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Man, no reason to celebrate too much about beating the Bucs. They look awful so far against Carolina (17-0 in second quarter). The Bucs defense looks old and slow, and Chris Simms is not any better than last week. I was really hoping that Carolina would lose, because I still think they are a big threat to win the division.

Well, maybe I spoke too soon. TB actually scores a TD!! 17-7 Carolina. Let's see if they can keep it up.

They are definitely not a quality offensive team. But Rice and Brooks are still supermen.

Panties defensive coaches not smart enough to have his guys try for the batted pass. Not one DLineman getting his hands up.

I said TB wins if Smith does not play. TB definitely winning the 2nd half (with Smith back on th bench). Talk about a 1-dimesion team. Smith goes out. Carolina thus struggles mightily.

Well, I was definitely in error about the Bucs defense, they have played big. So many huge turnovers forced. I'm glad they did not play with this kind of passion against ATL. I hope TB wins this game.

Whaaat? The Succs D was hitting like crazy against us. Our offense just turned it into a track meet -- sideline to sideline football. That really wore on that defense. But they still didn't let us score in the 2nd half.

Still, I love seeing them lose whenever it happens.

BM, I agree that the Bucs put some serious hits on ATL players. I noticed that during the game, it was an indication of greater depth this year because we could put different folks in and still perform (Norwood, Lelie, Omiyale). Still, the Bucs defense was unable to make the big play and seemed a step slow most of the time. They did not play with the emotion they showed during the 2nd and 3rd quarter against the Panties; that was what I was trying to say. Good observations.

Outside of the defense (which is surrendering tons of points) the Bucs are pretty bad this year. Their #1 problem is a badd offensive line... #2 is aging veterans on defense.

Succs Oline is no worse than our "MVP Oline". Their QB was barely touched one week ago. MV7 simply covers for an "MVP Oline" where no other QB could.

Now Seattle, that's an Oline.

I would rather have the Vikings line...

For what we do in our scheme, we have the best line in the NFL...the NFL is slowly moving away from Fat, immoble Linemen, and moving towards the Denver/Atlanta model. When I coined the "MVP Line" nickname last year, most people were down on them. But they are doing just fine. Most of the problems last year were because Weiner wasn't healthy, and Vick was still learning to be a better decision maker. It is rather easy to be critical of a system, but damn if it isn't working like a charm, just as it did the past two years as we led the NFL in rushing. Most of the sacks they allow are poor pickups or rotation problems. The rest are Vick/Schaub holding on to the ball too long, or running right into the pressure instead of maintaining pocket discipline. By the way Alexander isn't the same back without Hutch, Birdy's favorite GM Ruskell made a minor league mistake in letting him go..our line , man for man is better than Seattle's.Hasselbacks quick decision making and quick release helps him avoid the sacks that our QB's were getting last year. This year our guys have shown better discipline, and are getting the ball out quicker. Plus Knapp's excellent play calling has help move the play away from the pressure.

Good points about quick decisions BB. Chris Simms (I'm glad he will be ok) was really having trouble making a decision during long stretches of yesterday's game, as well as the game against ATL. Then he would have several series where he seemed to know where to go with the ball quickly. His holding the ball too long led to some of the big hits on him. I wonder if different play calling might have helped his situation, and if different play calling is helping Vick so far this year?