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Thoughts After Bucs vs Ravens

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I think the Bucs quarterback situation has been solved. There is no competition, or any reason for the starter to feel pressured. Adam Weber showed how much skill he has and put Free whatever his name is and Glee-non-factor into there places as backup quarterbacks. The fans in the stadium were chanting WEBER WEBER WEBER! The Ravens fans that is...

The Offense

All joking aside, I believe there is no competition between Glennon and Freeman. Glennon looked like a young Josh Freeman with to much hesitation. Freeman however, looked good on the second drive after what looked like a scary first drive. Free seemed to turn into first 10 games of 2012 Josh Freeman, finding VJax on a almost stellar back shoulder throw.

Both quarterbacks would have better stats if the Bucs receiving core could catch better, but hey, it was only the first game. Unfortunately, the dropsies hit training camp stud Chris Owusu pretty hard, I'm starting to doubt he will make a play for the 3rd WR spot, especially since Kevin Ogletree had a good game.

As far as Tight End goes, with Stocker out, I felt Crabtree did a good job blocking and of course with the big reception. I believe he will win the starting position over Stocker. I was hoping to see more of Tim Wright and Danny Noble, but other then Wright's spotlight in a few blocking situations, we really didn't get to see much of him. I did see Noble get a catch, but I would prefer to have seen more of those two then Crabtree for 3 quarters.

The Defense

The depth at corner seemed pretty bad tonight. I don't believe it as bad as it looked tonight. You have to factor in that Revis was out so a guy like Gorrer, who played brilliantly, would normally play with the second team. DB's that I thought stood out were Gorrer and Banks. Beside that, I felt the others were par or subpar. Carr was easily the biggest disappointment. I didn't even see Rashaan Melvin, which could have been a good thing if he was doing great in coverage, but I didn't notice him at all. Cody Grimm seemed to be up in peoples faces and doing a decent job on a few plays too. Really wish last years preseason stud Sean Baker would have been able to suit up.

So, the Da'Quan Bowers movement got a little sketchy tonight. Other then a play where he almost picked off a short pass by not even bothering to rush the passer, he seems irrelevant. When he switched to the 3 tech in the 3rd quarter he made some good plays against the run, but playing him and GMC is a must so that was pointless. Means and Gholston also never caught my eye, other then Means' encroachment. Akeem Spence seemed to do a pretty good job inside though.

It seemed like the biggest bright spots were the Bucs linebackers. Of course LaVonte was a beast, but Dekoda and Casillas both made good plays. That battle is going to be pretty close, but I think it ends up going to Watson just because he seems more fluid at everything. Two guys I wanted to see at linebacker were Jacob Cutrera and Ka'Lial Glaud, but Cutrera is hurt and I didn't see Glaud even though he is listed with a tackle on the stats.

Random Last Thoughts

I noticed that Dotson moved over to LT when Carimi came into the game, which to me seems pretty intriguing. However the only times I noticed Carimi was when he would get steam rolled or tossed aside by defenders. Yikes! Every time Doug Martin got a handoff I screamed out "WHY!!??!?!?!?" out of fear of any type of injury (knock on wood). Don't even let him touch the field Schiano!! We don't need to assess his skill anymore so leave him be. Michael Smith didn't do bad as return man, neither did Page, and Brandon Smith, but Owusu needs more practice for sure. I hate how people try and make it sound like the Bucs are terrible because of this loss, because the starters took a nice 6-0 lead and then handed the reins over to the backups. So unless the Ravens plan on convincing teams to only play their second teams, that didnt mean much to me. Last, but certainly not least, hats off to Derek Dimke! The replacement kicked like a stud! And he can do kickoffs! Can you say MVP? GO BUCS!

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