FanHouse RondeBarber

TAMPA, Fla. -- Only two weeks after Jon Gruden's surprise firing as head coach of the Buccaneers, the general sentiment in Tampa seems to have gone from "good riddance" to "Jon who?" Gruden is such a forgotten man in Tampa that I've barely heard his name this week.

But I have heard the name of his longtime defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin, who also left the Bucs to coach alongside his son Lane at the University of Tennessee. And although people here in Tampa have much warmer feelings for Kiffin than for Gruden, there's a sense here that Kiffin's departure may not be a bad thing.

Each week in the NFL, there are players that impress and players that distress. One week a certain quarterback might toss four touchdowns and run around with his finger in the air while the next he's laying on his back, holding his facemask as the other team returns one of his three interceptions for the game-winning score. With that in mind, here's Studs and Duds.

Here's Week 12 at a glance, where we point out the horses destined for the Kentucky Derby and jeer those headed to the glue factory.

Studs

Matt Cassel and Randy Moss, New England (8 connections, 125 yards, 3 TDs) -- This team is starting to look a lot like 2007 if you ask me. Cassel has become comfortable, and is riding the huge wave named confidence to victory after dominating victory. Moss put out 100 percent on his routes, caught some beautiful passes from No. 16, who had himself a pretty decent game. Cassel has thrown for 815 yards and six touchdowns, and ran for one, in the last two weeks. I know Varsity Blues is a movie but if Gisele ends up leaving Tom Brady for the USC product I wouldn't be the least surprised. "Hey Tom ... I don't want, your life."

There's a well chronicled history of violence in the NFL -- it is, after all, a very dangerous sport. But there's also a heavy awareness of the even darker violent side of professional football off the field. Numerous players have been accosted, robbed, beaten and even killed in usually completely unnecessary acts of violence.

And, based on Dave Fleming's Mag article surrounding this violence, you would be amazed at how succinctly aware and terrified many players are with regards to potential intrusions on their private lives, almost a year after the Sean Taylor tragedy.

"We are targets," says Buccaneers corner Ronde Barber. "We need to be aware of that everywhere we go."

[...] "I don't think the NFL is gonna ever be the same," says [Clinton] Portis. "As a football player, Sean thrived on instilling fear in people on the field. Then you wake up in the middle of the night, and you hear something rattling around in your house, and in a split second-now the fear is in you."

[...]Fred Taylor, meanwhile, has equipped his Jacksonville home with every conceivable security apparatus. "I still don't think I have enough," he says. "Who knows what's enough? I wouldn't say I'm safe.

"I don't know what safe is."

In other words, yes, these gentlemen that are idolized for their on-field bravery and relentless drive and attack are, pardon the cheddar, shrouded in fear when roaming the outside world. But that's because Barber is absolutely spot on -- as famous celebrities with an even more insane fan base that sometimes come from questionable backgrounds, NFL players have the ideal recipe to become targets for people seeking to gain from their fame or try and rebel against it.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers feel they've been around long enough and have had enough success to warrant a Ring-Of-Honor. In 2009, the organization will honor the 30th anniversary of their first NFC Championship game appearance by creating the ring of honor.

Those Bucs went 10-6 in just their fourth NFL season. They won the NFC Central and beat the Philadelphia Eagles in their first playoff game. They would go on to lose the the Los Angeles Rams in the NFC Championship game, 9-0.

The franchise's only player in the Hall-Of-Fame, LeRoy Selmon, was on that 1979 team. So was Doug Williams, who may end up in the Ring-Of-Fame as well. Guys like Warrick Dunn, Derrick Brooks, Warren Sapp, John Lynch, Mike Alstott, Paul Gruber and Ronde Barber could find themselves in there as well.

But that's not all. Tampa Bay will bring back those ugly cremecicle uniforms that the organization wore from 1976-1997 for at least one game next year. I wonder how thrilled the current Bucs are that they will get to sport those in front of everyone.

There wasn't much to complain about in the wake of the Bucs' 27-3 throttling of the Panthers yesterday, but if we're being punctilious, I suppose the three personal-foul penalties following Jake Delhomme interceptions merit a mention.

Ronde Barber was flagged for unnecessary roughness, and Tampa Bay's sideline was also deemed very unsportsmanlike. The most egregious violation, however, went to defensive tackle Jovan Haye, who incurred a 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for ... doing a cartwheel.

Ah, yes, the evil cousin of the Cupid Shuffle. It's been scientifically proven that somersaults are a gateway to most forms of booty-shakin', so it's probably in everyone's best interests that the officials nipped this in the bud before other enterprising souls got any bright ideas.

Bucs head coach Jon Gruden, like every other sane person who also happens to enjoy tackle football, was puzzled by the call:

"The celebrations -- I guess they don't want you to have much fun at all,'' Gruden said. "I don't disagree or want to get fined any money, but a guy does a back flip, a guy does a cartwheel -- I don't know, I've got to look into exactly what we did wrong and then I'll have a comment for you tomorrow. But I'm not going to lose sleep over that.

Mike McKenzie, the Saints' best corner and the best player on their defense last year, was inactive today. That's not good. Jason David donned pads but as far as I could tell didn't step foot on the field. That was good. The result -- new corners Randall Gay (brought in through free agency) and Tracy Porter (a second-round draft choice) got the start and provided the Saints with something they haven't had in years -- competent corner play on both sides.

But they weren't the only new Saints to make an impact. Jonathan Vilma, the team's leading tackler, and Sedrick Ellis, a beast who constantly penetrated double teams, were just as advertised, and Jeremy Shockey took a while to get going but made some clutch catches for 54 yards. These players were the difference in the Saints' win.

Earlier this week, the New York Post spoke with Ronde Barber, Buccaneers cornerback, brother to Tiki, and the Giants wild-card opponent this weekend. Barber made some mostly innocuous comments about Giants quarterback Eli Manning, complimented the former first-round pick on his improved game, but qualified it by saying: "He can be had, we know that." Harmless enough. I mean, you can say that about all but two NFL quarterbacks, I'd think. Well, Giants wideout Plaxico Burress has some advice for Ronde:

"I don't think he needs to worry about No. 10," Burress told the Daily News on Thursday. "He needs to worry about No.17."...

"For me, I love it," Burress said. "Ronde says (Manning) is inconsistent and hasn't played well of late? When we get down there on Sunday, we'll see how good he really plays. It's going to be warm, it's going to be nice, and we're going to throw the ball around a little bit and make some plays."

So there you go. Burress and Manning plan on playing catch all day long. To be fair, it's hard to criticize either side. Barber thinks the Bucs defense can force Manning into mistakes; Burress feels like the Giants have the offensive weapons to win. Or one weapon, at least: Burress. Last year against the Bucs, Burress went for 86 yards on seven catches, often with Barber in coverage. And then there's this, from the 2006 season:

Former Giants' running back Tiki Barber has spent a good amount of time slamming his former QB Eli Manning this year. Now his twin brother, Buccaneers cornerback Ronde, is doing the same thing:

"Eli's got a strong arm. I know he's been really maligned this year. You watch him on film, it seems like he's going through a process the right way, making the right decisions. Sometimes he just throws some bad balls," Ronde said yesterday in a phone conversation with The Post. "I don't know the reasons for that. He can be had, we know that."

He can be had?

"Just look at his percentage," Barber said. "At the end of the day, your numbers don't lie, and at the end of the day, you are what you put on film. Obviously, this team's got a whole bunch of talent, and Eli's got a whole bunch of talent behind him. He just doesn't show it all the time."

Manning has heard his fair share of criticism over his career ... but this one is a bit different. Barber is anchoring one of the best secondaries in the NFL and will be across from Manning in Sunday's Wildcard Round playoff game. It will be interesting as the article says that Tiki, a career Giant, will be opening rooting for Tampa in the game and it is unknown if he will slide a little info over to Ronde (and, in essence, the Bucs defensive coaching staff) about Manning and the Giants offense he was a part of at this time a year ago.

Every week, NFL FanHouse hits the lowlights from Sunday's action, looking at those players who did the most to move their head coaches that much closer to returning to the Bed and Breakfast business.

Herm Edwards, Chiefs
Two weeks ago, Redskins head coach Joe Gibbs was highlighted in this space because of his inability manage timeouts and the clock. I have no recollection of Gibbs struggling with such problems during his first coaching run back in the '80s and '90s, but I'm convinced that Edwards is, by light years, the league's worst coach when it comes to making in-game decisions.

I don't make that accusation cavalierly, and with the full understanding that in addition to Gibbs, guys like Brian Billick, Marvin Lewis, Mike Holmgren and Norvell Turner make seemingly hair-brained decisions. But none can match Herm's lunacy.

The latest addition to Edwards' legacy came Sunday against AFC West rival, Oakland. With Kansas City trailing 20-17, less than five minutes to go in the game, and the ball on the Raiders' 27, Brodie Croyle completed a four-yard pass on 3rd and 5. Bring in the field goal team, right? Wrong.
Sorry, No Photos

Welcome to another successful installment of Five Questions with an Enemy Blogger, where each week, via email, I will be exchanging hot questions and [sometimes] answers with a rival blogger about their team and the upcoming matchup.

This week I sat down with Jamie Kiefer of Atop the Crow's Nest, a Most Valuable Network column that covers the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Dan Benton: "Although he was a little shaky last week, Jeff Garcia has played very good football this year. Has he been everything Bucs fans had hoped for, or do they still miss Chris Simms?"

Jamie Kiefer: "Jeff Garcia has been basically everything the Bucs fans had hoped for. You can't go wrong with a guy who had zero interceptions in the first seven weeks of the season. Chris Simms appeared to be the franchise quarterback, but due to a shaky beginning of the season last year, and his injury, he hasn't really had the chance to prove himself. I feel bad for him with all that he's been through, but I can't ignore what Garcia has done for the Bucs. The first seven weeks he had a passer rating over 100. If Garcia sticks around for the next few years, Chris Simms will be a distant memory."