Message to Tampa Bay area football fans: While you've decided in the past year to stop religiously following your local team in your favorite sport, the Raheem Morris led ball club has become one of the surprises of the first half of the 2010 season, after the Bucs, led by their 2nd year QB Josh Freeman, held on in suburban Phoenix last night to knock off the Cardinals, 38-35.
The Bucs will take their gaudy 5-2 record next week up to Atlanta in a major showdown for the NFC South supremacy.
In other NFL news, with the NY Jets collapsing yesterday at the New Meadowlands, the New England Patriots showed why they might be the best team in the league so far, in eclipsing the Minnesota Vikings 28-18. The Pats were wearing their old school AFL uni's, which I believed they also wore last year in a snowstorm when they beat Tennessee 59-0. In any event, the Pats, who despite being called the team of the aughts haven't won a championship in 6 years, are looking pretty hungry and pretty good so far in 2010. Ex teammate Randy Moss apparently thinks so. After catching only one pass for 8 yards, the mercurial wide receiver, who apparently thought he was being disrespected by Patriot management only a month ago, sounding very much like he wishes he had never been traded in a post game news conference.
Of course, the other major news in this game is how Brett Favre got beat up again. The Vikes are a pretty sad story in 2010.
Please give me a moment to give a shout out to the Oakland Raiders, who for the first time in over two years have won consecutive games (and blow outs, at that). The Silver and Black host one of their biggest games in November in over half a decade this Sunday when the very surprising Kansas City Chiefs come to the black hole.
In college football, Oregon is now #1 after it dismantled USC in the second half out in Los Angeles Saturday night. Auburn dropped out of the #1 ranking, even though they were successful on Saturday. And Gator fans went back to being a bit obnoxious Saturday night after they clawed their way to a 34-31 overtime win over resurgent Georgia and their Plant High grad, QB Aaron Murray.
