Bucs QB Quandry Still Stormy

The thunderheads rolled in like an ominous precursor to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers home schedule. Between the raindrops the inadequacy of the Tampa Bay starting back quarterback situation came to light for the entire nation to see.

Byron Leftwich was too inaccurate. Luke McCown was too indecisive. Josh Freeman was both. Inept QB play wasted another solid showing of the Bucs underrated young defense that held the defending AFC East champion Miami Dolphins to 10 points and pitched four straight three-and-outs against Miami's starters.

The defense would go on to limit Miami to 252 total yards, force three turnovers, and register five sacks.

Coupled with the running game that churned up 127 yards against a stingy Dolphin run defense (including 54 yards on eight carries by Carnell "Cadillac" Williams), the Bucs moved between the twenties through out the first half.

Unfortunately, accuracy was not Byron Leftwich's strong suit. While he completed nine passes on 17 attempts for 101 yards, he missed wide open receivers down field that could have been big time plays. He also fumbled once in the red zone after holding the ball for too long.

Leftwich would leave the game after leading the Buccaneers to a 6-0 edge.

Luke McCown would take over midway through the second quarter - working the Bucs down to the Miami 35. He would then take consecutive sacks and the Bucs would find themselves out of field goal range.

In McCown's defense, head coach Raheem Morris made the curious decision to put him behind the Bucs second and third string offensive lineman against Miami's first team defense.

The results were as expected, not pretty. McCown would go 5-for-11 for just 38 yards.

McCown also had to sit with the rest of his teammates during a 45-minute lightning delay.

After getting a field goal right before halftime, Miami Head Coach Tony Sparano—perhaps not happy with his offense's performance - kept starting Quarterback Chad Pennington and Miami's number one offense to start the third quarter.

It allowed the Dolphins to work their way down the field on a five play 72-yard drive that was capped off by Chad Pennington some how avoiding a vicious Buccaneer pass rush to find a wide open Anthony Fasano in the end zone for the game's only touchdown.

Miami led 10-6. McCown gave way to Tampa Bay number one draft pick Josh Freeman for the rest of the way.

Freeman wasn't bad; he was just victimized by poor protection and penalties from his offensive line that resulted in no points in six possessions.

The Bucs were undisciplined in this one. 13 drive-killing penalties for 85 yards continuously plagued the team throughout the soggy contest.

So the Dolphins won the game, despite being outplayed most of the way by the young Bucs.

What was learned by Coach Morris? No matter whom he chooses quarterback is going to be a major problem for the Buccaneers. Leftwich may be the best of the bunch but that's not saying much.

If the Bucs truly want to bring Josh Freeman along slowly, Leftwich must be the choice. There's really no point to McCown. He needs reps at quarterback. If you're going to give a quarterback on the job training, it might as well be Josh Freeman.

Lord knows he needs it.

While there's certainly encouraging signs in the defense and the running game the ultimate downfall this season for the Buccaneers is going to be the quarterback situation.

The Bucs QB will likely have to only throw the ball 20-25 times a game. If Leftwich is the man, that translates to about nine completions.

Scary, isn't it?