Tampa Bay Buccaneers Deliver Early Christmas Gift

Merry Christmas, Tampa Bay Buccaneer faithful.

Merry 24-7 Christmas.

Just when you thought the Grinch would steal your Tampa Christmas, the Seattle Seahawks played Santa with a three-hour production of Clueless In Seattle on Sunday.

Those clueless Seahawks got splattered by your Buccaneers, who won their first road game of the Raheem Morris era. Those now 2-12 Buccaneers did it the old fashioned way with the defense gift-wrapping five turnovers to place under Raheem's tree.

But surely the early going of this triumphant Buccaneer event gave no indication of what would transpire.

Indeed, the first 30 minutes produced results that looked like the Bucs were heading directly into a Grinch-like 1-13 record. Even Morris deemed the first half "horrible" and Raheem knows what horrible looks like.

Perhaps it was a visit by the Ghost of Seasons Future that got the Bucs up and running after the first half.

They came out and looked nothing like the Buccaneers we've grown used to these past 13 weeks. They looked nothing like the team that was scraping the bottom of the NFL barrel.

EIGHTEEN, count 'em, 18 points in that third quarter highlighted by a nifty 22-yard catch-and-run for touchdown by Cadillac Williams from Josh Freeman, who made Tampa fall in love with him again.

Perhaps it was Seattle coach Jim Mora Jr. who got his pre-game wish in the wrong manner.

He urged his lifeless team last week to be "dirtbags" in this game.  And that they were. The Seahawks looked like 22 bags of dirt politely placed in front of the hungry Buccaneers.

The Bucs then put together their best 30 minutes of the season in the second half and beat the living dirt out of those bags of Mora Jr. Beat the dirt out of them and then some.

The Buc defense put the hassle in Matt Hasselbeck. Shut him down, picked him off, including two by unheralded Elbert Mack.

There was no suspense in this one. You could feel the momentum wrap its loving arms around your Buccaneers in that third quarter. It became a piece of cake, a wonderful plate of Christmas cookies for the Bucs to devour.

It came easily via that holiday production by the team that entered the league with the Bucs back in 1976.

The defense ate it up. The offense moved itself out of the "pathetic" ranks and into respectable territory, even if for an afternoon.

Now the Bucs will prepare for a trip next Sunday to New Orleans and the reality that the Saints are in an un-festive mood after their winning streak came to an end Saturday.

Oh yes, a sad footnote to the rejoicing at One Buccaneer Place, the Bucs are now firmly behind the St. Louis Lambs in the race for the first pick in the 2010 draft. So long, Ndamukong Suh.

Enjoy St. Louis.

Merry Christmas, Tampa Bay.