The Maturation Of Number Five

Posted Sep 20, 2010 by Darin Shaw

Updated Sep 20, 2010 at 01:20 PM

He’s making better decisions.  He’s not forcing the ball.  He’s willing to throw it away when there’s nothing open.  He’ll tuck the ball and run when things break down.  He’s growing up before our very eyes.  But—Number Five needs to work on his flops!  The flop when Panther lineman Greg Hardy brushed by him in the third quarter was ugly.  You have to admit it.  Sure, it was effective in that it yielded the personal foul call and kept the drive alive.  But I promise you, Josh isn’t liking the look of that one on film today.  He needs to go to stunt school.  He needs to fall down like a cowboy in the old movie westerns—convincing.  He looked like a punter.  So tally up acting as one of his tools still needing to be polished.

Hey, Peter King—the Bucs have won two.  By your estimation that means we start our fourteen game losing streak Sunday. 

Rah has the team two wins up in his ‘race to ten’.  You gotta be encouraged.  Still, the 2-0 Pittsburgh Steelers are next.  This is one of those games where I’ve been daydreaming, ‘What if?’  I mean, Big Ben’s out.  Radio got hurt… then cut.  Dixon is out.  Charlie Batch will likely be at the helm.  But I’ll tell you this—it’s not really going to be about who is under center for the Steelers.  It’s going to be that Steelers defense.  They shut down the best running back on the planet.  They plan to take no prisoners.  Number Five’s flop better be on—and everything else, too.

Good, Bad and Ugly from yesterday’s win (Did you catch that Peter King?  Yesterday’s WIN?)—Good: The defense.  More than good.  Very good!  The adjustments made at halftime to get the run stuffed were very effective.  The secondary was tremendous.  Four sacks and a fistful of turnovers—game balls all around.  Bad: Peter King’s predicting abilities.  At least he seems to have softened his tone a bit today, admitting surprise to the Bucs’ start.  Ugly: That flop.  I’m sorry.  I’m still seeing it in my head when I close my eyes.

Back tomorrow to put a wrap on the weekend.  Ciao.