–Bucs safety Chris Conte played Monday night against the Steelers with a torn posterior cruciate ligament in his knee, according to an ESPN.com report. Conte “gutted it out and honestly shouldn’t have played,” the report said, citing a source.
Conte aggravated that knee injury in the Bucs’ 30-27 loss to the Steelers and was placed on injured reserve Tuesday. Head coach Dirk Koetter said he was unaware of the specifics of Conte’s injury but certain team doctors cleared the Bucs safety to play in the game.
“A guy is either cleared to play or he’s not,” Koetter said. “And if he’s cleared to play, he’s cleared to play. It’s just that simple. I mean, I don’t really know to what extent — Chris did have a sore knee, in my coach’s brain — what exactly the medical report on that was. And Chris worked hard to get back. I’m not exactly sure. Probably only God above can tell us what caused it in the end. I don’t know the answer to that.
“It’s unfortunate. Injuries are an unfortunate part. We hate to lose Chris. I mean, Chris is playing good football for us and it’s unfortunate that we lost him. I mean, if I could predict how injuries occur, then I would be living in Las Vegas instead of Tampa.”
–The Bucs invested heavily in upgrading their secondary in the draft, selecting North Carolina cornerback M.J. Stewart and Auburn cornerback Carlton Davis in the second round and Pittsburgh safety Jordan Whitehead in the fourth round.
With both cornerback Vernon Hargreaves and safety Chris Conte landing on injured reserve in the first three weeks, those young players will have to play huge roles for the Bucs beginning with Sunday’s game at Chicago.
“Every day is a new day for those guys, but we’ve been very pleased with how they’ve worked for us thus far,” head coach Dirk Koetter said. “They’ve been battle-tested that’s for sure. You face two Hall of Fame quarterbacks and a guy that was MVP of the Super Bowl, so they haven’t had any slack that’s for sure.”
BY THE NUMBERS: 3 – Number of touchdown receptions by each of three wideouts — DeSean Jackson, Mike Evans and Chris Godwin.
