How you give up 112 rushing yards in the first quarter without surrendering a point is beyond me. How you lose two more players to injuries and continue trotting out grocery store stockers baffles me. How you can't generate any offense in 3+ quarters frustrates me. But despite all of that, the Bucs still found a way to win. They were trampled by Ryan Torain early on. They lost Quincy Black and Gerald McCoy (in addition to Grimm, Joseph, Faine, Talib, Jackson and whoever else I'm missing) and only ran 19 plays in the first half but pulled out a victory.
Wins like this are huge.
The Washington Redskins are not a better team but in no way did either team deserve to win. The Redskins piled up yardage but couldn't convert. They couldn't manage the clock. They even got a 1st and 9 from the 12 and couldn't capitalize on that to send the game to overtime. I'm glad I'm not a Skins fan today.
On the Bucs side, there's a lot to be aggravated about until you notice the nice, shiny "W" in the win/loss column. Our run defense just got hammered in the first half. Sure we slowed them down in the second half, but part of that is because Shanny and company decided to get cute and start throwing the ball. Olson gave up on the run again. Blount has turned into a frustrating back over the last few games. He goes from dominant power runner with just enough shiftiness to be lethal to tap dancing int he backfield and getting nowhere. Freeman made some horrible decisions that the inept Redskins didn't take advantage of. I counted 5 passes thrown to the wrong colored jersey that they dropped.
But in the end, a Freeman to K2 hookup and just enough luck brought us the win. As good as we played against Baltimore and Atlanta (twice), we were the opposite on Sunday against Washington. Had we lost, this article would probably be 4 times longer with a more negative slant. The win makes it just a bit better. Doesn't mean there aren't issues to fix, just means that we were on the right side of it all today. Perhaps this is karma dealing us a win after shorting us a yard or so in Atlanta a few weeks ago.
Breathe easier Bucs fans. Another win. Puts us at 8-5 with a decent shot at the playoffs. After the Giants play tonight, we'll know where we stand with 3 games left. But for now, lets just thank our lucky stars that catching a football on one knee proved to be just a bit too difficult for Hunter Smith yesterday.