Nice to see Mark Methot register a goal

The Falcons came into the game ranked 11th in the league rushing and tied for fourth in the league in least sacks surrendered.They held the Falcons, the eighth-highest scoring offense in the NFL, to just 13 points most of the way.This is the type of defense the Buccaneers fans remember seeing their football team play.Unfortunately, it wouldn't be enough, as Atlanta's backup quarterback Chris Redman led the Falcons on a 15-play, 59-yard drive to the winning touchdown with 0:26 left in the game.The Bucs appeared to have the Falcons stopped, but a defensive holding penalty on rookie Derrick Roberson gave Atlanta new life.The replay showed some incidental contact on the border of the 5-yard area where contact is allowed. It was a ticky-tack call that seems to happen against bad teams.The Bucs still refused to give in, continuously turning Atlanta away. The Falcons had eight opportunities inside Tampa Bay's 10-yard line.Finally, on their second fourth-and-goal opportunity, Redman fired a pass to Roddy White, who was double-covered but somehow came up with the football in the end zone for the 20-17 lead.The Bucs defense didn't get much help from the offense in the second half. Twice, Tampa Bay had great field position, but both time failed to add to the lead.The first time after a three-and-out by the offense, the Bucs made the curious decision to attempt a fake punt.Punter Dirk Johnson threw an incomplete pass but more importantly, injured his hamstring while scrambling around.The second opportunity, with 2:30 left, instead of punting the Falcons deep into their own territory, head coach Raheem Morris put Connor Barth in to attempt a 51-yard field goal. Barth put plenty of leg into it but pulled it wide right.It gave the ball to the Falcons with terrific field position to set up Redman's heroics.Freeman recovered well from his rough outing last week, playing one of his best games statistically.

He was a solid 20-for-29, 250 yards, 2 touchdowns, including a beautiful 42-yard strike to Antonio Bryant, one play after hitting Bryant for a 38-yard gain.While the defense certainly played much better under Morris' direction, Freeman played well, and the special teams showed up again with a blocked punt the one area of the team that remains a mystery is the Buccaneers running game.Tampa Bay managed a paltry 73 yards on the ground, averaging just 2.8 yards a rush.So where do you assign blame for the latest failureIt's hard to give it to the defense, even though they wilted late in the game but they were on the field for 76 plays and surrendered only 297 yards.They sacked the QB, stopped the run and pretty much looked like a Buccaneer defense for the first time this season.You can say a lot of that was due to Ryan being knocked out of the game and Redman taking over, but Redman played pretty well, going 23-for-41, 243 yards and 2 touchdown passes.The Bucs were getting pressure on Ryan and stopping the run before he was injured.Still, they failed to get off the field at the end of the ballgame for the second time this season.You could blame it on the offense, who managed just 17 points. Still, Freeman looked good, making some big-time throws and connected on the plays necessary to give the team the lead.But the Bucs failed to take advantage of field position and pad the lead.You could blame it on coaching, as Morris made some bad decisions down the stretch of the game like the fake punt, the attempt of a long field goal instead of playing field position, running Derrick Ward (and his 2.2 yards a carry) instead of Earnest Graham or Cadillac Williams.You could even blame it on special teams, when Quincy Black jumped offsides during a punt on 4th-and-2, eventually leading to a field goal...three points was the difference in the ballgame.You could blame it on discipline. Tampa Bay was penalized eight times for 52 yards, including the idiotic penalty on Jeremy Trueblood for taking his helmet off.Illegal motion penalties, and of course, the defensive holding call during the final drive that gave the Falcons new life.It's another loss, which improves their draft position. At the end of the season, it won't mean anymore than any of the other 10 losses this season.Still, for the first time this season on defense, you feel that the Buccaneers finally have something to build on.Welcome back, Tampa Two...how we missed you!. Prosperity Bancshares, Inc.(R) Invites You to Join Its Fourth Quarter EarningsConference Call on the WebHOUSTON, Jan. 8 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ In conjunction with ProsperityBancshares, Inc.(R) (Nasdaq: PRSP) Fourth Quarter Earnings Announcement,scheduled before the market opens on Tuesday, January 27, 2009, you areinvited to listen to its conference call that will be broadcast live over theInternet at 10:30 AM, Eastern Standard Time (9:30 AM, Central Standard Time)on Tuesday, January 27, 2009.Participants will include David Zalman,Chairman and Chief Executive Officer; Dan Rollins, President and ChiefOperating Officer; Tim Timanus, Vice Chairman; and David Hollaway, CPA, ChiefFinancial Officer.What:Prosperity Bancshares, Inc.(R) Fourth Quarter Earnings AnnouncementWhen:Tuesday, January 27, 20099:30 AM (Central Standard Time)Where: on the Investor Relations pageHow:Live over the Internet Simply log on to the web at the address aboveor call 800-894-5910, the reference code is PBTXContact:Dan Rollins, President & Chief Operations Officer at (281) 269-7199or If you are unable to participate during the live webcast, the call will bearchived on the website at on the Investor Relationspage.To access the replay, click on the conference call section and followthe instructions.Prosperity Bancshares, Inc.(R)Prosperity Bancshares, Inc.(R), is a $9.1 billionHouston, Texas based regionalfinancial holding company, formed in 1983, operates under a community bankingphilosophy and seeks to develop broad customer relationships based on serviceand convenience.

Prosperity offers a variety of traditional loan and depositproducts to its customers, which consist primarily of small and medium sizedbusinesses and consumers. In addition to established banking products,Prosperity offers a complete line of services including: Internet Bankingservices at http://, Retail Brokerage Services,MasterMoney Debit Cards, and 24 hour voice response banking. Prosperitycurrently operates over one hundred seventy (170) full service bankinglocations; forty-nine (49) in the Houston CMSA; thirty-three (33) in the SouthTexas area including Corpus Christi and Victoria; twenty-six (26) in theDallas/Fort Worth metroplex; nineteen (19) in the East Texas area; forty-five(45) in the Central Texas area including Austin, Bryan/College Station and SanAntonio.Minimum Requirements to listen to broadcast: At least a 28.8 Kbpsconnection to the Internet and the Windows Media Player software,downloadable free from http:// Bancshares, Inc.Dan Rollins, President & Chief Operating Officer of Prosperity Bancshares,Inc., 1-281-269-7199, . Rather than do the usual drone of a narrative game recap I'm not that clever, and really, I'm not that lyrical I'd like to do a quick n' dirty analysis of last night's game, between the Blue Jackets and the Calgary Flames.So, here's what went well, what went OK, and what was abysmal:The Good: The CBJ playing solid, Hitch-like hockey for 54 minutes. Lots of energy, tight checking and solid goaltending. I know, I know, hockey's a 60 minute game. I'll get to those dreaded 79 seconds, in a later light section. Jared Boll is back, and, is that a scorer's touch I see Great transition, going from drawing a goaltender's interference penalty, to coming out of the penalty box, and scoring a goal on a stellar feed from Brassard. Kristian Huselius with two great primary assists, as well as a Shootout Goal. It's amazing as to how well he's brought the energy to his game, since coming off of IR, "allegedly." Much like the Ottawa game, "Juice" has truly been the CBJ's best player, on the ice. Now, about those far too many passes and Sportscenter, Top 10-candidate plays... Nice to see Jan Hejda and Rusty Klesla playing solid defense here's hoping that pairing continues. I think continuity of pairings could be one problem that's occurred, particularly with Tyutin's early season struggles. Rick Nash getting the CBJ on the board, on another fine feed from Huselius. Nash also registered a 1, for the evening. I know, to quote a certain local TV color analyst, "It was a goal-scorer's goal" (then again, he also said that about LaPerier's 2nd goal of the campaign, the other night...sigh) Another Power Play (PP) tally, and one of two, overall...is this really the same team who was 30th, in this category, last year Two goals in the spanse of 53 seconds. Way to fight back, and get the crowd re-energized! Nice to see that large crowd of 17,772. Yes, it was a Saturday, and yes, OSU's regular season is over but, also recall, in a transient so many folks being from other parts of the country, visiting their families over the holiday weekend city, such as ours, and, having come off a four-game swoon not that we're bandwagon-jumpers, here in the capital city...no, not us...quite a pleasant surprise, and a throaty crowd, at that. Nice to see Mark Methot register a goal. I think he's been an underrated performer, this season. The OK: Steve Mason, for the first 54 minutes, was pretty darn good. Then came that 79 second span, in which those two behind-the-net goals continued to plague him. Wait, I'm not done in my assessment of his performance....

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson said on Thursday it would be difficult to meet President-elect Barack Obama's goal to significantly boost U.S alternative energy production. Green BusinessIn a speech at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, Obama said he wanted the United States to double its output of alternative energy sources during the next three years as part of his plan to revive the American economy."I think that's going to be very challenging to do," Tillerson told reporters following a speech at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington.He said the United States will not be able to double biofuels output during that period and there was not enough manufacturing capacity to build the wind turbines needed to meet Obama's goal."I'm not wanting to be critical of his aspirational goal. Aspirational goals are good because they challenge us all to go out and find the right answer," Tillerson said of Obama's plan.But he added: "Let's be realistic about timeframes. Let's not fool ourselves."Despite calls for more alternative energy use, he said, "for the foreseeable future" the world will rely on oil and natural gas for 60 percent of its energy needs.Renewable energy sources, which include solar, wind, hydroelectric, geothermal, biofuels and other biomass, accounted for 7 percent of U.S.