Simms Comes of Age in a Shoot-Out for The Ages Wow! Anyone else have to empty out the contents of their smalls in the wee hours of last Sunday night? In a game that must have made every highlight reel in America, the Bucs somehow eked out a miraculous victory when all seemed lost. Once the dust had settled we could marvel at the renaissance of old favourite, the rebirth of a young quarterbacks career, and the Indian Elephant sized balls of our coach who made the bravest call of all at the death. If you had suggested this game would provide a 71 point shoot-out before the teams took the field, you’d have been laughed at from all corners but so it proved, and this one really had it all – touchdowns, turnovers, questionable calls, blinding catches and so many momentum changes that it sent the commentators into a spin; granted that’s not too difficult with Gene and Scott! Thanks to opportunistic defense forcing two early turnovers, Mike Alstott did the rest with the tough yards and we found ourselves in a big early lead, and then the fun really started. A few things I think 1. The 2 point conversion call by The Chuckmeister was the correct call, regardless of whether it was successful or not. Our defense had spent far too long on the field in the second half, and down to third stringers in the secondary – in short we were gassed, illustrated by the fact the Redskins didn’t punt in the second half. We couldn’t stop them so a chance to take the lead from the one yard line, with Alstott foaming at the mouth was too big an opportunity to pass up. Kudos to the coach and The A-Train for making the rest history. 2. I think I’ve always respected Coach Gibbs for the classy way he and his teams have conducted themselves over the years, but his consistent whinging this week smacks of desperation and demeans him and his franchise. Was Mike Alstott down before he crossed the goal-line? Who exactly can say – Ladell Betts was out of bounds twice on his run-back and yet Coach Gibbs x-ray vision seems a little out of focus when it’s pointed at the large slice of fortune that came his way in the same game. Cut it our Coach or you will lose the respect of greater judges than me in the long run. 3. Edell Shepherd where have you been all our lives? We’ve needed a receiver to join the party with Joey Galloway all year long and finally Mr Shepherd steps up with 3 huge catches, and an “I don’t believe he caught that” touchdown inside the final minute. More of the same please young fella. Memo to Chucky – get this guy in the offense a whole lot more. 4. How good was it to hear that A-Train whistle last Sunday? Mike Alstott rolled back the years to the late 90’s and once again became our Czar of the end zone, much to the delight of Bucs fans everywhere. He was not to be denied on that two point conversion, and gave us all one last trip down memory lane in what is likely to be his final season. Any repeat showing would be appreciated! 5. FFL Update – After handing our another significant dose last week The Clap are now back at the .500 mark, with a 4 game win streak stuck in their back pocket and a lead in the first leg of the Trade Peyton Manning Bowl. I hope I’m getting the hang of this a little bit now, having not had a clue what I was doing in the first month of the year. Joey Galloway has been all-world for both Bucs and Clap alike this year – long may that continue. 6. Optimistic thought for the day – if we can win out at home, and steal a game on the road in New Orleans we’d finish 10-6. Whether that makes a Wild Card or not, I’d settle for it, and who the hell would have thought 10-6 was feasible back in July? 7. I think I’d like to thank Sky Sports for screening us again this week. If you add the Pats game in December as well we will be seen live 4 times this year on UK television – not bad for a team widely predicted to be in the cellar and starved of national exposure over in the states. 8. Even by his own standards Gene Deckerhoff surpassed himself last Sunday – he identified Will Allen as the man who recovered an early fumble only to be corrected to Dwayne White – they are a spit of each other aren’t they. He called the score as “38-35” when Edell Shepherd made his TD catch (say what Gene?), and finally guessed that The Bucs would be awarded the extra point automatically when the Redskins jumped offside. Gene, we love ya but please don’t go nearest the bull with your assessment of the play in front of your face 9. I think there is no more popular Buccaneer, ever, than number 40. Though I am loathe to read too much into one game, Chris Simms produced an error free performance of such brilliance that I honestly did not believe he had in him. Chris throws the deep ball as good as anybody, but his touch on some of his other passes, particularly the first quarter throw to Joey Galloway, was a thing of beauty. His passing yardage and three scores looked great, but more importantly the lack of turnovers was perhaps the biggest step forward of all. The pass play to Edell Shepherd, take a bow young man by the way, will be one that’s played for ever more in his career highlight reel and came at such a crunch time that you can only come to the conclusion that both Simms and our Bucs took a giant stride in that 4th quarter on Sunday. You don’t want to be playing high scoring games every week but it’s a very good sign that we are capable of getting the win and sticking 36 points on the board if we have to. Twice coming from behind in the second half is also a real character builder which I’m sure will be stressed by the coaching staff this week. Another positive was the reduction in penalties this week. We turned it over only once and didn’t give much penalty yardage which was also a factor in how we managed to come out on top, despite posing only a marginal threat with our running game, and this must be one of the major points of concern as we face up to the rest of our schedule. In order to potentially challenge for a Wild Card berth this season we must be able to establish the run again. Cadillac Williams has gone from all-world rookie to Mike Alstott’s back-up in the space of five weeks, and we desperately need to get him untracked to build both his and our own confidence again. My other fear is our banged-up defense and how well it can fare in facing up to Atlanta this weekend. Will Allen and Dexter Jackson are struggling and we really need one of them to suit up, with Jackson the most likely on a gimpy hamstring. So it’s off to The Georgia Dome this week to face a division rival, and we head there on a wave of emotion and new belief in ourselves. Unfortunately Atlanta are coming off a bad loss themselves at home, and this coupled with our suddenly fallable defense and fitful running game does not augur well. I hope against hope that we can carry our momentum into this game but sadly I fear not. In the cold light of day I think we are catching the Falcons at the wrong time and are over-matched on defense. The doomsday prediction here is that we will sadly fall short, 31-21 …… go on shoot me, I know I’m a pessimist. Prove me wrong Bucs. Nod of Acknowledgement to……Bill Parcells. He’s not always my cup of tea as a coach and he led the Bucs a merry dance a few years back, but Parcells coached a game on Monday night the very same day after attending his brothers funeral. He may have plenty of faults but his commitment to his team is certainly not one of them. To be able to do that shows a level of professionalism not many can match. Get in the Real World Award……The Philadelphia Eagles. Your decade of sustained success is over, regardless of the loss of Terrell Owens. Things have a shelf-life and the Eagles time is up as the dominant force in the NFC East. Donovan McNabb is a class act but injuries, age and dancing with the devil where Owens is concerned has finally caught up with them. Monday night was the dagger in their title run with this group.