Bucs Supporters Shouldn't Panic

Football Betting Lines

10/09/2007 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - At this very moment, they're obsessing about the running back situation in Tampa Bay.

In the wake of a serious ankle injury suffered by Michael Pittman in Sunday's 33-14 loss to Indianapolis, fans are scanning the free agent wire, dreaming up intricate trade scenarios, making panic-stricken calls to local radio talk show hosts.

Media types are pointing to Pittman's injury, drawing a line from it to previous season-enders suffered by Cadillac Williams and Mike Alstott, and trotting out their doomsday scenarios.

Easy there.

Since when was this the Ground Chuck offense? Heck, this running game hasn't even run with anything resembling Martyball efficiency since Warrick Dunn left town.

Pittman was a nice third-down back who had proven long before he reached his current age of 32 that he couldn't deliver as an every-down player.

Williams had not seemed to regain his 2005 Rookie of the Year form at any point before tearing his ACL against Carolina in Week 4.

Alstott, whose career is likely over due to a neck problem, was never much of a factor in Gruden's offense anyway.

The offensive line that all of these backs would have run behind is a young, thin, work in progress.

So let's not pretend that the Buccaneers were ever going to ride their running game to a division crown and playoff glory. The situation for Tampa Bay remains the same as it ever was, and the fortunes for the 2007 edition of this team will continue to be about three similar-sounding words: Defense, defense, and defense.

It was that side of the ball that got Tampa Bay to 3-1 in the first place, and it is the department run by legendary coordinator Monte Kiffin that will need to play up to its dominant capabilities if the Bucs are to win the division, which frankly, they still should.

To be certain, the Buccaneers defense was not a strength in Sunday's loss, but that's no big deal.

Because you can't pressure him, Peyton Manning (29-of-37, 237 yards, 2 TD) carves up the Cover-2. Always has, always will. Gruden's team is not going to see another quarterback with anything resembling his skill set for the rest of 2007, so they can put their Week 5 loss away. The 121 rushing yards and two touchdowns someone named Kenton Keith rumbled for against the defense were simply a by-product of the focus on Manning and the passing game. Former Hardcastle and McCormick star Brian Keith could have run for 121 under those circumstances.

Moving forward, the defense will look more like the one that had its way with the Saints, Rams, and Panthers, than the one that struggled in Indianapolis.

Thanks to Manning, the Tampa Bay offense only had the ball for 21-plus minutes in Week 5, so you can't use that game as evidence that the lack of a running game has sunk the Buccaneers. Earnest Graham, who will now become the every- down ball-carrier, only got six carries (totaling 11 yards) because the Bucs fell into a 13-0 hole and were forced to try to pass their way out. Quarterback Jeff Garcia couldn't match Manning's production (who could?) but was an efficient 18-of-23 for 143 yards and capped off a couple of long drives with TD passes.

There is every reason to expect that this offense will run at a capable level over the next 11 games, even if it fails to score in bunches.

And let's face it, 9-7 will be enough to win an NFC South title in 2007, so it's not as if the Buccaneers (3-2) have to win out. New Orleans can't get out of its own way offensively, Carolina just turned its season over to the immortal David Carr, and Atlanta is quite possibly the worst team in the NFL.

Even if it's by default, the Buccaneers are still the team to beat in this division.

In other words, Bucs fans, you can come in off the ledge. Leeman Bennett is not coming back to town, and your prospects for '07 remain very much intact.

THE NEW NO. 2

The Buccaneers are expected to make a move to obtain a veteran back later this week, but until that player can learn the offense, the top two players on the depth chart at the position will be Graham and rookie Kenneth Darby.

Darby has made a meteoric and somewhat unlikely rise to prominence after being released when the team made its final cuts Sept. 1. Shortly after being dumped, the 2007 seventh-round draft pick out of Alabama was signed to the practice squad. He was moved to the 53-man roster after Williams was injured against the Panthers, and was active but did not play against Indianapolis last Sunday.

Darby, a 5-foot-10, 211-pound runner, received extensive action in the preseason when he posted team-highs in carries (33), yards (135), and rushing touchdowns (1). Darby also caught five passes for 36 yards out of the backfield.

The Huntsville, AL native is the third player in Alabama history to rush for more than 3,000 yards in a career (3,324), joining Shaun Alexander (3,565 yards, 1996-99) and Bobby Humphrey (3,420 yards, 1985-88).

STILL NO PICKS

Garcia couldn't lead the Bucs to a win on Sunday, but did manage to go interception-free for the eighth consecutive game dating back to last season. Garcia last threw a pick on Christmas night 2006, in a win for the Eagles over the Cowboys.

Of NFL quarterbacks to start every game for their team this season, only Garcia and Jacksonville's David Garrard have yet to fire an INT.

In his past two seasons, including a pair of playoff games, Garcia has 16 touchdown passes against just two interceptions.

NEXT UP: TENNESSEE

The Buccaneers will return home this week to try to get well against Vince Young and the 3-1 Tennessee Titans.

The Titans have a 7-1 edge in the all-time series with the Buccaneers, including a 33-13 home win when the teams last met, in 2003. Tennessee also won the most recent meeting between the squads in Tampa Bay, a 31-22 victory in 1998. The Bucs are 0-5 in the series since scoring their only win, at home against the then-Houston Oilers, in 1983.

Titans head coach Jeff Fisher is 4-0 in his career against the Buccaneers. The Buccaneers' Gruden is 0-3 all-time against both Fisher and Tennessee, including an 0-2 mark while with Oakland (1998-2001).

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SPORTS BETTING - Tennis is an underrated and under-utilized bettors' sport.

Ten years ago, at just about this time, I called Alan Boston in Vegas and left him a voicemail that went something like this (abridged version): "Hey Alan, Chad Millman from ESPN The Magazine calling. I want to do a book about wise guys, you in?"

A couple weeks later I got a message back (abridged version): "I don't know, maybe," Boston said. "Call me and we'll talk about it. But not later today. I got $1,000 on Andre Agassi to win the French Open at 40-1, and he's in the finals."

Here's what happened next (abridged version): Agassi won his tourney. Boston won his $40,000. I wrote sportsbook.

In the ten years since, how much has been wagered on the big-time tennis events? Put it this way: The Nevada Gaming Commission doesn't even track the number year by year because it's so small.

"Tennis makes up about one-tenth of one percent of our take," says Lucky's bookmaking boss Jimmy Vaccaro. "The last big golf major we probably had $100,000 worth of bets. In tennis, we might have written two big tickets."

Tennis' lack of popularity amongst the American bettoratti is no surprise, really. For starters, the biggest sports betting holidays -- the Super Bowl, the NCAA tourney -- are must see TV. People, at least the degenerates I know, plan vacations around watching those events in Vegas sports books.

But Wimbledon? Doesn't exactly reel in the whales. "Seriously, it's the nuts as an event," says Boston. "But who even knows when it's on?"

Here's another reason that helps explain why golf gets traction, something I call "The Bubbe Theory." My Bubbe is pushing 95 and has cataracts so bad that, to her, even the most crystalline Chicago day is mostly cloudy. But she still listens to the Cubs games, and she still calls me in a fit if she disagrees with something Rick Telander writes in the Chicago Sun Times. She's a sports fan. If she doesn't know you, you're just filling a niche. And niche players, even historically good ones like Roger and Raf, don't drive betting volume. Only the highest profile names attract square money, which inflates wagering totals like a shot of saline to the lips. Bubbe, and the public, loved Agassi, tennis' last cross-the-rubicon, mainstream draw. She also has a crush on Tiger. She's given me standing orders to put a sawbuck on the big cat whenever I walk through a sports book (or mistakenly tap into one via my Internet machine.) That explains why the Masters is getting $100K in action at some books while the four tennis majors might not get that combined this year.

This isn't a case of tennis being a difficult sport to bet. In fact, in Europe, it's probably the second most popular sport for gambling after soccer. Granted, as the WSJ football betting last week and The Mag's Shaun Assael examined in even greater depth last year, that might be because gamblers across the pond see it as an easy game to fix. But it could also be because, over there it holds the kind of sway the big two do over here.

Street corners in Spain are peppered with public courts and kids doing their best Raffy impressions. In some war torn parts of Eastern Europe poverty-stricken kids view tennis as an escape route, like football or basketball here. A couple years ago The Mag's Lindsay Berra wrote a great piece about Belgrade's Jelena Jankovic, Ana Ivanovic and Novak Djokovic. They learned the game as kids while bombs were raining down on their homeland. They practiced in drained swimming pools. Not exactly Nick Bolletierri conditions.

In the United States, casual fans think tennis is played four times a year. But on the tightly packed European continent, national interest in homegrown talent runs deep every weekend. Of the ATP's current top 20 players, only two, tennis betting and James Blake, are American. Fourteen are from Europe, representing six different countries.

No wonder fans from Lisbon to Bhudapest get jacked up for the net game, whether it's Wimbledon or a low-level tourney like the Estoril Open in Portugal (congrats to Spain's Albert Montanes for winning that one, btw). Chances are good that someone representing their flag will not only be playing, but have a shot at winning.

And that's all any bettor can ask for.

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