Live tonight talking Patriots and perspective

Well Bucs fans, the times sure are dark. Here in Tampa, when things get dark, folks get cynical. I like cynical. I like sarcasm. (I also like magicians and clowns…does that make me creepy?) Our team is sitting win-less this season (Hey! We won once in the preseason!) and is on the heels of a 10 game, regular season losing skid. We are being flown over to England to play as the home team against the Patriots. (Am I the only one who finds it funny that a team whose mascot is the Minute Man (not that kind Chain) is playing in England? What the hell is wrong with the education system these days?) Nobody in their right mind has us picked to be competitive in this game. You cannot even call this a ‘trap’ game for New England as they had one of those last week and decided to not only beat the hapless Titans but also kick sand in their face and perform unholy acts on their collective significant others…in front of them.

The Patriots are saying all the right things about how the Bucs are dangerous and that this will be a tough contest, but realistically, last week, in the snow, the Patriots dropped 380 yards in the air on that Titans defense. Now, the Titans offense didn’t help matters by committing 5 turnovers, but Brady and crew showed a couple of things:

1. Their offense is back on track
2. They can put up points
3. They are not afraid to run up the score
4. They have no fear of payback/karma

Now weather you think it is in poor taste to run up the score like that against a team that clearly has got nothing going for it or not, you cannot deny that a score like that is just as possible this week. The Bucs offensive line did very little against a Carolina defense that had given up 160 yards per game on the ground on average. Was that the line’s fault, or Greg Olsen? (Yea, I will blame him for almost anything after the game he called last week. in fact, I am not so sure that he was NOT in Dallas during the famous motorcade…yea, you know the one!) the Bucs (Josh Johnson in particular) had a serious problem holding onto the ball last week. If you let the Patriots have the ball 20 more times that your offense has it, things like a 59 – 0 ass whipping will occur.

So, tonight we will talk about the Bucs. We will discuss the state of Buccaneer Nation (I know, that is a stretch. In down years like this, we are a lot more like a territory or an outpost…or Canada). This area and this fanbase always handles bad times so well, it is shocking to see the torches and produce being readied for a march on 1 Buc Place already (see earlier comment about sarcasm). Topics tonight will include:

1. News from around the league
2. Injury updates
3. The Opponent – Yep, they really are very good
4. State of the Team
5. Is there a bright spot?
6. Keys to the Game (Note to the Bucs – You should DO these things)
7. Predictive MVP’s
8. Score Prediction

As always, get your Predictive MVPs and score predictions in earlier to our mail hotline at questions AT whatthebuc DOT net. (Screw you spam clowns!) We will be live at 7:00 ish and yes, we may be drinking.