Joe wrote about Cody Grimm’s injury last night, but the latest update today from Raheem Morris sounds ominous.
“We don’t know the extent of that yet,” Morris said, referring to Grimm tearing his ACL and being out for the season. “He’s definitely getting an MRI. I know his MCL is messed up, and he’s got some other stuff that we’re checking on right now. So it may not be for the year. We’re not sure of that yet.”
Regardless, this is a huge loss for the Bucs, especially in the revived run defense. Raheem said he was the “lead dog down in the box” yesterday.
“It’ll be a battle this week” between Larry Asante and Corey Lynch to start at free safety,” Raheem said. The head coach explained that Asante has been inactive because of the special teams prowess of Devin Holland.
So it’ll be next man up for the Bucs. Joe’s counting his blessings that the next man up isn’t a safety currently playing for the Chiefs.
Finally, LeGarrette Blount got his touches yesterday, but for Joe it could have been a lot more, especially on first down.
Leading 16-3 entering the fourth quarter, immediately after Blount dragged tacklers for an eight-yard run on first down and moved the chains with a four-yard run to the Atlanta 44 yard line, Josh Freeman came out of the quarter break and thew an interception downfield. Why not keep pounding Blount, eating clock and driving to make it a three-score lead?
Then the Bucs get the ball back still leading 16-13 and hand it off on first down to Earnest Graham?
Atlanta then scores a touchdown on a two-play drive and the Bucs respond throwing on first down in a drive in which Blount never saw the ball.
Thankfully, Roddy White went on to drop balls, the Bucs defense held tough and Blount was given the rock in the final drive.
Joe’s not sure what Greg Olson was thinking, especially considering Josh Freeman wasn’t playing his best game.
There goes the rockstar general manager Mark Dominik adding to his legacy again.
Sure, Adrian Clayborn was a first-round pick and is supposed to flash some greatness like he did yesterday, but late third-round pick Mason Foster is calling the defense making a massive impact, and late fourth-round pick Luke Stocker is proving he’s the real deal.
If John Gilmore was the Bucs’ blocking tight end last year, Stocker is a serious upgrade in that area. It’s all there on tape. And Stocker, despite the ugly drop on opening day, has shown he’s got some hands.
Speaking this morning on WDAE-AM 620, Bucs tight ends coach Alfredo Roberts said Stocker is a future captain of the Bucs.
“[Stocker] accepts the process. He understands and he gets it,” Roberts said. “He’s one of those guys that you can tell him once and he’ll go out and he gives you good information if things go good or bad. He’ll tell you exactly how it’s going. He understands he has a ways to grow as a pro. We like a lot of things about the young man’s character. I think he’s going to be a great leader and a captain for this football team before his time is done. Him and Kellen began with a good to great friendship, a healthy respect of the game. Kellen takes him under his wing and shows him and teaches him and they watch film together. It’s great to see him take coaching from coach and [veteran] player.”
For the Bucs to have rookies making a serious impact against a permier opponent in Week 3 of the season is an extraordinary sign of things to come.
When Roddy White proved more than a handful for E.J. Biggers, when a rookie racked up over 100 yards receiving on Aqib Talib, when safety Cody Grimm went down with a knee injury, Bucs fans on this very site were jumping up and down about the imminent return of suspended Bucs safety Tanard Jackson.
Hold up!
As Stephen Holder of the St. Petersburg Times documented last week, Jackson’s return to the Bucs is hardly imminent.
For starters, do not assume Jackson will automatically be back on the Bucs’ roster on Thursday, for several reasons. The biggest of these is that the Bucs don’t have any control over this situation. Jackson must apply for reinstatement and that request will be granted only when Goodell deems it appropriate. There are conditions associated with players’ suspensions, and unless those conditions are met, he is not reinstated. And the substance-abuse policy does not specify when Goodell must make a decision. Because details are confidential, there’s no way to know whether Jackson has been in compliance.
Jackson’s sentence expired last week but that does not mean he is automatically eligible to return to the Bucs. It all lies in the hands of NFL warden commissioner Roger Goodell.
Now don’t go fingering Goodell as some Bucs fans have tried. Jackson put himself in this position and no one but Jackson himself is responsible for his predicament. Goodell didn’t fire up the bong and pass it to Jackson (allegedly).
So let Joe play Devil’s Advocate: Let’s say Jackson is indeed reinstated this morning. The dude is hardly in football playing shape. Shoot, after the first week of training camp, Raheem Morris wouldn’t even let his players participate in an Oklahoma drill at the open practice at the stadium because the players hadn’t practiced at all since the previous season (sans a few workouts with Josh Freeman).
So how on earth could anyone expect Jackson to be in NFL playing shape after five practices, after a year away from the game? That’s crazy talk.
No, Jackson will not be starting for the Bucs when they host the Colts on Monday Night Football. Anyone thinking that, Joe will just quote the great Mike North.
There was talk before today’s flushing of the Falcons about how the Bucs’ defensive line would have a solid pass rush if only they could force third-and-long situations.
Those were absent against Detroit, plus Matthew Stafford was taking short drops and releasing the ball quickly. Then in Minnesota, the Bucs got gashed against the run, and fell behind quickly.
So in many respects, today, with a pocket passer in Matt Ryan, was the first good look at the Bucs’ pass rush.
And it showed up.
Gerald McCoy and Brian Price definitely disrupted up the gut, and Adrian Clayborn and Dakoda Watson had sacks off the edge. Regardless, there was a reasonably consistent rush, which seemed to be absent for years.
After the game, Joe asked Aqib Talib whether he could feel the pass rush as he chased Julio Jones.
“Definitely. We’re on that line playing man, man. A lot of times, by the time Julio got out of his route, Matt Ryan was already retreating, throwing the ball away, or on his back or whatever,” Talib said. “We definitely felt like there was a little spark on our d-line today.”
With the crowd roaring at raucous levels on 2nd-and-long and 3rd-and-long today, and the Bucs pinning their ears back, Joe really felt a flashback to the glory days, especially under the lights.
Joe’s not about to compare the teams, but the feeling was there.
The Bucs defense came out possessed today and Joe was both impressed, and excited.
Part of that was the play of linebacker Dekoda Watson, who made his first start in place of the injured Quincy Black.
Watson made an impact right away when he hurried Matty Ice into a bad pass.
But Watson was less than thrilled with his play when Joe caught up to him after the game.
“Personally, I felt like I can do better,” Watson said. “There is always room for improvement. I felt like there were plays that I could make.
“You don’t want to just get heat on the quarterback. You want to get him down and help out the DBs. But, hey, the final outcome, a win is a win. We have to come back and be prepared for next week.
Atlanta “has a good offensive line and Matt Ryan is a smart player. He makes plays. We respect him a lot. At the same time, we have to make plays.
“I think we came out pretty strong in the first half and that was the biggest thing. We were firing and that shows it should be the way we should come out each week.”
After consecutive games facing Kyle Vanden Bosch, Jared Allen and John Abraham, Donald Penn still has Joe’s vote for the Pro Bowl.
Penn said today’s effort against the Falcons and Abraham was his best of the season. And Penn gave some credit to Josh Freeman and Jeremy Zuttah.
“I didn’t give up a sack. It seems like in the other two [games] I gave up a sack. As a lineman, if you give up one sack, it really, really crushes your whole game,” Penn said. “You could have a perfect game and that one sack stands out.
“I’m just working, man, working to get better. Josh Freeman’s helping me out a lot. You know, stepping up, moving around the pocket making me look good. Jeremy Zuttah helped me out a lot. Anytime Abraham peeked inside he was there. Then I won my one-on-one battles. You know, he got close a couple of times; he’s a great athlete, man. I just got lucky. Hopefully I can keep it going.”
For Joe, the offensive line has earned its fat paychecks over the past six quarters.
Joe was geeked when the Bucs drafted Adrian Clayborn in the first round in this spring’s draft. Sooner or later, Joe knew Clayborn would make a major impact.
That came today. With the Falcons deep in their own territory late in the first half, Matty Ice went back to pass and Joe believes Ryan will well remember what happened to him for years to come.
Clayborn bolted through the line, Dixie Chicks left tackle Sam Baker tried to lure Clayborn outside but instead, Clayborn went inside.
“My instincts took over,” Clayborn later said.
So did his physical tools.
Clayborn simply crushed Ryan. Matty Ice was parallel to the ground Clayborn hit him so hard. But Clayborn not only crushed him, he literally ragdolled Matty Ice to the ground, causing a fumble which led to a Bucs field goal.
It was Clayborn’s first sack of his young NFL career.
“I just reacted to the block they gave me,” Clayborn said. “They jumped one side, I took it to the other side and good thing Ryan was right there.”
Three games into the season it’s clear Josh Freeman isn’t the same near-perfect quarterback he was last year.
Maybe it was too much too expect of Freeman to repeat the six-interception season he turned in for 2010, but Freeman’s now sitting with four interceptions and some poor decision-making over the first three games of 2011. Freeman’s opening-drive pick today was horribly ugly, thrown too low and too short into traffic in the back of the end zone. For Joe, his penalty for near the endzone for throwing beyond the line of scrimmage was indicative of his head just not being as sharp as Bucs have come to expect.
“That’s what the quarterback did today. He found a way to win without playing great football,” Raheem Morris said after the game. Freeman finished 22-for-32 for 180 yards and two interceptions.
Don’t get Joe wrong. Freeman is a great player, and there’s no reason not to expect greatness from the guy. Frankly, Joe’s impressed that the Bucs beat down the Falcons without heroics from No. 5.
Whatever it is with Freeman, Joe’s still confident he’ll shrug it off and get back to his 2010 form.
Earnest Graham offered Joe some insight after today’s win against the Dixie Chicks. Graham talks about the meaning of it all, physical football and more.
JoeBucsFan.com: You’ve been around here a long time. There’s been a lot made that the Bucs needed this kind of signature win. Do think that really makes a difference. Do you feel like there’s a hump that the team got over today?
Earnest Graham: Yeah, I mean you have to admit it. You know what I’m saying. It’s definitely a hump we got over. Was it a win that defines us? No. It’s another game toward what our goal is, to win our division because we came up short last year. Yeah, it’s great to have it, but we dropped quite a few to them in past years, so to come out and get this is big for us because it’s part of our goal.
Joe: What was the difference today?
Graham: We were without a doubt physical. The way we ran the ball, the way LeGarrette Blount ran the ball. You know, converting on third down, the defense, we started fast. We had a lot of growth the last two or three weeks, even though we dropped the first game. Everybody reacted a certain way last week and we learned from that, came back and had a strong second half. Today we played 60 minutes of football but we have to continue growing.
Joe: Josh Freeman was nearly perfect last year in a lot of ways, but this year he’s had his share of picks and poor decisions. He’s a leader, but is there anyone who can talk to him and pump him up after a bad play?
Graham: He’s self motivated. That’s the type of guy that Free is. He’s a free-spirited guy. You know, when things happen, he can shrug them off and come out and continue to lead the team. So he’s a self-motivated guy. Except for immedately after a turnover saying ‘C’mon, let’s get going,’ it’s not something that you have to beat a dead horse on.
Bucs backup safety Corey Lynch is used to making big plays on special teams but it was his batted down pass from Matt Ryan that was aimed for Jacquizz Rodgers that all but sealed the win for the Bucs when the Dixie Chicks were driving to what appeared to be a go-ahead score.
Lynch described to Joe after the game how the play went down.
Rodgers “came off the line and bum rushed me and when he did that, at that time, I knew they were coming inside,” Lynch said. Running backs don’t usually run fades, so I got inside leverage and batted it down.
“You just see their tendencies through their film, but you are talking about Matt Ryan here, nothing is a giveaway. It was great to stand up for that long.
“The Falcons series has been that kind of a series. We had two games last year where we were on the one-yard line late and then here, we had a 10-point lead in the fourth quarter. It’s been that kind of a series but we came out on top today and it’s a great feeling to come out on top.
“We were ready to go right from the beginning. I was proud of all the guys today.”
As those watching on the Internet on television saw, Cody Grimm came up to make a tackle today and got tied up, in part with Geno Hayes, and was carted off the field. It looked like Grimm’s spikes might have stuck in the turf, his leg straightened and then he took a shot on the knee.
Corey Lynch stepped up into the free safety role and did a very solid job on Tony Gonzalez in man coverage.
As for Grimm, Joe has no official word on his injury, but Grimm was on crutches in the locker room and not putting weight on the affected leg. However, Grimm’s knee was not in a brace and he was telling teammates he’d be “alright.” The Bucs likely will update Grimm’s status tomorrow.
Of course, Joe knows Grimm’s injury will bring wild cries for Tanard Jackson’s return. Hopefully, the Bucs won’t need to go there.
Bucs coach Raheem Morris likes to talk about “Next man up,” meaning whoever replaces a fallen starter just has to suck it up and do his job.
Today, two players lived up to Raheem’s motto.
The first of course was Dekoda Watson. Entering the game with Quincy Black as a starting outside linebacker, the Bucs were ranked 31st in stopping the run.
Today, with Watson as an outside linebacker, filling in for the injured Black, the Bucs looked like the Bucs of old, holding stud Dixie Chicks running back Michael Turner to a mere 20 yards on 11 carries. That, Joe is certain, is manly. The Dixie Chicks ran right — obviously trying to take advantage of Watson — almost exclusively in the first half, to no avail.
Then in the second half when the Falcons were driving and Cody Grimm was carted off the field with a knee injury, safety Cory Lynch came up big. He batted down a Matty Ice pass on third-and-15 from the Bucs-15 that was headed for the open arms of Jacquizz Rodgers.
“Next man up” sure worked for the Bucs last year. It sure worked for the Bucs Sunday.
Joe will have plenty to say about the Bucs’ entire defensive line, but Joe can’t hold back how impressed he is by Brian Price.
It just can’t be forgotten what this guy went through to get on the field this season and, per Price’s quotes more than a week ago, he earned the starting job before the Bucs-Vikings game while only playing at roughly 65 percent.
Well, Joe talked to Price after today’s game, in which Price recorded his first sack and was very disruptive behind the line of scrimmage, and Price says he’s still playing at about 65 percent.
Pressed on how that’s possible, Price said he feels his “motor getting stronger” and a little more comfortable on the field. But Price said he invests a lot of energy managing and blocking out his pain and focusing on everything but once he enters One Buc Palace or the stadium on gameday.
Joe can’t wait to see what this guy can do at full strength.
Bucs 16, Dixie Chicks 13
The Bucs finally got what loads of fans have been screaming for liked caged animals — the “signature win.”
No more can it be said that these Bucs are pretenders. Not that it made sense to say that previously after winning 10 games last year, but now there’s no debate, not even from the fringe radicals in the fan base.
The Bucs, who hardly played their best football today, spanked the hated Falcons on both sides of the ball.
Best of all, the ghost of Jim Bates never surfaced, a pass rush emerged, and the Bucs finished off the game driving LeGarrette Blount down the throat of the Dixie Chicks.
Stick with Joe through the night for all kinds of analysis and reaction from the Bucs locker room.
OK boys and girls, have at it. Let your feelings be known about how the Bucs are playing against the Dixie Chicks today. As always, any and all commenters who post addresses of pirated streams of the game, even spelling the addresses out, will be banned. You are welcome to post your e-mail address and share the pirated feeds amongst yourselves.
Now behave! 🙂
Q.: But Joe, why don’t you have live chats?
A.: They were more pain in the ass than worth it for Joe. The software for the live chats only allowed 15 unmoderated users. Any more than 15, each and every comment had to be approved. Joe’s trying to do work (read: watch the game) and too may people were b!tching about how their comments were not posted quick enough, so Joe decided to deep-six the live chats for Bucs games.
Week 2 Dixie Chicks at Bucs Kickoff: 4:15 p.m. TV: Blacked out locally. Those living outside the Tampa/Orlando TV markets can watch the game on DirecTV 717. The game can be viewed on NFL.com at midnight via Game Rewind and is available after midnight via NFL Sunday Ticket’s “Short Cuts” after midnight. Radio: Buccaneers Radio Network (in Tampa WFUS-FM, 103.5 and WDAE-AM, 620); Sirius Channel 94. Weather: Per Accuweather.com, the game is expected to start under partly cloudy skies and 87 degrees but thunderstorms are expected to arrive in the second half. The rains should be gone by the end of the game with the temperature at 84 degrees. Odds: Per SportsBook.com, Bucs -1.5. Outlook: This is pretty simple. Despite the Bucs thrilling come-from-behind win (again) against the Vikings last week, it shielded a very ugly truth that the Bucs rush defense, as NFL Network analyst Steve Mariucci said this morning, is “porous.” The Bucs rush defense is 31st in the NFL. That is simply horrible. On the other side of the ball, there stands bruising running back Michael Turner. So if you are Dixie Chicks offensive coordinator Mike Mularkey, what do you do? You do the math. Of course he’s going to pound Turner at the Bucs until or unless the Bucs rush defense proves they can stop him. Of course, that’s a pick-your-poison move. Put seven guys in the box, and watch what Matty Ice does with Tony Gonzalez, with Roddy White, with Julio Jones. … Now when the Bucs have the ball, the Dixie Chicks secondary is likely their weakness. Joe believes Pat Kirwan is on to something. Clearly Josh Freeman shines in a no-huddle offense. Why not let Freeman get the lead early and then start pounding LeGarrette Blount, thereby playing keep-away and also milking the clock?
Derek “Old School” Fournier of WhatTheBuc.net believes if the Bucs are to be considered one of the NFL’s top teams, they need to take care of business today against the Dixie Chicks in his weekly preview of Bucs games.
Joe wrote about Cody Grimm’s injury last night, but the latest update today from Raheem Morris sounds ominous.
There goes the rockstar general manager Mark Dominik adding to his legacy again.
Earnest Graham offered Joe some insight after today’s win against the Dixie Chicks. Graham talks about the meaning of it all, physical football and more. 
As those watching 
