Pardon The Interruption! INo, I’m not stealing Paul’s title for my column, I’m just apologising for not continuing with my run-down of the secondary – a lot of questions have been raised after the Bucs’ impressive Sunday Night performance against Chicago, and I hope to add my answers to the situation. Is TIMMEH Rattay the answer at quarterback? If he starts on Christmas Eve, and for the rest of the season, as I believe he should, then, and only then will we have an answer. Bruce isn’t – he won’t be the starting QB next year, Simms doesn’t seem to be signing on the basis that they’ve been in discussions for the last month or so and no progress is occurring. Unless we make moves in signing a QB, which will undoubtedly involve one of our two 2nd round picks, we will sign a QB in the first round. TIMMEH has had a good series of games now, and has done what Simms came into the season wanting to do – play for a bigger, better contract. Right now, the game against Chicago was another day where we rolled back the years, had a good old fashioned shoot-out, and showed that maybe, just maybe, we don’t deserve to be 3-11 and rubbing our hands with glee in prospect at taking the 3rd pick. NFL Watch As I write this only 3 or 4 days after my last column, there may not be enough to go round, but hang tight… LT – how much of his success is him, and how much is the offensive line? Devin Hester – brought back down to earth with a Blue Adams shaped thump. Brett Favre – congratulations on breaking Marino’s completion record. Now please beat his TD record and retire, or start each season saying if it will or will not be your last. The 15 yard celebration penalty is, most definitely, the most pointless ruling to grace Pro Football. How did the Great UnWashed beat the Saints? The Saints are turning into a team of Rex Grossman’s – consistently inconsistent. Still, they’ve achieved the post-season, and the twits (they don’t deserve capitals) are playing to lose in order to take a high draft pick. Quarterback anyone? Who’s going to make the play-offs? NFC: Saints and Bears are there, Cowboys and Seahawks are in primary contention through being top of their conference, and the Eagles and Giants are top of the rest – 3 teams from the NFC East? Proof that it’s the closest and best division in football? Perhaps. AFC: Chargers and Ravens are there, Indy can make it there if they beat Cincy on Monday Night, and the Patriots are leading the AFC East. Assuming Cincinnati lose, they, the Broncos, Jaguars, and Jets will be all on 8-6 fighting for the final two, with 4 teams one game behind them. My picks: Saints, Bears, Cowboys, Seahawks, Eagles, Falcons, Chargers, Ravens, Colts, Patriots, Broncos and the Jets. (I purposely didn’t include the Jaguars because they don’t have 31 years of history) Finally, Merry Christmas, and Happy Holidays to all BucPower visitees, and especially those who take the time out of their day to read my writings of debatable quality! Sure, we had break-downs, any team with a losing season will, we had turnovers, we had unnecessary penalties (which is a staple of the Bucs!), and we had Gruden logging on to www.givemiketheball.com, realising that A-Train was retiring, realising he had nothing to lose, and giving him the ball with some great success, namely a 14 yard TD to give us our first TD in over 3 hours of football. We then proceeded to score 2 in 72 seconds. Any Given Sunday? Indeed… What we must not do, is get over our heads and lose sense of reality – we are still a poor football team, and a lot of work does need to be done this off-season. Players, coaches, & GM are all positions under scrutiny, and all could see significant changes. IF we are to pay off Gruden, and take another coach, I think a successful defensive coordinator could be the best man for the job, and will provide more options than recruiting a head coach (or Art Shell). Ron Rivera of the Bears perhaps? He was a member of the ’85 Bears Superbowl Shuffle, and has turned them into a new version of what we were only 5 years ago – a dominating D (admittedly Sunday’s performance wasn’t the best advocation of his ability, although as a Unit they are impressive). The thing about Gruden is that we don’t know the direction he’s taking us – two winning seasons (’02 and ’05) and three losing seasons (’03, ’04, ’06) and you don’t see consistency – you don’t see anything that’s being built upon. Had we had a winning year this season, then I’d say yes, Gruden is the answer, we’ve had successive winning seasons for the first time under him, and we’re looking strong for the future. The problem for him is not only that we’re on a losing season, but a demolition of a losing season. The schedule cannot be used as a blame tool – if you want to be successful you must beat the best teams – we’re not doing that right now, and don’t look as if we will do next year. What players do we have that have promise for a successful career with us? Cadillac runs away with the top of the list, and has Alex Smith, Dewayne White, Ellis Wyms, Barrett Ruud, Maurice Stovall (now he’s FINALLY playing), Davin Joseph, Dan Buenning, Josh Bidwell and perhaps Paris Warren and Michael Clayton (I think he wasn’t told that we moved from One Buc Place). That’s 11 players who could feasibly start for us for the next 5 years, and take us to the play-offs on a regular basis. Sure, some of them have work to do, others merely need next season to come around and it’s business as usual – the problem, as has been stated repeatedly by me and by others, is that only 3 of these players are on defense, but we don’t have a Quarterback on the list. What will happen this April? Ask Wayne for an informed opinion, ask me for a speculative, randomised opinion, but don’t, for one second, listen to Mel Kiper. Unless it’s his draft prediction AFTER the draft, which still may be wildly inaccurate. However, you must remember – this is our Tampa Bay Buccaneers – when have they ever followed the norm? Richard Lowe, December 2006