bucs at falcons: the preview
Hindsight being 20-20 it was insanely fortunate that the Falcons decided to trade away LaDanian Tomlinson and Drew Brees (plus White Lightning Tim Dwight) for Michael Vick. Instead of having to prepare for two Pro Bowlers on the Falcons offense the Bucs only have to concern themselves with Joey Harrington/Byron Leftwich and an aging Warrick Dunn.
BY THE NUMBERS (DVOA explained here)
Buccaneers
Offense: ppg, 18.2 (#21) - DVOA, 15.5% (#6)
Defense: ppg, 16.0 (#4) - DVOA, -4.5% (#12)
Falcons
Offense: ppg, 15.0 (#12) - DVOA, -10.1% (#24)
Defense: ppg, 20.2 (#30) - DVOA, 5.1% (#21)
While the Falcons have one of the more inept offenses in the NFL they still have a better than average defense which has done a successful job of limiting their opponents. All of the Falcons games have been low scoring affairs with only one of their opponents (Giants) scoring more than 30 points.
For the Bucs, oddly enough their offensive DVOA is much better than their offensive scoring which indicates their offense can move the ball easily enough but struggles once they get into red zone. The defense is in the reverse situation, they have actually outperformed their DVOA. This is nothing the new as the Bucs defensive mantra has been bend don’t break….the Tampa Two gives up yards but takes away touchdowns.
BY THE PLAYERS
Jeff Garcia versus Falcons Secondary
Last year in the second game of the season the Falcons secondary intercepted Chris Simms three times and completely destroyed Simms confidence in his long balls, which was the best part of Simms game. The Bucs only scored three points in that game.
While the Falcons still have DeAngelo Hall at cornerback they won’t get to pick on Simms or Gradkowski this year. Jeff Garcia’s offense has struggled scoring points they have had little difficulty moving the ball and should be able to control the time of possession. This game is the Bucs to lose.
Tags: buccaneers, sports
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November 26th, 2007 at 10:50 pm
I am speaking for the citizens in south Hillsborough County who are concerned about the expansion of Mosaic’s mining (53,000 acres owned in Hillsborough County and over 45,000 planned to be mined). The DRI’s are being aired now and most like will be approved. It is hard for the citizens of this rural area to drive to downtown Tampa for 6:30pm meetings after working for 8 to 12 hours. Many of dates and times of the meetings were changed without notice to the area residents. Some of the citizens are just waking up to the difficulty of addressing the BOCC. They are finding out that the meetings allow Mosaic far more latitude in presentations than mere citizens both in scope and time. Not even the Tribune bothered to appear at the last zoning/mine hearing. We cannot even get the newspaper to bring this extensive mining project to the attention of its readers…imagine a project of this magnatude and its impact on Hillsborough County’s water, land, and citizens. We need everyone’s help in bringing this tremendous impact on our resources to the attention of all residents….Tampa Bay Water has had representatives at every meeting asking that more testing be done to measure the effects of heavy metals on our drinking water and they are virtually ignored by both the BOCC and Mosaic…