Bucs Lose To Texans 14-28

Well, that game was a stinker. Took me a day to really let go of it and get back into football as the Bucs had opportunities in that game, despite coming out flat, and yet couldn't muster enough plays to get it done. I probably should have seen this game coming, considering the youngsters on the team and the emotional game they had won the prior week against the Saints. Sometimes teams just come out flat, and you can't expect to beat a quality team like the Texans by playing flat. Now the Bucs have to move on knowing they still didn't clinch the South because the Saints won last night. The Panthers, at least, are out of the running.

On Offense, the Bucs really struggled to find a groove early, but then responded with a nice long drive after a turnover to punch the ball in. They later responded to the second half TD kick return by driving the ball right down the field on a couple of big plays to score a TD in just over 2 minutes. There was one opportunity that the Bucs had to tie the game when Galloway got open deep, but Luke overthrew him by about 2 yards. Then the Texans got the ball, fumbled it to the Bucs, but then the Bucs gave it right back when Wade decided to snap the ball back to McCown when he wasn't looking for the ball. That led to the Texans going 17 yards for a TD which effectively ended the game. Graham had problems running to the left early, but then the Bucs started running to the right with very good success, then found some success going back against the left. Unfortunately, the Bucs got down by 2 TD's rather early, and it kept them from really running as much as they would have liked. The offensive line was alright in pass protection, but not great, and Luke didn't help by holding onto the ball way too often at times, and taking sacks needlessly. He almost looks like Rob Johnson at times, taking 4 sacks, 3 of which were avoidable. When Luke learns how to make quicker decisions and get rid of the ball, he'll be a starting caliber QB. Galloway was somewhat quite for most of the game which left others open underneath. Hilliard was having a solid game until he got hit awkwardly and fumbled the ball. That fumble led to a Texans TD, and Hilliard went out of the game. Clayton had a nice game getting 4 receptions for 39 yards, and he may be replacing Hilliard down the stretch if Ike can't go. Overall, the offense was good in spurts, but could never really sustain drives throughout the course of the game. That goes back to a combination of them being flat and being led by a young, inexperienced QB going up against a defense that has some good young talent that was having a good day.

On Defense, the Bucs only gave up two drives of any length, and only allowed 257 yards. They held the Texans to just 2.6 yards per carry as well. Unfortunately, they had a tough time actually getting the Texans to fail to convert on third down, as they ripped off 10 of 17 conversions (59%). That meant some drives chewed up clock, even if they didn't go far. The Texans also benefited with two short TD drives (23 and 17 yards) and a kick returned for a TD. The Bucs' defense otherwise held the Texans' offense in check. Without the two turnovers and the kick return, the Texans may have been lucky to even score 10 points. The one disturbing thing was a lack of hurries. While the Bucs had 3 sacks, including a White/Adams QB sandwhich that resulted in a fumble, they otherwise gave Rosenfels way too much time for much of the game. White seemed to be able to generate the most consistent pass rush (wait until next year when he doesn't have over 10 games from the AFL heading into the NFL season!). Adams had a couple of key plays, but wasn't has good in the pass rush as he had been the last two weeks. The linebackers got beat on a couple of mis-matches, but were solid otherwise. Ruud has, however, seemingly hit a wall the last couple of weeks. He needs a nice wake up call to get back to that Pro-Bowl level he played at for most of the season. The secondary played a little too lose for my taste, and should have been a little more aggressive and jumped some routes that were being used a lot. Overall, with the exception of too many 3rd down conversions, which led to some drives that took a lot of time, the defense played well.

On Special Teams, the unit needs to relearn geometry, as some bad angles were taken on that returned kick. If the Bucs had stopped the Texans from scoring like that, the Bucs might have been able to come back in this game, but that one play put them in a big hole that they could never recover from. Spurlock nearly returned the favor getting to mid-field on a long return. Overall, with the one expection, the coverage units did well, and the return units did OK. There weren't any field goal attempts, so there is nothing to comment on there. This unit did alright, but that one costly mistake did us in.

Coaching was alright, but couldn't get the team out of the funk it was in. Gruden started off with a decent game plan, but it kind of degraded into the "drop back" show. Gruden was a little quick to abandon the run, but, with the team getting behind early, it was almost a necessity. Monte had his troops ready to stop the Texans, which they did on all but one lengthy drive. A little more blitzing may have helped though. Special Teams coaching was fine this week, though that one mistake is a big blemish on the unit.

Time to regroup and take the Falcons down.