Dr. Z Hates The Buccaneers

Sports Illustrated's Paul Zimmerman (or "Dr. Z" when he is impersonating a proctologist) has a pretty sweet gig as pro football's embarrassing uncle. He walks that fine line that exists between the crotchety old man who hates everything that happened after Dick Butkus retired and douchebag elitisit wine snob. If you don't believe me, this photo should tell you all you need to know.

I mean, really, could anyone else pull off that jacket and scowl combination so well?

Zimmerman's weekly Power Rankings are, at best, a crude mixture of common team stereotypes and last week's results. That's why it doesn't bother me so much when the Buccaneers are ranked at 23 this week. There are many teams that are better than the Bucs, and that number may very well be 22. But the Bucs are the second-worst 1-1 team on the list, behind only the Browns. Tavaris Jackson threw four picks on Sunday, but the Vikings are better than the Bucs? The Saints, who are 0-2 and spent most of Sunday being Barrett Ruud's prison bitch are four places higher than Tampa Bay? Even the winless Eagles, who have absolutely no redeeming qualities and who will all surely burn eternally in a lake of fire, are ahead of the Bucs. Here's what he had to say about Tampa:

Jeff Garcia completed just 10 passes, but check out his yardage: 243. He had three passes of 40-plus yards, including a 69-yard TD pass. That led to a 145.8 QB rating for the game. This guy might be the most underappreciated QB in the league.

He's right about that. Five teams in five years is pretty much the recipe for "underappreciated". But not even a sentence about the crushing defense who held the Saints scoreless until they finally backed off at the end of the third quarter. Kind of makes you think that he thinks the Saints just pissed away the game instead of the Bucs taking it from them. If only there was a way to confirm my suspicions...

The Saints have been outscored a combined 72-24 in the first two weeks. But does this mean they've returned to being the Aints? Should fans start wearing bags over their heads again? Of course not. But being throttled by the Bucs is definitely unnerving.

Eat me, Z. Everyone gets a clean slate at the beginning of the year and Tampa Bay's 1-1 record does not warrant the implication that they are the Washington Generals. The Buccaneers -- as a team -- earned that win.