Week 10 in Review

Well, it certainly did not take long for the Peterson prediction to come true.  The official status is that he will miss the next game, but that he will not need surgery or miss the rest of the season.  The damage is sustained in the lateral collateral ligament only and does not effect any of the rest of the knee, according to coach Brad Childress.  There is no timeline for his return, but if the coaches are smart they would take it slow.  The Vikings really have nothing else to play for this season, even in the paltry NFC, without Adrian Peterson.  My recommendation would be to take it slow, and make sure that he is ready to carry a starters load next year.

Now onto the games from this weekend.  There were three premier games this weekend and one was big for the Buccaneers.  The largest was Indy’s loss to the Chargers.  It wasn’t just the loss, but the way they lost.  I think the Patriots are in their head and I don’t think there is any chance of the Colts going to New England and winning in January.  I know that they fielded an extremely subpar wide receiver corps and that they were pretty banged up on the offensive line, but there is no excuse for Peyton Manning throwing six interceptions or for Adam Vinatieri missing his chip shot field goal at the end.  I think Patriot-haters are going to have find another team to back this year because I just don’t think the Colts are mentally prepared to face the Patriots this year.  After pulling ahead in the second half and then not being able to stop them late in fourth quarter-they looked deflated when they played the Chargers.  Even the Cowboys were able to put things back together and have been on a roll since their loss to the Patriots, which brings us to the second major game…

The sounds of the Giants critics extolling the end of ther season has risen greatly over the past few days after their loss to their division rival Cowboys.  They are claiming the past few seasons where the Giants started out 6-2 and then ended up a mediocre 8-8.  Coughlin’s second half record as coach of the Giants? 8-17.  Personally I don’t see them having the epic collapse as they have had over the past few years, even with the Patriots, Redskins, Lions and Eagles still on the schedule.  They can beat an extremely on and off again Lions team, and the Patriots are the last game of the season where they could be resting Tom Brady, Randy Moss, Laurence Maroney etc.  The Giants will do enough to pull in a wild card and probably the fifth seed in the NFC.

The last game was the resurgence of the St. Louis Rams.  While that is great for the Rams and leads many to believe that next season should hold some hope, it’s great for the Buccaneers because it helps to curb the streak that the New Orleans Saints had recently hit upon.  Their four game win streak had led many prognosticators to claim the NFC South theirs to win.  Way too early for that talk, the Bucs may be injured, but they are no means out of the race yet.  Not only does the Rams win show some weakness still in the Saints but sets them back one more week.  We hold a lead in the division and already sport a win against both the Carolina Panthers and Saints.  The Bucs still have two games against the Falcons to help boost their inter-division record and will benefit from having a later bye week to help keep them fresh through the end of the season.  A solid third seed in the NFC playoffs should be expected.

The Bucs travel to Atlanta off of a bye week to face a team who is surprisingly on a two game win streak.  As much as the Bucs should not overlook the Falcons, a win should be fairly easy to come by.  Expect Michael Pittman to be back in the line-up, though a start is unlikely due to the emergence of Earnest Graham at running back (check previous entries comments) and allow a running back by committee which will also include Micheal Bennett.  The relative strength of the position, or at least the amount of bodies, should keep all three of them fresh for a playoff push.  Micheal Clayton is also expected to return, though, whether that is a good thing or not is something I am still pondering.  The defense should also benefit from the extra rest of the bye week to rest the aging legs of Ronde Barber, Derrick Brooks and Bryan Kelly.

Interesting Non-Football Note(s):

A. Congrats to C.C. Sabathia to win the A.L. Cy Young award this year.  He won it pretty handily, with 19 of 28 first place votes.  Honestly, I think Josh Beckett of the Boston Red Sox was the better pitcher and I think it’s ridiculous that he didn’t more than the eight first place votes that he did get, with the last first place vote going to John Lackey of the Los Angeles Angels.  Even considering that voting took place before the postseason, Beckett had one extra win, more strikeouts in less innings and a lower batting average against.  Sabathia did have a lower ERA and pitched admirably.  One other point of contention is that Fausto Carmona was relegated to a distant fourth.  He was a great story this year.

B.  Just found out the Beowulf is going to be released in 3-D in I-Maxes when it comes out on Friday.  I don’t know how I missed out on this information, but it makes it 100% more enticing to me.  I don’t have any I-Maxes near me but I’m going to have to find one now.  I never read the book but the review looks good and the prospect of seeing Angelina Jolie in 3-D wearing nothing makes the money worth it!  Check back soon for a review of the game this weekend against Atlanta.

Midseason Report

Hey everyone! I decided that I had better jump on the bandwagon and get started with my own blog. If you can’t guess, the topic of this blog is going to focus on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the rest of the NFL as it relates to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. I will also spice it up with lots of other information and opinions from around the Bay Area. In the beginning I will rely more on my own opinion, provide some argument fodder for the rest of you.

In light of this being the Buccaneers bye week and also sufficiently close to the midpoint of the season, I am going to pull a Dr. Z from Sports Illustrated and hand out some midseason awards for Tampa Bay.

MVP: Hands down this deserves to go to Jeff Garcia who has stood tall in the pocket all season and led what in all rights should be an offensively inept offense to a respectable season. With the rash of injuries at tailback and the hot and cold receivers around him, it would be too easy for him to give up, but it seems every Sunday he is there willing the offense to points.

Offensive Player of the Year: This also goes to Jeff Garcia for being the captain of the ship, but kudos must also go to Joey Galloway for keeping the defense on their toes. That Galloway can move as fast as he does while being 35 is amazing to me. I certainly did not expect him to have such a great season, the man is averaging over 17 yards a catch and leads all Tampa players with 5 touchdown receptions!

Defensive Player of the Year: This one is a little harder because the entire defense is stepping up. I am handing it to Jermaine Phillips though because he puts a lot of fear into opposing receivers with his huge hits. He is third on the team in tackles and also leads the team with three interceptions. His ability to stalk downfield has been a huge plus for the defense.

Surprise of the Year: Barret Ruud. When Quarles was let go, I expected to have some growing pains at middle linebacker. Ruud had stepped up in years past and he has defintely shown that he can play, but he is leading the team in tackles with 79 and is projected to have 140 tackles. Pretty good numbers for a new starter.

Rookie of the Year: Tanard Jackson. Gaines Adams and Arron Sears have both played very well but both still have more growing to be real factors in the NFL. Jackson has played superbly while racking up 37 tackles-36 of which were solo. He also leads the team in pass deflections. Great job for the newbie.

Interesting point of the day from around the league. Adrian Peterson is going to wear down. Not this year, probably not next year, maybe not the year after that, but he will wear down before long. He got hurt too much in college and will likely carry too much for the Vikings-at least in the short term. He is an electric player who is certainly top 3 running backs in the league right now, but he is fragile and especially with the way that he runs. I wish him the best of luck and give props to the coaches for waiting as long as they did before giving him the starting role. I do not believe in giving a large workload to running backs, to quarterbacks, to pitchers to whoever. Bodies are only meant to take so much, even Mike Alstott has him limit.

Interesting non-football comment. Damn the Tampa Bay DEVIL Rays for dropping the Devil! I know they are trying to remake their image and that they feel that they have a shot next year. The best way to remake the ‘Devil’ Rays as winners and forget the losers is to incorporate a new image, but for God sakes, did you have to tamper with the name? The new colors do look nice, not the green and black-but nice, and the new logo seems necessary if deficient, but why the name? It’s not a new ball club, just a new image! There is such a rhythm to Tampa Bay Devil Rays, it just rolls off the tongue. Plus, Rays is so ambiguous. The term does not instill any fear or opposition. Hell, Rays could refer to us being in the Sunshine State. I think the name overhaul was not needed ans overkill in the new image. For now I am going to refuse to call them anything but the ‘Devil’ Rays.

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