Road Warriors: Bucs Need to Bounce Back

This is the schedule of a 5-11 team?

It’s scary to think of what the Bucs schedule this year would look like had they had a winning season, say 9-7. Four more wins than what we actually had, probably would have resulted in them losing two more home games and playing in Mexico. Hard to imagine getting much crappier of a deal than the one we were handed. Although, on the bright side, the NFL did give us a sure win with the Giants game before we take off on our Worlds longest road trip. That was thoughtful of them. Hey, they even made sure a rookie quarterback would be making his first NFL start, to ensure the win. Good thinking, they have got it all covered so that nothing possibly could go wrong. They didn’t enter the Bucs Factor into their calculations, that thing, whatever it is, that pushes a kicked ball a little to the right of the upright, or on a perfect day so far for Winston, a bullet to the numbers on a defenders chest, or shoves a guy going out of bounds for a personal foul at a crucial moment. How about that good old, just fumble it into the arms of the D, or our favorite, make a rookie quarterback look like he’s a seasoned and accomplished veteran headed for the HOF? Yeah, that one too.

No easy wins on this trip

So now our team sets out on the road trip to Hell, with that Giants gift under their arms. They won’t have another game at home until Nov. 10 against the Cardinals. The Bucs will be facing the Rams on Sept. 29, then the Saints on Oct. 6 before traveling across the Atlantic to host a game in London against the Panthers on Oct. 13, then comes a welcome bye week. After that, the Bucs have two more road games, traveling to Tennessee on Oct. 27 and Seattle on Nov. 3. It’s possible that the only one of those that we win is the Cardinals game, which is at home, but oh damn it all, another rookie quarterback.

Anything is possible, or probably not?

It is possible that we could win a few of those games. It seems like the Bucs play up to their competition when it’s a good team, and down to a lesser team. Hey, it would have been too easy for us to have trounced the Giants and went into this extended road trip with that boost in confidence and a winning record. Let’s all try to keep in mind that it’s early in Arians’ first season, and even though he might have turned other teams around in his first season, the Bucs are a whole different Beast than any he has ever tried to saddle. This team is probably going to age him 10 years in 2.

Wrapping it up

Most of the pieces are already on board this ship, and if he doesn’t end up committed to a Sanitarium, or fake his own death, in some deep-sea fishing accident, he will probably get er done, and hand it off to Bowles or Leftwich to sail the ship to Glory, and it all starts with this road trip, are you ready for it, I am, Go Bucs!!