Forgive Lavonte David

I'm going to give you a list of teams.

The New York Giants

The Pittsburgh Steelers

The Washington Redskins

The Baltimore Ravens

The Atlanta Falcons

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Each and every one of those teams is right now 0-1. That's it. Not 0-16, not 2-14, just 0-1. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers loss to the New York Jets, was not a division game. It was not even a conference game. Yes it was completely demoralizing, but it was one loss to a team with an underrated defense, on the road, in a hostile environment. The Buccaneers got shocked.

That's okay though. Perhaps it was exactly what the doctor ordered. Perhaps next week we'll all tune in and see our team all fired up and out for vengeance. We won't know until 4:05pm EST when the Bucs kick off in the late game against the Saints.

One thing we can't do is continue to dwell on the past. We can't allow this loss to fester. Just like a quarterback has to shake it off when he throws a bad interception the Bucs can't put too much stock in this loss.

We as the fans also have to shake it off. One thing that everyone from the national media, to our own Bucs Nation brethren is having a tough time with, is Lavonte David's hit on Geno Smith. I have to say something about that play. Don't blame Lavonte David! Yes his late hit on Geno Smith essentially cost the Bucs the game. Yes the hit was slightly late. But that being said Geno Smith had not actually stepped out of bounds when David pushed him.

Lavonte David want to make sure that Geno Smith didn't work some sideline magic and burst upfield for another 10 or 15 yards. I want to take a moment to remember back when another Tampa Bay Buccaneer didn't give his full effort when he thought that a runner was going out of bounds. Remember Maurice Stovall? Remember the kickoff return when the Bucs played the Falcons. For those of you that don't, take a look.

Mo Stovall was destroyed by everyone for his lack of effort on that play. Think for a second what would have happened if David had not gone full out, and Geno Smith gets upfield for 10 more yards and the Jets kick the field goal to win that way. We'd all be talking about how undisciplined the defense was for allowing that to happen.

The point is that Lavonte David is still a great player who made a mistake at a terrible time in the game but he did so while trying to help his team win, and the penalty itself was not as egregious as a certain other linebacker who hit a quarterback out of bounds.

So rather than dwell on the loss or the hit I propose that in the comments section of this story we all reminisce about our favorite memory of the Buccaneers and Saints. I personally always enjoyed watching Earnest Graham have one last hurrah when he ran all over the Saints in 2011 in the 26-20 win for the Bucs. Let's get fired up and get behind our boys and give the Saints hell this weekend!