SOME RANDOM THOUGHTS AFTER WEEK 6 The Bucs so far A superb, last-minute drive down the field, engineered by the inspired Jeff Garcia (more on Garcia below), leaves us well-placed in what is admittedly one of the weakest Divisions in the NFL, although the stubborn Panthers are still hanging around and the Saints finally seem to have realised that the season has started. A 4-2 record is probably as good as the most optimistic of us might have hoped for at this stage. Granted, the teams that we’ve beaten are only a combined 8-14, but you can only beat what’s put in front of you. Defeats against an ordinary Seattle and by a Colts team without several starters do put things into perspective though. The defense has not given up a single point in the first half of any game at Raymond James Stadium and, if we can find something from the stagnant running game and avoid any further key injuries, there is a chance that we can progress to the post-season. Unfortunately, it seems that the injuries to Cadillac Williams and Michael Pittman will leave us too one-dimensional to be truly competitive and we can’t rely on Garcia and the ageless Joey Galloway to carry us through the season. Next up is a trip to Detroit (another game featured on Sky) and you never quite know what you’re going to get with the Lions. Two weeks ago, Washington managed to stifle John Kitna and negated Detroit’s deep-ball threat. Thirteen points won’t be enough to win too many more games this season but, if the Defence can continue to be as stingy, the Bucs can leave Ford Field with another win. Where have all the QB’s gone? There is a real dearth of top quality quarterbacks in the league this year. Whilst Tom Brady and Peyton Manning are head and shoulders above the rest, the fact that veterans and journeymen such as Vinny Testaverde, Kurt Warner, Trent Dilfer and Brian Griese are still involved is a sad indictment of the young talent available. However, I have to hold my hands up and give credit to Jeff Garcia for the terrific job that he has done for us so far – I had reservations about the Bucs acquiring a 37 year-old QB who had played for four other teams in as many years, but Garcia has managed the offense coolly and efficiently. He has protected the ball superbly (zero interceptions in 144 pass attempts through six games) and has displayed great leadership qualities. One thing which does concern me is the numbers of big hits which Garcia is taking – let’s try to get the guy a bit more protection, please! Thankfully, we don’t meet the Patriots this year (unless, of course, it’s in Arizona in February…) Sunday night’s game at Dallas emphasised the huge gulf between the AFC and the NFC. Although the Cowboys managed to stay with New England for a while, Tom Brady went up a few gears in the second half and the Pats could have won by more. New England go to Indy in week 9 and play Pittsburgh in week 14, but the rest of their schedule is not too demanding – if Brady stays healthy, the only real threat to the Pats might be their own complacency. NFL Total Access and Sky’s other coverage It’s always good to get some bonus NFL coverage on Sky, but I don’t like the NFL Total Access studio team of Rich Eisen, Marshall Faulk and Rod Woodson. Eisen is an uninspiring anchor man, Faulk is smug and irritating and Woodson is just dull – their commentary is all a bit too ‘vanilla’, but I guess that you can’t expect anything too controversial on the NFL Network’s own flagship analysis show. What’s really annoying though, is the celebrity feature – frankly, I couldn’t give a crap what Danny Devito’s predictions are for the weekend’s games. I really used to enjoy NFL Countdown and Primetime presenters Chris “he-could-go-all-the-way” Berman and Tom Jackson, when those programmes were available on NASN. Whatever your views on Nick Halling, Kevin Cadle and the Sky team, it’s great that we get so many live games each week. However, the NFL Weekly Review programme has been cut to just thirty minutes and that is nowhere near enough to show the key moments from the week’s games. Give us back our hour-long show! Mike Davidson, October 2007