Big praise from the coach.

When Bucs coach Todd Bowles entered the league as a safety in 1986, the NFL was much different than it is today.

While the NFL wasn’t quite the backyard brawl of the 1970s, when boys were given legal clotheslines and impaled knee strikes five yards off the field was considered hard-nosed legal football, in Bowles’ day the NFL was anything but the Don Under Under NFL overseer Roger Goodell’s leadership, it became a “not too hard hit” league.

When Bowles, the Bucs’ head coach, was raving about his star rookie running back Bucky Irving yesterday, he made a comment about Irving that really caught Joe’s attention.

“He’s a complete football player,” Bowles said of Bucky. “He’s one of the toughest smaller guys I’ve seen since I’ve been in the league.”

Now that’s a compliment.

Remember, when Bowles came into the league, Lawrence Taylor and Ronnie Lott were still patrolling the fields at the height of their unprecedented careers. They weren’t much tougher than these two.

So consider what frame of reference Bowles has when he describes someone as “tough.” Yes, Bowles praised Bucky as a “smaller guy,” but still, “tough” in Bowles’ era is very different than tough 40 years later.

How tough is Irving? He suffered severe blows from the slimy saints. The way the slimy Saints played last Sunday, it looked like they were trying to shut these guys down.

But Bucky had his second-most snaps (48) in a game against the slimy Saints. His busiest game, 49 snaps, also came against the slimy Saints in October.

The way Bowles talked about Bucky, it sounds like Bowles thought he was a godsend.

“(Whether) making guys miss the ball or pushing guys away or spinning out of things or doing whatever he does to gain extra yards has been big for us,” Bowles said. “And he also takes care of football. This is something special.”

Ah, spoken like a real defensive guy. 🙂

But Bowles is right, Bucky is the spark plug the team has been looking for since Father Time caught playoff Lenny from behind.

The old saying goes that running the ball in the playoffs is a winning formula. Well, if that’s the case and the Commandos can’t defend the run, then Bucky should send the Bucs to the divisional round next week.