NFC South: Buccaneers rave about QB Gradkowski's NFL debut
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NEW ORLEANS -- It wasn't grammatically correct. It wasn't even accurate. But it pretty much encapsulated Bruce Gradkowski's first start as an NFL quarterback yesterday.
"He ain't no rookie," Tampa Bay running back Cadillac Williams said.
Well, yes, he is. And a sixth-round draft pick, at that. But Gradkowski was more than solid in Tampa Bay's 24-21 loss to New Orleans at the Louisiana Superdome.
"It would have been a perfect day except for one thing," said Gradkowski, a former player for Seton-LaSalle High School. "We didn't win. And there's no question that we could have won."
The Buccaneers didn't win because the Saints have a guy named Reggie Bush who was drafted 192 picks before Gradkowski's name was called. Bush, the Heisman Trophy winner, returned a punt 65 yards for his first pro touchdown to rally the Saints with 4:17 left in the game.
And the Buccaneers didn't win because of a questionable call almost 40 yards away from the play when Gradkowski threw 38 yards to Ike Hilliard to move the ball to the Saints' 3 with about three minutes to play.
But offensive pass interference was called against Tampa Bay's Joey Galloway, negating the 38-yard gain.
So, no late heroics from the rookie.
"If you didn't know better, you'd think he's been in the league for a while," New Orleans coach Sean Payton said of Gradkowski, who played college football at Toledo. "He played with a lot of poise."
Gradkowski completed 20 of 31 passes for 225 yards and two touchdowns. He had a 107.6 passer rating.
"I saw what you saw," said Tampa Bay coach Jon Gruden, who promoted Gradkowski after starter Chris Simms needed emergency surgery to remove his spleen two weeks ago. "He played his brains out. There's a lot of promise there.
"To make that kind of a debut and to make an impression like he did on people who know football, well, not a lot of rookies have done that, especially on the road."
The Superdome surely isn't the ideal place for an opposing quarterback to make his first start and play his first important minutes. Not with the Saints and their building becoming the rallying points for the rebirth of a city that has known little but tragedy and heartache for the past year.
But Gradkowski drove the Buccaneers to a touchdown on the first possession of the game before 68,183 fans and nearly did the same on the last possession.
In between, he did everything the Buccaneers could have asked.
He spread passes around to seven receivers. He scrambled effectively, rushing six times for 19 yards.
"He handled the no-huddle pretty well and he made some great checks and audibles," Gruden said.
And, more important than anything, he convinced teammates, some of whom had to be skeptical, that the now 0-4 Buccaneers can turn things around with Gradkowski at quarterback.
"He's a ballplayer," said Williams, who also enjoyed his best game of the season with 111 yards on 20 carries. "You just look in his eyes and you see the way he controlled the huddle. He ain't no rookie."
The Buccaneers came in averaging 234 yards per game in total offense. Simms had been intercepted seven times.
With Gradkowski at the controls, Tampa Bay had 406 yards of offense. He did not throw an interception.
But there was one turnover and it was a big one.
He was hit on a blind-side rush an instant before he was set to release a shovel pass to Williams midway through the third quarter. New Orleans defensive end Charles Grant made the hit from behind, the ball popped loose, and the recovery put the Saints in business at the Tampa Bay 25. Drew Brees threw 17 yards to Joe Horn to open the drive and then hit tight end Ernie Conwell for the touchdown that gave the Saints a 17-7 lead.
"I just can't turn the ball over like that," Gradkowski said. "I saw Cadillac at the last minute and, man, it was almost out of my hand."
Gradkowski immediately answered with a 52-yard strike to Galloway in full stride that set up a 1-yard touchdown run by fullback Mike Alstott late in the third quarter.
And on the Buccaneers' next possession, helped by great starting field position at the Saints' 40, Gradkowski followed a 34-yard burst by Williams with a 3-yard pass over the middle to tight end Alex Smith for the go-ahead score.
"Bruce made a lot of plays for us, but I'm not surprised," Galloway said. "I'm happy for him and I'm happy for us that he played well. He came out of nowhere and nobody expected that. He earned the right to be where he was today.
"I'll tell you this. We're going to win and it's going to happen soon. Bruce's play is a good starting point for this offense. It's certainly something we can build on."
Gradkowski passed the credit for his fine debut to Williams, the offensive line and the receivers.
"They knew it was my first start and they tried to make it easy for me," he said. "I was excited and anxious and, sure, a little nervous. But I was also well prepared by the coaches, so I was confident. I know coach Gruden doesn't expect me to play like a rookie and, to be honest, I knew after the first snap I'd be OK.
"I wasn't coming out trying to prove anything. I just wanted to be a leader and manage the game and communicate, and I think things went pretty well. I looked in my guys' eyes and saw a lot of trust. That meant everything to me.
"The guys told me all week that it's just football and that I've been doing it for a long time. And they were right. We got things going on the first drive of the game and I kind of felt like I was right back at Toledo again."
With Simms expected to miss a very large chunk, if not all, of the season, Gradkowski is poised to be in the Buccaneers' lineup for a long time to come.
"We're 0-4 and it is what it is," Gruden said. "The first quarter [of the 16-game regular season] is over and it was a miserable quarter. But I'm very encouraged about what we can do now with some of our young players.
"I mean, who wouldn't be excited about Bruce Gradkowski after today?"
Alex Brandon, Associated PressBuccaneers quarterback Bruce Gradkowski throws under pressure from Saints defensive end Eric Moore in the first half yesterday at the Superdome in New Orleans. Gradkowski made his first NFL start Sunday.
Click photo for larger image.
Dormont resident and Seton-LaSalle High School graduate Bruce Gradkowsk kept an online journal for Post-Gazette.com detailing his experiences as he worked his way towards becoming an NFL player.
Bruce Gradkowski / Going Pro: The diary of an NFL prospect
First Published October 9, 2006 12:00 am
