Sunday, September 28, 2008

Green Bay Packers (2-1) at Tampa Bay Buccaneers (2-1)

When I was a kid my much older brother used to love the joke "where are you buccaneers? On the side of your buccanhead."

Jokes really weren't his thing.

The story of the game:

Al Harris is out. Atari Bigby is out. During play Nick Collins, Aaron Rodgers, Aaron Rouse, Cullen Jenkins, Will Blackmon and the running game missed significant time due to injuries.

Apparently the good folks down in Tampa (I'm kidding, there are obviously no good folks in Tampa) haven't heard of TD Grassmaster. The entire game was strewn with guys falling down, more divots flying than a Caddyshack marathon, groundskeepers repairing the sod and other frustrations. Both teams had to deal with the conditions so I'm not blaming the loss on it, I'm just pointing out that Tampa may want to spend more that $12.50 a week on maintenance is all.

The other story of the game:

Our O-line is in shambles at this point. I was hoping the return of Scott Wells would help in this matter, but to be honest most of the blame for today's loss should rest on the large and slow moving shoulders of Chad Clifton. Clif has the most holding calls in the league this year and also was beaten on at least one sack today. He also, along with two tight ends, failed to pick up the DE and allowed Rodgers to take a hit which led to an interception. Rodgers got the ball out in all of 2 seconds and clearly wasn't prepared for that sort of beating.

Aaron Rodgers took one series of the game off in the 4th quarter due to an injury to his throwing arm. Matt Flynn came in to replace him. In this three play series the O-line picked up a false start and a holding penalty. They also opened up zero holes. So, good luck Rook! Not only are they not helping, they're openly trying to fail at this point.

The sad reminder that the combination of people and microphones is not ideal when the "people" includes an ex-fullback:

Near the end of the game Matt Bryant, the Buc's kicker, hit a field goal to put Tampa up 23-21. Matt Bryant and his wife are dealing with the passing of their young son. According to Daryl Johnston "Hollywood couldn't write a better story. To deal with this type of adversity and overcome it is just tremendous."

Now, I'm not saying that Matt Bryant doesn't deserve kudos for playing well when he has to deal with the loss of his child. That is impressive. But guess what? Kicking a field goal or two in a week 4 contest isn't really going to change his life all that much is it? I mean, c'mon! I just wish it wasn't sold as if a good day in the NFL will fix all of your ills. It won't. Only consistent workouts and a sensible diet will do that.

Final Score:

Tampa Bay Buccanheads 30 - Green Bay Packers 21

We didn't deserve to win this one. Well, ok, Chuck Wood deserved to win today, but nobody else. So I can't complain about the result. We need to get the O-line sorted out and we need Ryan Grant to start seeing the holes if they actually manage to, y'know, make some. We need to get some guys healthy in the secondary too or that matchup with the Seahawks in a few weeks will seem like a 1987 replacement game or something. Fix it!

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