Bucs down Packers 30-21 at RayJay

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers topped the Green Bay Packers at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa.

The Bucs' running attack paced the offense, while the defense stymied Green Bay running back Ryan Grant. Both defenses were able to take advantage of the other team's turnovers. Jermaine Phillips turned a fumble into a Buccaneers touchdown and Rod Woodson canceled Phillips' TD with one of his own after picking off a Brian Griese pass intended for Warrick Dunn.

Though the Packers took took an early 7-0 lead on their initial offensive possession and took the lead 21-20 late in the game on Woodson's score, the Bucs had the best of play generally. One of the Fox game announcers said something to the effect that the Bucs were poised to "steal" the game as they had the previous week in Chicago. The statement was ridiculous. Chicago seized momentum in last week's game with a sustained drive and tough second half defense. The Packers scratched back into the lead on the Woodson return and a third-and-long pass to Greg Jennings that split the zone and resulted in a touchdown. Phillips appeared to take a bad angle to tackle Jennings on the play. Aside from those two plays the Packers had little success at all in the second half.

As the Packers went deep into last year's playoffs and have been a favorite to reach the playoffs this year as well, the victory is a big one for the Bucs.

Gripes

I have some gripes about the officiating.

1) The refs missed the Bucs defense lining up in the neutral zone. At least twice. That's just to show that I'm not entirely biased.
2) Earnest Graham probably scored at the end of his touchdown run. I don't know why the officials marked the ball down outside the one yard line. If he didn't score then it should have been first and goal from the three inch line at the worst.
3) Tramon Williams' interception of Griese appeared to feature a fairly blatant block in the back during the return (about the 10 yard line).

No biggie on the officiating, though. I get aggravated when the penalties seem to perhaps have had a good chance of affecting the outcome. As I mentioned above, the Bucs outplayed Green Bay. The best team won.


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I'm working on a method to rate the team rushing attack, somewhat like the "passer rating." But hopefully more useful.