the worst defending Champs ever???? I think the answer is yes. Remember, they brought back almost everyone(I guess Dexter Jackson and Al Singleton meant more than they thought). The Broncos had a worse record after thier last title, but that was after losing a legendary QB....I think the Bucs title defense was the lamest ever...
It's unexplainable though. I was one that thought they would do well. I didn't see the drop off. I think the Keyshawn thing hurt them a little, but it was the two close losses early in the season and then the comeback by Indy. They never looked the same after that.
Beef, Cmon man if you lost ricky williams,surtan,mcmicheal,chambers you think the flippers would go far as a winning a season? Tampa lost 11 starters all were huge peices to our superbowl. Dexter jackson was replaced by dwight smith who did outstanding. But losing mike alstott and our best corner probowl corner brian kelly during the colts game did kill our team. We were up 21 points with 4 mins left in the game alstott went down then kelly did and tampa downspiraled from there. Most importantly, joe jurevicous and ricky dudley losses hurt us badly. Keyshawn johnson was also needed tho he was a distraction. All these players we lost of course tampa doesnt make the playoffs. Crazy thing is tampas d was still the 3rd best in the nfl and the offense was 10th. Were we the worst the superbowl champs ever to defend nah. WE have alstott,kelly,jurevicous and this team wins atleast 4 more games. We lost 7 games this year by a matter of 3 or less points. We lost 3 games in ot and gramitca missed them key fgs for a win, tampas problems were a combo of things starting with special teams. Every game we could of won but we couldnt pull it off. Tampa will be back healthy next season alot like newengland from last year, they couldnt defend themselfs due to there core being effected by horrid injurys. Even the broncos knows whats that like in there last superbowl defense.
I can't help but think of the saying "When the going gets tough the tough get going" that didn't happen in Oakland or Tampa Bay. Players stabbing their coaches in the back. Players punching teamates. And Sapp saying he feels like a slave. It's seems to be a trend in the "New NFL".
This is why sapp and keyshawn wont be back in tampa zack. Distractions took its tool on a team that has the best win percentage in the last 8 years. Did you see the new schedules? Tampa for the first time in 7 seasons has a easy schedule. Our toughest opponents next year will be denver and kc. Both are beatible.
First let me say welcome. Bucs I think your exaggerating by saying "WE have alstott,kelly,jurevicous and this team wins atleast 4 more games." Since when did Alstott and Jurevicous become playmakers??? Ya they are both solid players but they don't get you 4 WINS. I will agree losing brian kelly is a Big loss but the good teams play through injuries and if gruden and staff was able to teach the younger players a little better they wouldn't have had the Depth problems they had. Injuries are nothing a good staff can't work around. Case in point Patriots. Your Defense obviously was still good but the ranking system is flawed. I wouldn't put to much weight into that 3rd ranking because when you have a good team but can't win games teams are running the clock on you in the fourth instead of moving the ball and on offense when your losing alot teams tend to give a ton of yardage and maybe a garbage score just to keep the clock running. I put weight points per game and wins because like the bucs did last year and the pats D is doing this year is they do not give up a lead. Eveything else means shit. Your D did still have a good year though and will be the strength for a while. Also I wouldn't call your schedule that tough because your divison sucks with maybe the exception of Carolina but they didn't beat many good teams this year either. How is you draft situation? still paying for gruden this year?
Pats i totally disgree with you, i never said they were playmakers they are our starters ! look at last years team and tampas team over the years. Mike alstott was key for our team pound the ball and run the clock down. Mike alstott also when we needed that 4 yards would get it for us. Joe jurevicous was huge asset for brad johnson last year, brad depended on him so much in our superbowl run. Joe jurevcious and alstott were part of the reasons, why tampa made the superbowl last year they were the players scoring on our offense. Alstott was used as a te on some plays and jurevicous was wide open in the slot when teams covered keyshawn and mccardell. Losing alstott we lost what everyone knows is bucball, ball control to eat up the clock. The loss of keyshawn we lost a postion man who did make the big catches, not to mention a great blocker. Tampa this year couldnt get that extra 4 yards on 3rd down and they were punting. Joe jurevicous picked up where he left off in week 1 vs the eagles and made the horse trailor. then we lost joe for the year, when he tried to come back for one game he wasnt the same. To say alstott,jurevicous arent important to this team is off, and yes had they been here, gruden could of controlled the clock, to rest our defense by keeping our offense on the field. Which cost this team many many games this year . I See you didnt watch any of the bucs games this year. Dont take offense to that cause your way off on our season and how we lost our games. But special teams and many gramitica missed fgs late in games, whether it was ot or the minute cost us, starting out the gate slow cost us also. Tampa's never been a come from behind team and all year we were coming from behind. If you start a game with bad field postion at your own 5 your usually 3 and out. If you have to rallie on micheal pittman to get a first down forget it. Pittman worked well with mike alstott coming in when we needed them crucial yards. As for our schedule being easy, better do a history check going back to the nfc central til the current nfc south. Weve played all the best teams in the nfl the last 8 years and based on schedule and win percentage only one team had a tougher schedule then tampa, thats minn in them 8 seasons. Is the nfc south weak? Yes this year they were. Last year was a diffrent story the nfc south was the toughest div of all teams in the nfl in 2002/2003. We had nawlins,carolina,atlanta and of course tampa battling for supremecy. Carolina played outstanding for a team retooling and played the same football they did this year. Except we swepth them and they eventually crumbled in the end. Atlanta went in lambeau field in the playoffs and beat the packers in the cold in there home, they did it 2 times. They eventually lost to philly whos been the top team in the nfc for 3 years. Yes im talking last year, big diffrence from this year. Like i said you lose key players to your team starting at offensive line to your offense to your defense its lights out. This years schedule was brutal as we played some of the top teams in the nfl. Dallas,tenn,philly,carolina,greenbay,indy and of course your div rivals whos always play tough. Most of these teams won there div. What made the patroits injury problems diffrent from this year, to the year after they won superbowl? I can tell you. DEPTH New england has way more depth then any team in the nfl which is probably why they will win the whole thing. You cant compare this tampa team to the pats team, we dont have the depth that new england has, we havent had the luxery of all them picks you guys have had them years from tuna til now. As for our draft we will draft in the 15 spot and our second round pick goes to oakland. So we still have 7 picks in the 2004 nfl draft. Yes we finally have a first round pick after 3 years with no first rounders. We will be back next year retooled and ready to go, alot of us tampa fans are excited cause we can actually look at schedule and not see the rams,eagles,packers,vikings,tenn,steelers, minn,pitt have given us hell for some reason always has. Bye the way best of luck in the playoffs, tho we dont agree its all good i called the patroits all year even after the 31 -0 pounding to buffalo. When i seen that team just crumble the eagles in preseason when phillys starters were in i knew this team was back. Bust of luck pats
damn that was long but alot of good points. I have watched a good amount of their games but obviosly don't focus on them. I never meant they weren't important to your team but I just didn't think that you would have won for more games. As for toughest divison you can argue the AFC east was just as strong last season. Miami,Pats,Jets,Bills. And if you want to go back in time we had Indy as well.
No argument there i think when i say toughest division i should be more specific, toughest in the nfc lol. Yeah that was a damn long response wasnt it lol. Yeah tampa has alot of work to do this offseason with where there gonna draft and who there gonna sign. I did read the mocks on the patroits two picks intersting. they may draft chris perry and take a defensive player.
My original post was asking the question "Are the Bucs the worst defending champs ever?" Considering the way they played (injuries or not), I think they are....Other candidates for this distinction would be the 5-11 Broncos, but they lost Elway to retirement, and the Giants that missed the playoffs after thier Super Bowl, but they lost thier coach....so with that, I say the Bucs were more disappointing than any other team in the league....as far as the injuries, it will be years before a team can use that as an excuse as NE has proven that injuries dont have to be a negative thing if its approached correctly...
What are talking about? the patroits missed the playoffs after 2001 They had horrendious injurys thats everything to do with not playing well. I think beef if you go back and look at them bronco games, patroit games and even the giants games year after there superbowl. You will find they were clearly beaten in some games where they were blown out. Tampa like i said in 14 games this year played til the last minute of the game where they could of won the game, and they lost them games by a matter of 3 or less. To me i thinks that competing with the best players you have. So no i dont think you can be the worst defending champ ever, with keyshawn,jurevicious,dudley,kelly,alstott, roman oben,shelton quarles,and last john lynch for some games. Nope i chose to disgree and i think alot of people would agree if the patroits lost, a smith,troy brown,deion branch,danial graham,ty law, rodney harrison for some games and your best offensive lineman went down. I guarentee patroits dont do well. Even tho they have the most depth you can only go so far then you take the burtality of one of the leagues most horid schedules and you see tampa playing teams that are pretty much the best teams in nfl. Then you can see why tampa lost some close games.
Everyone of them players i mentioned are starters on our team and were the reason why tampa has been great thru the years. Some were new but fit in nicley we won a superbowl the year they signed a contract with a bucs logo on it. We may be the alltime nfl losingest franchise starting over the last 8 years with a win percentage of 323% but were up to 393% alltime with a superbowl. So you cant get away with this one claiming tampas the worst defending champs ever. lol
First I agree that those injurys did have a sizeable impact on the Bucs season. But the thing that caught my attention was the list of injurys you put up for the patriots and the the comment "I guarentee patriots dont do well" Now are those like season ending injurys or just losing them during the course of the season because with the exception of Rodney Harrison I believe every one up there has atleast missed one game. Antowain Smith is so important to us that hes been actually listed as inactive for some games. I think most know Troy Brown missed about a month or more and hes our punt returner. Deion Branch missed a few games with a "leg" injury. Daniel Graham missed some time at the start of the season, maybe 3 games or so, I think it was a shoulder. Ty Law was battling an ankle injury but now he appears to be fine. I know he missed a game or two and frequently came out of the line up when he played with that injury. During the titans game I dont think he played that second half but he did come in at the end to close out the game. He intercepted Co-MVP Mcnair and limped into the endzone to give us a 10 point lead with just a few minutes left in the game. I guess our best O-linemen would have to be woody and he was hurt early on in the bills game this past week and didnt return, I think the line did ok with out him. Other O-linemen who have been forgotton is Mike Compton, our starting left guard the past few years was hurt during traing camp and was put on IR. Also Belichicks first pick ever with the franchis, second rounder Adrian Klemm who was suppose to be our starting right tackle was put on IR very early on in the season. So our starting center Woody was moved to left guard, rookie by the name of Dan Koppen playing center and Tom ashworth at right tackle. Also on the topic of linemen, we lost our long snapper lonnie paxton for the season. This is just the guys you mentioned and our O-line, do I even have enough room to talk about the LB's and others, ok the following is on IR or missed some time, Ted Johnson, Ted washington, Rosevelt Colvin, Mike Vrabel, Richard Seymour, Wille Mcginist and I must be forgetting someone as this just off the top of my head. Now only a handful of these guys were lost for the season which is the bright side but we did lose some very key contributers for a sizeable amount of time.
The 2003 Tampa Bay Bucs are the worst ever defending champions....no other champion underachieve so greatly, for whatever the reason is.....having stated my opinion, which Im clearly allowed to have, I wish the 2003 Miami Dolphins could have been the worst defending champion in history, atleast Id have seen them win a Super Bowl
I don't think the Bucs are the worst ever defending champs. Not even most disappointing. The 5-11 Broncos have my vote. The 2000 Rams are the most disappointing. The defensive rankings are a joke. Miami has ranked in top quarter of the league for the 7 or so years and its gotten them squat. Injuries do play a big part but thats not the whole story either. The key injury IMO was Shelton Quarles. Why? Brooks did not seem as dominate w/o someone to do the small things to free #55 up to make the impact plays he did in 2002. The major reason Tampa collapsed this year was Ego an not just Keyshawn & Sapp. The whole franchise seemed smug & indifferent. You know when John Lynch is mugging for the camera that there was an air of invincibility that should not have been there. After coming so close for all those years, Tampa rested on its laurels this season. IMO, everyone but Brad Johnson mailed in their performance. The loss to the Colts on MNF was the beginning of the end for the Bucs this season.
Yes we all have opinions on whos the worst but base it on stats then tampa isnt the worst to defend. Glenso for the record if you read up at the top i said that the patroits have the most depth of all nfl teams, they have had draft picks like crazy in the last 3 years and will continue this year with two more first rounders. I also said at the top that the bucs werent close to the depth that the patroits have, as for rosvelt colvin he wasnt on your roster last year so you can count him for anything, everyone knows the patroits have the deepest core of linebackers and have since andy katzmoyer. Bottom line is the patroits,broncos, bucs and other have missed the playoffs after there superbowl which is common today. But tampa isnt the worst, base it on stats and schedule then. Blackadder, you forgot the horrible season gramitca has had and some of the key fgs he's misssed along with the leagues worst special teams in which we have had. lol. Injurys are part of the game, i think we all know if tampa has alstott,jurevicous, kelly our best cover corner we win more games. Thats a fact.
You act as thought the NFL went out of its way to give Tampa a hard schedule, after looking at Tampas schedule, its not all that hard and its not a valid excuse, this is a normal schedule for an NFL team, not an exceptional one, you played 7 games agasint playoff teams, thats not excessive: At Philly...you won that game when Philly was plying like crap vs. Carolina...tough opponent, but a division game, and at home at Atlanta....with no Mike Vick, no problem vs.Indy....tough opponent for sure, but you got em at home at Washington....pansie game for a good team at SF....again, as easy road game for a good team vs. Dallas....tough opponent, but at home vs.NO....nothing special, and your at HOME at Carolina....tough opponent on the road, hard game to win vs. Green Bay....tough opponent, at home, arent you guys th Champs? vs. NYG....they sucked and had quit at this point, easy win at Jacksonville....subpar team, rookie QB, whats the problem?? at NO....hard to play in that Dome, but you are the Champs, tough win vs. Houston....expansion team,at your house,with Rookie QB vs. Atlanta....Vick is back, but come on, play with some pride at Tenn....tough game, but should have meant something
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>Bucs40etrain wrote: Blackadder, you forgot the horrible season gramitca has had and some of the key fgs he's misssed along with the leagues worst special teams in which we have had. lol. Injurys are part of the game, I think we all know if tampa has alstott,jurevicous, kelly our best cover corner we win more games. Thats a fact. </div> With that logic, Miami should have won more games had Mare not had to kick off the baseball infield and the phins would've beaten Tennessee (A team they owned in prior yrs) had Zach & Surtain played. I disagree on both points. The infield has not been that much of a problem for Mare in the past. Further, it is on his home field which s/b to his advantage. Also, whose to say that Miami wouldn't have done worse in 2002 if Jay had not gotten injured and been replaced by Ray Lucas. The X factor is coaching. Tampa did as well as they because of Gruden just like Atl went down the crapper because of Reeves. The AFC East is another great example. Belichick was alot of the reason for the Pats success while Miami was successful in spite of Wanny.
"i think alot of people would agree if the patroits lost, a smith,troy brown,deion branch,danial graham,ty law, rodney harrison for some games and your best offensive lineman went down. I guarentee patroits dont do well" "Glenso for the record if you read up at the top i said that the patroits have the most depth of all nfl teams, they have had draft picks like crazy in the last 3 years and will continue this year with two more first rounders." I dont know if I'm reading that sentence the wrong way but I'm taking it as if those list of players are lost for some amount of time then the Patriots dont do as well. I'm simply stating that with the exception of Rodney Harrison all of those players have been lost for some amount of time. I then included other players that had missed time and I guess Colvin doesnt count because he wasnt on the team last year..... I'll take out Colvin and put David Patten in his place. Our number 2 reciever the last few years who is now on IR.
