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Joe’s a tad late on this, as this TBO Bucs vlog with Woody Cummings and eye-RAH! Kaufman of the Tampa Tribune was shot on Monday. However, the subjects discussed are relevant, such as how will Cody Grimm be replaced and what’s going on with Josh Freeman’s picks in the red zone?
It’s an old axiom Joe is well-aware of but it holds true today just as it did in football’s embryonic age: it all starts up front.
For the Bucs, that is the defensive line. It is no coincidence that the reason the Bucs rallied from behind at Minnesota and stopped the Dixie Chicks offense last Sunday was because of the defensive front.
Make that the Bucs young defensive front. Gerald McCoy is the veteran of the group and some would suggest leader of the line, yet he has yet to play a full season in the NFL.
Yet these young Bucs are starting to flex their muscle writes Rick Stroud of the St. Petersburg Times.
This season, McCoy is waiting on his first sack but has a club-best nine quarterback pressures, including six against the Falcons. One reason Ryan couldn’t escape Clayborn is because McCoy had both arms around his legs.
Defensive tackle Brian Price, a second-round pick from UCLA who played only five games as a rookie, also notched his first pro sack Sunday. The confidence in the group of young, athletic, relentless defensive linemen has emboldened coach Raheem Morris to scrap the staid Tampa 2 for aggressive man-to-man coverage.
“You bring guys in the past two drafts, all defensive linemen, it’s clear what you want and what you expect and how much you believe in those guys,” McCoy said. “Coach Morris, on the sideline, he said: ‘Look, I’ve got all the faith in you guys who were brought here to do what you do. So go out there and show me.’ The next drive, we got pressure on the first play. The next play was the sack-fumble.”
Joe is totally geeked about the future of this line. When Brian Price gets 100 percent healthy and in shape and when Da’Quan Bowers finds his groove, this line could simply be ferocious on opposing quarterbacks.
Just ask Matty Ice.
Josh Freeman celebrates his first rushing touchdown with a soccer dance.
Naturally, Joe is a sports geek. Football, baseball, college basketball, hockey, if it’s playing, Joe’s watching (and drinking).
Notice one thing missing from the above? Soccer.
Joe doesn’t get it. Let Joe be clear: Joe has nothing against soccer. All the soccer people Joe has come across are wonderful people and clearly one has to have massive stamina to play soccer. Joe clearly respects this. And from a sportswriter’s perspective, nothing is better than a running clock.
Joe has never been bitten by the soccer bug. When Joe tries to watch soccer on TV, he is reminded of what Norman Chad once wrote about soccer, “Watching soccer on TV is akin to watching an Easter egg hunt.”
So it was slightly surprising to Joe to learn that Bucs quarterback Josh Freeman not only enjoys soccer video games, it was just this outlet that moved Freeman to emulate a soccer dance when he celebrated his first rushing touchdown Sunday, so he told Doug Gottlieb on BSPN Radio.
“It was a soccer celebration,” Freeman said of his dance. “We play FIFA [on video games] between practices and I always said I would dance like that if I ever scored a touchdown. It’s funny people thought I was doing the Dirty Bird. [His soccer dance was] nothing like the Dirty Bird.”
Joe thought it was initially cool that Freeman was mocking the Dixie Chicks with his touchdown celebration but the fact it is a soccer knockoff gives Joe pause.
It grates Joe when soccer people try to indoctrinate Joe into the sport saying “It’s the most popular sport in the world.” When Joe hears that, he also hears the words of Joe’s old man, a proud World War II veteran who says, “Yeah, and we are America. We are better than that. Our ancestors came here from lesser countries for a reason. We have football and baseball.”
Monday, Bucs coach Raheem Morris made his weekly appearance on “The Blitz,” co-hosted by former NFL quarterback Rich Gannon and popular sports radio personality Adam Schein, heard exclusively on SiriusXM NFL Radio.
Naturally, Joe recorded this and transcribed the appearance for your reading and dancing pleasure.
Adam Schein: Coach, what a win, how are you?
Raheem Morris: Hey man, I feel great. The pressure of wins and losses have gone up greatly because of my appearances on “The Blitz” so I credit you guys for making me have the will to win these football games.
Rich Gannon: Coach, I know it was not pretty at times but it’s great to have a win over a team that you have not had luck with in your own division.
Morris: It’s good to get the winning ways in our division going again and it is a step in our goal of winning the NFC South. It is a major deal to beat guys in our own division, especially in our house.
Schein: I agree with you that it was a major deal. I know you were honest with us last week — I don’t think it was coachspeak — when you said, ‘I can’t call this a rivalry because since I have been coach they have whipped our butts head-to- head, they have beat us head-to-head.’ This is a game that I think your team had the right intensity, the right mentality, I thought the crowd in Tampa was amazing. I think the fans fed into that. You know Raheem, I am being serious, I buy into your football team, that was a real moment for you. If you lose, the naysayers say, ‘Oh, Tampa, they overachieved last season.’ You win and it is, ‘Tampa is legit. Tampa is in the landscape of the NFC.’
Morris: Yeah, I kind of agree, it was a coming of age moment for us. When you want to win home games defend your home, get the crowd into things, get them cheering on third downs. The defense was playing really well and the crowd was into it. It was like old school Tampa Bay Buccaneers, playing defense, running around, hustling and hitting. We’re getting better. At times a little bit it’s ugly as you said. But to be able to go out there and execute our four minute offense, run with power consistently right at the Falcons, that was a big time statement. No better way to run three times in a row in a victory formation.
Gannon: Lets talk about your rush defense. You held them to 30 yards on 15 carries and your defensive line played consistently across the board. You had four sacks and took the ball away four times.
Morris: I don’t necessarily buy into the theory that each week you have to stop the run. I’m more into a situations. What must we do to win the football game and yesterday was stopping the run. We had our guys play man-to-man coverage against some very talented receivers. When the defense had to stand up and stop the run we were able to stop the run and get the ball back. Watson and Clayborn were forcing fumbles. They played big and it was awesome to see.
Schein: It was a tremendous effort, especially in the fourth quarter, out of your team this year against a Falcons team with a bevy of weapons. How do you bottle this up and get this type of execution from your defense in the fourth quarter week in and week out?
Morris: I’m not sure that was our best fourth quarter defense because when we had to come back against Minnesota we had to play some big time defense. Certainly it was the best start on defense that we had, we get a sack and a fumble. That was phenomenal to get to the quarterback and he had to be aware of us and worry about that. That we would make them kick field goals, the red zone battles were huge for us. We just have to play hard, smart, fast and consistent.
Gannon: Your thoughts on Julio Jones?
Morris: We did a nice job on him all day. We had Talib on him and he got a nice gain against our young safety, a big bomb when we went to Cover-2. But we gave him a man-to-man look and battled. On the other side, we had E.J. Biggers lined up with Roddy White and I give the edge to Biggers. White is a tough player but Biggers was right there and gave him competitive looks all game. Then we had the battle of the old guys. I had Ronde on Tony Gonzalez and he had a great day. I felt great about how they played.
Schein: Coach, it was a great win for your team all around. I thought your quarterback was clutch again but if I had to nitpick, you can still have some more pop and sizzle in your offense for four quarters. Takes us through that. Tell us what you saw both negative and positive.
Morris: You know Adam, I like that. I will use that in our meetings, pop and sizzle. We want a little more pop and sizzle and when you don’t have that, you better be consistent. What our quarterback did early was recognize his problems. He was not throwing the ball with the greatest of accuracy but he made some easy throws. We got him some screens where he was able to get the ball into people’s hands that could actually go out there and make plays. He did a nice job of adjusting and using his feet to pick up some third down conversions. He kept the other team’s offense off the field which is the best defense you can have. We have to do a better job of red zone offenses and watch turnovers but he recognized what was not working we won by using his head. I love the way he is going and what he is developing into.
Gannon: I know you took a glimpse of the Colts. I’m sure you are excited to be playing on Monday night.
Morris: I’m excited to be playing in primetime. I got a chance to see the old boss. I get a chance to talk to him on Saturday. I get a chance to get him in here and run a good show for the old boss. He will be in the box watching us and I have to make him proud. I know this is a trademark of yours Adam, but I hope to give him some pop and sizzle.
Schein: I do think on two levels, yesterday was important for a win over the Falcons and it’s rare that you guys are on primetime. This is a great opportunity on a center stage to announce on national television that you guys belong on national television and the Bucs will be a force all season long.
Morris: That was sort of my talk last night to the team. Our goals are to win the NFC South and to do that, it’s impossible to ignore us and this is an opportunity to show the world what they are missing. I can’t wait.
Gannon: How do you prepare [for Monday Night Football]?
Morris: We are rookies at this. We’ll go with the normal Wednesday practice and Thursday and Friday and then we will double-down with a Friday practice on Saturday and have a walk through Sunday. We will try to execute our best plan to be our best self.
Rockstar general manager Mark Dominik loves his late-round gems and scrapheap finds. The Bucs are loaded with those guys, compared to other NFL teams, and they’re prepared to keep them at all costs.
Last year, Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis had a temper tantrum when the Bucs paid Dezmon Briscoe to bail from Lewis’ practice squad and head to Tampa. Now, says ESPN blogger Pat Yasinskas, the Bucs are making sure the guys at the bottom of their totem pole won’t go anywhere. Here’s one example:
“But the Bucs now have topped that. Apparently, the team has a very high opinion of practice squad defensive end George Johnson. After he was released at the end of the preseason, the Bucs quickly turned around and signed him to a sweet deal on Sept. 8. Presumably fearing they would lose Johnson to another team’s practice squad, the Bucs signed Johnson to a contract worth $170,000. The typical practice-squad contract is for $96,900.
“But the Bucs renegotiated Johnson’s deal on Sept. 13, according to contract records obtained by ESPN.com. That’s when Johnson got a raise to $22,059 per week, which comes to $352,944 for 16 weeks. Johnson is being paid at the same rate as the minimum for players on the regular 53-man roster. If he had signed the new contract before the first game, he’d be making the $370,000 minimum …
You can read more by clicking through the link above.
Speaking of practice squad types, the Bucs lost safety Cody Grimm for the season but safety Ahmad Black was not promoted to take his place. The Bucs promoted a tight end, Collin Franklin, and signed an offensive lineman to the practice squad.
What does that say for Black?
Hey Rays fans in Tampa, the $9.95 chauffeured luxury bus to Tropicana Field is cooking for these massive final few games for the Rays!
Gas is nearly $4.00 a gallon. Parking is expensive. But help is here.
It’s the No Excuses Tour to Tropicana Field, which takes Rays fans via luxury bus from Lee Roy Selmon’s restaurants in New Tampa and South Tampa to home Rays games. And you can bring your own food and beer, and travel in style courtesy of Paradise Worldwide Transportation.
It’s only $9.95 per person, and the chauffeured bus is fun and super-convenient. Nearly 600 fans have enjoyed it this season.
Visit NoExcusesTour.com now to get ALL the details and buy tickets. And while you’re there, don’t forget to watch the video.
At some point, BSPN surely will pay one of its statistical gremlins to quantify the effects of player-only lockout workouts on the 2011 standings. But Mason Foster won’t need that report to sell him on the value of those sessions.
Speaking Monday night on Total Access on WDAE-AM 620, Foster explained that his agent implored him not to attend the Bucs unofficial minicamp in Bradenton because he didn’t have a contract and could get hurt. But Barrett Ruud’s replacement showed up anyway for what was his first taste of the NFL.
“There was no way I was going to miss out on coming out and working with the team,” said Foster, who had flown in from Washington.
Foster said what struck him was the seriousness of Buccaneers in the Bradenton weight room and how players listened to Josh Freeman. He said those factors told him the team was a contender.
Foster went on to say that now he enjoys the leadership role of calling the Bucs defense with linebackers coach Joe Baker in his helmet via radio transmitter. Foster said he believes leadership automatically comes with the role of mike linebacker and he’s happy to take it on.
On the field, Ronde Barber “echoes” the defensive calls, Foster said. And Foster described a sort of hand-signal confirmation that he flashes to Baker, so Baker can be sure Foster’s got the correct signals. Foster described a very smooth transition with calling plays.
Numerous times and numerous ways during the interview, Foster talked about his love for “hitting people.” Joe suspects the anti-Ruud crowd hearing all that was in ecstasy.
Last year Josh Freeman went from a quarterback with a number of question marks to an NFL elite.
Freeman had an astounding touchdown-to-pickoff ratio of 25-6, which is mind-boggling for any quarterback much less one who was in his first full season as an NFL starter.
Freeman came within a whisker of guiding the Bucs to the playoffs as the team lost a tiebreaker to the eventual Super Bowl champion Green Bay Packers.
Freeeman — as Joe’s good friends at WTSP-TV Channel 10 like to refer to him as “Starship” — established himself as the king of comebacks, rallying the Bucs to fourth quarter wins. That continued this season when Freeman and the Bucs came back from a 17-0 deficit to beat Minnesota on the road.
But Freeman hasn’t been as accurate this season and even Bucs coach Raheem Morris noted this in an interview with SiriusXM NFL Radio earlier this week, which Joe is transcribing for publication later today. Freeman’s two interceptions in the red zone in the past two games demonstrate he’s not yet locked in.
This, per Woody Cummings of the Tampa Tribune, moonlighting for SportingNews.com, has “Bucs brass is a little concerned.”
Freeman did a superb job of recognizing opportunities and risks a year ago when he threw for 25 touchdown passes and just six interceptions. He has not been as sharp this year, and the Bucs aren’t sure why.
It could be that Freeman is simply not picking up lurking defenders as well as he did last year or it could be that his confidence in his ability to make a play is so high that he’s simply taking more chances.
Either way, the team needs to Freeman to play a little smarter. The Bucs are ranked 31st in the league in red-zone efficiency and Freeman’s picks are a big part of the reason for that.
Naturally, if your starting quarterback is not accurate that’s going to be an issue, no question. Joe’s going to go out on a limb and suggest that Freeman is seeing all sorts of different looks and defenses flashed at him that he’s never seen before.
Think about it. During the asinine lockout, coaches throughout the NFL had little to do but break down tape, both of NFL players and college prospects. Perhaps Freeman not just surprised NFL fans last year, but NFL coaches too?
It stands to reason that NFL defensive coordinators pored over Freeman’s tape in the offseason to devise looks and schemes that would confuse the Bucs young leader, and his early-season struggles are part of that.
Though their head coach says “stats are for losers” several times a week, it seems the Bucs may be a little hung up on one statistic coming out of Sunday’s Bucs-Falcons game.
The powers at One Buc Palace are pondering getting official half-credit to Gerald McCoy for Adrian Clayborn’s bone-crushing sack of Matt Ryan, so Twittered esteemed beat writer Roy Cummings of The Tampa Tribune.
@TBO_Buccaneers: Roy: The Bucs are thinking of giving Gerald McCoy half a sack as he had Matt Ryan by the ankles when Adrian Clayborn took him down Sunday.
For the second time in his short two seasons in the NFL, Bucs safety Cody Grimm was placed on the injured reserve list by the Bucs, effectively ending his 2011 season.
Grimm suffered a right knee injury in the third quarter of the Bucs win over the Dixie Chicks and, thus, his season is over, so reports Rick Stroud of the St. Petersburg Times.
The Bucs placed Grimm on injured reserve Tuesday with a right knee injury he sustained in the third quarter of Sunday’s 16-13 win over the Atlanta Falcons.
Grimm was injured making a tackle of Falcons running back Michael Turner. It appeared that Grimm’s right knee may have struck the helmet of linebacker Geno Hayes, who suffered a concussion on the play.
This is sad for Grimm. Not just for the obvious reasons but one has to wonder about his future in the NFL. In less than a year he’s had a broken left leg and now a blown right knee.
And no, the NFL has not released any update on Tanard Jackson’s application for reinstatement, provided he has applied for reinstatement.
"Let me tell you, Tirico. I'm glad all of Tampa's going to see this game. That's my coaching tree out there with Raheem and Olson. And that's my freakin' offensive line. Bill Muir and I molded those hogs. And this team runs through them. Jimminy Christmas, if I had Josh Freeman I'd be lighting this place up like Rudolph's damn nose."
Update 3:57 p.m.: Joe has learned that Team Glazer has made a donation of 250 tickets to the Polk County Sheriff’s Office, details of which appear to be a late push to make sure the Monday night game is televised.
Joe’s hearing from the Bucs that Roy Cummings’ latest Tweet about ticket sales for Monday night is legitimate.
Not that Cummings would make something up. But word of only 2,000 or so tickets remaining for Monday night’s matchup against Indianapolis forced Joe to make a phone call to confirm a miracle had indeed occurred.
@TBO_Buccaneers: Roy: Word from the Bucs is that there are only about 2,000 tickets remaining for the MNF game against the Colts. A sellout is very possible.
Joe has been peppered with questions since the Bucs beat the Dixie Chicks about the Monday Night game with the Colts.
“Will the game be sold out?” is common denominator question Joe gets. By the jist of it, many of the queries are from people to cheap/lazy to go to a game so they can sponge at home and watch the game on TV.
Word from Woody Cummings of the Tampa Tribune, via the TBO Bucs Twitter feed, is that ticket sales are close to selling out.
Word from the Bucs is that there are only about 2,000 tickets remaining for the MNF game against the Colts. A sellout is very possible.
If this actually happens, it would break a string of 10 straight home game blackouts.
But Joe must emphasize this is not a sold out game. Tickets need to be sold by Friday night, which is the NFL mandate of selling out a game 72 hours prior to kickoff.
Joe has to admit he is very surprised by this. Coming strictly from a football mentality, why in the world would anyone want to drop cash to see the Peyton Manning-less Dolts and if lucky, you may get home by midnight instead of watching Matty Ice and the Dixie Chicks, a game which wasn’t sold out? To Joe, there’s not even a comparison which game he would prefer to spend cash to watch.
Yet the Dixie Chicks game was not sold out. Joe doesn’t get it but Joe’s not a marketing dude.
Quick question? If the Rays make the playoffs and have a game Monday night, will that prevent a Bucs sellout?
It was just one game of greatness from the defensive line against Atlanta, but it’s certainly fun to dream about what could be coming next.
Raheem Morris is among those fired up. And he’s high on the leader of nasty along the D-line, Adrian Clayborn, so he explained on The Raheem Morris Show last night on WDAE-AM 620.
“We’re talking about developing that meanness and toughness up front, playing hard, physical, borderline illegal. That’s what [Adrian] Clayborn brings to us,” Raheem said. “He brings a nastiness that’s only been around with those old school Buccaneers, taking about Sapp. He certainly brings that to the table. And he’s developing his room. That’s why I call him the Boy Dog. He’s a one-man wrecking crew. And I love everything he’s doing up there up front.”
Joe assumes a Boy Dog means some sort of relentess animal-like, half-man-half-dog beast of a football player.
With Brian Price and Clayborn, the Bucs have a couple of guys on the line that can really lead by example. Clayborn’s motor is extraordinary, and Price’s work ethic off his injury almost has him in Cadillac Williams territory.
FOX Sports came calling for the Bucs head coach to examine some of the methods to his madness.
As Joe has stated before, he likes monitoring media outlets that cover Bucs opponents.
Browsing through the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, it’s pretty clear that the Dixie Chicks losing was bad enough, but losing to the Bucs, in the minds of the Atlanta Pen & Mic club is simply inexcusable if not embarrassing.
Consider the musings of Dawson Devitt, in particular of how he roasts the Dixie Chicks defense for not being able to contain Josh Freeman or LeGarrette Blount.
I guess Brian Van Gorder doesn’t have the excuse of not having a true training camp to blame this time around on the missed tackles. This defense has a serious issue, and has for some time now, on tackling and wrapping up. They made Legarette Blount look like The Bus Jerome Bettis out there. How many times did Blount get hit and then gain at least another 5-8 yards? On the last series of the game, the Falcons had the Bucs at 2nd and 9 and hit Blount in the backfield which should have been maybe a 2-3 yard gain and set up a reasonable 3rd and 6 or so. Nope. Blount broke several tackles on his way to making it a 3rd and 2.
They seem to stop the run well if they hit the back in the backfield and gang tackle, but one-on-one, they have major issues. Several times the Falcons defenders had Josh Freeman wrapped up only to see him break free and make a first down with his arm or his legs. How many times did the Bucs players on offense get the ball and keep going for a 1st down? When Van Gorder gave the excuse of “not having enough time” as the reason for missed tackles, we knew we were in a heap of trouble. Not trying to denigrate the talent of the Bucs, but we’ll be seeing more talented offenses along the way (Saints, Packers, Texans) and it doesn’t get any easier.
Talk about head-in-the-sand. Joe will venture to guess that Blount is better than any back on the Saints, Packers or Texans. Yeah, Adrian Foster may be better but he’s banged up; hardly healthy. And with the exception of Michael Vick, will the Dixie Chicks face a quarterback more difficult to bring down the rest of the season than Freeman?
Put away the violins guys.
There’s no question that the University of South Florida football team playing up and down the Bucs’ home turf a matter of hours before a Bucs game turns the field into a mess when the pros kick off.
That was the situation against Atlanta, and on opening day against Detroit.
Raheem Morris knows the home turf can be ugly, so he said on The Raheem Morris Show last night on WDAE-AM 620. Raheem responded to praise for Connor Barth nailing a 49-yard field goal on a wet field in a little wind and rain.
“Our field is not exactly the best playing conditions in the National Football League, actually, we need to get that fixed,” Raheem said. “Those conditions weren’t great. They never are. But our guys are used to it. It’s gray matter for us.
Now Joe knows that back when the Community Investment Tax Stadium was being designed, there was a lot of boasting about how it would have a state-of-the-art drainage system. And, as fans have noticed over the years from Bucs games to soccer games, the turf doesn’t puddle up and dries quickly.
So Joe thinks it’s a pretty safe bet that Raheem is referring to playing on a chopped up field. That can be dangerous, and Joe hopes it hasn’t led to any injuries.
But seemingly tough turf could be a home field advantage of sorts, especially against division rivals New Orleans and Atlanta, which play in domes. Throughout NFL history some great teams have thrived in similar situations. The legendary 49ers teams come to mind.
Not one to buy into the “stats are for losers” line, Joe’s got a telling number to report. The Bucs lead the NFL in forcing opponents into poor field position after a kickoff.
The average start against the Bucs following a kickoff is the 16.8 yard line. Departed Rich Bisaccia’s Chargers rank 31st (29.4). The Detroit Lions, where Maurice Stovall is covering kicks, including a missed tackle on Sammie Stroughter’s long return on opening day, are 28th (25.4).
Big money kickoff specialist Michael Koenan is paying off. And so far the Bucs’ special teams have been nearly flawless in all phases. Special teams coordinator Dwayne Stukes deserves a standing ovation.
More room to work is a blessing for a very young defense.
"I still hate Sean Jones, but I love Ronde."
Nickname-happy Raheem Morris brought us “The Wolfs” last week. (No. Not wolves. Wolfs.)
And now, channeling Muhammed Ali and/or perhaps a twisted memory of Sabby Piscitelli, Raheem has bestowed a new nickname upon Ronde Barber.
Around One Buc Palace, Raheem says Ronde Barber is known as “The G.O.A.T.” Speaking on The Raheem Morris Show last night on WDAE-AM 620, Raheem explained that Barber’s nickname stands for Greatest Of All Time.
Joe has to tip his cap to the head coach. Raheem The Dream is pretty darn good at this nickname stuff.
Beating up a quarterback from the very beginning and a smothering rush defense is a winning formula in the NFL.
How did the Bucs beat the Dixie Chicks Sunday? Simple: defense.
The Bucs entered the game with the 31st ranked rush defense in the league. They played like the No. 1 ranked.
Consider that Michael Turner only racked up 30 is no less than remarkable.
But following the game, it wasn’t so much the Bucs bragging about stopping Turner — the inference was there — but how the defense didn’t twiddle its collective thumbs for 30 minutes only to realize they were in a regular season game.
No, the defense came out pounding the Dixie Chicks and specifically Matt Ice. Joe is confident the pounding Matty Ice took he will not soon forget.
That is directly because the Bucs took it to the Dixie Chicks from the first play of scrimmage.
“The past two weeks, we came out and started slow,” inside linebacker Mason Foster said. “This time we were ready to go and we were on top of everything, playing hard, fired up for the entire game and I think it showed.”
There was no doubt for Dekoda Watson what the difference in the game was: the quick start by the defense.
“I think we came out pretty strong in the first half and that was the biggest thing,” Watson said. “We came out firing. That is how we should play every week. I feel like the defense was fired up all game and that’s what we need.”
Safety Corey Lynch agreed.
“We were ready to go right from the very beginning,” Lynch said.
Even though he has just three games under his belt, even rookie defensive end Adrian Clayborn knew sleepwalking through the first half of games is playing with fire.
“Coming out [down] 17-0 [like the Bucs did in Minnesota a week ago], that’s not what we want,” Clayborn said. “That will bite us in the butt. We wanted to come out strong and let the defense grow.”
Joe has no clue how an NFL defense can start a game not motivated or ready to rock and roll, especially the season opener. But it’s a good thing Bucs coach Raheem Morris recognized this and has corrected the problem.
Nothing takes the will away from an opponent quicker than getting punched in the mouth on the first snap.
Gerald McCoy and the Bucs defense putting heat on Matty Ice was a big reason the Bucs finally snapped the Dixie Chicks win streak.
Joe was as giddy as the next guy that the Bucs took down the Dixie Chicks, finally, Sunday night. The reason is simple: defense.
To read the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the crying has consumed Atlanta (combined with the Braves swallowing the tailpipe as well). It’s not bad enough that the Dixie Chicks lost. It’s not bad enough that Matty Ice got beaten to a pulp . It’s that these actions came at the hands of the Bucs, documents Mark Bradley.
The Falcons spent three quarters letting an OK Tampa Bay team get ahead and stay there, and it wasn’t as if the Bucs seized every moment. They netted three points from two sacks-and-recovered-fumbles inside the Falcons’ 20. They had a chance to pull ahead by three scores but threw an interception on the first play of the fourth quarter, whereupon a mystery guest appeared.
Yet is is this same “OK” Bucs team that had the Dixie Chicks on the ropes at the GeorgiaDome last year but couldn’t convert a fourth-and-one for a first down inside the five in the waning minutes of the game. Yet it’s this same “OK” Tampa Bay squad which forgot how to tackle against the Dixie Chicks on a kickoff, thereby letting them back in the game.
So which is is? Are the Bucs better than OK? Or is it simply that the Dixie Chicks aren’t Super Bowl-ready?
Joe has yet to watch the full report from WTSP-TV, Ch. 10, but this video gives you an idea what you’ll see on 10 News tonight at 11.
