Bucs drop preseason game to Dolphins, 13-10

Preseason games are strange.
It's nice to win preseason games, but the purpose of the game is to prepare the team for the regular season. Nobody really pays serious attention to preseason titles.

Well, I wanted the Bucs to beat the Dolphins, but it didn't happen. The Bucs committed three costly turnovers and lost the game despite moving deep into Miami territory late in the game while trailing by only three.

Here's the important stuff, however;

• The Bucs were considerably less effective running the ball than against last week's opponent, the New York Jets. There are three main reasons for this. The Dolphins play defense better than the Jets.
  
• The Bucs rested tailbacks Carnell Williams and Michael Pittman. Mike Alstott ran the ball effectively twice before giving way to Earnest Graham and Carey Davis.
• The offensive line got shuffled like a deck of cards. Starting center John Wade was held out of the game, allowing challenger Sean Mahan to get considerable time at that position. The line didn't just move to second-string and third-string during the game. Players were moved to alternate positions. Challenger for the starting right guard position, Jeb Terry, played much of the time at left guard. Tonui Fonoti, who had been challenging for Dan Buenning's position at left guard, played at right guard. Continuity is one of the keys to good offensive line play. The Bucs sacrificed that in order to assess the versatility of the linemen under game conditions.

Bruce Gradkowski had another terrific game. He threw the critical interception at the end of the game when the Bucs attempted to win at the end, but the ball went off the receiver's hands.
Many would suggest that the interception was on the receiver, since the ball might have been caught, but I'd say that responsibility is rightly shared on that one. Throwing a high and hard pass to a player in the flat, especially a tad off-target, makes it likely that the ball will be deflected up into the air. Gradkowski should have thrown the ball lower and more accurately. Still, overall he played great, earning considerable praise from Head Coach Jon Gruden after the game.