Thought I might re-post this-My thoughts

[Uncle Stan]

HDE,

I don't think it as much lack of effort as it is lack of skills or as in the case of the defense, age. We have no veteran leadership on the offense.

I too am very concerned about the "plan" that will be set forth to get us back up where we belong.
If Gru/allen do it on the basis of saving their own butts, we are in big time trouble.

[Uncle Stan]

I am reposting this under a separate thread as it was buried in another one. It was written by me in response to a thread created by Guru who started the thread by saying- to paraphrase "Why didn't I know we were going to have a bad year and I could have accepted it?"
Hopefully this also might be a response to some of the "detractors".                                             
            
Guru,

Its the way of the NFL fans.

Virtually every year most fans of a team only see the good and the not the problems.

So many times their expectations aren't realistic. (See 2006 Dolphins,Panthers, Eagles, Jaguars, Steelers) Then there is Detroit and Arizona

The signs were all there before training camp. Bottom line we hadn't significantly added anyone substantial. We were out of cap room.

Training camp came and went and there still was no marked improvement.

The national & local media was putting us down. So when they did that,many, many,  posters here tore the media to shreds with comments like-what do they know, they are not here, they always put down theBucs, and made up stupid names to help put them down. Well, apparently the media wasn't too far off. Their main focus was on the aging defense and apparently they were right. They also made numerous comments about the OL -and it would appear they were right there also.

Staunch supporters, which most are on this board, are heavily homers to the point they don't want to see the bad till it hits them in the face.

If some posters try to be realistic, they are beat down. Prior to the 2003& 2004 there were some posters on here, including me, who tried to plead our case that we had problems and fans were not seeing it. We blasted Allen for bringing in the over the hill gang. We were killed for our comments! One even said we had the best team ever assembled. (I don't fault him for the comment as you would never find a stronger supporter of the Bucs). I am merely using it as an example of how the tenor of this boards runs from draft day to opening day.

This year was no different. All the signs were there again, but few wanted to believe it.

Yes I'm disappointed same as probably most of you. But I'm not calling for Allen/Gruden heads-yet.

Circumstances,some of which is beyond their collective control, has put us in this mess. Now it's up to them to get us out of it. They will have all the tools at their disposal after this year. Either they will use them wisely (plan for the future, not just 2007 to save their collective heads) and the team will show promise next year or I think the Glazers will the have a "sit-down" session with the both of them.

Homerism is great-to a point. But one has to temper it with some realism.


P.S. seems to me I wrote something like this 2 years ago.

[dalbuc]

On the offense my pre-season look was: http://www.nflfans.com/buccaneers1/article.php?story=20060830090236999

In sum, this offense looks a lot worse than I thought it would but that is just a fancy way of saying it looks a lot like last year's offense. I've seen nothing from this unit in pre-season games that makes me think we're gonna see much more than we did last year - a below average offense, with a line that struggles against better defenses and a team that will have to scale back their offense to protect their QB from getting hit a bunch.

There was a lot of hype on a lot of spots and maybe I bought too much of that hype thinking guys would be better. Simms doesn't look to have taken a step right now. Caddy hasn't become a better receiver. None of the young WR's stepped up and Clayton doesn't look back to form. Smith hasn't bloomed into a starter. The OL is still a mishmash of below average players. Maybe a lot of this youth will start to emerge in the second half of the season or maybe pre-season really doesn't mean anything but, based on what we've got now, I'm not too excited about this offense this year.


I feel pretty good about that but I totally whiffed on the defense: http://www.nflfans.com/buccaneers1/article.php?story=20060831085515614

Overall the defense seems to have a lot of depth right now and unlike the offense which is "deep" in potential the defensive depth really showed up well in pre-season. This is a good moment to toss some kudos at the new coaches: Jethro Franklin and Greg Burns. Franklin has his line charges playing at a very high level. I mean even Marinelli couldn't get Rice and McF to play in pre-season. Marinelli is a heck of a line coach but Franklin appears to be on the right path as well. Burns is replacing the also excellent Tomlin but he's done a nice job of getting something out of Cox, Pearson and Adams and so he also looks to be a rock solid find. This unit has always been strength of the Bucs and pre-season doesn't show me anything to make me think they'll not be excellent again this year. In the first quarter opponents have scored zero points. That is first team versus first team and that matters. Overall in the first half, against guys who matter, opponents have scored 12 total points and 10 of that was the Fish leaving their first team in against the second team defense.

Unc, while I agree with some of your points there is no way that we could have forseen such a lack of effort from a team that won their division just a year prior. The current Buccaneers seem to be in disarray from top to bottom and for that to happen in such a short period of time is quite disheartening to me. To see our young talent regress is equally frustrating. Obviously, we will see vast changes next year. Hopefully, they will be for the better, not for the worse.

Circumstances,some of which is beyond their collective control, has put us in this mess. Now it's up to them to get us out of it. They will have all the tools at their disposal after this year. Either they will use them wisely (plan for the future, not just 2007 to save their collective heads) and the team will show promise next year or I think the Glazers will the have a "sit-down" session with the both of them.

Right now, this is my greatest concern. I don't think they should go into next season thinking (real or imagined) that they must win next year. IMO, this may cloud their judgement on what moves should be done for the good of the team long term. If the Glazers are gonna stick with him, then I feel GruAllen should be extended so they don't feel the pressure to pour all of our resources into an '07 quick fix and neglect the future.

[Uncle Stan]

Dal,

IIRC,

You were one of the ones in 2003 and 2004 who was also critcized for your realism-which you are well known for on this board.

Sometimes fans just don't want to read bad news, even when it is so evident.

The shortcomings on offense could truly be seen.  As this team's Achilles Heel over its existence has been the o-line, nothing occurred which substantially upgraded things.  Then, to compound the problem, by default you had to go ahead and toss in the 2 rookies on the right side of the line.  While Simms was 0-3 in his starts, the QB problem was also compounded when we turned to the 6th-round rookie to cover Simms' injury.  Then you throw in the tough schedule (actually 3rd toughest I believe) and you have all the ingredients for disaster.  And disaster refused to take another route.

I think the defense has suffered both from age, as well as scheme.  Maybe they go hand in hand.  Everyone that knows about football realizes that our D-scheme is 100% predicated on QB pressure.  We aren't getting it.  Without it, the Cover-2/Tampa-2 will NOT work.  And it isn't working now, nor was it at any time this season.  If not for the miracle kick, we'd be 2-10.  When you allow 500+ yards of offense at home and still manage a victory, that IS nothing short of a miracle.

Like Uncle Stan, I am a diehard.  There IS a difference between that and being a homer.  I will support this team to the bitter end of my days on earth.