Tuesday Afternoon Linebacker

don’t have the time to finish this. So here is the half finished pile of crap for this week. Enjoy, or don’t. Okay, so I had time to finish up….

Five Dash One
No Caddy? No Griese? No worries. The hometown heros rolled to a 27-13 victory on Sunday versus the best team they’ve faced so far this season, the Miami Dolphins. TALB cringed when Brian Griese hit the turf, his leg rolled under the defensive player. I cringed first for the injury, and then at the thought of Simms the Younger at the helm. Based on last year’s performance, we Bucs fans were right to be wary of the man’s abilities. However he acquitted himself quite nicely. Though the first series at his direction did not bode well. It would appear that Simms has learned a lot from last year and might not be a liability over the next few weeks. Though players often shine in relief but cannot handle the pressure of being a starter. This is especially true at the quarterback spot.

Mr. Pittman. Please figure out what kind of player you are. At least that way we can know what to expect. You come in one week to spell Williams and run wild. Then the next week as the starter you lay a turd. Then this week as a slightly injured starter you run wild again. And here’s to you choosing to be the good running back.

Defensively, the Bucs are back to their championship form. Well except for the turnover part. If TALB had been keeping track, I might have a Dropped-Int-O-Meter going. It happens, but never to the extent that I’ve noticed this year. Honestly, I think they’re dropping something like three a game. And that’s good catchable picks. I’m not even counting the finger-tippers or the balls batted up in the air. But either way, everything else is clicking on defense and we’ve got opponents clawing for each and every yard. Even the run defense is getting the job done. Bravo lads.

Often times you’ll hear that a team’s bye week couldn’t have come at a better time. Well that is the case for our Bucs. The banged up NFC leaders should be able to get a few guys back off the injured list (Caddy included). Plus young Simms will be able to get a few more reps in practice as The Man before facing the mighty 49ers.

On the injury front, the Bucs are still waiting (to announce probably) the extent of Griese’s injury. Should he end up with a severe enough injury, the Bucs will likely turn to a former Buc or two to try and fill the third quarterback spot. The team can afford to be a little coy at this point given the upcoming bye.

In The Abstract
The Florida Gators’ offense exists as if it was a dream. An abstract concept, spoken of in terms of “what if”. What if it actually appeared in a game? What if it could be run for real one day? It is what we geeks might call “vaporware”. Granted, at both Bowling Green and Utah it was not until year two that the Meyer Spread Option took hold; or so we were told in the preseason. Does that mean I’m down on TTNHBC? Not at all. It is just frustrating to see how mightily the offense struggles when faced with even a moderately competent defense at this point. Save for the Gators’ defense, we’d have lost to Tennessee. Josh Portis may be the future at quarterback for this team. But right now, even with his questionable decision-making lately, Chris Leak is still our best option.

It would now also be safe to count, at least, the collisions with Georgia and FSU in the loss column. Is that pessimisstic? Probably. But TALB also thinks it is realistic. As a long time Bucs fan, TALB can attest to the fact that defense can only carry an inept offense so long.

Super Dave
The South Florida Bulls, indeed Bulls in the Big East china shop, fell to the pathetic Pitt Panthers this past weekend (again with the allitteration). Pitt couldn’t win games against the lowest of the low. Yet the Bulls were able to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Are these Bulls starting to read their own press clippings? That Big East title that was yours for the taking just under a month ago is now a fight to the finish. The Bulls must now win out the rest of the way, and hope that Pitt drops another conference game. Welcome to the bigs kids. Now’s the time to start watching that scoreboard.

720, 1080, Hut, Hut!
For those of you interested in such things, TALB found a handy dandy site that lists upcoming sports contests that will be broadcast in high definition. Click here for the NFL schedule. The site also has information regarding other major sports.

Fox Sucks, Update
Speaking of HD. With regards to last week’s Bucs-Jets HD snafu, I had sent an email to Fox 13 to see what happened. They responded:

The reason HD was not available during the first half was a satellite related sun-outage. A few times each year, the sun lines up directly with the FOX satellite and our satellite receive dishes. During this relatively short time - a few hours - reception of FOX network programming by FOX13 is hampered. In this case, it was the HD feed that was not usable for the first half of the ball game. fortunately, as stated, this only hapens a few times a year. The timing on this outage happened to be very poor.

The Sun. Indeed. How do they get the SD feed then? Why was that not affected? So far, no response to my follow-up query.

Dope
Bill Romanowski used steriods. You’re kidding me. This nice gentlemen who never uttered an unkind word or acted in a violent manner took performance enhancers? TALB is shocked.

TALB Logo
Does TALB need a new logo? You decide. Below is the current selection, and three alternates. Please leave comments below with your thoughts. Also, reader submissions accepted if you would like to create your own. (My topic logos are no larger than 65×65. Though rectangles are fine, no side should be longer than 65 pixels.)

1 - - The current logo.
2 - - Who’s our favorite player?
3 - - Terry Tate, another view.
4 - - One more from Terry.

Teabagged
The Thunderers fell again. This time by an 87-54 margin. Trent Dilfer was shown the door after posting a stellar -4 outing. Word is Big Ben will be back in the line-up next week, so he’s back as the starter. Simms was picked up as the backup for now. It didn’t help that the Teabaggers’ starting running back, Shaun Alexander, turned in a record-breaking performance Sunday night. The stud back galloped in for four touchdowns and 31 fantasy points. The Tunderers now sit two games out of playoff contention.

Running Items
WTF?
Tedy Bruschi, who suffered a stroke earlier this year will return to the gridiron this week. Take it easy man. It is just a game. It will be here next year.

Rose Bowl
USC vs. Texas
The first BCS rankings say so. The sacred human polls will be the downfall this year methinks. Virginia Tech and the survivor between Georgia and Alabama will have legitimate beef to claim “we wuz robbed!”

Super Bowl XL
Horsies vs. Dread Pirates
Had to put the lads back on top, since they are on top of the NFC right now. We’re a game up on everyone with some favorable match-ups ahead. Yo ho ho!

Next Week: Egads! Both the Gators and Bucs are on the bye. What will TALB do? Probably turn in a very light column, that’s what.