Steelers-Bucs Preview

I didn't forget to post a review of the Titans game. I thought about it and realized that, basically, it broke down to this:

1. To say that the offense is terrible right now would be understating the obvious.
2. To say that the defense is fantastic right now would be understating the obvious.
3. But, the Steelers are 2-0 and that ain't bad.

That's really where we're at now. Charlie Batch completed five of 11 passes on Sunday for 25 yards. Averaging 2.3 yards per attempt is bad for a running back, to say nothing of a quarterback. A quarterback that allegedly knows the system and is more experienced and is therefore better than Dennis Dixon, I might add.

Dixon actually wasn't playing that bad. He had completed 68.8 percent of his passes and was averaging 7.9 yards per pass attempt. He just didn't lead the offense on any touchdown drives. Neither did Batch, but that's not the point.

The offense is not bad. It's not struggling. It's not trying to find its groove. It's ass-terrible and I'm not convinced that it will be fixed when Ben Roethlisberger comes back. That's a story for another time, though.

I am starting to believe that the defense is back to their 2008 form, but they flashed a lot of 2009 in the fourth quarter against the Titans. If that game went to overtime, the Steelers would have lost.

The important thing to remember is that the game did not go into overtime and the Steelers did not lose. They're 2-0. The Pittsburgh Steelers are 2-0. That's what matters. Even if they lose their next two games -- which could very well happen -- they're still 2-2 heading into the bye, which is what we all realistically hoped for.

Regarding the game against Tampa this weekend...

I saw that the Steelers were favored by three points this weekend and thought, "Only three? But Tampa really sucks." Then I thought about it from Tampa's perspective. They must be thinking, "We're undefeated and playing at home. Somehow, we're three point underdogs to a team that's starting a 36 year-old third string quarterback that hasn't scored a touchdown in regulation all season."

You could argue that Tampa is only 2-0 because they beat a couple of really crappy teams -- Carolina looks awful and Tampa needed a fourth quarter comeback to beat Cleveland. But the key here is that Tampa doesn't know any better. They're too young and dumb to know that they don't have "quality wins" and should just roll over and get crushed by the Steelers.

They have youth on their side and they have confidence on their side. The issue with young teams is usually that they don't have a broad history of successes to remember when they're struggling. They don't have a mental example of a time when they overcame adversity in a situation, what they learned they learned from that situation, and how they can use that experience and confidence to succeed in the situation they're currently struggling with.

If Ben Roethlisberger finds himself down by three in a Super Bowl with two minutes left in the game facing a long field, he knows that he should be able to drive the team down the field and score because he's done it before. Josh Freeman -- the quarterback for the Buccaneers -- now has his example. He was down by 11 against the Browns in Week 1 and brought his team back to win.

Sure, it's the Browns. Sure, it's only one example. But that's all Freeman knows. All these players know is that they sucked something awful last season, but they started to band together, started to figure some stuff out, and won more than they lost the last six games of the season. This season, they know they're 2-0, they're at home, and they're underdogs to some bunch of old dudes that are waiting for a rapist to come back and lead them.

Tampa doesn't have a lot of star power -- or really any star power -- but that doesn't mean they aren't talented. If you're in the NFL, you're talented. There are about six billion people in this world and only about 1,500 of them are on NFL rosters. In order to make that cut, you need to be talented. Some players are more talented than others, sure. Some teams are more talented than others.

The Steelers have more star power and talent than the Bucs, but the Bucs are too young and dumb to be intimidated by that. The Steelers are assuming that they'll win, while the Bucs expect to win and will do whatever it takes to win.

A lot of the fans are just waiting for Roethlisberger to come back. There are probably a number of players on the Steelers that feel as though they just need to get through this first month, though they'd never admit that publicly.

Tampa's together, Tampa's at home, Tampa has their team in place and they're confident in that team and what they're doing. If the Steelers try to turn things around in the fourth quarter and basically say, "We're the grown-ups here, so just listen to us and let us win the game," Tampa won't listen.

I don't quite trust the defense yet -- especially late in the game -- and I definitely and definitively don't trust the offense. I trust that Tampa is starting to build some swagger and everyone in their locker room knows that this could be their "statement game."

Prediction:

Buccaneers 17, Steelers 15