Game Review - Week 10

The Bucs dominated the Falcons in yet another impressive display of team play against inferior opponents. The Bucs have basically blown out every losing team they've played, and nearly blown out 2 teams that are at, or above .500. The game didn't start out great, but the lever slowly turned towards the Bucs until, before you knew it, they were up 24-0 and the game was clearly out of reach.

On Offense, the Bucs started the game trying to get Pittman going early. Unfortunately, that move backfired somewhat, as Pittman had problems catching passes that would have been for first downs, and even had a fumble (too me the replay clearly showed that he never gained control of the ball, and it should have been incomplete). Those early miscues killed a couple of early drive attempts and made the offense look bogged down by a supposedly good Atlanta defense. Then the Bucs, after a defensive turnover (pick by Ruud), scored on a 44 yard bomb to Galloway to open the scoring. After that they started to get some drives going, but it would take until the second drive of the second half until the offense would just open up, mostly on the back of Earnest Graham, who rushed for over 100 yards again. Once Garcia managed to hit Smith for a 21 yard TD, which came after some nice runs by Graham, forcing the safeties to key on the run first, the game was way out of reach, and the offense finished the second half scoring 17 points to go with the 7 they scored in the first half. The Bucs managed to run for 149 yards behind an impressive offensive line that held up well against a relentless blitzing defense, and was able to get some serious push in the running game. Graham's shake and bake 26 yard run, in which he juked Milloy out of his jockstrap, put the Bucs up 31-0 and sealed it. Garcia was only 10 of 20 for 159 yards, but threw two TD's and no picks and took just the one sack. Overall, a rusty start was followed by a dominate second half as the Bucs cruised to the win late.

On Defense, the Bucs came out and made sure they would get pressure early by running some blitzes at Leftwich. Once the Bucs broke through, with Haye hitting Leftwich just as he threw the ball, causing the pick by Ruud, the defensive line suddenly started playing in Atlanta's backfield for most of the rest of the game. Dunn needed 58 yards to pass 10,000 yards, and he was stuffed all game long getting a paltry 2.1 yards per carry and getting stuffed on a sweep on 4th and a short one. The line was strong against the run, which included a nice tackle of Dunn from behind by Adams. They tackled well, then got after the passer. White had two sacks and two forced fumbles. Adams had a sack, a forced fumble and a tipped/defensed pass where he bullied the Tackle and came around and hit Leftwich's arm, despite being held from behind, just as he threw it, which made the ball flutter in front of him and allowed Hovan to get his first career pick. Hovan also got a sack. On one of White's forced fumbles, that came after Adams forced Leftwich to run forward out of the pocket where White hit him from behind, Barber picked up the loose ball on a full sprint, and took of for the TD return, the Bucs' first defensive score. The linebackers played solid, with June getting 9 tackles and forcing a fumble that Kelly picked up, but stupidly tossed back to June, who was then tripped and had the ball come out after hitting the ground. This play illustrated just how stupid the refs for that game were, as June was tripped by Roddy White, which should have been a 15 yard penalty, and the ball was forced out by the ground, which shouldn't have been a fumble. Then the refs told Gruden that they couldn't review the whole play just one segment, and Gruden made the error of having them review the first player, which was Kelly, who was never down. In any case, despite some subs giving up a last minute 82 yard drive for a TD that eliminated the shutout and gave the Falcons 275 yards, instead of under 200, the Defense was outstanding all game and looked very 2002 like.

On Special Teams, the return units failed to do anything to help the offense get good starting field position. That had to come from the 4 turnovers that the Defense provided. The bad field position made for some poor drives that never really got going. The coverage units were excellent holding the kick returns under 20 yards and the punts under 4. They were outstanding as they have been pretty much all season. The kicking game was solid, with Bryant nailing the same type of field goal he missed against the Cardinals. The punting was solid, with Bidwell nailing a 61 yarder late in the game to pin the Falcons back. Overall, Special Teams was solid where it needed to be, but they clearly miss Mark Jones on the returns.

Coaching was excellent, for the most part, in this game. I think Gruden showed a little too much lovin' for Pittman, making me consistently question Gruden's orientation. Nevertheless, he made some nice calls that got the points when the Bucs needed them the most to put Atlanta out of its misery. Monte's defense was spectacular, and he brought the heat early to help get his unit going, then backed off and let the front four dominate. Bisaccia's group was alright. There needs to be better coaching on the return teams, because the unit sucks without Jones, and that shouldn't be the case. Overall, the Bucs played a solid game, and were reasonably well coached. The result was another Division blow-out, and another on the road.