Oh, Other Guys Played Besides Quarterbacks

Would the owner of a size medium jock please come and claim it at the Jacksonville Municipal Stadium lost and found? It has the name “Sabby Piscitelli” written on the band.

I was going to say something about how this defense is not like the Cover 2 and that the big plays are going to happen more often. But they Bucs were in a Cover 2 on that first play for the touchdown, so there’s no excuse. Piscitelli just got beat. He got beaten several times during the Jacksonville game, actually. He made some good reads as well, but this was definitely a step down from where he was in Tennessee.

John Lynch said it best when he talked about how the zone blocking scheme will get you small chunks in the run game and eventually you’ll break a big one. Derrick Ward looks like he figured it out. An 8.0 YPC average is pretty sweet.

I can’t believe no one called Sean Mahan for grabbing John Henderson around the leg when Henderson had overpowered him on his way to Byron Leftwich. This was a little unusual as Mahan had an overall very good game.

Jeremy Zuttah still looks like hell, Donald Penn still looks excellent, and everyone else on the starting offensive line looked like they got better since Tennessee, although Jeremy Trueblood got beaten pretty bad once. They even left Zuttah in there when Jacksonville had brought out their second team and he still didn’t look that good against them. Terrence Knighton got pretty good push on him later in the game.

Xavier Fulton had a much better game against Jacksonville than he did against Tennessee, but how many penalties did he have called against him? 100? It was probably only two or three, but it sure felt like a lot.

The problem with having two receiving tight ends and one blocking tight end is if your blocker goes down, you’re kind of fucked on the outside. But if I had to choose between Kellen Winslow and Jerramy Stevens to block for me, I’d take Stevens. Winslow tries to get by on aggression whereas Stevens has some technique.

Could we be seeing the emergence of Gaines Adams? Power rushes, speed rushes, double moves — Adams brought them all out for Jacksonville and he had a pretty good game. He was only credited for one tackle, but he showed his value in the pressure he brought from the right side. He lit up Eugene Monroe on more than one occasion.

But what happened to Greg White? He’s not even on the stat sheet and he didn’t do anything that I saw that was of value. Do Adams and White have to take turns being playmakers or something?

Man, Tanard Jackson put on a show in Jacksonville. What a waste his suspension is.

Quincy Black looks like he can hold his own against bigger offensive tackles when he’s lined up as a left defensive end. And if he doesn’t get penetration straight away, he has the speed to break off his rush and get downfield to make the play on the other end. Amazing.

Sammie Stroughter was in no danger of not making the team, but he is pushing hard to be the #3 receiver and he obviously has skills in the return game. This can keep Clifton Smith in the backfield more often, although it does reduce Cadillac Williams’s role even further.

I was not impressed with Kyle Moore as a draft choice, but he can obviously make plays. Maurice Jones-Drew is not easy to bring down and Moore got him in the backfield. He also showed the strength of his legs and got a sack at the end of the second quarter.

Kyle Arrington showed up late last night with two nice tackles and a pass broken up. With the depth in the secondary suffering, Arrington may have punched his ticket onto the 53.

Did you see B.J. Askew throw himself into traffic on Josh Freeman’s touchdown run? There’s a fullback for you. Of course, that came after Askew pleaded with Freeman for the ball as he was breaking contain. Funny.

Can we please give Mike Nugent something inside 46 yards to try? He’s looking much worse than he is because they’re only giving him these long bombs. In any event, I don’t know how Matt Bryant makes the team at this stage. It would be nice if the Bucs could put him on injured reserve for a year as a thank you, though.

Overall, much better performance except for the penalties. The weird thing is, though, that the Bucs had six penalties for 80 yards last week and 11 penalties for 68 yards this week. More penalties but fewer yards. But even little shit like false starts and offsides kills momentum and gives free first downs. Clean that shit up!