Excitement Building
September 18th, 2017
Not just playoffs?
Joe is torn. On one hand Joe’s brain says not to go overboard with the annual Week 1 overreaction. Joe’s heart tells him to jump in the pool.
Well, it seems one typist took the deep plunge after the Bucs throttled the declawed Bears yesterday at the Den of Depression.
TheRinger.com analyst Danny Heifetz is one of many around the country jumping in the deep end of the pool and throwing out there that if the Bucs have one more alley-stomping of a foe this month, the Bucs should be considered a Super Bowl contender.
The Bucs, on the other hand, look like they could seriously compete for an NFC South title. The Panthers are looking like a shell of the team that reached Super Bowl 50 and lost Greg Olsen to a broken foot on Sunday. The Saints are 0-2 and their defense looks to be the E-Z Pass lane of the league for the umpteenth year in a row. Jameis Winston had an unremarkable stat line—18 of 30 for 204 yards and the touchdown to Evans—but looks poised to make The Leap this season. …
If the Bucs can similarly dominate the Vikings next week, not only will they have the top swashbuckling mascot in the NFC, they’ll be in the conversation as a dark-horse Super Bowl candidate.
Whoa, take it easy. It’s but one game. Now Joe can see how one can get excited about yesterday. Easy to do.
Let’s just say if the Bucs play defense consistently anywhere nearly as good as they did yesterday, the defense will give the Bucs a chance to make a run into meaningful games in January.
Somewhere after the game yesterday, Warren Sapp and Derrick Brooks were smiling.
September 18th, 2017 at 10:06 am
OK Joe you like to drag the past decade to promote your Den of ReAlLy!?!?!
Don’t tell me NOT to Celebrate!!! lol
BTW last 5 home games WON!!!! WHOA!!!!
September 18th, 2017 at 10:07 am
I am very excited about this team and coaching staff since last year!!! if you do not believe, repost will be by request!!!!!!!!!
They should, as they should that they are in another class than the Bears!!!! The good news is, there are not many strong NFC teams this year!!!! And when its all said and done, it could be the the Bucs and Atlanta are the two top NFC teams this year!!!!!! But we really need a quarter of the season to figure out where all the teams are at!!!!!!!!!!
Go Bucs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
September 18th, 2017 at 10:11 am
Ask the Rams how dominating week one worked out for them in week two. One week at a time folks!!
September 18th, 2017 at 10:24 am
The rams hung in til the last minuteszzzits football you don’t win them all
September 18th, 2017 at 10:30 am
Another bright spot yesterday – only 4 penalties! What a refreshing change.
September 18th, 2017 at 10:31 am
The coaching is better Realist. As it very well should be.
But… we are Bucs fans. We all mouth water over the one step up bit, but commiserate when it’s two steps back. The daily dose of despair is all too familiar.
I see the attitude changing now.
September 18th, 2017 at 10:31 am
This is way better than being on the receiving end of a total butt kicking, like were used to.
Does it mean were super bowl bound? No, but i liked that quite a few players made some big plays.
Almost like a legit pro football team.
September 18th, 2017 at 10:34 am
We should be 4-0 right now.
We beat the Hard Knocks distractions!
We beat Irma!
We beat the 3 weeks off for the starters!
And We Beat Tha’ Bears!!!!
Den of WhAt?!?!
September 18th, 2017 at 10:39 am
DK is building an offense as GOOD as our great defenses of the past. Yeow!! Is that really happening? My long, turning silver hair just stood up on end! 🙂 Go Mighty Bucs!!
September 18th, 2017 at 10:42 am
Guess I share some of your hesitancy to buy all-in after only a single game Joe. Love what I saw out of our run defense, but letting Mike Glennon throw for 69% & almost 300 yds using nothing but dink-and-dunk passes (especially over the middle) concerns me. Bears were never a threat to win the game IMO (no real offense), but their 4 turnovers cost them quite a few points. Our offense left a lot of points on the table (3 FGs is nice but TDs are nicer); hopefully that was just the result of not playing for several weeks. Starting next Sunday we face 3 formidable teams in a span of just 12 days: Vikings, Giants, Patriots. Bradford, Manning & Brady are each pretty decent QBs. Our offense will need to step up to not only put points on the scoreboard, but also control the clock & minimize turnovers.
September 18th, 2017 at 10:46 am
Great beginning! I am still perplexed at the lack of cannon fire yesterday? Anyone hear what happened? It is a mystique of the Ray Jay! Fire the Cannons!!
September 18th, 2017 at 10:59 am
Green Bay and Dallas look very beatable now. The Bucs can beat anybody. They are that talented.
September 18th, 2017 at 11:17 am
one game for us or not, there are 4 teams in the nfc without a loss. 3 are in the nfc south.
September 18th, 2017 at 11:17 am
Whoa! Not so fast my friends. Glennon picked our secondary apart. Bears had three crucial dropped passes that could have made the game interesting. Winston still has a long way to go with his accuracy. Missing a wide open receiver by 10 yards. Not good. Sims was terrible. Still no line rush. One sack against an immobile QB. Other than that not bad.
September 18th, 2017 at 11:23 am
Telltale signs of how this season will go are…no matter how well or bad they play up in Minnesota this week, can they come home and beat the Giants and ALSO play well four days later and perhaps beat Tom Brady and his beleaguered pass catchers? Playing 3 games in 12 days. Ouch. They are going to need that five-day break after the Patriots since there is no bye week. Take it one game at a time. Vikings are next up. Can they beat them? Sure. Bradford knees or not. They need to do some other things along the way that I didn’t see yesterday. For example, they should have rested Quizz and McCoy for the second half, especially given Gerald was hobbling around during the first half and Quizz can’t take a constant beat at 5′ and 110 lbs (just kidding on that).
September 18th, 2017 at 11:23 am
Shouldn’t be that hard to take the plunge when you simply compare our talentto whatever team in this league you feel is a legitimate contender. You should come away realizing ours is on par with whom ever.
September 18th, 2017 at 11:27 am
Take talent in this league. Yo squad can be filled with a bunch rocky lion hearts. If we’re more talented across the board we whippin y’all @$$ most of the time. How it’s so difficult for some to see our talent level strikes me as peculiar.
September 18th, 2017 at 11:43 am
@Locked In BOOM right there. No one talking about lack on penalties. A big deal though!
September 18th, 2017 at 12:31 pm
This week made 3 things abundantly clear. 1) We should have drafted Calvin Cook in the second round via trade up 2) Doug Martin is still our starting “bellcow” back without question 3) We have one hell of a football team
September 18th, 2017 at 12:50 pm
I officially hate fantasy football. I joined a league at the request of a friend and thought, “hey this should be fun”.(I picked all Bucs for my fantasy team). Now there we were beating the dog $h!t out of Chicago and I’m sitting there mad about not enough fantasy points. SMH
GO BUCS!!!
September 18th, 2017 at 1:04 pm
@TOM SAYS…Whoa! Not so fast my friends. Glennon picked our secondary apart….
sorry, but our defense literally “picked” him apart….kwon…mcclain….VHG dropped one that was tipped by tj ward….what game were you watching?….GO BUCS!!!!
September 18th, 2017 at 1:47 pm
I somewhat agree with @TOM. Hargreaves and Grimes were getting passes caught on them throughout the game. VH3 celebrated after a WR he was covering dropped an open pass like he was the one who knocked it away. Unless the gameplan going in was to give the WR’s the inside of the field, the number of guys running open near the hash marks was concerning. If Glennon can hit practice squad WR’s like that on our 2 starting CB’s what is Brady, Brees, Ryan, and Rogers gonna do?
I am happy for the win, but we should definitely NOT get too geeked about our performance. Koetter stated such in his post game press conference.
September 18th, 2017 at 2:06 pm
Feel like the offense is going to have to pick it up a bit. I’m sure xhemistry is still being formed. Can’t always get so many short fields and a def td.
September 18th, 2017 at 2:06 pm
To me it’s much more fun to NOT get excited and to then be happy when the team surprasses my expectations. If I get my hopes up and they fall short of that then it’s pure disappointment, but the other way around, every W is a high instead of just being expected.
September 18th, 2017 at 2:07 pm
DJax could have had 3 TDs at minimum two. Mike Evans is a beast and Brate can not be stopped. But the role player that is invaluable imo is Cross. The kid does it all, blocks great, catches great, never a mistake. So wtf is Stocker starting better yet why is he even on the team? Inquiring minds want to know.
September 18th, 2017 at 2:09 pm
Joe, sometimes it helps to take the plunge.
For example, instead of waiting 5 games to change the Den name…step up and do it now on faith. This is the year for it, and think of how cool you will look. And if they fail to win 5 homes games (they won’t fail)? Just change it back.
September 18th, 2017 at 2:12 pm
2-2 through week five would be very nice. 3-1 would make us a very strong contender for nfc south and possibly SB.
September 18th, 2017 at 2:14 pm
Mixxx31 – You don’t pick all your favorite players, certainly from one team in Fantasy Football, that isn’t how it works. I’ve been playing it since 1990 and actively avoid Bucs players unless it’s an overwhelming value mainly because I don’t want my Sunday ruined by getting made that Brate stole a TD that should have went to Evans for example. I did have the Bucs defense in a couple of leagues this week and that VH3 drop of the INT to seal the shutout, that killed him as you lost 2 points for the TO and 6 points for the loss of the shutout. Cohen I had on a bunch of teams as he looked amazing in the preseason and was basically free before game 1 – he had a perfect day as far as a Bucs fan goes that had him in fantasy, in PPR he had 8 catches and like 50 yards receiving and another 12 or something on the ground, so he had a nice down and at the same time contributed directly to the Bucs winning with his moronic fumble.
September 18th, 2017 at 2:14 pm
^ or 4-0 for that matter.^
September 18th, 2017 at 2:21 pm
I’m very excited about the victory. I’m just very concerned about the lack of consistent pass rush. I think a better team could’ve made this game very close with all the drops and literally having the two running backs be the whole offense. I think we’re going to have a great season. The lack of pass rush is going to haunt us. Hopefully we can get a productive de in a trade.
September 18th, 2017 at 2:34 pm
the main reason for my excitement is that the offense is virtually guaranteed to improve as the year goes on. Jameis and DJax are still getting in sync, Howard will be an ascending weapon, and oh by the way 2017 Doug Martin appears to be better than all our other RBs combined.
September 18th, 2017 at 2:37 pm
@Rod..
I’m the complete opposite. While i don’t actively avoid Bucs players, I will get ones that i think can help me (ME, DJ, etc)….
what i WON’T do, though, is either 1) play any other players from the NFC South and 2) i won’t start someone that is playing against the Bucs.
September 18th, 2017 at 2:37 pm
If you watched the game closely GLENNON was releasing the ball 95% of the time within 2-3 seconds. Unless your standing beside him when the ball was snapped, no one is putting pressure on the qb… when he held the ball he got hit in the mouth
September 18th, 2017 at 3:01 pm
regarding the pool:
Still waters run deep
September 18th, 2017 at 3:01 pm
I’m geeked, I’m all in, going into every gm with no fear. The players have to stay focused not me. I can get overexcited about the win. I think we’re a top team and I’mma beat my chest about it.
September 18th, 2017 at 4:28 pm
For anyone complaining about Glennon completing passes, they played mostly base cover 2 yesterday because they were playing with a lead the whole game. Being the case, the gameplan was to keep everything in front of you funneled to the middle of the field to keep the clock running. Yes he completed a bunch of dink and dunk passes between the 20’s, but the defense stiffened in the red zone reminiscent of our glory days D.
September 18th, 2017 at 4:48 pm
BTW …. is our distinguished GM taking the fully suited plunges into his pool after our wins this year?…..Inquiring minds want to know!
September 18th, 2017 at 5:01 pm
He retired that stunt last year, only to be resumed for special games.