Albert Haynesworth's first game with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Meh

Albert Haynesworth was brough onto the team to stop the run, and get to the passer. With the Bucs giving up over 180 yards on the ground and over 230 yards through the air while notching just one sack, I think we can come to the conclusion that they failed miserably. But that doesn't mean Haynesworth had a bad game. In fact, he's getting some good publicity for his play. 

Some of that is absolutely justified. I just got done charting his presence in the game, and I saw him on the field for 42 snaps, and he impacted the play on 11 of those snaps. I took a pretty liberal definition of 'impacting the play' in charting the game, but he certainly didn't look bad. He obviously has a ton of talent, and that showed as he at times beat his opponent at will. I have few complaints about his play early in the down, when he generally held his ground and made a few impact plays. 

Unfortunately, he also displayed inconsistent effort, especially early in the game. That image of him laying on the ground making no effort to get up in a Redskins game? Yeah, you could make another gif of a similar occurrence in this game. Haynesworth doesn't play to the whistle: when the play goes away from him, he generally stops playing. That's a bad habit on a young team and defensive line that can pride itself on at least hustling downfield and trying to make plays throughout the game. 

But that's something the Bucs knew when they signed Haynesworth. You have to take the lack of hustle with his impact plays, and it's something the Bucs are willing to live with - for now, at least. He'll certainly be downgraded for those loafs in his film review session, though. Just as I'm sure that blocked extra point will be taken away from him: that play was made by Michael Bennett and Brian Price, and I'm not sure who of those two ultimately blocked it, but it wasn't Haynesworth. 

Overall, I thought Haynesworth had a decent game. He got a couple of tackles and impacted the game, although he didn't really get any pass pressure. He also wasn't really given a chance to get some pass pressure however, as the Texans threw the ball on only a handful of plays. Haynesworth gives the Bucs some decent play at defensive tackle right now, but it's nothing special. His impact won't win the Bucs any games, but it won't hurt either.