Tampa Bay-New England Preview: Pats Prepare to Feast on Bucs London Broil-Style

(Photo by J. Meric/Getty Images)

I can safely say that never in my wildest dreams did I expect my 100th article for Bleacher Report to be about the winless Bucs heading over the pond to face a New England Patriots team that just beat Tennessee 59-0.

I expected more out of this team, perhaps reading too much into the hype that was Raheem Morris. Believing the comments from guys like Michael Clayton that Jon Gruden was the root of all evils, the team was divided, and when Monte Kiffin bailed on them with a month remaining in the season it all came to a head.

I thought this would be a well coached, close knit group that would fight and go through walls for this head coach.

Boy was I wrong. (That sound you hear is my fellow Featured Columnist Tom Edrington rushing to his keyboard to type "I told ya so.")

Instead, what we've seen is a team in disarray, poorly coached, and limited in talent.

There's talent on this squad, but you have to look hard and beyond the obvious confusion of two new systems to find it. Actually, one system, the Bucs' offensive game plan under Greg Olsen, isn't much different than the old one.

Olsen has instilled much of Jon Gruden's old playbook back into the offense. It's no wonder they're struggling. It's not like the offense ever lit it up under Jon boy's watch. Heck, that was one the reasons he was bounced.

So with anarchy reigning at One Buc Palace, the Bucs are forced to go over to London in Old England to face New England.

The Patriots haven't been the Patriots until last week, when they hung a 50 burger (thanks, Steve Mariucci) on the equally winless Flaming Thumbtacks (Titans). The 59-0 whitewash ranked as one of the largest margins of victory in NFL history.

Oh boy.

The question coming into this one is do the Bucs players still care? Antonio Bryant made an interesting comment earlier in the week that could be a very bad sign for Raheem's dream team.

"All I can do is...control what I can control," he told the St. Petersburg Times, "That’s going out there, running the routes, trying to get open and being where I’m supposed to be so it shows up on film, the right people see it and something gets done about it."

Not to put words in Mr. Bryant's mouth but basically he's saying it's time to play for himself.

When that starts happening, bad things occur.

So, with that in mind, let's take a look at the London matchup between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the New England Patriots.

Series

New England is 4-2 against Tampa Bay, winning the last meeting in 2005 28-0.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers Passing Attack against New England Patriots Pass Defense

Bucs quarterback Josh Johnson regressed a little bit against the Carolina Panthers, again struggling to get the ball down field to weapons Antonio Bryant and Kellen Winslow, Jr.

The Bucs bring in the 22nd ranked passing offense to face the league's sixth ranked pass defense.

Johnson has been a bit turnover prone of late, fumbling five times (losing one) and throwing a costly interception at the start of the second half against Carolina.

Rookie Sammie Stroughter has begun to emerge for Tampa Bay as a weapon, making some big catches in the loss.

New England's coming off a game where they held Tennessee to minus-7 passing yards.

Oh boy.

It's no wonder the Bucs are saving Josh Freeman from the beating against New England.

Advantage: New England

Tampa Bay Buccaneers Running Attack vs. New England Patriots Run Defense

It was expected (at least by this columnist) that the Bucs running game would miraculously show dramatic improvement with the return of center Jeff Faine.

The Bucs did improve, finishing with 124 yards in the gut-wrenching loss to the Panthers. Still, much of that yardage came from Josh Johnson's scrambles.

The Bucs did get a good performance from Carnell "Cadillac" Williams, who rushed for 77 yards on 16 carries, including a 20-yard touchdown.

Still, where is high priced free agent Derrick Ward? Ward touched the ball twice, fumbling on a toss on the first one.

The Patriots aren't very stout against the run, giving up 112.8 yards per game.

One of the main keys to this ballgame is if the Bucs can get their running game on track, consume time of possession, and keep Brady and company away from their defense.

Advantage: Tampa Bay

You're currently logged into Facebook

Do you want to share your Bleacher Report activity on Facebook?