joe thinks its cool when coaches are outspoken. As cool as it is, sometimes the words come back to bite. Painfully so.
Speaking moments ago, Raheem Morris said the Gerald McCoy was “playing lights out” yesterday before he hurt his ankle and hobbled off the field. And Raheem said McCoy is now considered week-to-week and could play Sunday.
Raheem said he’ll have more medical information on McCoy tomorrow.
Defensive end George Johnson has been promoted from the practice squad, Raheem said, to provide more depth while the Bucs expect to give Da’Quan Bowers more time inside on the D-line if McCoy is out Sunday.
Look for Frank Okam to be the starting 3-technique if McCoy is out, a role Okam filled last year in McCoy’s absence.
As for banged up LeGarrette Blount, Raheem said there is no update on his injury status.
Joe can’t really remember a Bucs team getting manhandled like it did yesterday. The Bucs simply got punched in the mouth by Frank Gore, got slapped in the face by no less than Alex Smith.
It was simply stunning to watch how a Bucs team that likes to play violent was beaten up and had their lunch money stolen from them by a San Francisco street gang known as the 49ers.
This scene was not lost on veteran St. Petersburg Times columnist Gary Shelton, who seemed taken aback by the Carnage at Candlestick.
The Bucs didn’t just lose to the 49ers on Sunday. They were clobbered. They were assaulted. Along the way to a 48-3 drubbing, you hope they had the common decency to be embarrassed. It was men vs. boys. It was trolley car vs. pedestrian. It was bug vs. windshield.
It was 48-3, and it was as bad as any defeat in Bucs history.
Soon, maybe somewhere around Thursday, 49ers running back Frank Gore will clean the last of the Bucs defense from the bottom of his cleats.
For a team that likes to brag it plays violent, it simply had the tables turned on them from the first play of the game. Joe prays that LeGarrette Blount is not seriously injured because if he is, the next few weeks could look all too much like a flashback to the frightening 2009 season.
Former Bucs quarterback Shaun King grabbed what Ross Perot liked to call the “bully pulpit” today and implored One Buc Palace to realize their best offensive weapon is LeGarrette Blount and not Josh Freeman.
Speaking on The King David Showon WQYK-AM 1010, King said the Bucs won’t be consistent until they figure that out.
Focusing on what he called the “scripted” first two possessions, King said the Bucs only handed off the ball to Blount four times in 16 plays and that’s evidence the Bucs aren’t committed to running the football.
“That has to change,” King said. “We have a top-5 offensive line. We have to use them. … We have a running back that can physically handle running the ball 30 times a game.
On Freeman, King expressed some panic. “Freeman has been really bad, and he’s been really bad in a lot of areas. He hasn’t played a good football game in 2011, including preseason. … Our scheme, especially offensively, is bad.”
Joe’s often mystified by Greg Olson’s playcalling, but Joe’s not about to call 911 and shop for hemlock online because the Bucs got clobbered yesterday. Freeman will bounce back and the Bucs will at some point will further pound Blount behind their solid line and score points like they did in the second half of last year. Right now, they’re 28th in the NFL in points scored.
Joe’s way more concerned about the defense, which has lots of injuries, the most youth and a secondary that isn’t making plays.
It’s a persistent argument that started last season when LeGarrette Blount hit the scene, and Joe suspects it will endure through the 2011 season. Are the Bucs really committed to the run?
Former Bucs guard Ian Beckles says, ‘No,’ so he told his radio audience today on WDAE-AM 620 today.
“I’m putting this on [Greg] Olson. They haven’t tried to establish anything. …Give them a chance to be the best unit out there,” Beckles said of the the Bucs running game and the offensive line.
Now Joe has been on the Bucs to pound Blount since he hit the field last year and showed something against the Steelers while Cadillac Williams was struggling to 2 1/2 yards per carry. Yes, the the Bucs have pounded Blount at times, like last Monday against the Colts, but what happened Sunday?
In the Bucs’ first five series, Blount ran the ball nine times for 32 yards. Six of those carries came on first down, out of 10 first-down snaps.
Is that commitment to the run?
Joe would like to see the Bucs pound it a lot more, but it’s hard to say the Bucs didn’t give it to Blount. Simply, for the first time, a team other than the Bucs stopped Blount.
Anyone who’s been on the field in any team sport knows you can sense pretty quickly when an opposing team has mailed it in.
If it can’t be seen easily, then it surely can be felt. And 49ers tight end Vernon Davis got the quitting vibe from the Buccaneers yesterday, so he told SFGate.com.
“They were really frustrated.” Davis said. “I mean, I felt like they gave up. That’s what I saw. I felt like they gave up. I was trying to tell, I think it was Barber, Ronde, I was telling him: ‘Get your guys. Get your guys. Y’all got to play harder, y’all got to play harder.’”
Now Joe’s not about to say the Bucs quit, though maybe they should have because that’s probably better than the alternative.
But Joe will say the Bucs’ clearly lost it mentally late. Two great chances at an interception on the same drive were dropped. Sean Jones came in way late to spear a guy in the head. Dakoda Watson had a senseless “leverage” penalty during a Niners’ field goal attempt that took points off the board and led to a Niners touchdown. Myron Lewis caught a punt out of the hands of a guy who had called a fair catch.
Sadly, there’s more.
What the hell were Bucs coaches thinking punting on 4th-and-8 from the Niners 42 yard line trailing 41-3 with 10 minutes left in the fourth quarter? That surely could be construed as quitting.
Then the Niners break off a 90-yard, six-minute drive with a bunch of backups in the game.
It was simply ugly. There was no sugarcoating this. The Bucs’ thrashing at the hands of the 49ers was both frightening and eye-opening.
The Bucs entered the game with statistically one of the better defenses in the NFL. It left the game like an Iranian political prisoner who was sentenced to a lashing.
It was like Alabama beating up Florida. It was like a high school team whipping a grade school team.
Damin Esper of the Tampa Tribune documents how brutal of a game this was.
San Francisco won the opening toss and deferred. When the 49ers got the ball, they went 50 yards in four plays – three of them completed passes by Smith – for the touchdown to Walker. That was a harbinger of things to come as the 49ers scored again and again and again.
San Francisco scored on seven of 11 possessions, punting once, fumbling once and ran out the clock twice. Seven 49ers receivers caught passes and six caught multiple passes. Tampa Bay missed countless tackles, allowing small plays to become big plays.
This was simply unacceptable for an NFL team. Joe is unsettled, however, about the immediate future of the defense given the fact Gerald McCoy returning for the Saints game is wishful thinking.
Raheem Morris is a defensive guy and the defensive coordinator. Joe is confident he should be able to right this ship eventually. But given a handful of days to come up with a plan to stop Drew Brees after yesterday’s debacle, well, Joe is frightened.
It wasn’t a coincidence yesterday that when Bucs defensive tackle Gerald McCoy left with a leg injury, Frank Gore acted like Joe when he learns of free beer.
Gore went wilding on the Bucs, gashing the interior for chunks of yards on each touch of the ball.
Initially, Bucs officials feared a major injury to GMC as he stood on the Bucs sidelines in the second half on crutches wearing a boot on his injured foot.
No need to fret too much, reports Stephen Holder of the St. Petersburg Times. It seems initial tests of GMC’s foot reveal no break.
It appears his ankle is not broken based on the early diagnosis. He likely has a pretty badly sprained ankle, however.
Thank goodness for that, but a badly sprained ankle doesn’t mean GMC can play against the Saints Sunday.
GMC has really stepped up this year and has become an unquestioned leader of the defensive line, thought to be a strong point prior to yesterday’s game.
Joe is of the belief that the Bucs will sorely miss GMC not being on the field.
Given all the foul language that flies on the NFL sidelines — directed and not directed at officials — Raheem Morris’ personal foul call in the third quarter was a surprise.
What could Raheem have said? Well, the Bucs head coach explained what happened and said the official apologized for screwing up.
“The official thought I was, you know, talking bad to him. I was simply using the wrong adjective to tell him to watch their guys. So it was a misunderstanding by me and the official. We both shook and hands and made up for it. And he apologized, and we’re good,” Raheem said during his postgame news conference.
Very bizarre. The replay showed Raheem was standing next to the official that threw the flag. Joe suspects the official might have pulled a quick trigger on the flag to keep the sideline ugliness from getting out of hand — given the game was nearly out of reach with a lot of time to play. The Bucs were trailing 31-3 early in the third quarter and driving in Niners’ territory when Raheem was flagged.
Regardless, it was sloppy by the head coach, even if the F-bombs were misunderstood.
Good guy Earnest Graham doesn’t have to listen to sports radio or read the Internet. The Bucs running back knows what happened today in the Bucs seal-clubbing at San Francisco.
“We didn’t have an answer at all,” Graham said on the Bucs radio network following the game. “We have to find out a way to get better. That’s what we have to do right now.”
As bad as the Bucs played, Graham noted how well the 49ers played.
“They executed with perfection,” Graham said. “We know what turnovers will do to a team. We just didn’t extend drives enough and keep drivings going.”
When Graham was asked about playing a short week from playing Monday Night Football and then flying to the left coast put the Bucs in a hole, Graham wouldn’t hear of it.
“Nah, we’re not using that as an excuse. Lots of teams have to deal with travel. The 49ers had to deal with travel the past couple of weeks.
“This league can humble you. This is a copycat league. We know now that teams will be trying to do the same thing as the 49ers did. We can’t get too down on ourselves. Look who we have coming in next week.”
Arrellious Benn and Mike Williams both have been guilty of critical motion penalties this season. Today, Williams’ screwup negated a completed pass to Preston Parker and a first down on the third play from scrimmage on the opening drive.
The Bucs punted after the ensuing incompletion, and the punt came on a very low snap that appeared to be picked up on a short-hop by Michael Koenan. Then Larry Asante and company did a poor job covering the punt, which was returned 22 yards by Ted Ginn, Jr.
The Niners got started and on 2nd-and-5 Brian Price gifted them a first down with an encroachment penalty. Three plays later the Niners are in the end zone on a perfect pass into zone coverage by Alex Smith.
Maybe it’s just the whole young team thing, but the Bucs coming out with four screwups — in all three phases — is just inexcusable. What is it about the first quarter and the Bucs? Coaching has to be a factor on some level.
And just for good measure, the Bucs opened their second offensive series with a drop by Williams.
Williams’ sluggish start to the season is partially attributed to playcalling, but he’s also not yet the same guy that was on the field last year.
Joe is not about to single out Bucs safety Corey Lynch for having a bad game. Damned near the entire team short of Gerald McCoy, LeGarrette Blount, Regus Benn and Da’Quan Bowers had a bad game, in many ways an atrocious game.
But when Lynch was questioned in the locker room on the Bucs radio network following the game why the 49ers were able to take it to the Bucs from the opening snap and never let up, Lynch said, “I can’t answer that.”
It almost seems like the Bucs didn’t see what hit them.
Joe only hopes that this p!sses off each and every player on the roster and that the Bucs come out next Sunday wanting to rip the Saints’ heads off.
Joe’s as bitter, embarrassed and exasperated as the next fan, but at least there was one bright spot today to soothe you before you leap from the Skyway Bridge.
Da’Quan Bowers played pretty darn well . And Joe’s sure he’s not reaching here, though Joe must watch the game again.
Bowers was active in the backfield, made sure tackles and batted down a pass.
At least it’s something after an historic beating.
NFL experts are quick to tell Joe there is no such thing as a fluke in the NFL.
But the way Bucs quarterback Josh Freeman has played in the first five games of the season, it makes one wonder if only throwing six picks for an entire year like Freeman did last year in his first full year as a starter was indeed a fluke.
Freeman has yet to have a spectacular game this year. The debacle on the left coast today was easily his worst of the season and perhaps worst of his career.
Freeman didn’t just throw interceptions, he forced passes into double- if not triple-coverage, telegraphing passes.
Moose and Goose on the Fox broadcast believed Freeman should have had more interceptions.
Look, Joe loves Freeman and last year showed how good Freeman can be. What is not known is whether Freeman, in frustration, is forcing passes, putting too much pressure on himself or if he has regressed?
In case you watched this ugly alley-beating of a game to the bitter end, you witnessed the worst beatdown in Bucs history.
Well, at least tied for the worst beatdown.
Losing 48-3 to Alex Smith and the 49ers tied the worst loss in Bucs history. The other ugly loss came against the Raiders in 1999 when the Bucs were shut out 44-0.
The difference in this game and the last time the Bucs were chain-whipped like this? This team does not have Warren Sapp. This team does not have Derrick Brooks. This team does not have John Lynch.
How good of a leader is Josh Freeman or Gerald McCoy? We’ll find out in a week when the Bucs host the NFC South-leading New Orleans Saints.
The Bucs got outhustled, outcoached, outmuscled, outplayed and outeverythinged today in San Francisco, crushed in all phases of the game. Another slow start but this time without the rousing finish.
It was putrid — Raheem Morris might call it “Yugly” — and really was the kind of performance that forces fans to doubt whether the Bucs are a playoff team. Even Raheem joined the stupid-penalty dance with a personal foul for chewing a referee’s ear off on the sideline. (Nice punt catch, Myron Lewis.)
It’s one thing for a team to completely fall apart mentally when a game’s out of reach in the fourth quarter, but the Bucs completely lost it early in the third quarter.
Joe’s not surprised the defense fell off noticably when Gerald McCoy went down with a heinous-looking injury, but their problems on defense went way deeper than that.
Most scary, perhaps, was Josh Freeman flashing back to 2009. And the playcalling is a big ol’ headscratcher for Joe.
As always, Joe will have all kinds of takes out of this game. Keep coming back through the night.
Times-Picayune reporter Bob Fortus ran around yesterday asking Saints players what they made of the Bucs getting mauled by the 49ers.
Speaking moments ago, Raheem Morris said the Gerald McCoy was “playing lights out” yesterday before he hurt his ankle and hobbled off the field. And Raheem said McCoy is now considered week-to-week and could play Sunday.
It’s a persistent argument that started last season when LeGarrette Blount hit the scene, and Joe suspects it will endure through the 2011 season. Are the Bucs really committed to the run?
Anyone who’s been on the field in any team sport knows you can sense pretty quickly when an opposing team has mailed it in.
Arrellious Benn and Mike Williams both have been guilty of critical motion penalties this season. Today, Williams’ screwup negated a completed pass to Preston Parker and a first down on the third play from scrimmage on the opening drive.
Joe’s as bitter, embarrassed and exasperated as the next fan, but at least there was one bright spot today to soothe you before you leap from the Skyway Bridge.
