What Could Have Been
December 6th 2010 17:26
There he was once again, marching his team down the field. He had just completed a 19-yard pass to Sammie Stroughter that appeared to have went right through a defender. The Bucs were knocking on the red zone doors with the 2-minute warning having just concluded. Next play, Freeman appears to have rookie sensation Mike Williams open on a play they've already executed twice. But this time was different, and third time was the charm for Brent Grimes as he intercepted the pass, sending us fans to our cars. And the 3rd close game in a row against a playoff-bound team once again slipped away for the Bucs.
It was 1st down, Freeman didn't have to make that throw. They didn't need to throw at all for that matter, being at the 27 with 2:00 left and a time out. But the put the game into the hands of their franchise player. This time, it just didn't work out in the end. All of a sudden the Bucs have become the "what if" team. What if they could have stopped Baltimore and got Freeman the ball back? What if, on the door of victory the first time they played Atlanta, LeGarrette Blount ran straight instead of trying to bounce the goal-line run outside? What if. There were plenty to go around yesterday.
How you let Matt Ryan complete a 3rd-and-20 pass when you only brought 3 pass-rushers is beyond me. How, with just having pulled off a trick play pass for a touchdown, you let a guy go 104 yards to the house giving up all the momentum you had, is as Marv Levy would say:"unconscionable!" Your up 24-14 in the 4th-quarter and your expecting that guy to step out of bounds? You got another thing coming. And they sure did. And now they're 7-5 and on the brink of being cast out of playoff-contention. They could of just as easily of been 9-3 or 10-2. You have to wonder what could have been.
You can say they're young, that they don't have the experience. That doesn't have to do anything with putting your foot on someone's throat when they're down. 10 points up, you let them score the next play, then after a three-and-out, you give the ball back to "Matty Ice" with decent field position. He's too good for you to do that. The Bucs let-up. Agressive the whole game, they started to play conservative, and it came back to haunt them. They couldn't finish, simple as that. Great teams keep the pedal down, great teams don't let-up till the final whistle. The Bucs played hard early, but didn't execute late. And so leads us to another what if. They're starting to pile up.
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