TRYING TOO HARD But falling too far. That's the message coming out of Tampa this week, with Carnell Williams admitting that part of the reason he's having a "sophomore slump" is that he's trying too hard to do too many things. That, and he's not given the ball enough - even when we're NOT chasing games. Receivers coach Richard Mann has said that Michael Clayton, this past monday at least, "was simply guilty of trying to get too much out of the play and not protecting the football." This leads me to two things: 1) This Sunday we should play better, after all, in acknowledging what is going wrong (in part), we can nullify those aspects, and start to run and catch. 2) How long have the players and coaches known this?! Monday against Carolina saw me begin the Lee Bromfield road to Panther-hating, by calling all the female Panther fans sluts, and wondering what the hell some of them were wearing. Oh, and I hate Steve Smith. I did see encouraging signs on our D, of learning to tackle finally - looks like they did go back to basics in training. Our offense was a different story - without the fumbles and interceptionss, we could have actually won that game, although I refuse to blame Bruce. If it was his 2nd year however, after two full off-seasons, THEN I'd start to analyse him critically. I fully intend to take ALL credit for other writers (Hello Lee - again) following me into calling for the youngsters to start. The only way we can possibly have a good season in 2007 is if we make a start now on clearing all the deadwood. How can we know if Maurice Stovall, Alan Zemaitis, Luke McCown, Jon Bradley, Julian Jenkins, Wesly Mallard, Antoine Cash, Paris Warren, Earnest Graham, Jerald Sowell, Kalvin Pearson, Blue Adams and Jamie Winborn have a future at the Bucs? (I would have included Barrett Ruud here, but I'm sure of his future being at RayJay) Of these 13, over half are defensive players. Why not try a couple at a time? Slot in say Kalvin Pearson and Jon Bradley for a quarter, Wesly Mallard and Julian Jenkins. Earnest Graham and Maurice Stovall. Paris Warren and Jerald Sowell. Yes, Mike Alstott is 99% guaranteed to be retiring this winter - but the Bucs go on. Jerald Sowell and Coach Gruden need to know if he's a fit for next year. If not, bye bye. 13 players out of 63 who COULD be the future of our Bucs. Who we should KNOW if they are or not. If they are back-up material, good, let's go out there and find players who should be our starters. Next year, aside from the Saints, Panthers and Falcons, we facing Arizona, St Louis, Jacksonville, Tennessee and likely Washington at home, San Francisco, Seattle, Houston, Indianapolis and likely Detroit away. Forgetting the divisional games, based on their situations right now, that's six games at least we could expect to at least have a shot at winning against, (San Fran, Houston, Detroit, Arizona, Tennessee and the Wash) with the Rams and Jaguars being no harder than anyone else we're facing this year. Thus, and I'm sticking my neck out early here, I predict a 10-6 season next year, on the basis that our rookie and 1st year players improve, we draft well, and we have a sort out of our players. However. The only way we can look forward to successive play-off appearances for the first time in years is if we can beat the Rams, Jaguars, Seattle and Indy, along with our divisional rivals. I'm not saying going 16-0 (I'm not ready to be committed just yet), but we need to be looking at some of these games as winnable. We need to have at least a .500 record in the NFC South, beating teams we should expect to beat, and running those who may consider us a pushover close. How do we go about doing all that? Ask Gruden. My opinion? Ruthlessness. NFL WATCH How can Aaron Brooks replace Andrew Walter at Oakland this week? Similar to our situation with Bruce, Walter was not expected to play, however Dave Warnke would probably be a better Quarterback than Brooks right now. Trent Green replacing Damon Huard? The cynic in me says that this decision was made easier by Huard's (and the Chiefs') poor performance against Miami, despite Herm being old school and standing by his starters. This Sunday we continue our RIDICULOUS schedule of three games in 11 days, away to the Wash. With a rookie QB at both ends, running backs who are having bad seasons or have barely played, and bad pass defenses, expect either a 0-0 tie or a Chargers-Bengals scoreline. Seriously. Mr Culpepper was never really ready to come back from his knee operation, but Miami had to attempt to justify signing him, particularly over Drew Brees. Joey appears to have steadied the ship down south, and I expect them to finish at least 8-8 with the AFC North being the closest divison of the year - and hopefully the Pats will have a couple of seasons of mediocrity to stop the love-in in Boston. Keyshawn Johnson should join the Premiership as a diving coach for Ronaldo and various others. He's that good. Slightly away from the NFL, the College game has really started to draw me in, with American Football as a whole being my.. obsession? Passion, there, that's better. Group demonstrations. 15 yard penalties for celebrating is the most ridiculous penalty in sporting history. Sure, for something really over the top, but even I must admit I found T.O's cell phone incident humourous! Finally, on a personal note, Sunday 26th I'm going to the Chester Romans rookie day - No idea where I'll fit in best, but I'm leaning towards the D-Line. Who knows, if the Bucs continue as they are, I may just walk into a starting role! Richard Lowe November 2006