What a doom and gloom of a way to start the season.... My goodness, I dread coming on here and expressing my opinions on the Bucs ... it's like a reoccurring nightmare. Tampa Bay comes out and shows a glimmer of excitement to only minutes later have their bread and butter (Jeff and Carnell) struggle to make it to the locker room. I know a lot of you are thinking "glimmer of excitement? We scored 6 points." Yeah we did, but we also had a 49 yard reception to Joey Galloway, Ike Hilliard looked like a rejuvenated Florida Gator running after the catch, and THERE WERE ZERO BATTED BALLS!!!!. It was too good to be true though Buc fans. Caddy has bruised ribs and would be smart to sit out against a strong and fast Saints defense. Jeff Garcia clearly had a mild concussion, the guy was insanely foggy. He was lucky to leave the game with only that. Garcia on the hard knocks:
"I just got my bell rung," said Garcia. "It's just one of those things where I took a shot to the head, and that with the combination of my head bouncing off the ground...it didn't create a real positive effect. I had to shake it off and get my rhythm back and find my equilibrium and find my thoughts. Once I did that I felt like I was to the point where I could go in and compete again." - Miami Herald
Our games are on the brink of being "Rated R" with the enormous amount of brutal hits Garcia takes, it will be a wonder if he makes it to the Bucs Bye Week. I hope he has some good insurance.
Head Coach Jon Gruden has also seen his limit of injuries hit his team. Here's Gruden preaching to the choir:
"And we need to quit getting hurt," Gruden said. "I fly my brother in to games now, He's a doctor. He's a radiologist at the Mayo Clinic in Phoenix. I've got to bring him in to our games now to help read X-rays. It's ridiculous. We get too many guys hurt, and that's something that's got to stop. That's one thing we've got to improve upon." - Bradenton Herald
I'm not going to sit here and tell you this team isnt tough when it comes to injuries, Simms and Garcia would both hunt me down if I did, but something's gotta give.