The Unofficial lets talk football and not trades, draft, etc...

[evucci]

Ok- I started this thread to talk about the actual football game. You know the one we've been waiting YEARS to see. What worries you? What do you think is in our favor?


The main thing that worries me is the ability of the offensive line to stop the Bucs D. They are fast and physical up front and their secondary will make you pay for a mistake. They force turnovers and are tough against the run.

The Bucs need to worry about giving up the deep ball to Santana and stopping Portis. The X factor for the offense is the TE and H back position. The Bucs may decide that they won't let Santana beat them deep (and spy Portis) and to force Cooley and Royal to make the plays to win the game.

I think the D needs to force a turnover and not give up the big play. Joey G. is like 500 years old, but he's a threat. Sean Taylor needs to be aware of the playaction pass bomb. Pressure from the front 4 needs to get to Simms and force him to make mistakes.

Thats what I'm thinking. What's on your mind?

[portisleft_portisright]

I agree that the key to the game will be the 'Skins offense against the Bucs D. Simeon Rice killed us in that first game down there and I think Samuels will be up for some revenge this week. The best way to neutralize Rice will be to run the ball right at him. I think Gibbs is going to run a lot of play action misdirection plays to Cooley/Royal/Sellers to get that agressive Tampa D to overcommit.

As far as the defense goes, the Springs injury could be big. However, the last game we played down there we were without Taylor and Griffin, so even if Springs sits out this week I think our defense as a whole is still a little stronger than it was for the first game.

All in all, the Skins are playing the best football of anyone in the NFC right now. Joe knows how to prepare a team for a playoff game. It is to our advantage that we already played them once this year, look what Joe did in the rematches of the Dallas and NY games. The 'Skins will come in with a chip on their shoulder and will not leave this one up to a phantom 2 pt. conversion call at the end. We are facing an inexperienced QB in a pressure situation, I believe our D is gonna jump all over him.

I'm saying 'Skins roll in this one big time, somewhere in the 27-10 range. HTTR!