Steve White.........People continue to make asses out of themselves blaming Ruud

[CyberDilemma]

Looking at the defensive personnel, Ruud is the best player on the Bucs defense at the moment.

If you believe Ruud is a better player than Ronder or Talib, then you have the talent-evaluating skills of a Bruce Allen.

Ruud is fundamentally sound. The big issue with the guy if you rewatch the games is that he can't shed a block to save his life. It's just too easy to take him out of a play.

[Pick6]

a) if we're using steve white's mediocre NFL career as reason to undermine his opinions about football players, what does that say about the quality of our opinions as posters who probably didn't play the game beyond the rec or high school level if at all?

b) although i respect his opinion on the nfl and nfl players, i couldn't disagree with steve white more on this one. he may be in the right position, but he can't get off a block and flow to the ball. if you can't do those things you will never be an impact player.  many LBs in the NFL can be positionally sound AND make impactful plays on the ball or  ballcarrier. we've all seen guys in buc jerseys do it before, even on bad teams. by all accounts, ruud has a good head for the game but he doesn't translate that into fast or hard play.  he's somebody's future backup

[CBWx2]

a) if we're using steve white's mediocre NFL career as reason to undermine his opinions about football players, what does that say about the quality of our opinions as posters who probably didn't play the game beyond the rec or high school level if at all?

b) although i respect his opinion on the nfl and nfl players, i couldn't disagree with steve white more on this one. he may be in the right position, but he can't get off a block and flow to the ball. if you can't do those things you will never be an impact player.  many LBs in the NFL can be positionally sound AND make impactful plays on the ball or  ballcarrier. we've all seen guys in buc jerseys do it before, even on bad teams. by all accounts, ruud has a good head for the game but he doesn't translate that into fast or hard play.  he's somebody's future backup

Being in position is all you can ask a guy to do. If every player on defense did just that, we would have won yesterday. Ruud is not going to be a backup anywhere. He will be starting for this team or another next year. Anybody who thinks he isn't a starting linebacker is in denial.

[Boid Fink]

...all you have to do is watch how Ruud plays.  No player is ever put into a position (such as his is), and not be in position to be an impact.  Ruud is a MLB, he should be creating a mess from time to time.

[Biggs3535]

Being in position is all you can ask a guy to do.

If your expectations are extremely low, I suppose so.

Let's go find a whole bunch of Harvard football players.  They will probably always be in proper position.

[CBWx2]

Didn't Matt Birk go to Harvard?

[ufojoe]

Ruud has plenty of flaws, but if we had 11 guys who played in the right spot our defense would look a helluva lot better.

Yep. With more guys healthy. this defense was coming on and had plenty of 2nd half shut-outs and won seven games. All with Ruud. Amazing how they did that.

SW thinks we can win with Ruud but he has said (and some of the asses know this) that he prefers a thumper over Ruud. Notice how the asses forget to mention that. You won't get them to admit anything so don't waste your time. They all know more than SW. Especially the biggest ass on here.

http://passingonthegame.blogspot.com/2010/12/bull-rush_14.html#comments

...Bottom line is this, Ruud isn't a big hitter, not a great blitzer and he doesn't come down hill sometimes as fast as I would like. But he isn't close to the caricature that some folks who evidently don't have a clue about defense have made him out to be and he is usually where he is supposed to be on any given play.

...I think we can win with Ruud although I prefer more of a thumper.

[CyberDilemma]

Being in position is all you can ask a guy to do. If every player on defense did just that, we would have won yesterday.

Cigar store Indians are usually in position, too, but they still don't accomplish a lot.

[ufojoe]

Being in position is all you can ask a guy to do. If every player on defense did just that, we would have won yesterday.

Cigar store Indians are usually in position, too, but they still don't accomplish a lot.

Ruud is usually in position but SW would rather have a thumper. What's so hard to understand about that? What CBWx2 says is irrelevant to the SW comments.

[Boid Fink]

a) if we're using steve white's mediocre NFL career as reason to undermine his opinions about football players, what does that say about the quality of our opinions as posters who probably didn't play the game beyond the rec or high school level if at all?

b) although i respect his opinion on the nfl and nfl players, i couldn't disagree with steve white more on this one. he may be in the right position, but he can't get off a block and flow to the ball. if you can't do those things you will never be an impact player.  many LBs in the NFL can be positionally sound AND make impactful plays on the ball or  ballcarrier. we've all seen guys in buc jerseys do it before, even on bad teams. by all accounts, ruud has a good head for the game but he doesn't translate that into fast or hard play.  he's somebody's future backup

Being in position is all you can ask a guy to do. If every player on defense did just that, we would have won yesterday.

well, the other teams have had linemen in postion, full backs in position, and the running backs on other teams have been in position as well...and Ruud was in his position, and usually gets muscled to the point it becomes a moot point.

Ruud may not suck, but he is very replaceable.  VERY.

[Feel Real Good]

Yep. With more guys healthy. this defense was coming on and had plenty of 2nd half shut-outs and won seven games. All with Ruud. Amazing how they did that.

That means nothing. The Bucs had one of the best defenses in the history of the NFL with Ryan Nece, Dexter Jackson, Brian Kelly, Ellis Wyms, and Greg Spires prominently involved. You don't need 11 really good-to-great players to have a really good-to-great defense. The reason the 2010 defense was "coming on" was because we finally had a couple players who could rise to the occasion and compensate for Ruud's mediocrity, just like Sapp, Brooks, Rice, Lynch, and Barber compensated for Nece, Jackson, Kelly, Wyms, and Spires.

[Boid Fink]

With Ruud in there, this run defense is still pathetic.

Ruud is replaceable, and I hope he goes to antoher team next year.

[ufojoe]

Yep. With more guys healthy. this defense was coming on and had plenty of 2nd half shut-outs and won seven games. All with Ruud. Amazing how they did that.

That means nothing. The Bucs had one of the best defenses in the history of the NFL with Ryan Nece, Dexter Jackson, Brian Kelly, Ellis Wyms, and Greg Spires prominently involved. You don't need 11 really good-to-great players to have a really good-to-great defense. The reason the 2010 defense was "coming on" was because we finally had a couple players who could rise to the occasion and compensate for Ruud's mediocrity, just like Sapp, Brooks, Rice, Lynch, and Barber compensated for Nece, Jackson, Kelly, Wyms, and Spires.

Like SW, I would prefer a thumper over Ruud. But this D was more than OK with him in the line-up and the other guys healthy. We have other problems more pressing than Ruud. I think most folks know that. If we can get a top notch MLB, great! But if not, we'll be fine with Ruud if we can get some DEs and a pass rush.

[Condor Bastadon]

As usual, Steve is right. Ruud is low on the list of reasons we got embarrassed by Drew Stanton and the mighty Lions offense. Of course the predictable haters are going to blame Ruud, even though he was doing his job for most of the game. But in a one-gap defense, when everybody doesn't do their job, you can easily get gashed.

Too many of you guys think that we need a Superman LB to run through FB's and OG's and make the tackle themselves to make the run game decent. Yeah, that'd be awesome....but it's hardly realistic. You'll have much better luck finding a front 7(or 8 ) that can simply make the right read and play gap-sound football(like every great Buccaneer defense we've ever had). Unfortunately, we don't have either right now.

[FlyingScorpion]

Being in position is all you can ask a guy to do. If every player on defense did just that, we would have won yesterday.

Cigar store Indians are usually in position, too, but they still don't accomplish a lot.

they sell cigars