I have to agree with the Tampa Bay pick I think, if not the overall statement that defence wins championships. Because certainly teams that could just score score score have also won championships (Rams of a couple years ago come to mind). Anyways, it's not worth splitting hairs over because in general I DO agree that defence is underrated and the team with the potent offence is the one that everyone drools over.
Anyways, I have to say I was very impressed with Tampa Bay's performance. Not taking anything away from the Bucs, but what the hell was up with Philly's passing game today? It seemed either McNabb was 5 yards off on his passes, or when he did nail someone in the numbers the receiver would drop the ball. Was Philly just intimidated by Tampa Bay? They sure made a hell of a lot of unforced errors. Tampa on the other hand did not make mistakes (outside of the first minute of the game), and were fully deserving of the victory.
I tell you what really catches my eye with the Bucs though...I don't think their OFFENCE has been in this good of a groove all year. For about 2/3 of the game they moved the ball fairly easily against a very tough D. Nobody likes Brad Johnson...but then again I remember a Ravens team that had "no shot of winning it all" with Trent Dilfer leading them.
All Trent did is keep mistakes to a minimum and allow the rest of his team to win the games. Johnson's doing more than that right now I think.
Final thought...I was hoping for a lower O/U number on this game. I don't think the Raiders are going to be able to keep TB below 23 pts the way they are playing now. Oakland WILL score their points too. Should be a great game. I'm 90% sure I'll be taking TB + the pts.
Congrats Bucs and Raiders fans on your teams' wins today.
