The Good, The Bad & The Ugly! Patriots

The Good

Ken Darby - Darby stole the show Friday night at the running back position. He showed great balance, good vision, and explosiveness hitting the hole. Ken tallied 84 yards on 15 carries, at a clip of 5.6 yards per carry with a long of 21 yards. While he didn't find the endzone himself, his efforts set up two of Tampa's scoring opportunities. Before the second quarter expired, Darby took over after Graham did most of the bulk work on the drive, but his 7 yard scamper to the New England 11 set up Luke McCown's touchdown pass to Paris Warren to help the Buccs to a 10 - 7 lead. With Lionel Gates and Darby each getting 4 carries a piece in quarter 3, it was the Ken Darby show in the 4th. Albeit weaker competition in the last quarter of the game, Darby seemed to get stronger as the game progressed ripping off 10 carries for 64 yards at 6.4 yards per carry. At 4:30 left in the game, Ken took the role of workhorse and rattled off 7 straight carries taking the Buccs to the Patriot 14 yard line and leaving just 0:03 on the clock setting up Matt Bryant's game winning field goal.

Luke McCown - 7 for 7! What else can you say about that? After having an excellent showing to the start of 2007's training camp, Luke followed that up with a great performance in Friday night's game tossing 7 passes, and completing all of them. He showed nice touch and accuracy on his passes, excellent leadership, good command of the huddle and adequate knowledge of the play book. Couple those attributes with a fine display of scrambling ability, and Luke McCown looks like he has the tools to lead this team in the future, or in the near future if Garcia were to succumb to injury.

Parris Warren - All the rave in training camp has been surrounding Muarice Stovall, but Parris Warren burst onto the scene last week with a vengeance. Warren had four passes throw his way, and he pulled in all of them for 46 yards averaging 11.5 yards per reception with a long of 13 and scored Tampa Bay's only touchdown. Parris looked quick, got nice separation, ran sharp routes all against decent competition as New England mixed and matched their starters and second stringers during part of the second quarter. Bucc fans can look forward to big things from this kid, who just may be the one to push Mike Clayton out the door.

The Bad

Dan Buenning - This one is short and not so sweet. Dan went from being our best O-lineman as the starting Left Guard to being a failed experiment at Center, to third string Left Guard behind Aaron Sears and Anthony Davis. We have been told by team doctor's and officials that his knee is healthy, and he did pass the team's pre-training camp physical. So until told otherwise about his health, I'll have to consider him a player going in the wrong direction.

Derrick Brooks - Like Ronde Barber, Brooks didn't have a poor performance, but when a player sets the bar so high the fans come to expect a certain level of play from a veteran icon. Derrick missed a "gimme" interception opportunity, after it appears to have bounced off his face mask after diving in front of the receiver to make a play on the ball. While he did still defend the pass, he needs to create that turnover. Especially for a player who shares the record for most interceptions returned for touchdown in a season by a Linebacker. Then there was a flash back to last season's Falcons game where Griffith punked DB on his way to the endzone when Sammy Morris trucked Brooks on his way into the endzone for a 2 yard score.

Lionel Gates - Gates is a young RB who most felt wouldn't even make it to training camp after off field legal trouble. The charges were dropped, and Gates showed some quickness and smooth moves in camp. Gates had some fumbles early in camp, then seemed to correct it during week 2 of camp. Well, not only did Gates rush for a putrid 6 yards on 5 carries for 1.2 yard per carry average, but his fumbling problem reappeared late in the 3rd quarter to kill a nice drive by the Buccs. Giving the pats new found momentum, they then drove down the field for the game tying field goal in the 4th quarter.

The Ugly

Ronde Barber - Ronde Barber, an icon of the Buccs' defense. One of the most consistent players to ever step on the grass in Tampa didn't have the worst performance of Friday night, but his efforts were ugly. Ronde has a reputation of being one of the surest tacklers in the league, and for sure one of the best tacklers to ever put on a Buccaneer uniform. With that being said, watching him lose his jock to Kelly Washington after a pass from Matt Cassel to convert a 3rd down on an eventual scoring drive was just too much. Added to two poor attempted tackles when he slipped off of the ball carrier like they were greased pigs was enough for Barber to earn the "ugly" performance of the game.
...JJC/ABuccsFan