Tampa Bay Buccaneers Face the Falcons, So What Are Their Chances?

Nice to see the Falcons trash-talking this one a little bit.

That must mean they are taking the Tampa Bay Buccaneers seriously in that little Sunday fracas that's scheduled in the Georgia Dome.

These upstart party crashers, these Buccaneers are 5-2, yes they are, but that's five against a bunch of "who cares" and two against a couple of teams going places.

Raheem Morris has told us that statistics are for losers, and my gosh, we've never heard that one before. Where did Morris come up with that gem of wisdom?

If that's the case, then we need to ignore the fact that Matt "Matty Ice" Ryan is 16-1 at home when he quarterbacks those Falcons.

He keeps improving, and though he's had some tough times against the Buccaneers, there's still that 16-1 number, and it's probably something the Bucs have talked about when they sit in those rooms over at One Buc Palace, having those position meetings and then chowing down in the mess hall afterwards.

So what are the Bucs' chances on Sunday?

One thing's for sure: They need desperately to NOT get blown out. That means somehow, some way coming up with a means to stop the run, something that has been particularly challenging to these Pirates in Pewter, although—get this—they're looking for their SIXTH straight road win.

Six straight road wins? Now that's something that is very, very, very hard to do in the National Football League.

They know what noise is. They got an earful last week in that stadium that's named for a school that doesn't have a football team. They did come out of that one pretty well, didn't they?

Which leads us to the Georgia Dome and two teams battling for the NFC South lead.

Now be honest—raise your hand out there if you saw this team possibly leading the NFC South at the midway point of the season.

Raise your hand if you would have been very, very happy with a 4-4 record at midseason.

What's amazing is that win or lose, these Bucs will be no worse than 5-3 halfway through this 2010 campaign.

As we approach this halfway summit, there's more good news than bad news.

Josh Freeman is pretty darn good. Mike Williams is a force. Rejus Benn is starting to come out of his shell, and that will make Williams even better. And—drum roll please—there's this guy named LeGarrette Blount who can actually run the football for yardage.

This offense overcame no Jeff Faine and seems to be doing nicely without blockhead, uh, er, Jeremy Trueblood. Oh yes, and Kellen Winslow Jr. can still move on those knees and catch passes.

Amazing.

This defense proved last week it can bail this team out of a jam. It proved it can score touchdowns for a team that needs them—desperately.

It will face its biggest challenge Sunday.

You'd figure Matty Ice has to be thinking, "If Charlie Batch can do that to 'em, I should do better."

Yes, these Falcons have their eyes on a playoff spot, and if you mentioned playoffs to anyone here in Tampa before this season started, you might have gotten yourself Baker-Acted.

So you have yourself a game that really matters on Sunday.

Bucs vs. Birds. Up-and-comers vs. Going-somewhere-ers.

Are these Buccaneers for real?

They can prove it on Sunday.