On Tuesday, we welcomed you to “Unsung Hero Week” here in the Captain’s Blog, singing the praises of under-the-radar fullback Erik Lorig.  Today we continue with another player who toils at a position with few statistics but great impact on the game’s outcome.

The Buccaneers’ offensive line as a whole could be labeled an Unsung Hero, especially since Davin Joseph and Carl Nicks were lost to season-ending injuries.  Joseph and Nicks were 2011 Pro Bowlers, so it’s a little difficult to claim that they escaped national attention.  At the same time, the Bucs’ offense was expected to take a hit with the loss of those two players, and instead it has continued to chug along at an impressive pace.  There are plenty of surprising contributors, including right tackle Demar Dotson and right guard Jamon Meredith, but it may be Zuttah who has done the most to hold the line together. Continue reading →

TBO.com and Tampa Tribune writer, Ira Kaufman, shows us his rankings for this week’s Associated Press poll of all 32 NFL teams. After a three-game win streak, where will the Tampa Bay Buccaneers fall this week?

Click here to visit the TBO.com article and find out.

Let’s take another look at the various “Power Polls” and “Power Rankings” across the prominent sports news sites to see where the Buccaneers stand after Sunday’s win over San Diego, their fourth win in the last five weeks:

On one hand, Tampa Bay’s latest victory didn’t have nearly the same effect on their average spot in the polls as did the Week Nine victory in Oakland.  On the other hand, that’s actually a product of the Buccaneers’ continued success.  It’s a lot easier to leapfrog the teams in the 11-20 range than it is to move all the way up into the top 10. Continue reading →

In Sunday’s 34-24 win over the Chargers, the Buccaneers got two interceptions from undrafted rookies; a touchdown from the combined work of a pair of reserve linebackers; outstanding pass protection from a tackle-turned guard, a guard-turned-center, a center-turned guard and a basketball-player-turned-tackle; a sack from a player signed off another team’s practice squad last fall; and a touchdown catch from a receiver who spent the first few weeks of 2012 on the waiver wire.

(The answer key to that list, by the way is: Leonard Johnson and LeQuan Lewis; Dekoda Watson and Adam Hayward; Jamon Meredith, Ted Larsen, Jeremy Zuttah and Demar Dotson; Daniel Te’o-Nesheim; and Tiquan Underwood.)

That’s a whole heap of contributions from players who, for the most part, were flying under the radar before the 2012 season began, and virtually all of it was necessary to pull off the win over San Diego.  Those players were unsung heroes on the Bucs’ roster, and there are more of them.  That’s why we’re calling this “Unsung Hero Week” here in the Captain’s Blog.  Each day through Friday we’re going to highlight one player or group of players on this 2012 Buccaneers team that might not get the nationwide publicity of, say, a Doug Martin or a Ronde Barber, but who are providing critical contributions to the Bucs’ winning efforts.

Today’s Unsung Hero: Fullback Erik Lorig. Continue reading →

When last we checked in on the state of the NFC playoff race, the Buccaneers had climbed to within a half-game of the last spot in the conference’s six-team field after a big win in Oakland.  Since that day, Week 10 of the NFL has played out (you may have noticed), and among the results were losses by Detroit, Atlanta (their first), Philadelphia, Chicago and the Giants, plus a tie for San Francisco.

It was a wild weekend in the NFC, to be sure, so as we check back in on the postseason battle once again in advance of Week 11, we find…well, not much has changed.

The Seahawks are still sitting on that #6 seed, a half-game ahead of the Buccaneers, because Seattle took care of the New York Jets at home on Sunday.  The same six teams that were in the hypothetical playoff field last Monday are still there, and all four division leaders are the same, even though all of them lost or tied.  Also, the Vikings are still between the Buccaneers and the Seahawks, as they are also 6-4 but lose out to Seattle on a head-to-head tiebreaker.

There are a few longer-term developments of note, however.  First, the Seahawks and Vikings are about to enjoy their bye weeks, so the Buccaneers have a chance to pull into a tie with both of them with a win in Carolina on Sunday.  That wouldn’t immediately vault them into the playoff picture as displayed here on NFL.com because the hypothetical tiebreaker that would be applied would be conference record, and the Bucs would be third in that category (but, again, with more such games left to play).

Speaking of all the division leaders losing, that gave the Bucs a little more hope in the NFC South race, which was looking like an Atlanta runaway about three weeks ago.  Tampa Bay is now just three games back with seven to play, including two head-to-head matchups with the Falcons.

On the other hand, some of those losses by division leaders only served to make the playoff field a bit more crowded in the NFC.  Both the Saints, victors over Atlanta, and the Cowboys, victors over Philly, are now 4-5 and suddenly breathing on the Buccaneers’ necks.  Don’t forget, both of those teams already have a win over Tampa Bay in hand, though the Bucs will get another opportunity to even things up against New Orleans in December.

So…it’s complicated.  And maybe a bit too early to start talking about playoff possibilities.  That’s certainly how Head Coach Greg Schiano and the Buccaneers feel about it right now.  Schiano prefers to keep his players focused solely on the task at hand, as opposed to what might be coming down the road, or who the top competitors in the standings are.

“You are competing with yourself because you can’t control them,” he said.  “What we can control is what we do out there on the practice field, what happens in the meeting room, how we prepare. Everything to us is, how can we out-prepare ourselves, this week as compared to last week? If you keep doing that in each one-game season, you are going to win your share and then you look up in the end and if it is good enough that’s what we’ll do. My big thing always as a head coach is that we’ll judge it when it’s over.”

With the San Diego Chargers coming to town and thus CBS handling the broadcast of Sunday’s game at Raymond James Stadium, studio analyst and former Super Bowl-winning coach Bill Cowher was also in Tampa Friday to get an up-close look at one of the NFL’s rising teams.

Not to mention one of its rising stars.  It’s clear that Cowher sees Bucs rookie RB Doug Martin in that category.  In fact, the long-time Steelers coach thinks Martin fits the modern prototype for his position. Continue reading →

Welcome to our newest Captain’s Blog feature, wherein we try to sort out the more complicated NFC playoff implications of each weekend in the season’s stretch drive, so that you, the Tampa Bay fan and Sunday NFL viewer, can know exactly which outcomes are best for the Buccaneers.

(Or, potentially, you can complete disagree with our choices and tell us why in the comments below.  That’s your right.)

In Week 10, the games that have are attention are Detroit at Minnesota and, of course, Atlanta at New Orleans.  Let’s get right to it.

1. Detroit (4-4) at Minnesota (5-4) Continue reading →

Rookie RB Doug Martin may have been the most dominant player in the entire NFL during Weeks Eight and Nine combined, so it’s fair to call him the single biggest factor in Tampa Bay’s two-game winning streak.  But is Martin the Bucs’ most valuable player so far?

CBSSports.com says so, at least on offense.  They tab Martin as the Bucs’ Offensive MVP at the halfway point, with safety Ronde Barber taking the honors on the defensive side.  Offensive Coordinator Mike Sullivan also gets some serious praise for his first season at the helm of the Bucs’ attack, and the team’s ability to cause and avoid turnovers is highlighted.  Read the entire piece here.

The question is, do you agree with those two MVP selections? Continue reading →