The Bucs offensive line got the first piece of good news in awhile on Tuesday.  That news was that Arron Sears would be returning to the team.  A key component to our young line, Sears was going to be counted on heavily in 2009.  But he disappeared from the team in a story that still hasn't completely unfolded.  The Bucs OL turned to Zuttah to fill the gap, who has done an admirable job, but the line as a whole has not performed well. 

Some of this may be attributed to the new zone blocking scheme that has been installed.  Other teams that took on this endeavour for the first time have said it takes about half a season to get comfortable with the blocking change.  That would be right about now, except the Bucs have quietly moved away from the scheme.  Jeff Faine has been quoted as saying they've (the OL) have moved to more of a man up system.  The scheme is still split with some downs utilizing the zone scheme and others the man scheme, but all this change and lack of commitment probably won't serve the team well.

Through Week 10 (9 games), how has the OL compared to it's peers?  Hit the jump and lets find out.

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In light of controversial call, Raheem Morris stepped onto the playing field and jawed with the officials.  Morris obviously felt the call was incorrect, and given them time remaining (under 2 minutes in first half) and field position (inside the 20), wanted to make sure his voice was heard by the referees. 

Morris has since taken ownership of those comments, and while he didn't explicitly detail what he said, he had this to say in response to the penalty. 

This loss is solely on me.  At the end of the half, getting a personal foul is totally unacceptable. I’m taking those points, that’s on me, that’s how much we lost by. I should be given all the blame for that. That’s a discipline issue on my part and I didn’t do the right thing. That’s a great lesson for me as a young coach, that’s a great lesson for my team

Without knowing what he said, it's tough to say if he went over the line.  The officials obviously thought he did, but I can't think it was just a few "F" bombs, as we've seen just about every coach outside of Dungy drop some of those.

Morris did go on to say this.

He was trying to tell it to me. I didn’t want to hear it at that point.  I didn’t matter what the explanation was, I really didn’t care. I thought it was the wrong call, he disagreed and he’s the official. I gave them an extra (seven) yards to make it an easier touchdown. Put that on me.'

I certainly was not thrilled about the penalty on Morris and would like to know the justification, but at the time, I don't know how else he would have reacted.  This wasn't a case of a bad luck type of play, but of an interpretation that was not favorable for the Bucs. 

Would the Fins have scored a touchdown if they hadn't gotten those free 7 yards?  Who knows. 

This may be biased speculation on my part, but with Morris' penalty at the end of the first half and Winslow's at the end of the second half, it seemed like we saw the brunt of these touchy calls.

What do you think?  Should Morris have gotten the penalty?  Did that cost us the game?

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Last week, it was 50%-49% in favor of the Bucs beating the Packers for win number one.  The optimism has carried over with 59% of the voting readers thinking that a winning streak will form in the Tampa Bay area.  Let's see if Freeman can keep the magic going and if the Bucs D can shut down the Wildcat for their 2nd win of 2009.

It's that time friends, for another edition of Slowing it Down. This week we are back to analyzing an offensive play.

This week we look at a play in which the Bucs are lined up in Shotgun. They have 3 WR, with the strength to the wide side of the field (K2 and two WR). It looks like Stovall, though I can't see the white numbers is line up at the bottom of the screen. DWard in the backfield.

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With Sunday's win over Green Bay, the Bucs completed the first half of the 2009 season.  The Bucs went 1-7 in that span, though we are on a season long one game win streak.  Now that we've hit the halfway mark, it may be a good time to look at how the team has fared compared to the rest of the NFL.  We'll take a look at a few numbers that will give us an idea of where the Bucs stand in comparison to the rest of the NFL.

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More photos » by Alex Brandon - AP

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Setting a team record is something that player's cherish.  It secures their name in the franchise annals and sets a bar, one they hope won't be beat.  Players have even talked about going after each other's records.  Other times, fans don't want to see a record broken (See Johnson, Larry - 75 yards away from breaking Priest Holmes rushing record.  Fans actually started a petition to bench LJ so he wouldn't break it.  He has since been released and talked about coming back to Kansas City to break the record some day).   Being atop a certain category seems to lend credence to a player's career. 

With the current season unfolding, and without looking through every record, I came across one record that may be threatened this year. 

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Clifton Smith had a Pro Bowl 2008 season.  The follow up to his sensational year has been a bit lackluster so far.  That trend ended last week against the Packers as he was named the NFC Special Teams Player of the Week for Week 9. 

Special teams played a big role in the Bucs 38-28 win over the Packers and outside of the punt block for a touchdown, there may have been no bigger play than the return in the 4th quarter.  Trailing by two scores after Aaron Rodgers"rumbled" into the end zone, the Bucs were in need of a big play.  That big play came in the form of an 83 yard kick return that set the Bucs up to get within one score of the Packers. 

On the day he averaged 53.5 yards per kick return (on 2 returns) and 13.5 yards per punt return on four returns.  Smith joins Sammy Stroughter as Tampa Bay Bucs who have won this award in 2009. 

Congrats Clifton.

More photos » by Brian Blanco - AP

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It's been awhile since any of us Bucs fans have been able to reflect on a meaningful win.  Coming into this week at 0-7, off a bye week, starting a rookie quarterback, the buzz was around the possibility of going 0-16.  I never entertained those thoughts, mainly because it was depressing to think about, but partly due to the number of things that have to happen to go 0-16.  I thought that we would encounter a game at some point where things would go our way, a few breaks, a defensive or special teams touchdown and a few turnovers would give us enough to win.  It almost worked against Carolina.  It did work against Green Bay.

So how did this win happen?

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