Tampa Bay Buccaneers: NFL Season Is 1 Game, 2 Hopes To Go

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ 2010 playoff potential requires they beat the New Orleans Saints on their noisy home turf Sunday at 1:00 p.m. and then view two games starting at 4:15 p.m. hoping both the Packers and Giants get defeated.

The Buccaneers will be on board a jet on their way back to Tampa while the Packers battle the gutsy Chicago Bears on Lambeau Field and the Giants travel to Washington to unravel the Redskins.    

It’s down to this scenario: If the Buccaneers win in New Orleans call their jet ride home—Hope Flight (10-6) from MSY to TIA.  

The Bears roll into Green Bay with three more wins under their belts as do the Giants when they tighten up their belts and go for one more win in Washington. 

If Green Bay wins neither the Giants nor the Buccaneers need prepare for another road game this season because it will be tidy up the locker time until next summer.       

So if the upstart Bucs overcome the world champs by quieting the vociferous crowd with touchdowns and escape the Big Easy with a not-so easy win, it will be up to the Packers and Giants to determine the 2010 Tampa Bay fate.

The next step is to view how the Packers and Giants match-up with their opponents this week.

The Giants seem to have the easiest task on paper, because of strong rushing and passing offense stats and a weak rushing and passing defense from Washington this season.  But as is often mentioned, NFL games aren’t played on paper. They are played on turf for many great reasons.  

The match-up statistics are to follow, but in Green Bay the Bears will arrive with defense as their strength. It will be tough for the Packers to run the ball, but their strength is their passing offense with quarterback Aaron Rodgers.  The Bears aren’t especially effective in passing or rushing, but they bring an edge that is not easily tilted, they have a tendency to win football games.                 

As is often stated, stats don’t function on the field; players create stats with their team efforts.  So as always, it will be one game at a time. Only this time for the Buccaneers, it will be one game at time in New Orleans and then two games at a time while they are in the air. They only perform in one game, but if victorious the other two games will have Buccaneer player attention as if they were tethered to electronic devices. 

One suggestion for the players if possible: Watch one game on a laptop and listen to the other on a radio. It seems easier to follow that way. 

Team rankings by NFL.com

New York Giants (9-6) vs. Washington Redskins (6-9)

Giants rank 5th in rushing offense, Redskins rank 25th in rushing defense.

Redskins rank 29th in rushing offense, Giants rank 9th in rushing defense.     
 
Giants rank 9th in passing offense, Redskins rank 31st in passing defense.

Redskins rank 10th in passing offense, Giants rank 8th in passing defense

Green Bay Packers (9-6) vs. Chicago Bears (11-4)

Packers rank 22nd in rushing offense, Bears rank 3rd in rushing defense.

Bears rank 24th in rushing offense, Packers rank 19th in rushing defense.     
 
Packers rank 5th in passing offense, Bears rank 18th in passing defense.

Bears rank 27th in passing offense, Packers rank 5th in passing defense

Photo credit: Dwight Drum @ Racetake.com