The good, the bad and the ugly You’d think that losses at this point of a nightmare season wouldn’t hurt that bad, but wow that Falcons loss was tough to swallow. Below, I’ve outlined the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly regarding the state of the Buccaneers right now (and of course some random positives and negatives of my life currently). Obviously, the bads and uglies outweigh the goods of a season like this one, but there is always a bright side to any situation, right? The Good 1. The defense looked better last week, and that could be a direct result of Morris’s takeover of the defense and move back to the Tampa 2 scheme. It was particularly encouraging to see people like Tim Crowder and Stylez G. White flourish since they’re usually not the players in the limelight. I’m glad to see that the defense took a step in the right direction. 2. Simply put, the Panthers are really beatable this week. Backup Matt Moore will start at quarterback, and he is extremely inexperienced. I still would have liked our chances against struggling Jake Delhomme, but Moore has not dazzled anybody with his 3 unimpressive NFL career starts. Many key offensive players like Mushin Muhammed, Brad Hoover, Dwayne Jarrett, Jonathan Stewart, and Deangelo Williams have missed some practices this week due to nagging injuries. It’s not clear whose playing Sunday, but regardless…Advantage Bucs. Also, it looks they will have to totally rebuild starting at season’s end. Fox will probably be fired, and Delhomme will probably be replaced. This means that the Bucs MIGHT have a weak divisional opponent in the Panthers for the next few years to come…let’s not assume though and who are we to talk?! 3. Matt Bryant has a job. It was unfortunate to see him go to a team in the division, but you have to be happy for the guy no matter what team he goes to. He gave us some great memories with his 62 yarder against Philly and his amazing and emotional performance soon after his baby passed away from SIDS. 4. Although I lost another tough game in my fantasy football league, I’m still alive in regard to the playoffs. I need to win next week and win a tie breaker for one of the last few spots. A lot of things need to happen for me to get in, but I’m optimistic. Surprisingly, players that I picked up in free agency like Seahawks RB Justin Forsett and Vikings WR Sidney Rice have been putting up big time points each week. I could really use the $200 prize. 5. Josh Freeman is making strides. 250 yards, 2 TDs, 0 INTs. Great. All of his struggles and mistakes seem fixable, and he seems to have a work ethic and demeanor about him that translates to success. It is interesting that Ben Roethlisberger and Jay Cutler are the only two quarterbacks drafted in the first round in this decade that have had a better passer rating through their first four games. Freeman has a better passer rating than both Matthew Stafford and Mark Sanchez, who were both selected in the first round last April. Although the passer rating formula is a little wacky (see formula below), it definitely shows that there’s promise in Freeman. Like I said in my last article, I think we have a franchise quarterback for years to come in #5. The Bad 1. Dirk Johnson. I know he’s on the IR now, but I miss Josh Bidwell so much. Johnson had some punts last week that were around 30 yards. It’s the NFL, Dirk. And that fake punt!? He looked as scared back there as one of Michael Vick’s dogs circa 2006. Johnson ran around for about what seemed like an eternity then just threw it up to John Gilmore who had about 4 defenders covering him. Morris described it kindly by stating, “Dirk probably should have just thrown the ball away and not cut back across the green”. Gruden would have said something like, “I don’t know what in the blue hell Dirk was doing out there”. Then, he was shown on the sideline holding his leg because his hamstring was hurt. Who is this guy and why is he in the NFL? 2. The Residence Hall Association at my school does inspection of all of the rooms over Thanksgiving break and took my room’s microwave. Really? They’re going to take our microwave because it may be a fire hazard and it wasn’t the one supplied by school? C’mon. Heating up hot pockets and chicken cutlets > potential fire hazard. 3. I’m Facebook friends with Jeremy Trueblood, and I should just write on his wall each week to remind him to remember the snap count or don’t hold each week, but let’s be real, I don’t have the “cojones” to tell a 6’5, 260 pound NFL player to wake up and play…unless you’re reading Jeremy. Last week, we had 8 penalties for 52 yards. Eight penalties are too much, and the penalties that we get like false starts and holding are a result of a lack of discipline. These guys know to keep their arms in when blocking and know better to be aware of the snap count by now. They’ve been playing their whole life. And I know penalties like these happen often, but it happens one too many times on this team and that’s a discipline issue. That could be a result of coaching. Coaches need to harp on discipline and if they are too laid back, players become lackadaisical and don’t pay attention to the fine details. I think that’s the problem here. Morris is too friendly with his players. Coaches shouldn’t be detached from their players and unapproachable, but they also shouldn’t act like one of the guys. The Ugly 1. As mentioned above, it looks like the Panthers will have to totally rebuild their program. Bill Cowher could very well be their next coach. IF he is their new coach next year, the Panthers could eventually be a team that is a competitor year in and year out, thus this possibility is in the ugly section. In 2007, after he left the Steelers, he moved to North Raleigh, NC (That picture is his house). He and his wife went to NC state, so let’s just say he’s comfortable with the area. Good Fit? I’d say so. He was contacted last year for head coaching jobs, but he said he’s taking it “year-to-year”. He could have passed on positions last year just to wait for the Carolina job to open up. Cowher will be approached by many teams and his asking price will be hefty. The Bills have showed interest, but Cowher decided that he would wait until the end of the year to weigh his options. It sounds like he may be waiting to see what will happen in Carolina. 2. What if we lose this Sunday? If we lose to the Panthers, we may officially become the worst team in the NFL. Some could argue the Rams or Browns, but I think a loss like this would be the dagger. We lost to them earlier in the season, but we are a totally different team now I believe. I think our defense will perform well because we will focus on the Panthers’ running attack. If we load up the box to stop the run and force Matt Moore to beat us, then I think we will be fine on defense. They also lost star tackle Jordan Gross to a season-ending injury, so we need to keep the pressure on Moore. On offense, we need to convert more third downs. We were 3 for 12 on third downs last week, and we need to keep the chains moving if we want to improve our offensive attack. We need to keep drives going and keep the opposing team’s offense off of the field. If we do that, I think we’ll win and I think we could do so with a substantial margin too. Let’s do it this Sunday! Chris Bruno, December 2009