Kevin_ODonnell's Blog

The Bucs win the game, but lose praise from their head coach. Jon Gruden calls out the defense after the starters surrender a 10-play 65-yard TD drive to the Patriots backups. For Gruden the lack of pressure continues to be a problem.

"Our pressure's not good enough," Gruden said. "I'm not going to come out of here being negative. But if that's good enough, then hell, let's give them a lollipop sucker. It ain't good enough. We've got to get better pressure. I don't want to rely on blitzes. I want to be able to use a four-man rush like we've done historically here."

The long awaited debut of Jeff Garcia doesn't match the hype. The Bucs new QB completes just one out of four passes for 4 yards. The plan was for Garcia to be on the field for 12 plays, but after back-to-back three and outs Garcia's day was over.

"I think when you come into a situation like this ... you're excited. You want to do well," Garcia said. "You are probably moving through reads and progressions a little faster than normal because you want to get the ball in your receivers' hands and allow them to make some plays."

The two bright spots both came on offense. Luke McCown tightened his grip on the backup role. In his first game action in two years, McCown turned in a perfect performance, 7 out of 7 for 66 yards and a touchdown.

Kenneth Darby, this year's 7th-round pick led the team on the ground with 15 carries for 84 yards, 31 of those yards came on the final drive that produced Matt Bryant's game winning kick.

The Bucs will take the win, but if this team is going to find victories in the regular season, it's going to take a far superior effort than what they showed last night.