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NBCSports.com’s Tom Curran, in his weekly “Rising and Falling” segment can’t seem to say enough good things about Bucs quarterback Jeff Garcia, claiming Garcia is the kind of quarterback Tony Romo wishes he was.
But Curran is not so kind to Chucky, blasting the Bucs coach for even suggesting Son of Bob should be starting at some point instead of Garcia. Joe is confident Carmella will enjoy this. Bucs fans may as well.
Antonio Bryant is about to break out, so writes Mike Henry of the Bradenton Herald.
He’s been slowly getting better, slowly catching more and more passes. So it’s not without reason to suggest that Bucs wide receiver Antonio Bryant is on the cusp of breaking out, so writes Mike Henry of the Bradenton Herald.
As Henry, a noted horseman, suggests, sometimes it’s wise to forget the past and concentrate on the present. Henry infers this is what Chucky is doing in relation to Bryant.
“Everybody at some point probably doesn’t agree with some authority,” Gruden said of Bryant’s off-field problems, which included a late-2006 arrest in which he was charged with reckless driving, driving under the influence and resisting arrest, leading to a four-game suspension.
“Maybe in hindsight, Antonio could have used better judgment. But I don’t want to rehash the past. I can only judge what he has done here. I think he recognizes the future is now and he has to take advantage of this opportunity.
What Bryant has done in the past pales in comparison to the King of Turds. But Bryant thus far has been, from all accounts, a model citizen and an even better receiver. With the White Tiger’s status a mystery and so many Bucs wide receivers getting banged up, Bryant has a rare opportunity to go from backup to star in just a few games.
With a Bucs win over the Cowboys Sunday, Tony Dungy will no longer be the Bucs winningest coach. Chucky will.
Joe really appreciates Tony Dungy, the man.
Joe is thankful for Tony Dungy, the former Bucs coach.
But Joe long ago grew weary of the hero worship and deification of Tony Dungy the Bucs coach from a large segment of Bucs fans. To hear these Bucs fans speak, Dungy was a mixture of Paul Brown, Nostradamus, Clara Barton and the Messiah all rolled into one.
So for these same sycophants — Joe refers to them as “Dungyphiles” — Joe politely suggests they should find a seat and begin preparations to seek some sort of therapy after reading the following sentence.
With a win over the Cowboys Sunday, Chucky will become the winningest coach in Bucs franchise history, as Anwar Richardson of the Tampa Tribune points out.
“I try not to think too much about those types of things,” said Gruden, in his seventh season with the Bucs. “I just feel like I have a great responsibility here. I’m very fortunate to have been surrounded by a lot of great and talented people, and I just want to win the next game. Whether it’s 28 games or 33 games you’ve won in your career, it really doesn’t matter. We need to win our sixth game.”.
Despite the risk of creating a flamewar, Joe is happy to learn this piece of information. First and foremost, this record suggests the Bucs have been successful under Chucky. And they have.
Is Dungy a good man? No, he’s a great man.
Was Dungy good for the Bucs? Certainly.
Was it a good thing the Glazer Boys turned the page and showed Dungy the door? Absolutely!
But if Joe somehow won a monster lottery and could buy an NFL team, Joe would give away a good chunk of that team to hire Dungy as a director of football operations, not, however, as coach.
Joe’s favorite backwards hat, better known as Rick Brown of the Lakeland Ledger, makes his best campaign pitch in this election year to rally support that the Bucs are one of the best teams in the NFL.
Joe agrees, and as a result, hopes to cast an absentee ballot.
The Bucs O-Line took in Game 2 of the World Series together at the Trop
The Bucs’ offensive linemen get together for a beasts night out on Thursdays. These nine men invade a local steakhouse or take in dinner and an activity, and one player picks up the check. It’s a bonding session for the big and not so beautiful.
Last night was Davin Joseph’s turn to pay the tab. And it was a big one, he revealed on The Davin Joseph Show.
It turns out the guys voted to go to Game 2 of the World Series at Tropicana Field.
Joseph said he called his “ticket guy” for a set of tickets together and the evening would run about $1,000 per head.
During the Thursday evening broadcast on 620AM WDAE, Joseph also gushed over center Jeff Faine and Jeff Garcia.
On Garcia: “I’ve never played with a guy like him who gets hit hard in the chin and gets right back up like it never happened. …There are never complaints from him. No comments. He’s just so focused on what he needs to do.”
On Faine: “He’s real smart. He’s got a degree from Notre Dame and he mastered [Gruden’s] playbook in two months. It took me one year.”
Charley Casserly and Jason Horowitz of CBSSports.com break down the Bucs-Cowboys game. Casserly notes that Dallass will need to run the ball to win but, doing that against the Bucs may be a bit more than the Cowboys can chew. Give it a look.
Casserly also agrees with Joe that Son of Bob should never take the field again for the Bucs.
Time for Joe to offer the weekly power rankings from around the Web.
On BSPN.com, Pat Yasinskas bumped up the Bucs from No. 7 to No. 6.
The Bucs are solid in every way. Plus, running up against teams without their QBs helps.
Pete Prisco of CBSSports.com has the Bucs slightly higher at No. 5.
The way Jeff Garcia is playing, it’s time to look at them as a serious playoff contender. Their game at Dallas will be an interesting one this week.
Then of course, the czar of football writers Paul Zimmerman of SI.com, known better as Dr. Z, has the Bucs at No. 4 and echoes what Joe has been saying all along about Chucky/Son of Bob/Carmella’s husband, albeit in a more eloquent way.
This is the hot spot. The Redskins had to get moved down after the Browns nearly nipped them. Panthers and Bills were strong contenders, but to be brutally honest, what decided me was an AP story I read after the Bucs’ defeat of Seattle. Garcia “outplayed fellow-back-up-turned-starter Seneca Wallace…” the clumsiness of that sentence mirroring the clumsiness of the thought. Back-up? Garcia won the starting job in camp then got hurt. The AP also noted that Gruden has no plans to bench him as starter when Griese returns. Bench him? The guy’s playing at Pro Bowl level. You know something. The game’s all about image — blind, stupid image.
Ian Eagle, Clark Judge, and Jason Horowitz of CBSSports.com discuss the “second-chance” quarterbacks who are thriving in the NFL this season, including Jeff Garcia. Judge talks about how Garcia “never makes a mistake” which is pretty close to the truth.
Judge’s comment reminds Joe just what a deranged state of mind Chucky must be in to even consider putting Son of Bob on the field.
The CBSSports.com trio also discuss the possibility of a Jeff Garcia movie, written by Terrell Owens.
Win the A-Train commemorative bobblehead right now.
Here at JoeBucsFan headquarters, we’ve got a Mike Alstott commemorative bobblehead to give away. It’s pretty cool. The box is dated Oct. 19, 2008, Mike Alstott Night at RayJay.
We’ve made winning easy for you.
The first person to e-mail Joe the last name of the local radio star who interviewed Joe on Sunday gets the bobblehead. Include your name and address, so we can mail it out to you with the JoeBucsFan.com home game. (Hints: The answer was posted on this site in the past week, or check the banner ads above.)
We’ll announce the winner in the comments section below. Good luck.
UPDATE: We have a winner. The answer was Justin Pawlowski, of The Sports Animal.
It took about 90 seconds to get the winning e-mail. Cork Gaines, a C-list celebrity, in fact, took home the prize. You can Google him. Sorry to Pete Fein of Tierra Verde, who missed the bobblehead by 1 minute. Pete, we got your info. and we’ll hook you up with something soon.
Not much to cheer about in Dallas lately. Except, of course, the cheerleaders.
Joe is encouraged by the whimpering coming from the Cowboys’ camp. Without Tony Romo, the team resembles a bratty 4-year-old girl who misses her mommy and is pouting because grandpa’s in charge.
They imploded against the Rams last week, and they sure don’t seem to be rallying around 40-year-old Brad Johnson at starting QB.
“Dead Coach Coaching,” is how a Fort Worth Star-Telegram columnist is referring to Dallass coach Wade Phillips.
Dallas Morning News columnist Tim Cowlishaw writes:
So really the Cowboys are back in the same boat that they sunk in a week ago. They hoped for a medical miracle from Romo in St. Louis, and they didn’t get it.
Now they’re hoping for a passing miracle from Brad Johnson either Sunday against Tampa Bay or a week later in Giants Stadium.
I think they had a better chance of seeing one delivered a week ago.
In the link above, the Dallas newspaper serves up a video interview with Brad Johnson, in which he calls the Bucs defense “lethal right now.”
Last week against St. Louis, Johnson did his best Brian Griese impression. He completed 17 of 34 passes for 234 yards and a touchdown but was intercepted three times and sacked three more. Johnson will make his first start against the Bucs since leading them to the beloved 2003 Super Bowl victory.
Chucky says he doesn't listen to sports radio. Joe suspects he's dropped some F-bombs while listening to Steve Duemig bash him.
A couple of tidbits from Jon Gruden’s interview session with the Dallass media on Wednesday. (You can hear the audio here).
As expected, they peppered Chucky with questions about the resurgence of Bucs wide receiver Antonio Bryant, the Cowboys’ second round pick in 2002.
For those of you not familiar with Bryant’s questionable past, after throwing his jersey at Bill Parcells in 2004, he was arrested, suspended for substance abuse by the league and sat out the 2007 season.
Chucky stood by his offseason pickup with great pride.
“He’s clearly matured and he’s got a lot of good things ahead of him. I’m going to hold him to those standards,” Gruden said. “I’m gonna hold him accountable to become a great player and a great person. That’s the standard he should be held to. He’s been blessed with talent, and we’re going to get it out of him.”
Chucky also said he doesn’t “listen to AM sports talk radio,” when asked about how he deals with the pressures of fans and media calling for his head.
Joe suspects Chucky is not being 100 percent truthful here. Does anyone really believe he’s not listening when he heads home for dinner from One Buc Palace?
Bucs injured running back Cadillac Williams returned to the practice field at One Buc Palace. Joe wishes he would just wait until next year to come back.
Bucs running back Cadillac Williams was back on the practice field Wednesday but whether he ever plays another snap for the Bucs is another question. Right now though, Williams is just hoping to shake off the rust, as he told Woody Cummings of the Tampa Tribune.
“I really do feel it is like my first day, like I’m at a starting point again,” Williams said before taking the field for the team’s regular workout at One Buc Place. “But I’m very excited about it and looking forward to it. It’s going to be interesting.”
Williams is trying to come back from tearing the patellar tendon in his right knee suffered in a game early last season. Per Cummings, is still on the unable to perform (PUP) list. Beginning Wednesday, the Bucs have exactly three weeks to either place Williams on waivers or put him on the injured reserve list.
Joe is of two minds with this move:
1) The first impression Joe has is that Williams is making a lot of progress otherwise he wouldn’t be out on the practice field. But just practicing is one thing. It’s still up in the air if he plays another down in the NFL much less with the Bucs.
2) If Williams is showing any remote signs of returning to his old form, what is the rush? It’s not like the Bucs have any depth issues at tailback. Besides, the trade deadline has come and gone. Joe would rather Williams take as much time as is needed to return as healthy as possible, not rush back and maybe blow up all his rehab when he really isn’t needed.
Tampa Tribune Bucs beat writer eye-RAH! Kaufman suggests Bucs officials may be concerned that continued success of the Rays could dilute the local football market.
Could Bucs management be a little jealous of the Rays’ success? Well, eye-RAH! Kaufman of the Tampa Tribune suggests, Yes.
Appearing on Chris Russo’s Mad Dog Unleashed satellite radio show this afternoon (heard on both Sirius and XM) Kaufman, who covers the NFL and the Bucs for the Tribune, was speaking with Russo about the Rays and the World Series. He then came out with a mini-bombshell when he said on the surface, the Glazers are happy about the Rays; underneath they are concerned about what is projected to be long-term success by the young Rays.
“The Bucs aren’t used to sharing the market,” Kaufman said.
The national TV ratings from Sunday, when the Rays beat the Red Sox in Game 7 of the ALCS on TBS and the Bucs played the Seahawks on NBC, were lopsided in favor of the Rays.
Game 7 of the ALCS set a cable TV record for a baseball game. The Bucs TV ratings were the lowest for an NFL prime time game in years. Kaufman said Bucs officials took notice of this and were not dismissive of the results.
Kaufman also related a funny story about the Bucs game Sunday night. When he and his fellow brethren in the fourth estate were trying to interview players to get postgame comments for their stories, few if any of the Bucs were available or wanted to talk.’
“They were all glued to the tube watching the ninth inning,” Kaufman said.
Kaufman also noted that many Bucs players have jumped on the Rays bandwagon now that the Rays are in the World Series and several were scrambling for tickets to tonight’s Game 1 at Tropicana Field.
Lauren Shehadi and Pete Prisco discuss the Bucs in a CBSSports.com video version of the power rankings. At about the 1:40 mark, Prisco talks Bucs. (Hint: Prisco is starting to line the Bucs.)
Bucs return specialist Dexter Jackson may have run himself out of a starting job with his weak returns.
Bucs kickoff return specialist rookie Dexter Jackson has been anything but special thus far. And his chances of remaining as a Bucs return specialist seem to be dwindling.
Joe has read various reports from Chucky’s news conference Monday that the Bucs second round pick in this past April’s draft may be watching kick returns from the bench, as Anwar Richardson of the Tampa Tribune points out.
“He’s a young player. It’s been pointed out the last several weeks,” Gruden said. “He does have talent and we are asking an awful lot from a young guy, to make some critical decisions. We’ll look at that replacing him. We’ll look at what candidates we do have, the competition we can create and at the end of the day, we’ll do what’s best for our team.”
This is not the first time Chucky has threatened to bench Jackson. He also did so in late September.
Jackson’s first mistake was that he admitted he was worried about being tackled. That after he had problems staying on his feet — without any tacklers around him. The Sunday night against Seattle Jackson had a hard time just catching the ball.
Doing some research on NFL.com, Joe noticed Jackson is No. 35 in kickoff return average (23.4 yards). His longest return is 45 yards which is No. 20 in the NFL.
Joe thought that picking Jackson in the second round was a reach. This ain’t no Appalachian State. This in the NFL son. You know, Not For Long if you keep stinking the joint up.
If Chucky does go through with his threat, he will replace Jackson with Michael Clayton.
Dallass Cowboys starting quarterback Tony Romo said he will not start when Dallass hosts the Bucs Sunday. Joe is confident Jessica will find a way to comfort him.
Speaking on the Terrell Owens’ “Inside the Huddle” radio show (can you imagine such a thing?) on KLLI-FM in Dallas, Jesscia Simpson’s favorite boy toy Tony Romo (like Mike Shanahan, Sean Peyton and Joe, a proud graduate of Eastern Illinois University) said that he will not start Sunday when Dallass hosts the Bucs.
“Brad is going to go this week unless something happens that I don’t foresee,” Romo said. “It will be very difficult to change. Right now, we’ve got to get two wins going into the bye and go from there.”
Romo also stated that prior to Dallass getting its ass kicked Sunday by the Lambs, he couldn’t hold a football.
“I wasn’t physically able to get my fingers on the ball in position to throw it,” Romo said. “I needed time to get the ball in my hand. I couldn’t figure out a way to make it happen.”
In short, Romo has a broken pinkie on his throwing hand. But Joe is sure that Jessica can comfort him.
So Brad Johnson, who guided the Bucs to the franchise’s only Super Bowl, will now be on the wrong side of the line of scrimmage from arguably the NFL’s best defense.
Love ya Brad. But you are going to be hurting terribly come Monday morning. It’s still not too late to retire man.
The White Tiger is a peaceful cat.
Roy Cummings of the Tampa Tribune today speculates that Joey Galloway may be unhappy about returning to the lineup and giving up the starting split end position to Antonio Bryant, who had a breakthrough game against Seattle on Sunday.
A lot of NFL teams may be regretting their decisions to pass on free-agent wideout Antonio Bryant last spring. Joey Galloway may soon be regretting those decisions, too.
Bryant has done such a stellar job filling in for the injured Galloway the past few weeks, he probably will keep the starting split end job even after Galloway returns.
During his Monday night radio show on 620 AM WDAE The Sports Animal, Galloway said he has no problem – physically, mentally or otherwise – playing the flanker position. He cited Gruden’s creative play-calling, the wide receiving corps’ frequent rotations and the excitement of playing with another deep threat on the field.
“Whatever the position, coach will find a way to create opportunities for me down the field,” Galloway said.
The White Tiger said he expects to be used to lure two and three defenders towards him in order to set up Bryant with single coverage and Bryant will do the same for him.
Joe is sure Galloway will be successful in either role, if he gets himself and his gimpy paw on the field.
Galloway turns 37 in a few weeks and Joe is sure he wants to finish his career in Tampa. No other Coach will love him as much as Chucky.
Chucky said on his radio show yesterday that running back Cadillac Williams is set to return to practice Wednesday and fans could see him on the field quickly. Joe has mixed emotions about this.
Not sure if Chucky is playing mind games (again), but in his radio show on WDAE 620-AM show yesterday afternoon, he hinted that running back Cadillac Williams will return to practice Wednesday and that fans shouldn’t be surprised if he is playing soon.
Joe’s not all that happy to hear this. Sure, Joe wants to see Cadillac back on the field wearing pewter and red. But since things are going great for the Bucs, why rush Cadillac?
Joe is more of the mind to let Cadillac sit the year and continue his rehab. Nothing can be gained by rushing Cadillac back. It’s not like the Bucs desperately need Cadillac back on wheels this season.
Just because the NFL Network doesn’t offer embed codes doesn’t mean Joe won’t link the videos.
As can be expected, the NFL Network has blanket coverage of the Bucs win over he Seahawks from Sunday night.
First of course are game highlights, replete with Gene Deckerhoff.
Second, the NFL Network has highlights broken down by quarter, sans the fourth quarter. Here are the highlights from the first, second and third quarters, respectively, with NBC’s Al Michaels.
Of course, there’s Chucky’s postgame press conference.
The NFL Network has video of Gruden’s press conference Monday in which he updates Ike Hilliard’s injury status.
Lastly, NFL Network analysts Steve Mariucci and Deion Sanders break down the game.
Chucky, in his press conference Monday, referred to Jeff Garcia as being “hot.” No, not that kind of hot. Take it easy!
“Hot” as in football hot.
Garcia threw for 310 yards, and maybe more importantly, no picks (are you reading this Son of Bob?). But what was really impressive is that Garcia connected with 10 different receivers. That’s hot.
You know who else is hot?
With injuries to receivers mounting, Antonio Bryant is likely to be the Bucs No. 1 receiver.
Chucky was talking at his weekly Monday press conference about the wide receivers. With Michael Stovall injured (no huge loss) and Ike Hilliard’s status uncertain after receiving a scary concussion Sunday night and the always unknown status of the White Tiger, look for Antonio Bryant to become the No. 1 receiver. So says Chucky.
“We’ll have to lean on Antonio… He’s a heck of a receiver. He’s made a lot of plays here. He started the season at flanker, moved over to split end when Joey got hurt. He’s a guy that can catch the football, he can get deep, he can run all the routes, he’s big and good after the catch. He’s got all the criteria that we’re looking for at the receiver position. I think he could be a great receiver in this league, and that’s what we’re going to hold him to.”
As JoeBucsFan.com analyst Jacquez Green has pointed out, one reason Bryant is seeing the ball more is that he’s just learning Chucky’s offense. Now that it appears Bryant is more comfortable, and with the injuries to the Bucs receivers, Bryant will likely become the Bucs No. 1 receiver.
