BUCS ARE WINNERS AGAIN in 2010, beat Seahawks 38-15

The now distant memories of last year’s 3-13 disaster is officially behind the Bucs, as Tampa Bay cruised all over the Seattle Seahawks, who remarkably will play next week for a home playoff appearance. As big of a blowout it was, It could have been worse, as the Bucs moved the ball well before the end of the half only to be stymied by a bad snap from Center Jeremy Zuttah and a Connor Barth FG was blocked. But Barth got the whole thing going with a gutsy 46 yard FG INTO the 20 mph wind, for a 7-3 deficit that would prove to be short lived. Seattle scored first, with Matt Hasselback running in after a nice goal line stand, but injured himself without being touched. New QB Whitehurst came in the game, but the Bucs then reeled off 31 consecutive points. Josh Freeman had a career day, 21 of 26 for 237 yards while throwing 5 touchdown passes on a windy Raymond James kind of day. That tied Steve Deberg’s 1987 opening day massacre of the Falcons, and Brad Johnson’s 2002 effort. It’s Freemans best effort of his young career. Not to be outdone, LeGarrett Blount who needed 224 yards in two games to go over 1,000 on the season, finished with 164 yards on 14 carries. The Bucs once again piled up over 400 yards of offense in the effort. Then the Bucs defense kicked in; a defense that totally controled the line of scrimage all night long, really only giving up one meaningful run by Seahawk Marshawn Lynch. Tampa Bay is still alive in the playoff race. The big game is tomorrow night, when the Falcons will host the New Orleans Saints. If the Packers beat the Giants, even if the Saints win tomorrow, the Bucs are not dead. They will need the Bears to beat the Packers, while needing the Redskins, who are winning behind Rex Grossman, to beat the Giants. Of course The Bucs will have to beat the Saints too. These Buccaneers with their 9-6 record have guaranteed themselves a winning season in 2010, a personal awesome feat for me having come from the overly negative Buc’em site. So many blind people could not see reason for my optimism, I only hope now they understand what I saw then. The Bucs are a team that decided to build from scratch via a very deep draft that they stockpiled picks in. Not a single free agent from this offseason has made a dent in any teams playoff push; meanwhile the Bucs have the leading rookie rusher, and leading rookie Wide Receiver.