The 2007 Buccaneers – becoming a team to be reckoned with, or just flattering to deceive? Back down to earth with a bump at Houston, the Bucs couldn’t reproduce the quality and intensity of the New Orleans game and came up disappointingly short against a team with back-up quarterback Sage Rosenfels at the helm and a running game spearheaded by Darius Walker. Despite this reverse, Tampa should be confirmed as NFC South Champions at home against Atlanta this week. How does a team that finished 4-12 in 2006, losing every game against NFC South opponents in the process, turn things around so dramatically? We’ve now got a quarterback (or perhaps two?): The most obvious upgrade from last year has been the consistency and leadership that Jeff Garcia has brought to the team. Eleven touchdown passes is not spectacular, but Garcia has only been intercepted three times, compared to the eighteen picks which Gradkowski, Simms and Rattay gave up last year. Luke McCown filled-in admirably in New Orleans, giving some belief that we can also win without Garcia, but he now seems to be on a short leash again following a far less assured performance against the Texans. The defense steps up Maybe it’s not quite the 2002 vintage, but the defence has consistently made big plays at crucial points, most recently in edging out Washington and New Orleans at the death. The ‘D’ already has 29 sacks this year, compared to 25 in the whole of last season. Pittsburgh is the only team in the league to have given up fewer points than the Buccaneers. Turnover differentials The Bucs’ turnover ratio was minus twelve in 2006 but this year it’s plus 11 – a turnaround which is the result of protecting the ball far better on offence and getting plenty of defensive take-aways. A consistent effective running game I’m not sure that Earnest Graham has been given nearly enough credit for his tremendous contribution to the Bucs’ success this year. The team’s prospects took a nosedive when Cadillac Williams suffered his season-ending knee injury in the Week 4 game at Carolina and things looked even bleaker when Michael Pittman was also crocked the following week against the Colts. In his previous three years with Tampa, Graham had hardly been an integral part of the Bucs’ offence, with a grand total of just 215 rushing yards. However, with nine touchdowns (and over a thousand all-purpose yards), he has reached the endzone more times than Willie Parker, Willis McGahee, Edgerrin James and Clinton Portis. Graham is not flashy and goes about his business without really catching the eye, but his contribution has been crucial in enabling the Bucs to maintain a balanced offense. Assuming that Cadillac comes back healthy next year, Jon Gruden will either have a running back dilemma or a really useful two-pronged ground attack. Winning the close ones Before the defeat by the Texans, six of the previous seven games had been decided by a touchdown or less and we managed to come out on top in four of those. Any of these close games could just as easily have gone the other way and the Bucs might well have been looking at a 5-8 record instead. A soft schedule The fact is we’ve been fortunate to play a lot of pretty poor teams this year. The Bucs have eight victories and only one of these has come against a team which currently has a winning record (Tennessee, who are 7-6). Is there a weaker Division in the NFL than the NFC South? With the Saints not producing anything like their form of 2006 and both the Falcons and the Panthers playing the entire season without any genuine quality at quarterback, the Bucs have had no real Divisional challenger. With home games against Atlanta and Carolina to come, Tampa ought to record a clean sweep of wins in the South. Overcoming adversity All NFL teams get banged-up to one degree or another and good teams invariably find a way cope with injuries. These Bucs are a pretty resilient bunch, losing key personnel at crucial times during the course of the season and yet still finding a way to win. The Buccaneers definitely look to be a team on the rise and it remains to be seen just how far they can go this year. Before we get too carried away, though, let’s not forget that Tampa went to the play-offs with an 11-5 record in 2005, only for the wheels to fall off so spectacularly the following year. The challenge will be to make sure that doesn’t happen again in 2008. NFL watch It was good of Sky studio guest Ian Allen to get into the festive spirit on Sunday by wearing that silver tinsel in the front of his hair, but why do Kevin Cadle and Nick Halling always have to dress like extras from Bugsy Malone? Michael Vick – goodbye and good riddance So Michael Vick is going to spend the next two years taking snaps for the Shawshank team – perhaps he’ll have a better group of receivers than he did in Atlanta. Vick acknowledged using “poor judgement” (a slight understatement of the facts, methinks) and his legal team somehow seemed to excuse his behaviour on the basis that he had a tough upbringing and dog-fighting was ‘part of the culture’. Any right-thinking person can see that what Vick and his associates were doing was barbaric and morally reprehensible. Undoubted talent that he is, I hope that we never see Michael Vick on an NFL field again.