Is 0-16 A Possibility?

First of all, I’m very sorry for the delay in posts.  I had a very long 6 day Vegas vacation, came back to Tampa for 20 hours then flew to Chicago for work.  I’m finally finding my first non drunken free time to sit down and give you guys some thoughts on the game and our team in general.

For starters, and I know some of you are going to be mad at me, and to be perfectly honest, I was mad at myself, but I bet on the Eagles on Sunday. The line was 15.5 and that should be a preposterous line to bet against your own team, a team you live and die with, but I bet it…and won.

Secondly, I went to a wedding at the top of some ridiculously gorgeous mountain outside of Vegas on Saturday night, and didn’t get back to the Palazzo until about 1130, which put me into the 4th quarter of our game.  This is only the second time in the last 7 or 8 years that I can remember missing any of the game, and last time it happened I was at a funeral.

I prefaced my game analysis with all of that for the shear fact of letting you know that the main way I was able to analyze the game was by the box score.  We all know that just looking at the box score for a game, can not let you know everything that happened, and while I did watch the 4th quarter of the game, it wasn’t enough of a sampling (especially since we were getting slaughtered at the time) to really know how the game played out.

Thoughts from the Box…

1. For losing by 19 points, are offense put up some great numbers.  I guess this can be rebutted by the fact that we let them score, and let them score quickly almost every time they had the ball, but our offense (passing) put up some numbers.
2. We finally targeted a guy we paid 30 million to in the offseason, and KWins had his first real solid game as a Buc.
3. We ran the ball 16 times, an unacceptable number, I’ve been preaching this for weeks now.
4. I saw one of Jimmy Wilkerson’s stats, and from the looks of the box score, he was a beast.
5. It appears as though stopping the big play is not something our defense is going to learn how to stop, at least not for the foreseeable future.  4 Eagles had long plays over 20 yards in the game.
6. We were actually efficient on 3rd downs, going 9 of 18.
7. We allowed 9.2 yards p/pass play on Sunday, a number that when I first saw, I vomited in my mouth a little bit at.
8. Josh Johnson turned the ball over too much.

That was about the extent of what I could take from the box score.  I even hesitate to get excited about the passing and TOP numbers only because of the fact that we let them score so often and so fast, that we were bound to have some decent yardage in the air and as far as TOP is concerned.

What I want to ask next is, when are we going to win.  I know on any given Sunday in this league, that any team can beat any other team.  I think that holds true generally, but there are a few teams who buck that trend on both extremes, and this year I think we might be one of those teams.

vs Carolina – the only winnable game left that I see on our schedule.  Their big play potential with Steve Smith even with the Cajun throwing to him though still frightens me.

vs New England in London – not a chance in hell.

vs Green Bay – an offense that is going to have a field day against our DB’s.

@ Miami – if the Dolphins run the ball like they did against a great defense in the Jets, they can fight there way into a potential 6th seed.

vs New Orleans – we give up the most big plays in the league, and go against the team that scores the most big plays in the league, on the road.

@ Atlanta – if they play like they played last week vs San Fran, they are a legitimate contender in the NFC.

@ Carolina – on the road in Carolina is not a place we are good at.

vs New York Jets – we could have a chance in this game if we could force Mark Sanchize into a couple mistakes, we’d have to win an ugly game though.

@ Seattle – See ATL.  If Hasselbeck is healthy, this team kills us.

@ New Orleans – see above.

vs Atlanta – see above + road.

That gives us, as I see it, two chances to win.  One @ home this week, and one vs the NYJ at home.

Things we must do to win this week

1. Run the ball 25 + times even if we go down early
2. Run the ball 25 + times even if we go down early
3. Runt he ball 25 + times even if we go down early
4. We should try and run
5. Give Caddy and Ward the ball
6. Run the ball in order to relieve some of the pressure from JJ’s shoulders from trying to do too much
7. Run in order to open up the middle of the field for play action passes to our most dangerous weapon, KWins
8. Run the ball in order to open up the deep ball to Antonio Bryant

Those are my keys this week, and If I were to have my wish, which I never do, we would cut Michael Clayton right now.