Some final observations from Joe on the Bucs Saturday night practice at the CITS. The coaches took turns talking to Scott Smith of Buccaneers.com which was displayed on the Jumbotron.

Raheem the Dream

“I appreciate everyone coming out. Keep up the distractions. Tampa is our winning edge. No where else is like Tampa where it’s this hot at this time of the day.

“The big thing is for the players to get used to this atmosphere and the crowd and the noise and the music. I love it with the cannons!

On a hit by Tanard Jackson on Michael Clayton, Morris said of Jackson, “He tried to knock him out.” Morris wasn’t complaining.

Defensive coordinator Jim Bates

“It’s a good start but it takes time. We are looking for speed coming off the edge. There are a lot of people competing for positions. We want pressure on the quarterback so we will see how things shake out. We want to dominate every play.”

Offensive coordinator Jeff Jagodzinski

“One of our staples will be our running game which will set up our play action and our deep balls and all the other things we want to do.”

Some brief observations:

* Josh Freeman has a cannon but from what Joe saw he throws more of a line drive than Byron Leftwich who throws more of a lofting, rainbow pass although very accurate on Saturday night. He was able to put the ball in position for receivers to make a play.

Leftwich also did a much better job of handling the pressure than the rest of the quarterbacks.

*The Bucs were running for chunks of yardage virtually each rush. That tells Joe either the running backs were fresh, the running backs are studs, they had monster holes to run through, the defense was there for show or it’s going to be a very long season for the defense.

* Most of the passes the Bucs threw were down the sidelines, and yes, deep.

* Maurice Stovall made some nice catches but isn’t this a broken record? He always shines in practice but disappears come October.

Joe would like to thank his good friend Ozzie the Sports Junkie for being his spotter last night. Joe forgot his binoculars but Ozzie has better eyes than Joe.