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Midweek Analysis: Beleaguered Bucs Finding A Way

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Roy Cummings/The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 8, 2007

TAMPA - With all due respect to the New England Patriots, Indianapolis Colts and any other NFC team with a winning record, I'm not sure there's another team in the NFL that can truly match what the Bucs have done this year.

The Bucs have already placed 12 players, including three offensive starters, on injured reserve; they've been so decimated by injuries to other players that they've been unable to practice properly for two weeks. They still can't finish their scoring drives properly, they still can't rush opposing passers they way they want to and they still can't protect their own passer the way they need to.

Nevertheless, they are 5-4 and in sole possession of first place in the NFC South. Truly amazing – especially when you consider so many thought a healthy and efficient Bucs team wouldn't even win five games all season.

If you were to throw this mountain of trouble and problems on some other team the result would almost certainly be disastrous. At best you might have a club with a .500 record.

That the Bucs are still finding ways to win and remain alive in the race for the NFC playoffs is a testament to their resiliency and the quality of depth they have on their roster.

It's also a testament to the fact that, while suffering an awful lot of bad breaks themselves, they've also had a few things fall their way these past nine weeks.

Start with their second game of the season. The Bucs clearly caught the Saints while their offense was down and disoriented and everyone from quarterback Drew Brees to running back Reggie Bush was trying too hard to do too much.

In Week 3 the Bucs ran into another team, St. Louis, trying to find its way as well as a quarterback (Marc Bulger) who couldn't throw because his ribs were beaten and bruised the week before.

In Week 4, the Bucs traveled to Carolina and faced a second-string quarterback making his first start for a new team, one that pretty much quit (admittedly) after about three plays.

The Bucs even caught a break in Week 5 at Indianapolis, where the Colts were without three starters, including wideout Marvin Harrison and safety Bob Sanders, their best run stopper.

They got another break in Week 6 when Titans quarterback Vince Young couldn't finish the game because of a thigh injury he suffered while running out of bounds on a scramble.

And they got yet another in Week 7 against Jacksonville when little known Quinn Gray had to make his first NFL start in place of an injured David Garrard at quarterback.

Then there was this past week's game against Arizona. That one, which Kurt Warner started for the Cardinals, marked the fourth time this year that the Bucs have faced a backup quarterback.

And Jermaine Phillips, who sealed the victory with his pick of Warner late in the fourth quarter, thereby squelching an unliklely but not impossible Cards comeback, stepped out of bounds on that play.

So, while the Bucs have clearly had what would seem to be more than their fair share of bad breaks this year, no one can say they haven't had some breaks go their way as well.

Of course, breaks of this nature are all part of the game. It's what you do with those breaks that define who you are as a team and the Bucs have taken advantage of just about every break they've had.

That's what makes them special and that's why you have to believe they're going to continue to be a factor in the NFC South title race, all the way to the end of the season.

THE RIGHT CALL; NO QUESTION: A lot of people are starting to question the Bucs decision to pass on RB Adrian Peterson in last April's draft. I'm not going to do it.

I thought drafting Peterson would have made a lot of sense, partly because Cadillac Williams was having trouble staying healthy and partly because I thought the Bucs needed to start preparing for the day when Michael Pittman wouldn't be around. In the end, though, I still thought the more pressing need was for an impact pass rusher, and the Bucs drafted the player who fit that mold the best.

I can promise you that had Peterson been the pick, there would have been a lot of questions raised about his injury history (some scouts didn't think he'd play until November, if at all this year) and even more would have pointed to Williams and deemed Peterson a wasted pick.

WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?: Back on the Arizona game for a second; I still don't know what the Cardinals were thinking last Sunday, throwing the ball on 30 of their 42 offensive plays. The best way to beat the Bucs is to run right at them.

Especially with Greg Spires out of the lineup, the Bucs seem quite vulnerable to an attack that runs the ball consistently between the tackles and sets up the pass with play-action fakes that freeze the linebackers. You're certainly not going to beat them throwing downfield. Not if you have an arm like Kurt Warner has anymore.

Warner doesn't have the zip to get the ball to his targets without putting his targets in danger. My guess is Ken Whisenhunt and his staff are kicking themselves for not making more use of Edgerrin James.

MISSING YOU: I think the injured player the Bucs need back more than any other is Spires. Spires was arguably the Bucs best overall defensive linemen this year, and he is for sure their best run-stopping right end.

Rookies Gaines Adams and Greg White are making good strides as run stoppers, but without Spires I fear the Bucs will become a target for downhill runners that most every opponent left on the schedule will try to exploit.

Reporter Roy Cummings can be reached at (813) 259-7979 or at rcummings@tampatrib.com.

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