Where are these Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the scheme of things?

You’ve watched all the No.1 seeds go by the wayside, while 6th seeds are prevailing. That would have been us you know, the 6th seed, had we made it! Tampa Bay finished with the same record as the Green Bay Packers, and the NY Giants, and could have made the playoffs in their place. Would the Bucs have come this far? Probably not, at least not without those guys on IR that would have helped like Aqib Talib and Cody Grimm. Gerald McCoy, we could’ve used him too. Statistically, the Bucs can be broken down in several areas; OFFENSE- Passing 17th That puts the Bucs in the middle of the pack. They are an average passing team, with a 22 year old Second year QB, and two rookie starting WRs, so thats pretty good considering. OFFENSE- Running The Bucs ranked 8th, which makes them one of the better rushing teams. They have LeGarrette Blount, a rookie, averaging 5.1 yards per carry, and Cadillac Williams behind him who had an average of 3.5. That increased from 2.5 early in the year, with the emmergance of Blount. Kareem Huggins is a fast elusive back that finished the season on IR. DEFENSE- Running Not a very good category for the Bucs as they rank 28th which means bad. They have a bad run Defense, no way to disguise it up, this has to improve. Both Bucs Defensive Tackles finished the year on IR, and their position coach was not brought back. DEFENSE- Passing The Bucs have a pretty good pass defense, considering they are at the league bottom in sacking the QB, that means the secondary is doing a great job. Tampa Bay ranks 7th in Pass Defense, again, that’s very good. This is a good football team heading in the right direction headed by an under-appreciated Head Coach whose guys have his back under any circumstances. There is no reason not to expect improvements as the Bucs take a step forward next year, getting valuable assistance from players on IR, new draft picks, and free agents, and practice squad players from other teams; much like they built the 2010 squad. The schedule wont be that much harder, but the game times should be more attractive As the networks should have more prime time Tampa Bay games on Sundays at 4 or even Sunday night games. Dare we say it, maybe the Bucs could be on Monday Night Football in 2011, the result of a winning season, for a winning football team that is turning things around in the bay area.