The Tampa Bay Buccaneers take it to the road this Sunday and head into Heinz Field, home of the once, defending NFL Champion Pittsburgh Steelers. This is the first time in 23 years the Buccs have had to go to Pittsburgh. Ranked last in the league, Tampa comes off a Thanksgiving loss to the Dallas Cowboys, while the Steelers themselves were shut out 27-0 by Ray Lewis’ Baltimore Ravens.
Tampa Bay is 3-8 and has no particular expectation to reach the playoffs. They do have three games on the road starting with one against the Steelers. In spite of the inability to go past the regular season, the team spirit is to try and salvage some of the disastrous season they’ve had. Mistakes of many kinds have been made and chalked off to inexperience but it was the sentiment of the team, that it’s not excusable any longer.
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After leading in the first quarter 7-0 the Tampa Bay Buccaneers lost momentum to the Cowboys who led by Tony Romo, turned the game around to win 38-10. Romo hit Terry Glenn twice for touch downs, one for 30 yards another for 2 yards, before a final 46 yard field goal reaction by Matt Bryant. Romo later picked Marion Barber III for two short touch down passes of 1 and 2 yards. Mike Vanderjagt kicked his last field goal as a Dallas Cowboy for a 22 yard score. Vanderjagt was later waived and replaced by Martin Gramatica.
The Steelers also looked like the north end of a south flying duck Sunday. The Baltimore Ravens closed the door, locked it and threw away the key on the Steelers OFFense. Please note the word is OFF, because the supposed scoring unit sure looked like they were never on.
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Consecutive wins over New Orleans and Cleveland gave the Steelers hope that perhaps they were set for another late season run, but an ugly 27-0 loss at Baltimore on Sunday showed just how far they have fallen from that possibility.
Pittsburgh was shut out for the second time this season and dropped to 1-5 on the road. The nine sacks the Steelers allowed matched the most they've permitted since the NFL officially recognized the statistic in 1982, and their 21 rushing yards were their fewest since 1982.
There were no guarantees that the Steelers would repeat their Super Bowl run, but it surely wasn’t expected for them to be struggling to have at least, a decent record this season. Right now, Pittsburgh stands at only one game above the last place Cleveland Browns.
Much has been said regarding why the Steelers are losing and facing such difficulty. The fact remains they have had too many turnovers and have allowed too many sacks. Big Ben has thrown 19 interceptions in 10 games this season after throwing only nine in 12 games in 2005. Roethlisberger has also been sacked 36 times and is on pace to become the most sacked quarterback in Steelers history.
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Steelers are -7 with a 41 total. Considering these two teams my first thought it under, nothing but uninspired football here. Regarding the side and based on the fact that Tampa is so terrible I say take the Steelers, how much worse can it get right?
