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Pats and Bucs to clash in London come 2009

sjacobs — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 18:56:10 +0000

Tampa Bay will be the home team when the two face off at Wembley Stadium, as version 3.0 of the London experiment is announced

SCOTT JACOBS

Get excited Europe, and planet Earth! The Patriots will be stopping in London next season.

The much hyped London game should be the most intriguing Euopean game yet, staging a most likely healthy and recharged Tom Brady versus a stout Bucs team. It probably won’t match the points that came with this year’s London shootout, a 37-32 Saints win over the San Diego ‘not so super’ Chargers, but it will nevertheless be an exciting contrast of styles.

London has sold out the past two games at Wembley, getting 83,000 excited fans to pack the building, and many more to sign on waiting lists. I got blasted back ion October when I bluntly stated that the London experiment was a waste. Needless to say I was proven wrong. European football fans are passionate and truly dedicated. Some fly 6,000 miles, others would pay $6,000. And for that I commend them. I find it interesting that all three teams that have been picked for the London game have been from the Southeast United States. Miami, New Orleans, and now Tampa Bay. Just interesting I suppose.

But next year’s European tilt should be a good game. Then again, in the ever-changing NFL landscape where you can beat a 10-0 team on the road one minute, and then lost to a .500 team at home the next, who the heck knows. But I know one thing is for certain. London will look forward to this game, and I will never again, bash the European experiment.

For the record, the NFL plans to stage a fourth game in London in 2010.

CADILLAC’S HERNIATED DISKS HURTING HIM

mhblatt — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 00:10:00 +0000

Mitchell Blatt

Cadillac Williams Struggles, Gets Injured vs. Seahawks

As it has been reported that Cadillac Williams has three herniated disks, Williams struggled in the first game vs. the Seattle Seahawks before leaving the game with an injury.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers ended up losing 20-6, and Cadillac Williams was held to 38 yards on the first 10 carries. He ended the game with 60 yards on 12 carries. He was hurt in the second quarter and went walking to the locker room holding his arm.

In large part, this was all due to good defense by the Seahawks, but one cannot look past his herniated disks. They also contributed to the pressure Jeff Garcia was feeling all game.

Garcia was sacked four times. Will Carroll has said that Cadillac Williams’ pass blocking really suffers because of the herniated disks. (Carroll’s Comments on Cadillac Williams’ Herniated Disks) Without good pass blocking and with a struggling running back, Tampa Bay is in trouble.

Cadillac Williams Herniated Disks

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Cadillac’s Herniated Disks on Buc News.com

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CADILLAC WILLIAMS HERNIATED DISKS

mhblatt — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 16:06:00 +0000

Mitchell Blatt

Will Carroll: “It’s been a problem since college.”

I wrote a week ago about how Cadillac Williams was suffering from a herniated disk last year, and shortly after, I received an e-mail from Will Carroll, columnist for ESPN, SI, Rotowire, and Baseball Prospectus. Carroll, famous for his “Under the Knife” baseball injury columns and ESPN football injury columns, was onto this story early last year. He agreed to share with me what he knows about the injury. For example, it goes back to his college days and maybe even high school.

Mitchell Blatt: So this injury happened in high school?
Will Carroll: I can’t say that it definitively happened in high school, but I know that he’s had problems with his neck in high school. People that I’ve talked to there in Alabama said that he was bad at blocking. It was the one thing he didn’t do. Then, at Auburn, one of the reasons he was in a platoon there, was that he was a terrible pass blocker. He did have some problems with his neck. They turned out to be herniated disks. There is an MRI.

MB: Why haven’t many other people heard about this?
WC: NFL teams have great incentive not to allow this kind of information out. Even though they have very specific rules about publishing the injury list, there’s ways around it. You say neck injury. You say back spasms.

MB: Did he get downgraded at all going into the Draft because of it?
WC: Yes, I talked with two sources from different teams, and I’m told that it was a known problem going into the Draft, and it was something that his agent addressed. That’s common practice. Most of the time, especially with the top picks, when there’s an injury like this, the agent will try to get that information out and try to control it. It was addressed. People knew about it. The Buccaneers knew about it. They didn’t think it was a significant enough problem not to draft him.

MB: Did that have anything to do with the fact that he was the third running back picked?
WC: It could have. I’m certain it was something they all considered. But, honestly, I don’t think so. Ronnie Brown was picked ahead of him. Cedric Benson. I can’t say that’s out of order.

MB: Anything else you want to say?
WC: I just think it’s interesting how the NFL controls information. We think that it does a good job of getting things out there, but it also does a good job of covering things up. It’s not that that is always a bad thing. That information doesn’t always need to come out. That being said, all the denials in the world here, don’t change the fact that Cadillac has had neck problems since college.

More on Cadillac Williams: Herniated Disks May Have Affected Cadillac Williams in Week One
Cadillac Williams hurt vs. Seattle by ongoing herniated disk problems.

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JSB SPECIAL REPORT: TAMPA BAY’S HURTING BACK

mhblatt — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 12:54:00 +0000

Cadillac Williams’ Hidden 2006 injury: Three herniated disks

By Mitch Blatt

After amassing 1178 yards his rookie season, much speculation has been made about why Buccaneers running back Cadillac Williams’ rushing total dipped to just 798 last season. Many have attributed it to a “sophomore slump,” but here at Juiced Sports, we know there’s more to it. Cadillac was actually suffering from an injury that went unreported: three herniated disks. Those herniated disks could dramatically affect his future.

Despite saying all year that his back was fine, there was ongoing concern about back spasms. As Matthew Riggs-Stites, a source close to Buccaneers team doctor Joeseph Diaco confided, those back spasms were really herniated disks.

Herniated disks can range in severity, sometimes requiring surgery. Because Williams played all season until week 16 (when a foot injury benched him), they were apparently not too serious. The injury occurs when the disk surrounding a bone in the spinal cord is popped loose and presses against the nerve. In Cadillac’s case, this may have caused pain, but not enough to keep him from playing.

However, his total carries were limited from 290 in ‘05 to 225 in ‘06 (Both seasons he played 14 games.) A significant dropoff was seen in yardage and his yards per carry was down to 3.5. He topped 20 carries in only four games and was in the single digits for carries twice, also accruing 11 carries twice.

Herniated disks do not heal on their own, so this may affect him for the rest of his career. They may get worse as he ages, especially considering his already well-documented injury history. He still may be a solid back, but don’t expect him to take in excess of 300 carries.

More on Cadillac Williams: Herniated Disks May Have Affected Cadillac Williams in Week One
Cadillac Williams hurt vs. Seattle by ongoing herniated disk problems.

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Buccaneers Coach Jon Gruden Knows He’s Gone

mhblatt — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 16:51:00 +0000

Jon Gruden knows he’s done. If he doesn’t make the playoffs AND win a game, he’ll have a hard time keeping his job. With his current team, he’ll have a hard time making the playoffs. So, now he’s panicking. ESPN reported today that the Buccaneers are looking at Daunte Culpepper because Jake Plummer isn’t showing up.
After winning the Super Bowl his first year in Tampa, Gruden was hailed a genius because he built a legendary offense in Oakland before getting traded to the Buccaneers for two first round picks. The trade terms themselves made him seem great. In retrospect, he was simply above average. The Raiders only had two winning seasons out of four under him. Then he won a Super Bowl with a team that Tony Dungy built by beating a team that he built. The Raiders new coach, Bill Callahan, didn’t even both changing the playbook much, so it wasn’t much of a game.

Since then, he has gone 27-38 with just one winning season, one that resulted in a first-round playoff loss. That was 2005 when Cadillac Williams was a rookie sensation at running back. Chris Simms showed promise in his first year starting at quarterback, largely because of Williams’ success.

However, Williams and Simms both struggled through injuries last year. Simms went down after three games, and his replacements, Bruce Gradkowski and Tim Rattay struggled (13-11 combined TD-INT ratio.) Williams missed a few games early on and rumor, coming from a friend of Buccaneers team doctor Joe Diaco straight to this website, has it that he continued to suffer herniated disks all season. They finished 4-12, including 0-6 in division games. A 39-42 coach with just two winning seasons in five years isn’t going to last much longer.

So now, he’s panicked, going after every Pro Bowl quarterback from the past ten years. Jeff Garcia. Jake Plummer. Daunte Culpepper. (Plummer said he retired after they traded for him.)

When coaches start panicking for their job, they always fall for veteran quarterbacks. Garcia played well for Philly last year, completing 116-of-188 for 10 TDs and 2 INTs, while winning the last 5 games to get the Eagles into the playoffs. He is a good fit in the Buccaneers offense.

Culpepper, however, fits in like a jolly San Franciscan on the Love Boat. (Considering who else the Buccaneers have at quarterback, their off-the-land activities should be interesting…) While he very may still have his abilities, they aren’t for the offense. In Minnesota, he threw a lot and to many receivers. The Buccaneers run more often and don’t use as many receivers. His last year in Minnesota, the Vikings used three-receiver sets 62% of the time. The Buccaneers only did 37%.

Even with all the hype over the new quarterbacks, the Buccaneers success is going to come down to Cadillac Williams. He’s still a good running back, but if he continues to have injury problems like he did in his first two years, the Buccaneers could be derailed.

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