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Roy Cummings, The Tampa Tribune, published 24 November 2006
Conspiracy theorists tend to descend upon the Dallas area in droves this time of year. Add Jon Gruden to the list.
The Bucs' coach arrived here this week questioning the sanity of what he believes was a killer stretch of games in his team's schedule.
Three games in 11 days. Gruden was only half-kidding when he recently suggested his team got saddled with that schedule because someone in the NFL offices doesn't like him.
He has long considered such a run of games far too taxing, and he was proven right Thursday during the Bucs' 38-10 loss at Texas Stadium.
Tired and so beaten up that they had to start four backups on defense, Gruden's Bucs were no match for a Cowboys team clearly fresher physically and just plain better, especially on the offensive side of the ball.
While a lot of Bucs rookie quarterback Bruce Gradkowski's passes hung in the air like Macy's parade balloons, Tony Romo of the Cowboys threw one smart-bomb after another in a record-tying performance. Constantly shredding a defensive secondary that started a backup who was nursing hip, foot and ankle injuries, Romo made the Bucs losers for the second time in that rugged three-game span.
"He looked like Troy Aikman," Gruden said of Romo, the first-year starter who tied Aikman's Cowboys record by throwing five touchdown passes. "He's a polished technician and he's got a great future."
The same can't be said for the Bucs. They're 3-8, and with road games at Pittsburgh, Chicago and Cleveland still to play, the only thing that's great is the likelihood of them posting their third losing season in the past four years. And as if they weren't already having enough trouble fielding a competitive team, they got more bad news on the injury front as starting left guard Dan Buenning went down with a right knee injury.
Gruden said Buenning may be lost for the remainder of the season. If that proves true, he would become the fifth starter lost to a season-ending injury this year. The others are quarterback Chris Simms, cornerback Brian Kelly, defensive end Simeon Rice and right tackle Kenyatta Walker. All were greatly missed Thursday, when Romo lit up the Bucs secondary while Gradkowski struggled.
The problem, once again, was Gradkowski's inability to consistently hit targets deep downfield. He did connect on one such play to set up the Bucs' first score early in the game, but most of his other deep throws fell short. One that might have produced a score was batted away from Galloway in the end zone, and another was picked off by Roy Williams when the outcome was still in doubt. "On that one I just underthrew it," Gradkowski said of the pass for Galloway that Williams intercepted. "I need to put it out there better, because Joey moves a little faster on the turf."
Gruden refused to be critical of his quarterback and instead blamed the offensive woes on the entire unit. On Thursday, though, it was a unit that had little trouble moving the ball on the ground. The Bucs, who produced two 10-play scoring drives in the first half, ran 19 times for 85 yards in those first 30 minutes, and they came out running the ball in the second half, too.
On their second play, though, a pass for Michael Pittman went through his hands, off his helmet and into the hands of Cowboys linebacker Akin Ayodele. That's when Romo started putting the finishing touches on his masterpiece. Having already thrown four touchdown passes, Romo continued to pick mostly on reserve corner Juran Bolden, throwing his fifth touchdown pass before finishing the day with 22 completions on 29 attempts for 306 yards.
"He was as good as advertised," Bucs corner Ronde Barber said of Romo, who went into the game with a 100.0 passer rating that was the best in the NFC and second-best in the NFL. The thing that jumps out at you about him is his mobility, but it was his accuracy that killed us today. He just didn't make very many bad throws. He played real well, we played real bad."
Gruden didn't seem all that surprised by that. The injuries his team has had to absorb and the schedule it has had to play had him thinking this could be a difficult outing.
"It's a big factor, especially when you consider the number of players we're missing," Gruden said when asked how the three games in 11 days affected his team. "It's never been done before. Why do you think it's never been done before? It's a hard deal. I thought the outcome of today's game had a lot to do with that, yeah."
The game didn't start off badly for the Bucs. They've been plagued by slow starts all season, but there was nothing slow about their start Thursday.
The Bucs scored on their first offensive drive, the score coming on a 1-yard plunge by Mike Alstott, and finished off their first defensive series by sacking Romo after five plays.
It wasn't long, though, before the Cowboys found their groove and sent the Bucs to their fifth loss in five road games this season and sixth straight setback away from home dating to last season.
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