We had the season opener live on TV over here in Great Britain so suffered through the ups and downs of the Week 1 loss to the Saints just as you did.

UP - The Bucs offense making the necessary adjustments and giving Garcia time to pass after a rocky first quarter

DOWN - Allowing the Saints the two big plays to Devery Henderson and Reggie Bush that ultimately cost the Bucs the game

UP - No more complaints about Matt Bryant.  Perfect once the season started.

DOWN - Martin “FUAT” Gramatica makes one for the Saints.  “Now he does it” exclaims every Buc fan as he converts a fieldgoal against his old team.

UP - Opportunistic defense (Ruud blitz) leading to the Buchanon interception.

DOWN - Where was the pressure on Brees?  The one sack that Greg White got was a case of the left tackle totally blowing the play.

So it’s 0-1 but it’s not the 0-1 after the nightmare in Seattle last season or the shutout to Baltimore the Bucs took a couple of years back.  Perhaps we should just junk these opening day games.  Make no mistake about it, New Orleans are a very good team and they will put 440 yards of offense on a lot of teams this season.

So no dispair yet please Buc fans even though you just know the hysterical members of the Tampa radio corps will just fly off the handle over this one.  There were enough positives to take good feelings into next week’s home opener with the Falcons.  There were negatives of course, but if we didn’t have those, us journalists would simply have nothing to write about.