Tampa Bay Buccaneers have an early lead against the Minnesota Vikings

As the game gets underway I think it’s easy to see that we will be in for a pretty good game. A numer of analysts have said this will be a low scoring game although I am not so sure that will be the case.

Since the Bucs won the toss and chose to kick I think they made a good choice since the Vikings went 3 and out on their first possession.

Looking back over the last few weeks we have seen the Buc’s quarterback Josh Freeman improve his passing game. This may mean we will see the Bucs go to the air a lot more than they have been but I think we are more likely to see that more later in the game.

On the first possession by the Bucs the Vikings defense has kept Freeman on the move quite a bit the plays they tried some play action and force them to a 3 and out. Now that both teams have had a drive that didn’t get them anywhere it’s time for the real game to get underway I suspect.

Tampa defense did it’s job really well and held the Vikings to short yardage and crushed their 3rd down conversion and Minnesota to punt once again.

On second down running back Doug Martin breaks a cut and breaks a tackle and gets a 1st down with a 41 yard run. Then another pass play and another 1st down. Tampa is well within scoring distance on this drive and I think the Minnesota defense needed this to happen early in the game so they realize that the Bucs have the potential to make big plays in the air if they catch them not paying attention.

Even though the Bucs have done ok in the red zone they are kept from getting in the end zone and are forced to take a filed goal. This gives Tampa the first points up and the lead at 3 to 0.

Tampa defense has been pretty impressive with their man to man coverage so far and has kept the Viking receivers wrapped up very well and not giving Ponder an open man to deliver the ball to and Minnesota is forced to kick it away again. Since the ball was fumbled on the punt Tampa should consider themselves fortunate that they were able to recover it so it’s Tampa ball.

Another good pass play by the Bucs and they are in Viking territory again. This drive the Bucs get into the end zone and take a 10 point lead so far shutting the Vikings out and limiting their ability to score.

After 2 back to back first downs by the Vikings they are starting to show great progess and then they fumble the ball. This completely turns the game around from what I thought we would be seeing and the Bucs are within scoring distance again. As the first quarter is ending and the score is Tampa 10 to Minnesota 0.