Live from Bucs-Falcons

Okay, it's time for today's big NFC South matchup at the Georgia Dome, which, by the way, is pretty darned empty. It's pretty sad.

Anyhow, today's inactives for the Bucs are RB Michael Bennett, CB Keiwan Ratliff, LB Jeremiah Trotter, G Dan Buenning, TE Keith Heinrich, DE Greg Spires, DT Greg Peterson and QB Luke McCown.

Gaines Adams gets his second consecutive start, so we'll get a chance to see whether he follows up his encouraging performance from the Arizona game.

Michael Pittman and Michael Clayton are both a go, so expect to see them take active roles in the offense. Pittman's return apparently has pushed Bennett out of the picture, as he won't suit up today.

For the Falcons, Byron Leftwich gets the start at quarterback while injured receiver Joe Horn will be inactive.

Check the comments section below for more analysis and news throughout the afternoon. Kickoff is just a few moments away.

(Pictured - Maurice Stovall (85) and Michael Clayton (80). Times photo - Brian Cassella. Click to enlarge.)

Comments

[Stephen_Holder]

Nice backside pursuit by Gaines Adams on Warrick Dunn's carry on second down on the first Atlanta possession. That's the kind of run defense the Bucs haven't had from their RDE in a long time. I love Simeon as much as anyone, but he ain't playing the run. That's for sure.

Bucs are forced to use a timeout on thier first possession because, it seems, Maurice Stovall was lined up in the wrong place. If Michael Clayton is indeed ready to go, it might not be long before we see him replace Stovall. Gruden has zero tolerance for mistakes. This is part of the reason Stovall hasn't played more, for those of you who have often wondered about that in your comments. You've got to have command of this offense or you will not play.

[Mike]

An UNACCEPTABLE DROP BY PITTMAN. THIS IS THE TYPE OF ACCOUNTABILITY WE HAVE NEVER HAD SINCE GRUDEN BECAME HEAD COACH.

THERE IS ********NO EXCUSE********** FOR DROPPING THAT.

Mike, that's why Gruden was noncommital this week in talking about the role that Pittman and others coming off injuries would have. You just don't know how much rust there is going to be until you put the guy on the field.

[Stephen_Holder]

Bucs need to get a stop here in order to change the field position. That's been a problem all season.

[Mike]

Once again....INEXCUSABLE

[Stephen_Holder]

That's one heck of a tough start for Pittman. A drop of a sure first down on third and long and a fumble.

[Stephen_Holder]

DeAngelo Hall made that TD possible. I'm sure the Bucs will be grateful. Garcia knew he would try to look for the pick and sure enough, Hall tried to jump in front of what he thought would be a slant. Garcia completely fooled him with an excellent pump fake and Joey did the rest. Wasn't the prettiest pass, but at least garcia didn't overthrow him as he has often this season. He's no artist when it comes to the deep ball, but when a guy is that wide open it's hard to screw it up.

[Stephen_Holder]

This is why it was critical for the Bucs to prepare for Leftwich. They are really spreading the field with him in the lineup. They just went five-wide and it's hard to cover five guys no matter how good you are. Of course, the tradeoff is you give up some pass protection, which is why Kevin Carter came at him unblocked a few plays ago.

[Mike]

Stephen,

RUST is no excuse. This is the pro's not high school footbal.

[Daniel]

Stephen, Garcia has completed over 60% of his passes and has the sixth best QB rating in the league. A survey of GMs and NFL personel men have Garcia in the top ten in the NFL as far as QB's go. I know he was long with some balls a few games ago, but with a 60% completion, he's not missing much.

[Stephen_Holder]

Daniel, I'm not really taking a shot at Garcia. I'm just making the point that they made that an easy play because of good scouting. They knew Hall was greedy and would look for the pick. And presto. I agree. He doesn't miss much.

[Daniel]

One more thing, Garcia's 7.6 yrds per completion stacks up well against Peyton Mannings 7.6 and Brett Farve 7.7. Brady's and Romo's are a yard better, but that's it.

[Mike]

Guys, just think if Bruce BADkowski had to take over this team. He could'nt hold Steve DeBerg's jock strap. I think a blind man could run the team better..

[Daniel]

Mike, I almost puked up my lunch at the thought of Grads taking over the Bucs in case Garcia got hurt. Garcia is one guy the Bucs can't afford to lose this season, or kiss the playoffs goodby

[Stephen_Holder]

Falcons DT Rod Coleman might not return it seems. He's got an arm injury and is questionable at this point.

[Daniel]

Stephan, while I don't like seeing ANY player hurt, if a DE had to go, too bad it wasn't John Abraham.

[Daniel]

Stephen, I didn't notice, who did Abraham beat for that sack?

[Stephen_Holder]

Um, that was Donald Penn there Daniel. Just bullrushed him. And he's not the biggest guy in the world. Penn's got to be better than that (and usually is).

[Stephen_Holder]

There's the splash play we've been looking for from Barber. It wasn't a pick, but I'm sure he'll take it. That's a 41-yard TD off the scoop of the fumble forced by Greg White. Leftwich has to get rid of that ball sooner. Not a good play on his part.

[Daniel]

Great play by the defense. Greg White for the sack and FF and Rhode for the scoop and TD. That is why the Bucs need pressure on the QB, first pressure cuases an int by Rudd, then a sack causes a TD by Rhonde.

[Daniel]

Is it me or do the Bucs turnovers seem to come in bunches?

[Stephen_Holder]

Okay, this has got to be the saddest or most unbelievable thing I've seen: the crowd is chanting "Jo-ey, Jo-ey" for Harrington. Bet you never thought you'd see the day.

[Stephen_Holder]

Whatever the outcome of this replay, it's nice to see Brooks and Barber making plays. Brooks looks really good today. Has been active making plays all over. Barber obviously has had a presence. That's where it starts for this defense, with those two guys.

[Daniel]

Stephen, the last time Harrington heard that chant was at Oregon.

[Mike]

I realize Brian Kelly is going to be CUT at the end of the season, but what is this clown doing?

[Daniel]

I was looking for the Stanford band on that last play

[Mike]

How ironic that the clown who is doing sideline reporting for fox on tv is named Buck?

[Stephen_Holder]

Okay, Brian Kelly gets the idiot of the day award. Have you ever seen anything that stupid transpire on an NFL field? How do lateral in that situation? And what the heck is he doing running backward and leaping over a guy going the wrong way?! Are you kidding me?

[Nate Dogg]

With that king of prancing/leaping ability from BK, you gotta wonder how well he'd do on the punt return. Maybe he should stick to making veteran plays and just falling down on the ground after picking up that fumble. Good grief, what a sloppy game haha

[Daniel]

According to the replay June was TRIPPED, then hit the ground, then lost the ball. Why didn't they see that in replay? even if tripping is non chalagable, June was touched, went down, then lost the ball.

[Stephen_Holder]

I'm going to ask Gruden about this after the game, but I believe he may have challenged the wrong issue on that play. Instead of wondering Kelly was down, he should have tried to determine whether June was down (which he appeared to be) when he fumbled. But at the end of the day, that was a moronic play by Kelly. Absolutely inexcusable.

[Stephen_Holder]

Because of what I just said Daniel. You have to be very specific in your replay request. I think they screwed it up.

[Nate Dogg]

I think if i see one more fumble come from the bucs (either on defense or offense), I'm gonna puke...

[Stephen_Holder]

And Nate, how about this: this game is taking forever with all these replays. Goodness. I have a plane to catch, man.

[Mike]

Once again, those of you thinking Donald Penn was the second coming of Tony Boselli, you might want to get the name Jim Pine or Kenyatta Walker in your heads instead....The guy STINKS!

[Daniel]

Pittman looks out of sync with his pass catching and his timing with Garcia. Why do they keep going back to him when Graham has been playing so well? Bennet is no slouch either.

[Mike]

What a bunch of idiots. OH LET'S TAKE A TIMEOUT. OH WAIT WE DONT HAVE ONE. OH WAIT WE'RE THE GHOSTS OF THE 1976 BUCS!

[Stephen_Holder]

This is now officially the sloppiest game i've ever seen. A veteran quarterback calling a timeout when his team doesn't have one? I've seen it all now.

[Stephen_Holder]

As for Pittman, he looks like he needs another week. But Gruden loves him. He gets stars in his eyes when he talks about him. Usually I agree with him being a major part of the game plan, but why is he their primary weapon of choice today? Makes no sense to me. Gruden has a lot less patience with most other players. Overall, this team looks like a team that just came off a bye week and didn't practice but a handful of times. It's not that they're playing so poorly, but rather the numerous mistakes they're making.

[Daniel]

Mike, while Penn is not having his best game, I wouldn't say he stinks. He doesn't make the mental mistakes Yatta was famous for( holding, offsides) and he usually plays the pass and run equally well. Sometimes Garcia improvises too much as we saw in that last 3rd down. Instead of stepping up in the pocket as Trublood was working Abraham to the outside, Garcia went outside and Abraham forced him to throw it away.

[Stephen_Holder]

The Falcons are missing their left tackle Todd Weiner. I believe he left the game with a knee injury. Greg White is really exploiting that at defensive end. This replacement (whoever he is) is pretty bad. They should really be able to take advantage of this throughout the game.

[Nate Dogg]

Haha, good luck with that, Stephan. You may need to get a 10pm flight at this rate. Can I be the first to say thank goodness that the first half is over?! Halftime can't be miscued...or can it?

[Nate Dogg]

Not to mention, Stephan, you're gonna be dealing with the "First Class" Atlanta airport.

[Stephen_Holder]

Got some clarification from the Bucs' brass during halftime on the Kelly-June fire drill play. It was exactly what I thought: the Bucs had to challenge the exact issue they wanted replayed. They tackled the issue of whether Brian Kelly was down when the better outcome might have come from challenging whether Cato June was down when he fumbled. Problem was, I'm told, that they didn't have enough replay angles in a short enough amount of time to make a better decision. The system isn't a good one when replay shows there was a bad call but they can't give it to you because you didn't challenge that specific issue.

[Stephen_Holder]

And Nate, thanks for wishing me luck. Hopefully I can cruise through the Delta Medallion line since I'm still holding on by a thread to my frequent flyer status!

[Robert]

You all complain to much. They are winning! Who cares how sloppy it is. Gees get over it we are not that darn good this year we should take all we can get..

[Daniel]

Actually Robert we are that good. We have a top ten QB, the sixth rated defense and are first in our division. Howie long said at halftime he believes we are a COMPLETE team and should be 7-2 as we gave away games at Detriot and Jacksville. Teams frequently look sloppy after coming off the bye and not playing for a week. Not everyone here is complaining or down on the team, I'm not, we are commenting on the plays.

[Stephen_Holder]

Graham is really running well on this possession with 8 minutes plus to go in the third. I'm not sure why they haven't tried to feed him consistently today. Hasn't that been the gameplan the last three or four weeks?

[JC]

why 2 pass plays called from the 5 yard line, when Graham had been gouging that defense all drive?!?!?