Hard to believe someone other than Luke McCown's mother would suggest he still is in the race to start against Dallas.

Since Joe launched this site over a year ago, he has met all sorts of Bucs fans. Even the most diehard Luke McCown fans are pretty discouraged by McCown not taking advantage of being all but given the starting quarterback job the moment Chucky was fired.

Vacation Man of BSPN.com is no fan; an impartial observer, he. So Joe was somewhat perplexed by what Vacation Man deemed the Bucs quarterback race to be.

Vacation Man said the race is now “cloudy.”

If anything, Tampa Bay’s quarterback situation might have gotten more cloudy in the preseason opener Saturday night.

The battle between Luke McCown and Byron Leftwich for the starting job is probably closer than it was before. McCown started and didn’t play badly, but didn’t do anything particularly well on a night when the Titans were able to put some pressure on him. Leftwich followed and had a better outing.

Um, did Vacation Man see the same game or was he on vacation again and didn’t set his DVR? McCown, really nice guy that he is, played terrible. It pains Joe to write that because McCown is such a good person, but there was no way to sugarcoat his play Saturday.

Look, Vacation Man lives in Tampa. He’s been to a number of practices. Surely he’s seen what others at practices have seen: That Leftwich has pulled away from McCown in practices. And playing with lesser talent Saturday, playing behind reserve offensive linemen and throwing to guys farther down the depth chart than McCown , Leftwich moved the ball, looked smooth and rarely rattled.

McCown cannot say the same thing.

Unless Leftwich stinks up the joint badly this weekend and McCown shines, there’s nothing cloudy about who will start against Dallass.

Leftwich.