Were The Bucs Distracted By The 2002 Champs?

December 12th, 2012

The Bucs lost on the final play Sunday, on a ball snapped with two seconds remaining. So it’s natural for fans to obsess about specific plays, from the Bucs botching their first handoff of the day, to cornerback Danny Gorrer’s dropped interception with seconds left, to Greg Schiano’s controversial punt plan on 3rd-and-8 with 2:55 to go.

But Joe also is wondering about how the young Bucs may have been shaken by the wild pregame atmosphere surounding the reunion of the 2002 Super Bowl champs, especially after Mike Williams’ comments on his WDAE-AM 620 radio show Monday.

“It was a crazy atmosphere. You wanted to get their autograph, or you was like, ‘Dang, do I get ready for the game, or [laughs], and them guys walking around. But it was like, I don’t know, like Ronde said, ‘a playoff atmosphere,'” Williams said.

Joe finds it hard to believe that it was merely coincidence that the Bucs’ first true slow start under the New Schiano Order, including preseason games, came down Sunday.

There’s no excuse, if Buccaneers players were distracted by Warren Sapp and other icons yucking it up with them that morning. Joe wonders whether this was a detail the planning-obsessed New Schiano Order had prepped to counter.

9 Responses to “Were The Bucs Distracted By The 2002 Champs?”

  1. bucfanjeff Says:

    Never thought of that, very possible. Maybe everyone was pressing a little too much?

    I just bought season tickets for 2013, 4 seats. I live in SC and won’t make it to most of the games. Why? Because I wanted them just in case! That said, I *will* be selling most of the games. Let me know if you need my contact info – just in case you may be interested next year.

  2. NJBucsFan Says:

    Looks like Warren Sapp found his superbowl ring.

  3. SilenceTheCritics Says:

    These are professional atheletes who get paid big money to perform and win. If this was the case all it says about our team is that we are still way to young and immature of a team.

  4. OAR Says:

    NJBucsfan
    Never lost it, just ‘selectively’ misplaced it!
    Filing bankrupcy will make one’s assets do that.

  5. Paul Says:

    D-Line sure was fired up.

  6. the_buc_realist Says:

    thats part of it, I also think that the Eagles felt disrespected of how we danced on them on the way to the Superbowl, then to celabrate the 10 year anniversary against them, like they are some homecoming slappys

  7. Adam Says:

    I honestly think that if they got Lynch, Brian Kelly, Dwight Smith and John Howell out of the booth and put them on the field with Ronde, there would have been a different result of the game. The current Bucs’ secondary is THAT bad.

  8. Oahubuc Says:

    So what was it the prior two games?

  9. Miguel El Magnifico Says:

    They were traumatized by real football players.

    Actually I thought Sapp had encouraged McCoy to suck it up and get the QB.

    McCoy claimed a vision of Dog came to him in the chapel, Dog told him to sic that QB and the choir started singing angelicly, “WHO LET THE DOGS OUT?”