Embarrassing; Bucs Lose 38-10

Going into this game, I expected the Bucs to make a showing, but lose the game in the end. The one thing I didn't want to see, along with many others, would be an embarrassing display of football. Well, the Bucs were physically on the field, but I'm not sure I can say that they played. That was not fun to watch once the Bucs gave up the lead. From the point of Bruce's first pick, it was all down hill. This is not going to be fun watching the last 5 games. What will be fun, however, is watching them retool that defense through Free Agency and the draft. The Bucs are going to be players, and they will likely do everything they can to fix the two most critical areas on the team: defensive line pressure and safety play. Now it's all about slotting. We'll see the young guys continue to play and see if Bruce can sew up the job at QB or not. Caddy looks to have finally shaken off the rust, and managed to get going pretty well of late, but it doesn't matter much when your defense has become a deep ball sieve.

I will say this, I haven't seen much progression from Gradkowski. He seems to have plateaued. That's not a good thing. If we don't see some improvement during the last 5 games, I think Gruden is going to seriously have to consider addressing the QB position again, and that's not a good thing. I think the Bucs may actually consider bringing Simms back if they don't get more out of Bruce late. Why? Simple. Even though Simms started this season poorly (the offensive line and Caddy being banged up from the start didn't help him) he did play well late against the Panthers, and we've seen him play much better during most of the games he played last year then what we've seen so far out of Bruce. There are a lot of great qualities in Bruce's play, but he's just not making the big play throws that are needed to win games. He gets close, but then fails to get over that hump. Maybe he'll pick that up in the last 5 games. It would certainly help this team for the long term. If he doesn't I would expect Simms to be back as competition, and I would also expect Gruden to go after a vet he thinks can run the system for a couple of years while he grooms the right QB. To be honest, don't be shocked if the Bucs don't try and work a deal for Favre. I don't personally thinks it's the best route for the team, but those rumors that went around earlier this season are pretty hard to ignore.

Well, I'll be headed back to Florida tomorrow and won't be in until late Saturday night or early Sunday morning. So don't expect another update for a couple of days.