I know my first bold prediction was met with many doubters and naysayers.  My prediction was that Ronde Barber would make the pro bowl.  I also threw out some stats I thought were attainable, seven picks, three sacks and a fumble recovery.  I present to you exhibit A.  These are the potential starters for 8 of our games this being that we play the Panthers twice.  Just something to think about

    BROWNS                        PANTHERS             STEELERS               CARDINALS              49ers
Jake Delhomme            Jimmy Clausen      Byron Leftwitch         Derek Anderson       Alex Smith
Brett Ratliff                       Matt Moore                                                   Matt Leinart                David Carr
Seneca Wallace                                                                                    John Skelton             Nate Davis
                                                                                                                                                      Jarret Brown

  LIONS                               RAMS

Matthew Stafford           Sam Bradford

Onto my second bold prediction.  Every other day I check the sports section i notice that some player is unhappy with his contract or like our starting tackle Donald Penn, is looking for a long term deal and can't get one. 

Then there's the case of Albert Haynesworth, every Buc fan must breathe a sigh of relief.  This guy signs a 100 million dollar deal last year and now demands to be traded. Why? because the defense is not running what we feel will make him successful, and not what the coach feels will make the team successful.

Not to mention Jamarcus Russell.

Players and owners are so far apart on whats the long term value of an NFL player. 

Then theres the medical benefits for those when they leave the league.

I predict that there will be a strike in 2011, I hope I'm wrong but until the league implement a rookie salary cap, find a way to compensate player who out perform their contract, and players contracts are guaranteed, and the player have to give as well.

What do you think Buc 'Em

I predict that Ronde Barber makes the Pro Bowl.  I think he's going to benefit from the revamped defensive line and the return to the old defense. Teams will throw more his way than Talib, who is becoming one of the better corners in the league. I can see 7 picks 3 sacks, a fumble recovery and a defensive TD in his future.  I think that will get him in.
What do you guys think?

I don't know if this has been said already, but I feel we should actually trade up to get Suh, if St. Louis is truly in the market for a QB I feel this could be easy to do.  We could offer our 1st and 2nd for perhaps their 1st and 3rd or even 4th.  Its only 2 slots but I think getting a guy like Suh is worth it, to bring us back to days of having a dominant DT much like the days when we had Sapp.  I know we have alot of holes but we're not going to fix this team with one draft.  It maybe better for us to go for a homerun here much like the Jets did in trading up to get Sanchez.  Hey we traded up to get Freeman why not do the same thing for Suh and we'll still have a high 2nd round pick to maybe go after a safety.  I also think we can address our WR position via free agency, there quite a few proven recievers who's contracts are up; most notably Miles Austin, Brandon Marshall (not sure about his attitude, I can see he and Talib going at it) Vincent Jackson or Mark Clayton.  I can definitely seeing it easer to depart with Bryant if one of these guys come into the fold.

What does Buc 'Em think?

I think its become more and more clearer that Raheem Morris is way over is head.  I noticed in some games that the team have some promising starts, only to fizzle in the second half.  I think one of the signs of a good head coach is the adjustments made during the game and in the second half.  The Buc's have been out scored in the second half of every game this year.


                                                                                    vs Dallas  14 - 21

                                                                                    vs Buffalo   6 - 13

                                                                                    vs N.Y. Giants 0 - 10

                                                                                    vs Washington 3 - 16

                                                                                    vs Philadelphia 7 - 12

                                                                                    vs Carolina  14 - 21

In 4 out of 6 games we haven't put up more than 10 pts, while allowing an averging a little over 12pts.  After the way the first half of the Carolina game ended I expected the team to come out  fired up and very physical.  That didn't happen and the Panthers final drive consistented of only run plays and no adjustments were made to stop them.  I hope that Raheem is not in charge long enough to show the team footage of that game to fire the team up. 

April 28, 2007 I was all giddy with excitement when I went in for work that beautiful spring day.  Most draft experts had predicted that the most exciting wide out prospect since Randy Moss, minus the personal baggage,  would land in Tampa.  After enduring a long 4-12 season there was hope that we may select the most explosive playmaking reciever the franchise  had ever seen.  Unfortunately that excitment was short lived, for the third year in a row Matt Millen, probably the worst GM in NFL history drafted a  wide out, the one the organization and fan base coveted Calvin Johnson.  I felt as though someone had stole my prom date.  I can only imagine what went on in the war room with Gruden, Bruce Allen and company, but I'm sure it was alot of bleeped the bleep bleep Matt Millen.  As a result we drafted Gaines Adams supposedly I solid defensive end prospect out of Clemson.  A safe pick.  It filled a need and if he truly develop into the prospect some thought he may become he might make us all forget about Calvin Johnson.  But lets look at that draft and all the players we pass on because Allen/Gruden team lack imagination and quite frankly good judgment of talent outside the tackle box.

There's alot of nice names on that list most notably Adrian Peterson, Laron Landry, and yes even Brady Quinn.  The ripple continue.  The ripple continues.  The following year in attempt to inject some "juice" into the offense the old regime then decided to be creative and reach on a speedster from appalachain st. Dexter Jackson probably still thinking of what could have been with Johnson.  One problem he was track star playing football, and not a football player with track star speed and one year later is no longer on the team.  Now here we are looking like a team that could go winless for the second time in franchise history.  Remember Gruden and Allen didn't have 1st round picks for the first 2 years of their reign and also missed out on a 2nd and 3rd during that time, they could hardly afford to throw away another 1st on a bust in Adams and a 2nd on a bust in Jackson.  Our roster is now filled with second day draft picks, damn that Matt Millen!

I know. I know it's only one game, but for some reason I don't think last week performance will be an anomaly.  Byron Leftwich look as if he may have, dare I say it, a Drew Brees transformation of a season.  Whoa! I'm not saying he's going to throw for 30 or so TD passes, and before I get labeled as a little cuckoo, allow me to take you back when Brees was in San Diego.  After a nice college career at Purdue he was looked upon as a very promising qb prospect and drafted 33rd overall, could have easily been a first round choice.  He was giving a year to sit and soak it all in and then started the next 2 years.  I recall those first two years he was not that good of a quartback and the media, fans and the Charger organization wrote him off as a lost cause, a bust and drafted Eli Manning who they eventually traded for Phillip Rivers.  Like most teams do when they draft a "franchise" qb they wanted to bring Rivers along slowly so he sat behind Brees given time to grow.  But something happen in southern California, I don't know if it was a change in coordinator, or if it was just that Brees felt slighted and came into that season well prepared with a chip in his shoulder.  Drew went from completing about 58% of his passes to completing 65% and he went from a qb rating of about 74 to a qb rating of 104, and went from 14 TD passes to 15 INT ratio to  a 27 TD to 7INT ratio in one season, and in the process won comeback player of the year and stirred up a QB contreversy.  Brees was traded to New Orleans and hasn't looked back sense.  I saw something special in that game against Dallas in Byron.  He looked like a man on a mission, a man who appeared to be in great command of the offense, it seem as though he made all the right decisions even though he didn't executed them all well, he still new where he wanted to go with the ball on almost every play.  I think Lefty wants to prove he's still a pro-bowl calibre qb and wants to shut all his critics up, not to mention make Freeman taste his own sweet toe jam.  Remember Freeman comments after he was drafted "Oh yeah. I felt that all along. Even when they picked up Byron Leftwich. It was something they told me -– they told me it was a smoke screen, everybody would think they didn't want a QB. They said they were ready to trade up. I think it worked out great. I was sitting there with my family and enjoying it, and I got to go to the team that I wanted to go to."  Can big L possibly do the what Brees did and cause some qb contreversy in Tampa the good kind?

The second nominee Michael Clayton.  After almost winning rookie of the year Clayton dropped like the market after the Lehman brothers collapse.  I don't know if it was due to injury or maybe being misused and abused by Gruden, but for some reason the production wasn't there.  When the Bucs resigned him in the offseason most people, including myself, were saying what da buc are they doing.  Clayton was somewhat outspoken after Gruden's departure and seemed to have felt that Chucky was holding him back and perhaps he was right.  He came in with a new contract and renewed enthusiasm.  He perform solidly in the preseason and in game one put up some pretty impressive numbers catching passes across the middle taking viscious hits and actually holding on to the ball, which he was criticised for the past few seasons.  He like Lefty seems to be playing with a chip on his shoulder, wanting to prove to his pundits that he can still play this game at a high level.

Last but certainly not least is Caddy.  He just like the other two drop off in production was due to injury.  Unlike the above mention players, it wasn't a question of his ability to play but his ability to stay healthy.  Its has been one game so that question still remains, but if he does, watch out this guy can easily rush for 1200 to 1600 yards this season with two other backs sharing the load.  This guy isn't thinking about his knee that has been broken in one of the most gruesome manners.  This guy was cutting without hesitation, and went looking for contact.  How often in the last... as a matter of fact I can't recalled the last time I could say, "Man! I'm really excited about our offense!!!"

If these guys stay healthy and the offense continue to grow and be consistent we may monopolize the comback player of the year nominees.

Here are 10 question I'd like to see answered this coming sunday and not excactly in this order.

1) Will the offense be consistent and improve upon a solid week 1 performance?

      I know it's just the 1st game but is it me or did the offense look better than it ever has under Gruden's regime.  Of course there were some missed opportunities,  a few errant throws and some critical drop passes but I almost looked at this game as a 5th preseason game.  The first time the starters actually got to play together in a game.  Remeber Antonio Bryant didn't play the entire preseason, Faine was restricted to limited duty and yet they moved the ball pretty impressively on what most experts consider a pretty good Cowbow defense.

2) Who will be the hot hand in our 3 prong running attack?

     I'm sure Derick Ward has to be going WHAT DA BUC!!!  When he was signed it was thought that more than likely he would eventually become the feature back.  Now that Cadillac has had his brakes, rotors and shocks change he's slashing, cutting and trucking people, it's as if the zone blocking scheme is perfect for his running style.  This probably could be a question in itself but will we see some more Earnest Grahm?  I think he'll excell as well.

3) Can the defense stop T.O. and Lee Evans?

      Our secondary got torched for big play after big play.  Not only did they not stop them from catching the ball but the tackling or lack ther of was horrible which leads to my next question

4) How will the defense respond to a subpar (thats putting it mildly) performance most notably the secondary and Sabby Pisctelli?

       For the love all things Buccaneer stop sitting on the "Joe Horn" route

5) How many kicks will Mike Nugent miss?

      Can somebody explain to me why this guy is still on the team.  I guess Mike can think Sabby for that.  I was hoping to hear about us trying out some alternatives, but alas it seem like we're stuck with a kicker you can't have much confidence in.  I'm gonna guess and say 2

6) Will Raheem and the coaching staff pay more attention details?

     I know I'm not a coach but the middle of the field was wide open most of the game for Dallas recievers and Jason Whitten caught some key 3rd down passes, I'm thinking you have to know this is Romo favorite goto guy and it didn't appear much schematicly was done to take him out of the equation on 3rd down, but that could be due to the fact that they couldn't stop any of the recievers.  Another thing is clock management and knowing the situation.  I like the fact that our offense was aggressive but I would have been happy going in to half time with a 7-6 lead as supposed to down 14-7. Yeah they didn't know that they were going to get beat for big play before the half but proper clock management removes that possibility.  Although the passing game was good I actually felt we should have ran the ball more and kept the ball out of Romo's hand.

7) Will this be the game that Gaines Adams begin to live up to being a top 5 pick?

      I'm just waiting for this guy to have a dominating performance.  A few tackles for losses a couple of sacks, put the opposing qb out of the game.  Please something

8) How will this team play on the road?

     Again the offense perform admirably at home the defense not so much.  I wonder what type of play we're going to get going into a hostile environment like Buffalo.  Buffalo is not considered a contender this year but they have some of the most passionate fans in the league well according to at least one yahoo article.

9) Could this year be the second coming of Michael Clayton?

      His performance last week gave us all alot to be optimistic about.  I feel before Leftwich and AB get there timing down Clayton will be more of the go-to-guy and who knows we may have back to back come back players of the year

10) Will Raheem Morris get his 1st win as an NFL head coach?

      I think the answers to the previous nine question will provide us with the answer to this one.

GO BUCS!!!!

The Good.

Cadillac and the running attack was vicious, he was trucking or should I say Escolading over defenders left and right.  It was very inspiring and impressive to see him "run with anger" as Mo would say.  Overall the offense look very good considering the recent events.  The pass protection was there the run blocking was there, we passed down the field pretty well.  I felt Leftwich missed a couple of key throws and there were some key drops but you have to think that this offense is only going to get better.  The front seven of the defense did fairly well stopping the run.  I think we have to be more consistent applying pressure to the quarterback however I do feel we're ahead of last years pace in that category.  What was also good no sacks on a team that lead the league last year in that category.  Hell it made Leftwitch to appear as if he had a quick release- well sort of.

The Bad.

Obviously bad was the secondary getting torched on 3 big plays for touchdowns and what was also bad was the tackling.  I pray that getting Tanard back would help but I think its obvious Sabby is not ready to start.  I also felt schematicly no changes or adjustments were made during halftime or course of the game to address the issue.  I have to put alot of that responsibility on Raheem being that those were his guys last year. I thought Morris and Bates would work together like Tomlin and Lebeau work together in Pittsburgh.  Lebeau providing a variety of blitz packages and Tomlin input on the coverages behind them to form a top notch defense.  I saw gaping holes over the middle and several db's getting ran past with ease.  I don't think we have the personnel to pull  of the bump and run coverages that Morris would like to run.  I was hoping for the sake of the game that the team would go back to the cover2 comfort zone to slow down the big plays.  Also bad was clock management and play selection at the end of the half.  Putting in perspective if we would have ran out the clock at the end of the half and never cut Bryant this game would have been a whole lot closer.

The Ugly

The kicking game sucked! Unfortuantely it doesn't look like its going to get better.  Domminick should be all over the phones looking for a replacement for Nugent.  What was also ugly was some of Leftwich throws, overall he had a solid perfromance but he missed some throws that could have been huge especially the one on 3rd and 6 to Ward.  If he would have made that throw Ward had a whoooole lot of green in front of him.  However I love the fact that he was going down field and looked down field 1st but hate the 10 and 15 yard over throws especially the one at the end of the half.  I'll excuse him for that one because he hadn't work with Bryant as much as he did Clayton, but often time during press conferences I heard Raheem quoting Tony Dung, "no excuses" have to make those plays.

Having seen the good the bad and the ugly of this team against a very talented and highly touted Cowboy team I feel we did alot better on offense than I expected and alot worse on defense than I expected, but if we don't fix those problems in the secondary expect T.O and Lee Evans to have a big day.  Our offense looks good but we can't expect to out score people every sunday.  Buc ball was about defense defense defense, lets get back to our "core values".

I did a little research to see what were the offensive rankings of the St. Louis Rams and Detroit Lions when Greg Olson was O.C.  In 2005 as Rams O.C. they finish the season ranked 4th in passing and 22nd rushing and in 2006 the Lions were ranked 7th in passing and dead last in rushing.  Putting things in perspective that pretty good especially when you consider the Rams went 6-10 that year and the Lions well were very lionlike going 3-13.  I would think that the passing rankings are impressive because majority of the times both teams were playing catch up, with opposing defenses knowing that they were going to pass.  Now the rushing rankings leave much to be desired but if you take in consideration again that these teams were playing from behind, whereby you would throw away the run and with the way our new zone rushing attack looked this preseason.  It may not have been a bad move promoting Olson and getting rid of Jags.  We may actually have an offensive presence this year.  I just worry about depth on both sides of the ball. 

I had a feeling such a subject would come up and I would be a lie if it hadn't crept in my mind as well but i genuinely feel that Morris kept the best 53 despite the fact I thought Mcnown beat out Leftwich.  Did race play a factor? Do white people own a monopoly on racism?  I'm going to say no and hell no!!!  Charlie Ward the greatest college quarterback never to get a chance to take a snap as signal caller in the NFL.   Why? because he was black and when he came out of college there were maybe only two black coaches I've seen "african americans" prejiduce against africans which is baffling to me.  I've seen white southerners prejiduce to white northeners.  I've heard all races say something derogatory about mexicans and arabs because of the media spin. The fact of the matter is this country is more divisive than it is inclusive however in sports its talent that rule the day, are you really telling me that a black basketball gm would turn down the opportunity to draft a larry bird or dirk norwiski or a john stockton?  Do you really think a white gm would pass on a michael jordan or a shaq.  would our gm have passed up on sanchez or stafford for freeman.  come on man!!!  I understand that racial tension in this country is on the rise because we have an "african american" president.  "african american" is a ridiculous term is a naturalize frenchman called a "european american" NO!!! they're an american thru and thru yet a black man who ancestors have been in this country for centuries and help build the very foundation and core which make this country gate is labled as a foreigner and "african american".  I think that racism shouldn't even be discuss here leave that up to the al sharptons, gerraldo's and everybody on the fox news network.  Lets stick to football!!!!.  X's and O's and whats done on the field

I find it very interesting how critical the media has been towards Morris decision to fire his OC, but not so critical towards Haley and Jauron decisions to fire theirs.

Why is that?

Do the sports reporters have something against Morris, or the Buccaneer organization?

Maybe its the guy who had his cell phone on during a press conference who knows?

I've just seen alot more negative press for Morris and Dominick decision then I do for two other teams that did the same thing this week.

New head coach new GM and plenty of offseason drama.  I for one was in favor if the dismissal of Gruden but was a little skeptical of promoting then defensive coordinator Raheem Morris, because of the way the defense played down the stretch last year when he took control after Monte Kiffin announced he was leaving to help is son at the university of Tennessee.  After listening to the charismatic Morris in a few press conference I thought maybe this guy might be the shot in the arm the organization needs.  Then came some questionable personnel moves, the release of Brooks, trading two draft picks for a talented tight end with questionable character and work ethic in Kellen Winslow.  Is he really a second and fifth round pick better then Alex Smith, not to mention giving him a boat load of cash, yet the team has yet to give an extension to Barret Ruud.  Oh and how did they address the release of probably one of the franchises all time best player, by signing injury prone Crowell.  During free agency we missed out on Haynesworth and Vilma and has yet to address the depth issues on defense or offense.  I shutter to think what may happen if Antonio Bryant , Barret Ruud or Quincy Black goes down for the season.  Can you imagine a starting recieving corp of Michael Clayton and the rookie Stroughter, yikes!!!  Then came the resigning of Luke Mcnown and the signing of Byron Leftwich and the "quarterback competition" which wasn't much of a competition at all because it seemed Morris had his mind made up from OTA's but decided to patronize Mcnown nonetheless.  We all knew however the winner was to be a temporary fix til Freeman, Raheem's wonder boy is ready to take over the helm.  Speaking of Freeman, did we really have to trade up for him, especially when we had limitied draft choices due to a previous unnecessary trade, I see the potential but isn't next years quarterback class alot better, couldn't  we address other glaring needs especially when we just sign two qbs already.  Training camp arrives and before the 2nd preseason game our starter safety is suspended for four games, and our starter corner starts an altercation with a taxi driver, neither qb Leftwitch Mcnown or Freeman gave us the impression of someone ready to lead the offense.  A deadline was set to name a starting qb a deadline was broken which makes me wonder how prepared can Leftwich be when thru most of training camp and the preseason he was splitting reps with Mcnown and Freeman.  Finally a day before our last preseason game the offensive coordinator is fired, but Raheem says we have a plan and we're sticking to it, yeah it seems to be a plan to have no plan at all.

2007 the Falcons come into the season with an unproven NFL coach in Petrino, followed by the Vick dog fiasco the team unravelled and Petrino after promising Arthur Blank he would stay the course, Petrino abrubtly resign to take a job at Arkansas. They go 2-14 or 3-13.  Offseason trouble questionble coach hiring, and players with off field troubles sounds like the Buc's are falling the Falcons formula for rebuilding.  Hopefully next year Freeman can be the next Matt Ryan but this year looks like double digit losses for sure