Ruud Turned The Game
January 2nd, 2011
So there were the Saints near the goal line about to pound the ball in for a touchdown and a 14-3 lead in the second quarter.
And look who shed a block and put a hard hat on Julius Jones to force a fumble the Bucs recovered.
Mr. Barrett Ruud.
No question it was the turning point in the game. It shut up the Saints crowd and the Bucs churned out a 96-yard drive to take the lead.
Ruud led the Bucs with eight tackles today, and he got run over like a cardboard cutout in the first quarter by running back Chris Ivory as the two met head on.
As Joe wrote yesterday, Joe’s got a feeling Raheem might want the stated “quarterback” of his defense to return and upgrade around him, rather than find a replacement for Ruud while the team tries to get over the top for a deep playoff run.
No question the Ruud debate will rage on for weeks until the start of free agency, if there is free agency and it’s not halted by a lockout.
January 2nd, 2011 at 5:29 pm
Ruud did have a nice play there at the goal line, but it was Ronde Barber who turned the ENTIRE game in the Bucs favor. Ruud was blocked into submission most of the day.
January 2nd, 2011 at 5:30 pm
I am not a Rudd hater…but that was just a play of circumstance and the ball came out..more of a scrape than a hit…
the play in the first quarter with Ivory when #51 met him in the hole was a play of note
January 2nd, 2011 at 5:30 pm
As for getting run over by Chris Ivory….well sometimes power backs run over linebackers. It happens. It happens to opposing linebackers when Legarrette Blount does it. Ivory is a good powerful back and I did not see the vaunted Johnathan Vilma blowing up Blount Object with a huge hit at any point during the game so I guess Barrett isn’t the only soft MLB in the league.
January 2nd, 2011 at 5:33 pm
Ruud missed/had broken several tackles in his zone, played well near the goal line, though. Still think Ruud need “real” competition or replacement. “I will tolerate you, until I can replace you!”
January 2nd, 2011 at 5:33 pm
Rastamon- yes you are, in fact, a Ruud hater. You would have to be a hater to bend over backwards to tell yourself that wasnt a nice hit and a huge play by Ruud. I just love it when people qualify a statement by saying “Now, Im not this….” and then immediately proceed to prove they are in fact just that.
January 2nd, 2011 at 5:38 pm
RUUUUUUUUUUUUUUDDDDDD 🙂
January 2nd, 2011 at 5:47 pm
gitarlvr….you are the one calling him soft
January 2nd, 2011 at 6:16 pm
I didn’t call him soft man. I was referring to others calling him soft. I guess smoking that ganja isn’t helping your reading comprehension skills at all.
January 2nd, 2011 at 6:52 pm
I am with Steve White on Ruud. If you have to ask, go read what Steve has to say about him.
January 2nd, 2011 at 8:00 pm
just wondering, how many probowls have ruud been to as a starter or alternate?
January 2nd, 2011 at 8:08 pm
I agree with you Joe, that was crucial!! I’ve always been a Ruud fan, you gotta respect his game when he plays between our interior line,
January 2nd, 2011 at 10:19 pm
Sorry McBuc but the fans on this website think Steve White is so brilliant that he should be on the Buccaneers coaching staff and they take his word as gospel….except when it comes to Barrett Ruud. They all seem to tune out when White gives his opionion on Ruud yet in all other things hail him as a
football mastermind.
January 2nd, 2011 at 10:55 pm
Ruud is not as bad as people make him out to be, but he is by no means a Pro Bowler. Taking him off our team is not going to make us all of a sudden a great run stopping defense. No one guy can do that. I do think we need to bring in someone to challenge him for his job, but I don’t think it is smart to not re-sign him without a very good replacement. We all know he is not a hard hitter, but he’s not half as “soft” as everyone makes him out to be. Trust me, you don’t make that many tackles every year by being soft, even if you are dragging guys down from behind. By saying that, you are really insulting how difficult the job of a MLB is.
January 3rd, 2011 at 1:31 am
I’m not a huge supporter of Ruud, but there aren’t a whole lot of MLB’s in this league that can constantly take on Guards all day and look good. I’m hoping that as the front 4 progress he won’t have to deal with so much of that all the time, if he’s still here at that time. The one major knock that I put on Ruud is that he never appears to diagnose run/pass very quickly and rarely does he actually try to take guards and fullbacks on in the hole. He usually waits for them 3 or 4 yards deep and gets engulfed.
January 3rd, 2011 at 3:32 am
Here Here Hawaiian. You don’t rack up 587 tackles in your first five years in the league by being soft. Ruud is not the ideal linebacker type for the defense Raheem is playing now. I’ll agree with the anti-Ruuds on that. Thats not a knock on Ruud, however, and I think if Raheem had stuck with Monte Kiffin’s defense we would not be having this conversation right now. Unfortunately because this scheme is such a hybrid big 260 lb+ monster hard hitting linebackers like my man crush Lamarr Woodley aren’t completly ideal either. Its going to be tough to find a MLB that can do all the things this scheme will ask him to do equally well.