Giants Run Over Offensively Challenged Bucs

Raheem Morris said earlier in the week that the New York Giants were who the Tampa Bay Buccaneers want to become. When Raheem's master plan is finally executed,the team will look a lot like the Giants' physical style of football. New York showed Tampa Bay how far away they are by dominating both lines of scrimmage in a 24-0 whitewash of the Buccaneers at Raymond James Stadium. The Buccaneers offense couldn't stay on the field and their defense couldn't get off. That's not a recipe for a good day against one of the best teams in the NFL. While the defense definitely had its issues, surrendering 226 yards on the ground to the duo of Ahmad Bradshaw and bruiser Brandon Jacobs, they did make some strides in the secondary, allowing only one big pass to Eli Manning and the Giants. Manning had a rather pedestrian 161 yards but did throw two touchdowns. New York was simply content to out physical the Buccaneers and it worked. The biggest Achilles' heel for the Bucs defense in this one is failure on 3rd down. The G-men were 10 of 16 on the money down, with several conversions in longer that five yard situations. However, this game rests on the Buccaneers offense. Tampa Bay was horrible. When you play four quarters and only amass 88 yards, five first downs, and are 0-for-9 on third down - it's as ugly as the Seattle Seahawks neon green alternate jerseys. We could plant the old John McKay line about offensive execution here but even that can't describe how bad it was. Folks, the Bucs didn't get their first first down until the fourth quarter. The cannons hadn't gone off since pre-game and the ship only got one off late in the game when backup quarterback Josh Johnson engineered a drive into the red zone against the Giants prevent defense. It's become quite obvious that without Jeff Faine at center, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers cannot run the football. It will likely be another couple weeks before Faine can return, so don't expect much from the Tampa Bay running game for a while. Without a running game, it falls on Byron Leftwich to move the chains. He failed miserably on Sunday. 7 of 16 for 22 yds and an interception. Could Josh Freeman possibly do worse? Could Josh Johnson? Johnson finished with 36 passing yards and had a run for 15 yards in one series. That's more than the Leftwich led offense for three and half quarters. Of course, fans will be calling for Johnson to start but if the Bucs are going young, it's not going to be with the young QB from San Diego. Johnson was blitzed the first couple passes he faced and handled it well, finding his hot reads....imagine that, touch on passes into the flat and being able to see the blitz coming. You'd think he was the seasoned vet and Leftwich was the guy who never played in a regular season game in the NFL. It'll be interesting to see what coach Raheem Morris decides. Meanwhile the Bucs head to the nation's capital to face an embarrassed Washington Redskins team that just lost to the Detroit Lions, snapping Detroit's 19 game losing streak. The Redskins are bound to be mad and if you have Clinton Portis on your fantasy team you may be very excited right now. Don't look now Buccaneers fans but the Buccaneers now have the second longest losing streak in the NFL at seven games (the Rams lead the league with 13 straight defeats). Are the Redskins the NFL's version of the slump buster or will Raheem and the Bucs have to wait even longer to taste victory? Should be an interesting week.