Flags And Fumbles And Fouls Oh My

Dewayne White absolutely ate up Jeremy Trueblood yesterday. Two sacks and a holding penalty and a couple other close calls. I don't know if it was a personal thing White had against the Buccaneers or if he's always just that good, but this was Trueblood's worst game of his career. How Trueblood responds to this game will tell us if he is going to go the way of Kenyatta Walker or of he will be able to shake it off and play up to his standards. I tend to think he's not going to let one bad game spoil him for the rest of the year.

I also like the fact that Trueblood got into it with Shaun Rogers right at the beginning of the game. Rogers needs to be taken down a peg. By someone other than a stripper.

Davin Joseph's personal foul was the worst penalty of the day. Even if they only get a field goal on that drive, it would have tied the game up and changed momentum and field position. Plus it was totally unnecessary. He belly-flopped on the defender. For what purpose?

The first two quarters each started with Arron Sears false starts. I never understand how guards can get a false start. The ball is right next to them! Rogers obviously got into Sears's head.

For all my bitching about the line, the run-blocking wasn't so bad. Pass-blocking was lacking, but for some reason that always seems to be the case with this team -- you can't have them both. To be fair, though, Jeff Garcia left the pocket prematurely a couple times when protection was holding up just fine.

John Wade and Garcia better go into work today with protective plates around their asses, because Jon Gruden is going to chew them off otherwise. The quarterback-center exchange is the most basic movement in the game. Gruden has demoted quarterbacks for fumbled snaps because things like we had yesterday can happen. Fumbles are going to happen and you have to deal with them. But not at the snap. That was inexcusable and was the difference in the game.

Does the first guy ever bring B.J. Askew down? Every time he catches a pass, it seems like he somehow slips out of the first tackle.

If Michael Pittman really does come back at full strength, this could be a pretty formidable backfield. Both Pittman and Earnest Graham can catch the ball out of the backfield, Michael Bennett showed his speed in the open field in Detroit, and Graham proved he can handle the ball all day with a total of 32 touches.

Three sacks against Jon Kitna is not a good day. That guy is a freakin' sitting duck on just about every play, but the Buccaneer defensive line just kept getting pushed around. There were flashes here and there, but it was pretty much more of the same. The defensive line should be thanking Detroit for taking T.J. Duckett out when they did because they had no answer for his size and strength. Now that I think about it, why didn't they use Duckett more? Anyway, boo on them.

Gaines Adams did not show up on the defensive stat sheet. No sacks, no tackles, no hurries, nothing. I checked, though, and he did play.

What happened to Barrett Ruud's production? Four tackles? I heard he was hurt in some way, so maybe that explains it.

I'm not going to jump on Cato June for letting Calvin Johnson stiff-arm him out of a tackle on the touchdown. It's not that Johnson is any stronger than June; June just took a bad angle. It happens. But the tackling from the other defenders on that play was just awful. He was skipping down the sidelines! Push him!!

What a bummer for Tanard Jackson to get his touchdown erased. It was the right call, but he deserves to get one of those sometime soon.

Awesome, awesome on-side kick the first time. I'm sure a lot of it is luck, but you have to give Matt Bryant his credit for making it happen. I'm not sure why they didn't try the exact same thing the next time.

This game doesn't bum me out nearly as much as the Indianapolis one did. The difference in this game was mistakes, and those can be cleaned up. This game was a clinic in the West Coast offense. Lots of passing, very few deep balls, a solid running game, ball-control. If not for the penalties and fuck-ups, the Bucs win this one walking away. 1-3 on the road, though. Luckily they play the Jaguars at home next week.