Now that the season is basically over.

[TBTrojan]

It would be embarrassing to lose to the Eagles. They are in a horrible state right now.

 I wouldn't write off the Rams though. They have been playing some really good football in St. Louis. Like Tampa, they have a similar change in culture happening. They play hard.

As far as the Saints game, we haven't shown that we can win a big important game vs a good team... So I don't have faith we will win that one. Hope they prove me wrong, but I'm just going off what I've seen.

Time to open the book on who Andy Reid throws under the bus and fires/releases when we beat them.
Marty Moronwig?
Todd Bowles?
Nnamdi Ashoiyhoihhg (I really have no clue how his name is spelt)

[bucs4eva]

Bucs

[Legend]

Even if we win out our playoff chances still are outta of hands now. Can't really be disappointed with this season though.

[tripblood]

Even if we win out our playoff chances still are outta of hands now. Can't really be disappointed with this season though.

If we win out I think our chances getting to the playoffs are still high... Using that "playoff calculator"

[baybuc35]

Even if we win out our playoff chances still are outta of hands now. Can't really be disappointed with this season though.

giants would only have to lose 2 of 4 . Redskins get the division if they win out and we gt the wildcard if we win out and Dallas loses

[BucBalla85]

meh Have me down as one of the guys who thinks this team wont make the playoffs. However I think this team will be a very good one next year. I think we will make some key adjustments and additions and will make a very exciting run next year. This team needs to start getting playoff experience soon.

[TBTrojan]

Even if we win out our playoff chances still are outta of hands now. Can't really be disappointed with this season though.

giants would only have to lose 2 of 4 . Redskins get the division if they win out and we gt the wildcard if we win out and Dallas loses

Not sure how that works being as the wildcards aren't from the East.
All that does is replace one of the 4 top seeds and leaves the Hawks & Pack/Bears as wildcards.
If we win out the East has no bearing on us getting in, it's down to the 3 above teams losing some games..

[ufojoe]

Win out and we have a very good chance of making it.

[JDouble]

Redskins aren't winning out. I would bet on that.

Cowboys most definitely are not winning out. Have you seen their last four games? Brutal schedule.....and they suck.

Giants will still win the division.

Vikings have no Percy Harvin now. Even if they did they would be lucky to finish 8-8. They aren't a threat.

The way I see it, out of the 49ers and Seahawks, one will win the West and the other will win a Wildcard. Then, with Greenbay and the Bears...same thing. So your NFC Playoff teams look like this.....Falcons, Giants, Packers, 49ers, Bears, and Seahawks.

Only chance I see us having is if we win our last four games to finish 10-6 and the Bears or Seahawks collapse. The Bears lost Urlacher, plus Briggs has an ankle and one of their starting CBs is out with a shoulder. Their offense is not good. The only reason they have a winning record this year is because their defense was having a record breaking season and scoring ridiculous amounts of points. Now the defense will be ok, but not great. If they do make the playoffs, it's probably one and done.

With the Seahawks losing one of the CBs (maybe two) they could possibly have a similar collapse. Their secondary is known as the "Legion of Doom" (how cool is that?) but without that secondary they could start giving up a lot more points....and as much as like Russel Wilson, I don't think that offense is ready to be a high scoring juggernaut.

All we can do is win out and cross our fingers at this point....but I'm still only watching the Bears and Seahawks. Those other guys aren't doing jack.

[Benchwarmer#1]

Good assessment jdub.

However, I don't think they can win out the remain games, at least, not with this secondary. It's basically the same thing that happened with big manning vs. The bucs. Throw all damn day and you will beat the bucs. All they do is play run defense, they hardly ever get sacks, and the secondary is barely worthy of being called NFL level talent. Without barber back there, they're not.

Brees will eat them alive like Penn at a buffet, Ryan will also demolish them yet again, and the rams, despite being slightly better than average, are not going to go without a fight. Despite our vastly improved offense, the defense will continue to fail this org.

Honestly, how many games can you blame on the defense? Nearly all of them. How many times did this defense hold anyone under 10 points? Yeah, I believe it's safe to assume this barfense has already cost Tampa it's season. Just being average would be a massive improvement. It's just THAT bad.

I think the remaining games go accordingly. 2-2. The saints and falcons both destroy the bucs horrible backfield yet again. 8-8 is what I guessed when the season started, funny how I actually feel bad about being right for once. Although, I thought 8-8 would still gain a WC birth.

[JDouble]

I actually thought our defense did well verse Peyton. No matter what we were doing we lined up in a basic cover two presnap, which didn't allow Manning to do all his usual trickery. We held him to just 7 points in the 1st half, and we got an interception. We actually kept our safeties deep and forced underneath stuff. We need to finish the season using this same method imo. Doing so will do a few different things.

1. It will make us more susceptible to the run, but I think we'll be ok. We might not finish as the #1 run defense, but that really isn't what is important anyways.

2. We'll still give up a lot of pass yards, but by forcing the dink and dunks it causes drives to take much longer, which means less total points scored and more opportunity for them to make a mistake.

3. If we can get our quick strike offense going again, playing this old "bend but don't break" mentality will make it hard for teams to outscore us.


I enjoy and prefer our downhill attacking mentality, but we really don't have the secondary or DEs to do it right now. I think our best chance for success is to go back to more Tampa 2 for these last three games.

[chace1986]

What's really annoying is the Seahawks get to play with their starting corners for at least one more week and maybe more.


http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap1000000105792/article/richard-sherman-suspension-appeal-set-for-dec-14

Browner dropped his appeal. His 4 game suspension starts this weekend.

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2012/12/05/brandon-browner-begins-serving-four-game-suspension/



To the OP. If the clock strikes 00:00 in ATL and the Bucs are out of it, I will root for the Texans and the 49ers.

There is a small chance that we win out, but we have won 4 straight this year and the schedule isn't incredibly difficult, so it definitely can be done.

[JDouble]

I heard about Browner being out, but any news on the other CB?

[Rusty]

Jdouble. I personally like the scheme, kinda tired of the Tampa 2, that said it's worked for us a long time. Obviously injuries and playing street free agents hasn't helped. I think if the dline is healthy next year, we draft a stud Dlinemen and Blacks replacement, plus two oung DB's, next year, everything should tighten up a bit. That plus, those poor DB's are battle scarred this year, so they should be better also.

[Hate]

I heard about Browner being out, but any news on the other CB?

His hearing is on the 14th