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With Injuries Mounting, Bucs Need To Step Up

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By ROY CUMMINGS, The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 11, 2007

Updated: 10/11/2007 12:12 am

TAMPA - Zack Crockett has been in the NFL for 13 years, and he has seen a lot. Ask him if he has ever seen a team as decimated by injuries as the Bucs team he joined Wednesday and he looks at you incredulously.

'Sure, I've seen injuries like this,' Crockett said. 'I was with the 1996 Indianapolis Colts.'

That '96 Colts team was one of the few that truly can rival the 2007 Bucs, who are down to their third tailback and their third fullback, all because of injuries. It had 19 starters, including Crockett, miss a total of 78 games.

They still made the playoffs. Crockett remembers how.

'Everybody on your team just has to be ready to take on a bigger role,' the veteran running back said.

Earnest Graham is ready. Kenneth Darby is ready. Whether they're able to play that role is another matter. Graham, now the No. 1 tailback, has never started a regular-season NFL game. Darby, his backup, has never played in one.

They're mostly untried and definitely unproven. That's why it can't all fall on their shoulders now. Take a walk around the Bucs locker room and you get the feeling it won't. Take that walk and you get the feeling everyone realizes it's not just Graham and Darby who have to step up Sunday when the Bucs play the Titans - and for the rest of the season.

'We're in a situation now where every man has to pick up his level of play to make up for what's been lost,' wide receiver Ike Hilliard said. 'Offensively, we all have to start playing better.'

The defense and special teams have to play better, too. It's up to them to make the offense's job easier by giving it more possessions and better field position.

The players on offense are the ones who have to step up the most, though. They have to adjust to new players, maybe even a new approach, and there's little or no time left to do it.

The Titans, who gave up 400 points and ranked last in the league in total defense last year, are far more befitting of their nickname this season. Tennessee is allowing 72 rushing yards and 203 passing yards per game and is ranked fifth overall in total defense.

'They're really good,' right tackle Jeremy Trueblood said. 'I didn't know much about them until I sat down to watch them, but their defense is legit. People should be paying a lot more attention to them.'

You can bet the Bucs are paying attention. They're especially looking hard at the way the Titans attack the run, because they can't afford to abandon that portion of their game.

Few believe that will be a problem. Many believe opposing defenses now will load up against the pass in an effort to force the Bucs to lean more than usual on their running game.

The Bucs, though, want to have the balanced attack of their first four games, when they ran the ball 58 percent and produced a more than respectable 137 rushing yards per game.

To do that, many players need to step up their game a bit. In particular, the players blocking for Graham, Darby and Crockett need to step up and erase the mistakes that derailed them last week at Indianapolis.

'It was a little bit of everything,' right guard Davin Joseph said of the problems that plagued the Bucs during their 33-14 loss to the Colts.

'We'd get guys in the right place and then guys would miss their blocks. Then we'd have mental errors and guys were left unblocked. You'd have negative yards, and all of a sudden it's third-and-long. To me, it's a matter of avoiding mental mistakes and being more consistent on third down. If we do that, then we're going to be all right. But we all have to do it.

'Whether you're the quarterback or the running back or a receiver blocking downfield, whatever, we all have to step up and play better and be on the same page.'

Crockett, the newest member of the group, hasn't played a down since being released by the Raiders on Sept. 2. He says he's ready to do his part.

'I've been training every day,' said Crockett, 34. 'I got up every morning just like I was going to meetings and going to practice - just like I was in game mode.

'Whatever they want to dish out to me, I'll be prepared for it, because I'm a team player. I'm someone who's going to lay it on the line and give you 110 percent.'

That's exactly what the Bucs need - from everybody.

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

tampatrib.com.

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