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Aftermath: Painful Win For Bucs

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By ROY CUMMINGS, The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 2, 2007

Updated: 10/02/2007 01:11 am

TAMPA - The game wasn't over, but Cadillac Williams' season was and Michael Pittman knew it.

Pittman figured Williams knew it, too, so when he sat down beside his fellow Bucs running back during halftime of Sunday's game at Carolina, Pittman didn't try to sugarcoat anything.

'I just put my arms around him,' Pittman said. 'I really didn't say it was going to be all right because it's not all right. I know if I was in that situation I wouldn't want anybody to tell me it's going to be all right. It's not all right.'

No it's not - far from it, in fact. Williams' season is over. So is that of left tackle Luke Petitgout. They went down, each with a knee injury, within 11 plays of each other early in the Bucs' 20-7 victory against the Panthers at Bank of America Stadium.

Both will undergo surgery this week. Williams will have his surgery today to repair a torn patellar tendon in his right knee. Petitgout said late Sunday his injury was a sprained knee, but there are reports he suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament.

More will be known about the damage in the knees after surgery, but Williams' injury appears to be the more severe.

The Bucs woke up Monday still talking a good game. Coach Jon Gruden was right there with them, saying he has confidence in Williams' replacements Pittman and Earnest Graham and in likely Petitgout replacement Donald Penn. Like Pittman with Williams, Gruden did not try to sugarcoat the situation.

He couldn't, really. He'd seen the highlights of Philadelphia's 16-3 loss to the Giants, a game in which the Eagles surrendered 12 sacks while playing without starting left tackle William 'Tra' Thomas and starting tailback Brian Westbrook.

'It's not an easy thing to overcome; you lose a lot of skill,' Gruden said of losing Williams and Petitgout. 'Experience and production at those positions is something that every offense relies on.'

Experience the Bucs have. Pittman is in his 10{+t}{+h} season and the Bucs won a Super Bowl with him in the starting backfield in 2002. Graham is in his fourth season. Another potential Petitgout replacement, Anthony Davis, is in his fourth season, the last two spent as a starter.

Production is another matter. Pittman never has gained more than 926 yards in a season as a runner and Graham has done his most impressive work in the preseason. Davis, meanwhile, is one of the reasons the Bucs signed Petitgout during the offseason.

Still, Gruden spoke for many Monday when he expressed a great deal of confidence in the abilities of the players who now will be asked to step up and play in place of Williams and Petitgout.

'I think we're going to be OK,' Pittman said. 'I've been a starter in this league before. I know what it takes to win. I was on this team when we won a Super Bowl. I already know what it takes.'

Graham hasn't been to a Super Bowl, but he has been part of a playoff team. And in addition to building confidence, he also has been building a good case for regular playing time. He was until Sunday, anyway.

When Williams went down late in the first quarter, Graham came into the game and immediately rattled off an 11-yard run before running for a touchdown on a second-and-1 play. As the game progressed, the yards became harder to come by for Graham.

He finished with 48 yards on 17 carries, including four that came from inside the Panthers' 5. Graham gained 3 yards on those carries, however, and the Bucs gave the ball back to the Panthers on downs.

'I still feel a little rusty,' Graham said. 'There are things I need to work on because I haven't been in there as much. But I'm sort of getting into a rhythm. I'm starting to see a little bit better.'

Penn said he began looking ahead to his debut as a starter the minute the game against the Panthers ended. The prospect of facing Colts defensive end Dwight Freeney will do that to you.

'It's my first game as a starter, and he's a great player; so I'm going to see where I'm at. It's going to be a big test for me,' Penn said. 'I'm going to find out real quick how good I am.'

When Penn left Utah State last year, he signed with the Vikings as an undrafted free agent. The Vikings released him from their practice squad shortly after the start of the season and he signed with the Bucs last October, spending the rest of the year working as a member of their practice squad. He began to blossom this year when he earned the right to back up Petitgout at left tackle.

Now he's expected to start or at least split time at that spot with Davis.

'Whenever I see that Tiki Barber commercial for the Cadillac Escalade, the one where he's talking about his opportunity, I always think, 'I'm going to get mine one of these days' and then I just have to do it,' Penn said.

'I mean, most people only get one opportunity. Not too many people get more than one. So like the commercial says, I've just been waiting on my opportunity. And now that I've got it, I'm just trying to grasp it.'

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

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