Bucs' offense shows spark in defeat Roy Cummings, The Tampa Tribune, published 14 September 2009 Usually it's the offense that lets the Tampa Bay Buccaneers down. That wasn't the case Sunday during their 34-21 opening day loss to the Cowboys at Raymond James Stadium. On a day when their defense fell apart at critical junctures, allowing three touchdown passes of 42 yards or more, it was the offense that gave the Bucs reason to believe better days are ahead. "I'm encouraged by what I saw on offense," Bucs cornerback Ronde Barber said. "We moved the ball, man. We ran it well. I mean, the final score is not indicative of how well we played at times." Neither are the final statistics. Though they played from behind most of the day, the Bucs outran the Cowboys (gaining 174 yards rushing to Dallas' 118) and finished with 450 total yards of offense. That was just 12 yards less than Dallas racked up on a day when Michael Clayton justified the Bucs' decision to re-sign him and Cadillac Williams justified the decision to name him the starting tailback. Williams ran 13 times for 97 yards and a touchdown and Clayton caught eight Byron Leftwich passes for 93 yards, including a diving 47-yard catch that set up a late first-half scoring chance. The Bucs wasted that scoring opportunity and one other in which a field goal try by Mike Nugent was blocked, but the scoring chances proved the Bucs have more scoring potential than in the past. "That's why I can sit here after a loss and feel bad but at the same time know where we can go," Leftwich said. "I know where we can go as a team because we showed spurts of good things." Leftwich had one such spurt himself. During the first half of his first start as a Buccaneer he completed eight of 12 throws for 130 yards while compiling a 102.8 passer rating. Leftwich was even more active in the second half, completing 13 of 29 passes for 146 yards and a touchdown. Along the way he connected with 10 different receivers. "The potential is there," Leftwich said. "We are capable of doing anything on that football field with the players that we have. We know that. We understand that and we'll get better." It's hard to imagine Williams being much better. In his first game back from a second torn patellar tendon injury, his running gave the Bucs offense the spark Coach Raheem Morris thought he would. The Bucs also got a 62-yard, one touchdown effort out of Derrick Ward, who ran the ball 12 times for an offense that clearly has the weaponry to do some big things this year. "We have those running backs but we also have Antonio Bryant (five catches, 29 yards) and Kellen Winslow (nine catches, 30 yards, so we are going to attack people any way we can," Leftwich said. "Whatever is working at the time, we are going to do that. We go play. We have a game plan, yes, but at the same time winning football games comes down to making plays and we just didn't do enough of that today." Not on defense they didn't