What a win! Coming into Sunday many around the NFL saw the Bucs as a flukey 2-1 team that got exposed by the Pittsburgh Steelers going into their bye. But in a testament to the coaching staff and the organizational message that Tampa Bay is preaching, the 2010 Bucs responded to adversity by coming out of the bye week focused and earning a gritty road win against the Cincinnati Bengals. Make no mistakes about it this was a quality win for the Buccaneers, who had been knocked for notching its only wins against the Browns and Panthers prior to this. It may not have been the sexiest win, but style points don’t matter in the NFL. A win is a win, and this one lends the Bucs an air of legitimacy.
More than anything else though this win demonstrated the resiliency and fight of the Buccaneers. When challenged, this Bucs team fought back time and time again. After going down 7-0 at the beginning of the game it was the rookie Cody Grimm, a Bucs scapegoat just two weeks ago, who read a Bengals passing play perfectly and stepped in front of a Carson Palmer pass for a pick-six. Down 21-14, with just over two minutes remaining the defense made another play, this time with Aqib Talib wrestling a pass away from Terrell Owens. Josh Freeman wasted no time in leading the Bucs down the field and finding Mike Williams for a beautiful 20 yard touchdown strike.
Then, once again this team refused to die and the defense again found a way to intercept Carson Palmer to give the Bucs offense a shot. This time it was the oft-derided Sabby Piscitelli who was there to snag a deflection and give the Bucs offense a shot inside of a minute to win the game. Again Freeman played well, finding Michael Spurlock on a controversial sideline catch to set up the winning Connor Barth field goal.
It was an amazing ending, a truly impressive trademark win for the Bucs. This is the type of win that builds a team’s confidence moving forward. The Bucs couldn’t have found a better way to come out of their bye week than with a strong performance, character-building win on the road against a good team ! |
