First of all, I should extend a hearty congratulations to Captain Checkdown. Apparently he was promoted to Admiral. Brian Griese dinked his way to 6.7 yards per completion and 4.6 yards per attempt. The reason people keep track of yards per attempt is to have a basis of comparison with the running game. The Bucs rushed for 6.3 yards per attempt yesterday. You have to just stand in awe of the impotence of the passing performance that makes the running game gain more yards per play than the passing game.

You never really know if it is the playcalling or the quarterback that determines where the ball gets thrown. I have a feeling that Jon Gruden beat the shit out of Griese last week and made him absolutely terrified to throw an interception. Guess what… mission accomplished! No interceptions and a whopping 88 passing yards. JaMarcus Russell is reading that stat and saying, “Damn, that’s not much passing.”

When Griese hurt his shoulder and Jeff Garcia had to come in, I was glad that he hadn’t been traded and now they had a good quality backup to go in and keep the game going. Pffft. Garcia threw a ball right to Marcus Thomas and then clammed up himself. His per attempt average was barely better than Griese’s, and Garcia was throwing against a looser defense that was content to give up the low to mid range passes. He actually should have done much better than he did.

The team ran 22 times, which on the surface seems like it should be all right. But those 22 rushes produced 139 yards, which is outstanding. Why wouldn’t Gruden keep pounding the shit out of the Denver defensive line? Because some of the runs were stopped short? Look, it has become obvious that Earnest Graham is the kind of running back that will get you two or three yards at a time and then peel off a 50 yarder when you’re not looking. He finds creases and exploits them. And then Warrick Dunn comes in and weaves his way like a snake for another 14 yards. This is a very, very good running attack and it is obvious to anyone that the Buccaneer running game is far superior to the passing game. I just… I just don’t get why Gruden felt like he had to pass the ball with a ten point deficit and 12:24 left in the game. The situation was not critical yet.

Hey, guess who came out to play. Michael Clayton had some nice, clutch catches yesterday and a very nice one that was called back because of a penalty.

Did you see that Dexter Jackson made an offensive appearance yesterday? I mean that in more ways than one, by the way.

It seems that without Joey Galloway, no defensive backs feel like the Buccaneer wide receivers pose any kind of deep threat. And they’re evidently right. Where are the clever double moves or the precision routes that create separation? Where are the yards after the catch?

You know who did create separation? Jerramy Stevens in the endzone. Can you fucking believe Griese OVERthrew him?

This was, by far, the worst day I’ve seen from the offensive line for quite a while. Both Donald Penn and Jeremy Trueblood allowed sacks from their respective edges, Jeff Faine was penalized for unsportsmanlike conduct, Arron Sears had a false start. And Trueblood. Oh man, this was a day of a thousand deaths for Trueblood. A holding call and two fase starts… and they could not have come at worse times.

I’ve got to think that the offensive line performance had something to do with Griese always taking the dump-off. God, I hope so. He was always on the run. But did you see any of the other games over the weekend? Some of those quarterbacks can keep their eyes down the field when they’re scrambling and find an open guy 20 yards away. Why can’t our guys do that?

Defensive line = no sacks. Jay Cutler had all fucking day on every play. They did a good job against the run. Only Michael Pittman was able to really gash them.

And if Kevin Carter holds onto that interception, we’re probably talking about another game that the Bucs stole.

Did Cutler really beat Cato June to the corner? Wow.

Adam Hayward did a nice job after Barrett Ruud got injured, but you can still see the speed advantage that Ruud has. Please be ok, Barrett.

Obviously, Ronde Barber reads this blog and he realized that his coverage of Brandon Marshall was going to be a challenge. So he stepped it up and he and Phillip Buchanon limited Marshall to 25 yards.

In fact, the Broncos only had 227 passing yards total, which is a big drop off from what they have been producing. But every catch was meaningful… if that makes sense.

I kind of expected Tanard Jackson to really lay the wood on one of those smallish Denver wide receivers like Eddie Royal or Brandon Stokley. He had one tackle of Marshall and that’s pretty much it.

So, who took Dexter Jackson’s balls? After a redeeming performance against the Packers, Jackson ate another dick against the Broncos. He took dives, made bad decisions, bobbled the ball and put the Bucs in terrible field position to start their drives. It could have been so much better. You know what I like about running backs as kick returners? They just set up their wedge and go. They make one cut and then throw their shoulder into whoever is trying to tackle them and they almost always wind up better off than all this backward running shit. And they never roll up into a ball and piss themselves. MICHAEL BENNETT FOR KICK RETURNER!

On a good special teams note, Quincy Black made two nice special teams tackles in a row. He’s fast, too. Hell, I’d take him as a kick returner at this point.

Can you believe that Denver and Tampa Bay were statistically even in almost way yesterday? Total yards, first downs, third down efficiency, time of possession, starting field position… all almost even. It didn’t seem that way, did it? It seemed like the Bucs were running in slow motion all game and that the Broncos had an actual game plan. You can’t always sneak away with games that you should lose, and this is one the Bucs should have lost. So, here’s the question: Who should be the quarterback if both Griese and Garcia are healthy? Personally, I don’t think it matters. I guess Garcia because he seems more capable of a big play now and then. The guy who is most capable of big plays is Luke McCown, but can he be trusted to make the right decisions at critical times? Ugh… all that time spent in the offseason working on the quarterback position and this is what it has led to. If it were later in the season, I’d say to just get the young guy as many reps as possible, but the Bucs are still very much in the hunt. What a fucking mess.

First of all, I should extend a hearty congratulations to Captain Checkdown. Apparently he was promoted to Admiral. Brian Griese dinked his way to 6.7 yards per completion and 4.6 yards per attempt. The reason people keep track of yards per attempt is to have a basis of comparison with the running game. The Bucs rushed for 6.3 yards per attempt yesterday. You have to just stand in awe of the impotence of the passing performance that makes the running game gain more yards per play than the passing game.

You never really know if it is the playcalling or the quarterback that determines where the ball gets thrown. I have a feeling that Jon Gruden beat the shit out of Griese last week and made him absolutely terrified to throw an interception. Guess what… mission accomplished! No interceptions and a whopping 88 passing yards. JaMarcus Russell is reading that stat and saying, “Damn, that’s not much passing.”

When Griese hurt his shoulder and Jeff Garcia had to come in, I was glad that he hadn’t been traded and now they had a good quality backup to go in and keep the game going. Pffft. Garcia threw a ball right to Marcus Thomas and then clammed up himself. His per attempt average was barely better than Griese’s, and Garcia was throwing against a looser defense that was content to give up the low to mid range passes. He actually should have done much better than he did.

The team ran 22 times, which on the surface seems like it should be all right. But those 22 rushes produced 139 yards, which is outstanding. Why wouldn’t Gruden keep pounding the shit out of the Denver defensive line? Because some of the runs were stopped short? Look, it has become obvious that Earnest Graham is the kind of running back that will get you two or three yards at a time and then peel off a 50 yarder when you’re not looking. He finds creases and exploits them. And then Warrick Dunn comes in and weaves his way like a snake for another 14 yards. This is a very, very good running attack and it is obvious to anyone that the Buccaneer running game is far superior to the passing game. I just… I just don’t get why Gruden felt like he had to pass the ball with a ten point deficit and 12:24 left in the game. The situation was not critical yet.

Hey, guess who came out to play. Michael Clayton had some nice, clutch catches yesterday and a very nice one that was called back because of a penalty.

Did you see that Dexter Jackson made an offensive appearance yesterday? I mean that in more ways than one, by the way.

It seems that without Joey Galloway, no defensive backs feel like the Buccaneer wide receivers pose any kind of deep threat. And they’re evidently right. Where are the clever double moves or the precision routes that create separation? Where are the yards after the catch?

You know who did create separation? Jerramy Stevens in the endzone. Can you fucking believe Griese OVERthrew him?

This was, by far, the worst day I’ve seen from the offensive line for quite a while. Both Donald Penn and Jeremy Trueblood allowed sacks from their respective edges, Jeff Faine was penalized for unsportsmanlike conduct, Arron Sears had a false start. And Trueblood. Oh man, this was a day of a thousand deaths for Trueblood. A holding call and two fase starts… and they could not have come at worse times.

I’ve got to think that the offensive line performance had something to do with Griese always taking the dump-off. God, I hope so. He was always on the run. But did you see any of the other games over the weekend? Some of those quarterbacks can keep their eyes down the field when they’re scrambling and find an open guy 20 yards away. Why can’t our guys do that?

Defensive line = no sacks. Jay Cutler had all fucking day on every play. They did a good job against the run. Only Michael Pittman was able to really gash them.

And if Kevin Carter holds onto that interception, we’re probably talking about another game that the Bucs stole.

Did Cutler really beat Cato June to the corner? Wow.

Adam Hayward did a nice job after Barrett Ruud got injured, but you can still see the speed advantage that Ruud has. Please be ok, Barrett.

Obviously, Ronde Barber reads this blog and he realized that his coverage of Brandon Marshall was going to be a challenge. So he stepped it up and he and Phillip Buchanon limited Marshall to 25 yards.

In fact, the Broncos only had 227 passing yards total, which is a big drop off from what they have been producing. But every catch was meaningful… if that makes sense.

I kind of expected Tanard Jackson to really lay the wood on one of those smallish Denver wide receivers like Eddie Royal or Brandon Stokley. He had one tackle of Marshall and that’s pretty much it.

So, who took Dexter Jackson’s balls? After a redeeming performance against the Packers, Jackson ate another dick against the Broncos. He took dives, made bad decisions, bobbled the ball and put the Bucs in terrible field position to start their drives. It could have been so much better. You know what I like about running backs as kick returners? They just set up their wedge and go. They make one cut and then throw their shoulder into whoever is trying to tackle them and they almost always wind up better off than all this backward running shit. And they never roll up into a ball and piss themselves. MICHAEL BENNETT FOR KICK RETURNER!

On a good special teams note, Quincy Black made two nice special teams tackles in a row. He’s fast, too. Hell, I’d take him as a kick returner at this point.

Can you believe that Denver and Tampa Bay were statistically even in almost way yesterday? Total yards, first downs, third down efficiency, time of possession, starting field position… all almost even. It didn’t seem that way, did it? It seemed like the Bucs were running in slow motion all game and that the Broncos had an actual game plan. You can’t always sneak away with games that you should lose, and this is one the Bucs should have lost. So, here’s the question: Who should be the quarterback if both Griese and Garcia are healthy? Personally, I don’t think it matters. I guess Garcia because he seems more capable of a big play now and then. The guy who is most capable of big plays is Luke McCown, but can he be trusted to make the right decisions at critical times? Ugh… all that time spent in the offseason working on the quarterback position and this is what it has led to. If it were later in the season, I’d say to just get the young guy as many reps as possible, but the Bucs are still very much in the hunt. What a fucking mess.