It’s a case of Good News, Bad News. Ok, more like Bad News, Good News; The Good? The game was blacked out; you dont want Tampa Bay residents seeing this brand of football, the team will be blacked out until 2030. The bad news; The Tampa Bay Buccaneers, for many reasons, were simply not ready to play Thursday Night. Not against the New England Patriots, heck not against the New England Revolution.
The Bucs came out looking sloppy, and turned putrid; Five penalties in the first 11 minutes of the game. Ten all together in the first half alone. Its hard to score points when its constantly 3rd and 31. The result was a 21-0 deficit with Bucs starting defense in the game.
More bad news, Sean Jones is too slow- how long until Tanard Jackson comes back? Watch the Patriots first two touchdowns, you’ll see No.26 coming in right behind the receivers, just before the ref’s hands go up.
It was a stark contrast to last week in Kansas City when the Bucs looked prepared and Kansas City looked like they were practicing. So which Bucs team is for real? Well the bad news is, they both are. Ask any NFL player or coach; if you don’t come prepared to play on Sundays, you will lose to anyone. Especially the New England Patriots.
It’s also good news however, because a stinker of a game like this can do wonders for a young team like the Bucs who can be coached up by Raheem Morris to avoid the pitfalls that caused this type of game to begin with. It’s also good news for the fans, who can now cool their aspirations for the Super Bowl. This is NOT a Super Bowl team; yet. This is a young team that is growing and being built INTO a perennial Super Bowl contender, like the Patriots.
If you’ve watch Hard Knocks on HBO, you’ve seen how teams that have good seasons have bad preseason games. If your going to do it, do it now.
You start out slow, and you grow from there.
To be honest, it’s only preseason. It was especially disheartening because it was the Bucs starters who got beat so bad. In 2002, the year the Bucs DID win a SuperBowl, they were beaten badly by the Washington Redskins 40-10, with 16 points put up in the first half against the starters. To be honest, the Bucs were not at 100% with Aqib Talib, Kellen Winslow and Arrelious Been sitting out. Neither of those two would have helped the offensive line protect any better.
Thats the good news. the Bad? There’s some growing to do this week in Tampa Bay.
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