Powerful offense gives Bucs something to feel good about

Posted Sep 23, 2009 by Tom McEwen

Updated Sep 23, 2009 at 05:21 PM

You know, these Buccaneers of Coach Raheem Morris out at One Buc Place aren’t as bad as all that. 

For one thing, these Bucs are fourth overall in offense — yes, these Bucs made famous for defense by the Selmons, David Lewis, and those toughs of the early days — are fourth in the National Football League in offense.

Defense has long been the richest Buccaneer heritage but, by golly, all of sudden these Bucs are fourth overall offensively, this team of which Carnell “Cadillac” Williams and bullish Derrick Ward, swiped by the Bucs as a free agent from the Giants, are the ball carriers and Byron Leftwich the quarterback.

I mean, it is so early in this season, but, shoot, let them have their heads. The truth is these young Buckos, while 0-2 in the regular season with losses to Dallas and at Buffalo, should surely have won at Buffalo with the Tampa Bay weather. At the very least these Bucs should be 1-1 now, not 0-2.

Such a difference, eh? Think it. For the Bucs to be 0-2 instead of 1-1 with the New York Giants coming to Tampa on Sunday before dangerous trips to Washington and Philadelphia the next two weekends, well, frankly there lies the danger, the distinct danger of a rotten 0-5 start for me and you, Raheem and Cadillac.

Think, all, if you have not, of the bummer starts of other years, like that worst of all franchise starts in NFL history, 0-26.

Now, I know the football basics. First here Coach John McKay taught us early and proved it, if the other team does not score, you are unlikely to lose, and he stuck to it, stopping the other guys, bringing out bigger, stronger and tireless fullback-or-bigger guys to trod on you to the end. Asked once how he could give ball to the same big man so often and he asked back, “Why not? It’s not heavy.”

The Bucs took pride this weekend in announcing that their offense was cracking. Good. By golly, if the offense is successfully at work with Cadillac Williams overcoming repeated injuries to take a lead, along with Ward others, well,  that is a long suit of the Bucs, not so in recent years.

Looks to some of us who have been watching these Bucs for a while that this team of Raheem has emerged on a very early bubble. These Bucs are going to be in it from the start, from right now on. They were sound in the opening regular season loss to Dallas in Tampa. It was a coulda, shoulda game. Dallas will always be a favorite against Tampa. Just will. Tampa will win again, at the Buc place, maybe probably.

Anyway, been around a while. This latest result makes it a little tougher. These Bucs, early on, showed a weakness in defense against long gainers, nothing to brag about, but they also showed a power offense. That hasn’t been so in a long while around here, and, the new coach says big guys running and a big guy throwing to big tight ends may once more be a staple at Raymond James.