There’s Hope – JoeBucsFan.com – Tampa Bay Bucs Blog, Buccaneers News

Always a chance with “12.”

When you look at how the Bucs have played most of the season, well, you wonder how in the world this team made it to the playoffs.

But then you look at the calendar and see it’s January. Then you see who the Bucs quarterback is. OK.

Tom Brady lives for January. He was made for January. And when you have a healthy Brady and it’s January, well, Jeffri Chadiha of NFL.com types, you simply cannot count out Brady.

The Bucs, you may have heard, will host the Cowboys in the wild card round on “Monday Night Football” a week from tonight.

What’s to like: They still have the best quarterback in NFL history in Tom Brady. It remains difficult to bet against a player like that at this time of year, primarily because his game hasn’t shown substantial slippage. This easily been one of the most tumultuous seasons of Brady’s career, given all the injuries to his supporting cast, and with free agency on the horizon this offseason, it’s quite possible he’s playing his last season in Tampa Bay. Those factors might be enough to make the Bucs believe they should make the most of this opportunity. They had a rough regular season, but none of that matters now.

Yeah, Joe admits it’s easy to write off the Bucs. They have not been impressive, But Dallas hasn’t been impressive either and they got clobbered by the Commandos and rookie quarterback Sam Howell. And the Cowboys still were playing for the NFC East title. (The Bucs also beat them.)

The Bucs? They had nothing to play for and pulled their starters.

Joe is not pretending Dallas is some powerhouse team clicking on all cylinders as they go on the road to face the Bucs.