Here's my take...

[rhadaddy]

First off I'd like to thank Xiidean and njfinfan for recomending that east hanover spot, even though I went solo, I felt right at home with about 50 dolphans in the heart of NJ.... (it was off the hook free buffet, two dollar beers and all) Sorry we didn't get to meet (I was ricky williams tonight:D Long dreads and the blue RW jersey)

now to the game stuff.....

Let me just say that there is absolutely no comp at QB.. at all. Griese looked lost, he hung on to the ball way too long and the 1st team offense just couldn't get it going. IMHO If JF was starting he would of broke off a couple of nice long scrambles, becasue the Bucs coverage was dominant, and the pass rush was smothering (to say the least) however, a good scrambling quarterback would have made lemonade out of the lemons we had tonight and kept the Bucs honest.

Disclaimer I'm not good a writting reviews, so I may have missed some pro's and cons

Da negatives

Randy McMicheal... there's no excuse for the fumble, If I was DW, I would open up the TE comp to all the TE's to light a fire under his a$$... hopefully he will learn from that mistake.

Brian Griese looked pressured and lost... that's it

The offensive line and the RB's picking up the blitzes were less than spectacular (which is a compliment).

Chris Chambers drop a key pas on third down right in the hands, though the pass was a little behind him, it should've been caught.
Derrius made a nice clutch catch but nothing spectacular, but he was solid for the first team.

RW was non exsistent... see the OL comment.

The first team defense looked lest than advertised, however this is the first preseason game and a few new starters, so that's to be expected.

In another post they mentioned how Seau was burnt, and boy was he burnt... hopefully he will correct that... He definetly has slowed a bit.

Our coaches were out coached tonight but I attribute that to Chucky's ego and that this is their second preseason game. They opened up their playbook and quite frankly we werent prepared defensively to stave them off.

The positives

Sam Simmons is looking like a man with two kids and needs to pay the bills casue he's hungry and making plays.. He got dinged up with a neck injury but it didn't look too serious.

JR Tolver is looking solid as well, Sage seems to be very comfortable with him.

Sage strated out slow but he was solid, what you'd expect from a 3rd stringer.. He was a little inconsistent.

Aside from the fumble, Minor is looking good as well as Henry. Suprisingly Edwards didn't look too good and he had a fumble which we recovered.

Newsome looked good on one return but it was against scrubs, but he defiently has some explosion, suprisingly Rogers wasn't exciting on the returns, but he was solid and he didn't make any mistakes.

Jenkins is gonna make this team cause he was all over the place, Eddie Moore looked good until he got injured...

All in all the officiating sucked they missed several calls and the Bucs should've won 27 to 19 becasue the catch they overturned was a TD.. Sorry but it was. Rogers should've caught that two point conversion, it was right in his hands.

All in all I'm a little concerned about the turnovers and penalties, and I hope our offensive line will gel.. The Bucs kept putting 8-9 pepole in the box and we couldn't get a pass off, but I attribute that to the lack of game planning for a pre-season game (though it eerily reminded me of last year when defenses would tempt us to throw down field and we couldn't) We definelty need a solid passing game....

I liked the fact that we went for it on the two point conversion, if that's any indication, which it probaly isn't, the coaching is getting more aggressive


btw... Nice sack for Jay Williams

 

[Da 'Fins]

Hey man, thanks for the breakdown. I figured we would look rusty as a team since TB has a game in hand and since they have vets running their system on all cylinders. We always start slow in the preseason - it was especially going to be the case with Griese in there and with several vets on D and a few on O to get into place.

Seau's slowness does concern me a bit - especially b/c he lost 10 lbs from last year! But, a lot of times guys get heavy legs at this point in camp with all the two a days and when things lighten up a bit they get quicker. I especially think this is the case with older guys whose recovery time is a bit longer.

I'm not really worried about this game. We were really a game behind TB in terms of preparation. I like the fact that we competed with our backups. The real test will be against Atlanta.

Hopefully none of the injuries were serious. Also, it will be interesting to see what happens with Simmons and Tolver. The competition at WR is pretty serious. I wonder if both will make it and if Gadsden will be the odd man out (they may put him on PUP - which keeps him out the 1st 6 weeks).

Thanks again for the report.

 

[rhadaddy]

no problem..

I should've taken notes.. Nah what the hell am I talking about, I was around 50 dolphans and had two guinsesses and a few Corona's.... Hmm it was definetly my pleasure :D

 

[finfan54]

i only saw the second half but here is what i think. Gruden is such a freak. all he wanted was this game, which is exactly what i thought. since fiedler was out, i knew there wouldnt be alot of emphasis on this game. i think gruden knew it too and that is why he wanted to win this thing really bad cus he knew we were doggin.
i hope eddie moore is allright.

 

[Aqua]

I'll add my take. I was at the game but haven't seen it on TV yet. Remember this is only one game.

Stemke should be the punter.

Simmons will make a very good slot WR and might be the #3 guy when we break camp. Let's hope his neck injury is minor. Tolver looked decent also and IMO Gadsden is the long-shot to make the team.

Corey Jenkins was all over the field on defense and special teams. If Moore's injury causes him to miss some time and Jenkins gets those extra reps he'll be breathing down Greenwoods neck as the starter very soon. He looks like a huge steal.

Seau looked lost and very slow.

Tim Bowens is not close to being in shape.

Grigsby looks like a good prospect and he should get some good experience with D Bowens and Burnett out.

Griese is indecisive and scared to throw the ball downfield.

When given time Rosenfels looks like he might have a future. Only one of Griese and Fiedler will be back next year and right now Sage looks like he could handle the back-up QB so if he can continue to develop he eventuallly might be the man.

Henry is much quicker and cuts back way better than Edwards. I think Henry makes the team over Edwards.

My biggest concern is the back-ups on the OL. Tampa was blitzing throughout the whole game and granted the combo of Smith, Yates, McKinney, Whitney, and Jerman have practically no experience, but none of the five are ready to play if one of the starters gets hurt. I'll watch them more when I review the tape of the game to see if any of the five was worse than the others but we're in huge trouble if a couple of these guys have to play in the regular season. I'll be monitoring this on a regular basis.

Yes it's the first preseaon game and so many different things will still happen so I'm not overly concerned about the lack of passions from the starters.

 

[Prime Time]

My biggest take....

Stemke keep doing what you do!

 

[rhadaddy]

After having time to think about it

Aside from the potentially serious injuries, The game wasn't as bad as it seemed. My reasoning is simply because Gruden and Kiffin came out there with set gameplans, they opened their playbooks offensively and defensively. We played our base cover two defense pretty much all night, with little blitzing. And our offensive gameplan was non-existent. We didn't get to see any new defensive wrinkes that we've been hearing about....And I'm glad.


I'd much rather see them on week 1 of the regular season.

I'll say this Konrad breaking a finger is not good. But Obafemi looked impressive, just he needs to work on his blocking.

Ed Perry...Ouch. Lest hope it's a knee sprain

Eddie Moore's foot injury came back negative so that's a little positive.

No real word on Sam simmons, but that injury looked like he's gonna have a serious case of whiplash today

 

[finfan54]

Re: After having time to think about it

Originally posted by rhadaddy
Aside from the potentially serious injuries, The game wasn't as bad as it seemed. My reasoning is simply because Gruden and Kiffin came out there with set gameplans, they opened their playbooks offensively and defensively. We played our base cover two defense pretty much all night, with little blitzing. And our offensive gameplan was non-existent. We didn't get to see any new defensive wrinkes that we've been hearing about....And I'm glad.


I'd much rather see them on week 1 of the regular season.

I'll say this Konrad breaking a finger is not good. But Obafemi looked impressive, just he needs to work on his blocking.

Ed Perry...Ouch. Lest hope it's a knee sprain

Eddie Moore's foot injury came back negative so that's a little positive.

No real word on Sam simmons, but that injury looked like he's gonna have a serious case of whiplash today

yeah, we were vanilla all the way. We did allright considering we didnt have fiedler playing. as i have said before, griese is teh backup and always will be the backup. And if sage continuous to play well, he will be our backup next year and griese will be gone.
I expect more of the same for jacksnonville except more attitude. they will gameplan for atlanta with our starters getting alot of work.
Leonard Henry is defenitely faster than robert edwards and better just like i saw last week. I feel for robert edwards but this is about going to the dance. Konrad has been kept out of everything lately and now he is injured. Norv is keeping everything vanilla. i mean, if norv wanted to run reverses like tampa last night he could have, but he didnt, as far as i saw in the secnd half.

 

[M-REAL]

Thanx RHA and I am glad most of us are staying optimistic.

 

[iceblizzard69]

Here is my take:

I didn't get to see the game. I have NFL Sunday Ticket, and it costs like 180 dollars a year, but they still won't give us preseason games. It is a great service, but for what we pay, they should give us preseason as well! So that is my take.