Whew, that's over. So what does it mean?
By JOHN ROMANO
Published September 1, 2006
HOUSTON - And so the preseason ends in disappointment.
It ends with a three-game losing streak. It ends with heads hung low.
On the other hand, it ends.
Yippee!
For all the money, attention and prime-time television hours devoted to the NFL's preseason games, you have to know that the results don't mean a thing. Not when you're winning, and not when you're losing.
So do not fret about the way Sage Rosenfels shredded the secondary. Do not drive yourself batty worrying about the lack of running lanes for Derek Watson.
And if Bruce Gradkowski was throwing touchdowns in your dreams last night, you probably need to find yourself a better dating service.
This game began at the crack of pointless, and finished in the wee hours of tedious. It counts for nothing, except among those who will remember it as their final shot at making an NFL team.
You should know by now that the objective in preseason is not to win, but to answer questions. To feel more confident about a team in September than you did in July. More optimistic at the beginning of this season than at the end of last.
In that regard, these four games have taught us frustratingly little.
The defense, as you suspected, remains wicked.
The offense, as you feared, remains under suspicion.
Do not kid yourself. Even Jon Gruden has his doubts about this offense, otherwise he wouldn't have had first-string linemen in the game when all the other starters had long since clocked out.
The progress of the offensive line was the only story of the preseason worth following from beginning to end. Cadillac Williams? He had four carries in four weeks. Joey Galloway? He caught two passes. But Davin Joseph was in for a majority of snaps the past month, and Jeremy Trueblood wasn't far behind.
So are the Bucs better on the offensive line?
I guess it depends on how you define better.
The Bucs have more potential. And they have more depth. But in terms of opening holes, and protecting the quarterback, there is still a long way to go.
The first-team offense had about three minutes of glory during the preseason, and none of it came Thursday night. You could say most of the stars were barely on the field, and that would be true. You could also say some reassurance from the offense would have gone a long way, and that is a shame.
In some ways, this story has become a race against time.
Can the offense grow up before the defense grows old?
You can envision Williams in the Pro Bowl, and you can eventually see Chris Simms as one of the NFL's poster boys. But do they get there before Derrick Brooks loses a step and Simeon Rice moves to a neighboring galaxy?
If the offense takes a substantial step forward, the Bucs are a playoff team and possibly a Super Bowl contender.
If Tampa Bay can do no better than 20th in the NFL in scoring - which is what it was last season - there is a real possibility of a slide back toward .500.
There is a window of opportunity here, and it's impossible to say how long it will remain open. A half-dozen starters on defense have passed their 30th birthdays, which puts them on the back side of some brilliant careers.
That's why you didn't see them very much in the preseason, and not at all on Thursday night. When his starters tried to leave the locker room, Monte Kiffin apparently bolted the door. It seemed the criteria was that anyone who had actually appeared on a bubble gum card was not allowed on the field.
Not Brooks, not Rice, not even Ryan Nece or Jermaine Phillips. Instead we were treated to Julian Jenkins, Andrew Williams and a bunch of guys who are probably being asked for their playbooks at this very moment.
So it isn't worth an ounce of sweat worrying about how the Texans could put together a two-minute drive at the end of the first half, or score a go-ahead field goal in the fourth quarter.
And it isn't worth wondering what Earnest Graham might do in the regular season because he isn't going to get the chance.
What the Bucs have done this preseason is establish that they are pretty similar to the team that won 11 games last season. For some who will tell you the Bucs were a dropped pass away from the second round of the playoffs, that is a good thing. For others who believe the Bucs were fortunate to win as many games as they did, that is probably bothersome.
The bottom line is the Bucs had little to gain from this preseason. Simms was not going to get better. Williams was not going to get the chance. Other than a handful of rookies, it was an exercise in endurance.
There will be no carryover from the losses, and no momentum gained from Gradkowski's shining play. Instead, it is all wiped clean today.
The best is yet to come.
Or maybe the worst.
Either way, at least it will count.