Faine Thought Freeman Was Under Center
September 22nd, 2010
In what could have been a football blooper for years to come, center Jeff Faine snapped a misguided, bizarre high fly to Josh Freeman while Freeman stood in the shotgun position Sunday against the Panthers.
Thankfully, Freeman grabbed the ball and there was no turnover.
Speaking on WDAE-AM 620 on Monday night, Faine admitted that he screwed up and didn’t know Freeman was lined up in the shotgun, so he just fired off a standard under-center snap. Buccaneers Radio Network host Dave Moore, the former Bucs tight end and long snapper, was surprised that Faine didn’t realize Freeman’s hands weren’t effectively up Faine’s ass.
Faine explained that he gets “so geeked” before the snap and snaps are so second nature, that it doesn’t shock him that he missed that Freeman wasn’t there.
Faine went on to talk about the Bucs running game and said the Panthers’ defense was very fast and physical up front, especially their linebackers. He said Carolina consistently had eight men in the box and clearly had a game plan of forcing Freeman and the Bucs young receivers to make plays.
September 22nd, 2010 at 12:42 pm
ok, atleast now we know why it happened. no big deal.
Interesting to see whether PIT employs the same tactic putting 8 in the box. You have to think by now they have some respect for our passing game and hopefully that opens up some running lanes for Caddy.
September 22nd, 2010 at 12:47 pm
Teams will regularly stack the box until we regularly beat them passing. If it were be game planning against the Bucs, I would respect their pass more since the run game hasn’t shown much. Guaranteed there is a spy on Freeman this week.
September 22nd, 2010 at 1:13 pm
hit the music for Capt Tim! He has been saying this all week…of course we all new it, but the Capt has been shouting it from the mt top.
September 22nd, 2010 at 2:18 pm
“He said Carolina consistently had eight men in the box and clearly had a game plan of forcing Freeman and the Bucs young receivers to make plays.”
Well, it worked!
September 22nd, 2010 at 2:28 pm
Ta Da! Capt Tim, your one stop shopping for Buccaneer info! Thanks for the props, McBuc! Buuut, I didn’t see anybody else saying that but me. Everyone else was mistakenly thinking that Caddy had lost it! Not so! So far both teams we’ve played don’t think our WRs can beat them. Quick is why we’ve won both games! Caddy is still a prime time threat, as proven by the fact that both teams focused on stopping him, and him alone. When he took a breather, was the only time they pulled the eighth man back to a traditional posistion! Caddy is still the one guy ( for now!! ) on our offense that scares other teams!
September 22nd, 2010 at 2:35 pm
Capt, I saw this too. The Steelers may not need to do this with their defense, but I hope we have an offensive hayday this weekend. I am sick of people down playing the Bucs wins due to the other teams…but they will do the same next week as well. I do not care about the national guys doing it, in fact I like them doing it, but fans posting on fan sites annoy me with that crap. Last year we would have lost those two games.
September 22nd, 2010 at 2:55 pm
Not to knock you off your canoe CaptTim, but not much thought to making a team beat you when you have 2 rookie WRs, a 2nd year WR, a couple of been-around-the-block WRs and a 2nd year QB. Of course, they are going to stack the box. I wish we had better blocking TE’s, which would help our run game. I too still think Caddy’s our man!
September 22nd, 2010 at 3:04 pm
McBuc, Righteous! I personally think Cleveland will prove to be a good team. Every team in the NFL is capable of beating you! I, and others, have been saying all summer that this team would be decent, and could actually fight for a playoff spot. JimBuc said it often, and they ridiculed him for it. It certainly is nice to be right. It’s easy to be a hater. It takes courage to believe in something, and support it! Notice how not one hater has had the balls to apologize for some of the horrible things they said to people on this post, or about the team and team management. Shows you that those people have flawed character. If nothing else, meybe they’ll learn from this. But I doubt it!
September 22nd, 2010 at 3:12 pm
Oar- I didn’t say I designed the defense. Every post on this site was saying we needed new running backs, that ours couldn’t get the job done. When you look at the tape, it’s obvious that no back was going to gain yardage with that defensive scheme! The great Barry Sanders would Struggle!! So appointed out to all the panicking posters that it wasn’t a Buc problem, it was a Browns/Panthers decision. I hope the steelers do the same thing this week(sorry Caddy:() . But don’t bet on it. Tomlin is smart enough to realize Freeman will drop an” L” on him! So Caddy may get to run a little this weekend!!- oar, weren’t you one of the guys wanting to trade for Brandon Jacobs??
September 22nd, 2010 at 3:23 pm
CaptTim,
I know you didn’t say you designed anything. I just thought it was pretty obvious that teams would try to get us to win by passing. For my reasons, see my last comment. BTW You are correct, I don’t see Tomlin doing the same as Brownies or the Kitties.
As for the Jacobs trade, you are wrong! I was not one of those wanting to trade for him. Actually, I haven’t gotten into or made any comments on our running game’s lacking players abilities. I’m fine with who we got carrying the rock! The only thing I have been saying, is we need blocking TEs!
September 22nd, 2010 at 3:44 pm
OAR, blocking TEs would be nice. The NFL has our O line ranked 13th, so I do not think we can keep blaiming them either though. It seems we are lucky to get the 75 yards a game.
September 22nd, 2010 at 3:58 pm
McBuc, True and I understand they’re not the whole problem, but they would help. Say enough to get an extra 25 yds, maybe? It would be nice to break that 100 plateau.
13th you say. Well not great, but not bottom-feeder bad either!
Go Bucs!
September 22nd, 2010 at 4:19 pm
A blocking TE and a little respect for our passing game will keep opponents from stacking the box. Another good game from Freeman and I think the respect factor will start to kick in. Now if we could just get some TE that won’t melt at the sight of a LB or DE…..
September 22nd, 2010 at 5:05 pm
Tanard Jackson has been suspended for the season and more. Substance abuse!