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Admit it, Bucs fans, you had flashbacks to 2006 didn’t you? In the end, the defense stepped up to rescue the win. The reality is that when Jeff Garcia goes down we become a one dimensional offense. No defense in the NFL respects Bruce Gradkowski’s ability to pass the ball beyond 10 yards accurately. When they stopped worrying about the pass, they could lean into every running play. Hey, as the saying goes: “A win is a win” and we’ll take them in any way, shape or form that they’re offered to us. Still, this win revealed some chinks in the armor. I could take a very simple approach to good, bad and ugly today and say good = first half; bad = second half, but have no fear, there was more to my observation.
The good ~ Turnover ratio. (And in this category, even Bruce Gradkowski should be complemented for not turning the ball over.) The running game in the first half, and the pressure we put on the Jason Campbell during the first half were also stellar. Our punting game and our punt coverage unit were tremendous today. Josh Bidwell deserves a game ball. So does Maurice Stovall.
The bad ~ The two ‘goods’ that I mentioned, the first half running game and the first half pass rush, turned sour because of two ‘bads’. The first I already mentioned: once the Redskins figured out it was Bruce at QB and not Jeff Garcia, they had seemingly no reason to take our passing game seriously. That made for slim pickings in the running attack. Were the three-and-outs of the second half not evidence enough? And, the time of possession in the second half led to our pass rush slowing down. Our D-Lineman were sucking wind, and that is the result of their being on the field for two-thirds of the second half.
The ugly ~ It wasn’t ugly to the ugliest degree, because we lucked out with a win, but ugly will be taking turnovers like we did today from our opponents and only managing field goals. It came very close to biting us today. If it happens next week against Drew Brees, we might not be talking about an ugly win, but a painful loss.
What did you see?
Posted by Robert Woods, Jacksonville, Fl on 11/26 at 04:33 PM
The reason that Gruden sees good in Gradkowski is that when he handles the snaps in practice, I believe, he’s not practicing against a defense daring him to throw long. He’s playing against a standard cover 2 defense. That gives him the open short throws to complete. I’m sure he’s very good at throwing short. Unfortunately, that’s not what he needs to work on. Teams know he can’t get the ball out beyond 15 yards, so they bring the safeties in.
Posted by Sam Shukovsky, Short Hills, NJ on 11/26 at 01:10 PM
I think mot fans saw what you did: a Bruce Gradkowski that looked no different from 2006. Put another way, David Carr from the Panthers this same week playing against the Saints the Bucs face next week, had nearly identical stats (95 yards, 10 of 22) as Gradkowski (9 completions, 93 yards). Panthers lost 31-6. Without 6 turnovers which is a lot of ask from a defense in any game, the Bucs will lose with Gradkowski at QB. This is not a question, it is a statement. Unfortunately in the rebuilding of Tampa, Gruden has a huge shortage of effective QBs outside of Garcia right now. If he goes down, the season is over unless a missing QB named Luke McCown shows up and demonstrates a capability not yet seen.
Posted by mike williams, sarasota on 11/26 at 09:27 AM
Why is gruden so high on bruce gradkowski? If he has not improved why keep him around.
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Posted by Darin Shaw, Pigskin Preacher Blog on 11/26 at 06:17 PM
Great comments guys!
My guess is that Gruden is high on Gradkowski hoping that he will add up to the ‘discovery’ Gruden thought he would be last year. By season’s end in ‘06 we were left wondering if going with Tim Rattay would have given us a better chance at winning. Remember?
I don’t have much confidence in Cool-hand Luke McCown either. Ironically, the second best chance to win we have today in Tampa might be the kid who wore #2 before he went on I.R. - a fact that I think Gruden hates to think about.
For now, we hold our breath every time Garcia is slow to get up.
Thanks for the comments.