Headset Failed RG3 During Winning Drive
October 1st, 2012
Joe’s not sure what the following means, but it is interesting and is surely Bucs fans will agree.
After the Bucs took a 22-21 lead late in the game, the Redskins took over in what turned out to be a do-or-die drive.
Robert Griffin III, the Redskins quarterback, marched the Redskins down the field to set up a game-winning field goal without the use of his helmet communication with the Redskins coaching staff, documents Mark Maske of the Washington Post.
The Redskins’ faith in their rookie quarterback is complete, only four games into his NFL career. He nearly pulled off a dramatic comeback late in a loss at home to the Cincinnati Bengals a week earlier.
This time, he and the rest of the Redskins’ offense got it done in crunch time, even with the receiver in Griffin’s helmet not operating on the final drive.
“He’s a winner,” said Redskins cornerback DeAngelo Hall, who had an interception to set up a first-half touchdown, of Griffin. “It’s starting to rub off.”
Why is this interesting to Bucs fans? Last week in a critical late-game drive for the Bucs in a one-score game, the headset went out in Josh Freeman’s helmet and, not knowing what play to call from the Bucs coaching staff, Freeman called a run on third-and-nine.
The run failed.
Joe finds it interesting that a rookie in his fourth NFL game has the wherewithal, savvy and/or confidence to run a successful two-minute, game-winning offense without a headset, yet the Bucs crumbled on just one play under similar circumstances.
October 1st, 2012 at 8:11 am
The 2 quarter warm up period for the Bucs offense is there biggest downfall. The Bucs defense is not capable of holding off that many offensive series. Schiano keeps relying on the defense to hold off a last minute offense score. Freeman should have done everthing in his power to score a T D on the last drive. You could see this lose coming a mile away.
October 1st, 2012 at 8:13 am
Last year I thought Josh looked under coached. This year he looks over coached and afraid to make a mistake, but that changed in the fourth quarter against the Redskins. That Josh Freeman would have thrown on 3rd and 9 with no sideline communication. Take the training wheels off and allow Josh to be what he can be for good or ill for the rest of the year. Then either give him a truck load of cash or replace him in the draft.
October 1st, 2012 at 8:14 am
Really? The answer is RG3 is still running the Baylor offense, which he knows because it was him making up plays as they went along because Baylor didn’t have a playbook for him, it was the read option, line up the same way every play and then figure it out at run time based on the defense’s reaction, which is exactly what that last run play for him was. Joe, I understand your job is to drive traffic which you chose to do thru courting controversy which creates unique visits, click thru’s to your advertisers (or ad syndication) and comments which increases your SEO visibility, but every bad play is not an indictment of that player or his ability.
October 1st, 2012 at 8:20 am
There is a reason why Freeman went to Kansas St. And wasn’t exactly heavily recruited coming out of college as say RG3, Luck, Cam Newton, et al.
The Bucs have a 2nd rate QB who doesnt have the “it” factor like those other guys.
If Tampa has to startv over at QB, then we will be in for yet another rebuild.
For thed next couple of seasons, Freeman will have to win for the Bucs… even if we drafted a QB high in next years draft.
I blame Freeman not being prepared SOLELY on Raheem Morris… what a horrible mentor for a young football team. What a waste was the Raheem Morris era. The young players actually went backwards under Raheem. Now they are all trying to play catch up.
What does a coach do with Free??? Show him tape of rookies making better decisions than him?
October 1st, 2012 at 8:38 am
You guys bashing Freeman are so wrong. He’s not without fault, but the OL play was horrible in the first half and Freeman didn’t have time to do much about every 2 out of 3 plays. When the OL picked it up in the second half, we saw the Freeman we know can play. Larsen and Dotson were abused in the first half.
And let’s face it, Freeman hasn’t REALLY been coached until now. Schiano just needs to understand not to OVER coach him. Take the reigns off a little, and let the kid play.
October 1st, 2012 at 8:40 am
There is no “it” factor. The “it” factor is just way of say “This player is currently successful and we aren’t sure why”.
And Raheem isn’t the problem with Freeman. Freeman is the only problem with Freeman at this point. Right now is he is a QB with his entire skillset set by his confidence level, which is why we’ve seen every past variation of Freeman thus far. He had a solid game against the Panther, which led to a solid start against the Giants. Things got messy in the second half, but he fought on and showed glimpses of 2010 Freeman. But then the Dallas game came and Freeman had an abysmal game, which again, led to him having a poor start against the Redskins.
Its a nasty trend that the coaches, maybe even some of the players, will have to try to mend during the bye.
October 1st, 2012 at 8:42 am
Side note…his long throws were spot on accurate.
Side note#2…No more Benn’ed arounds please. We got lucky, those rarely work in the NFL.
October 1st, 2012 at 8:42 am
@237
“There is a reason why Freeman went to Kansas St. And wasn’t exactly heavily recruited coming out of college as say RG3, Luck, Cam Newton, et al.”
There you go talking sports out of your A*S again. Freeman could’ve gone to Nebraska, TAMU or Wisconsin but don’t let facts get in the way of a good rant.
http://rivals.yahoo.com/footballrecruiting/football/recruiting/player-Josh-Freeman-29747
“The Bucs have a 2nd rate QB who doesnt have the “it” factor like those other guys.”
Dude you clearly have a memory of, oh I don’t know, 4 games. Josh has 8 4th quarter comebacks and 9 game winning drives on his resume. That’s all he had in 2010. You have no idea what you’re talking about.
http://www.pro-football-reference.com/play-index/comeback.cgi?player=FreeJo00
October 1st, 2012 at 8:43 am
@237
“There is a reason why Freeman went to Kansas St. And wasn’t exactly heavily recruited coming out of college as say RG3, Luck, Cam Newton, et al.”
There you go talking sports out of your A*S again. Freeman could’ve gone to Nebraska, TAMU or Wisconsin but don’t let facts get in the way of a good rant.
http://rivals.yahoo.com/footballrecruiting/football/recruiting/player-Josh-Freeman-29747
October 1st, 2012 at 8:43 am
@237
“The Bucs have a 2nd rate QB who doesnt have the “it” factor like those other guys.”
Dude you clearly have a memory of, oh I don’t know, 4 games. Josh has 8 4th quarter comebacks and 9 game winning drives on his resume. That’s all he had in 2010. You have no idea what you’re talking about.
http://www.pro-football-reference.com/play-index/comeback.cgi?player=FreeJo00
October 1st, 2012 at 9:05 am
A fourth year quarterback should not be calling run plays on a final drive. He is lost somewhere channeling the essence of Dilfer. Does a bunch of horrible plays then does a couple good ones to make you think and hope there is a chance.
I hope he gets it together and starts to perform good all the time.
October 1st, 2012 at 9:17 am
Seriously guys Josh was absolutely horrible in the first 2/3’s of the game. Any NFL QB has to make those throws rush or no rush. Sitting in the end zone, you can see the short crosses where there and he either missed them badly or couldn’t pull the trigger. No excuses for him, one of the worst qb performances I have ever seen until late in the third.
Then he played great. Simple as that.
October 1st, 2012 at 9:21 am
That’s because Freeman is a BUST. It’s a very simple explanation.
October 1st, 2012 at 9:22 am
As always the same. More excuses for Freeman. A couple good long passes and that’s it. Still staring, overthrow, underthrow. How long were the Field Goals Barth had to kick? How many as usual? Another stupid pick. And this against one of the worst defenses in the NFL. Oh but how much improved in the 2nd half?? Like I last week. I knew that woud show up. Freeman is Freeman. RGIII shows what a QB can do when he uses his brains.
October 1st, 2012 at 9:22 am
If you look at that killer run he made on the final drive about half our guys were jogging and watching. Must have been totally gassed chasing him the whole game. But not pretty to watch for sure.
Bruce Allen must have had a nice flight home. He might not be as big an idiot as is routinely stated on here.
Free has developed some gun shyness that comes from 1-13 in the last 14 games. Lets see what goes down for the next 12 before throwing in the towel on him. Not looking too good right now though.
October 1st, 2012 at 9:36 am
I love Freeman, but right now I’m pissed off at him. Those Mcnabb style, dump it at their feet throws have got to go. That is not on the O-Line
October 1st, 2012 at 9:43 am
I was at the game, and came away with even more of a feeling that Freeman is NOT an elite Qb and will NEVER be an elite QB. He totally locks onto his primary and when its not there, begins to panic. He has ZERO pocket presence, and no feel when to tuck and run. All his big plays were basically just ‘heaving’ the ball and lettin his receivers make plays. His accuracy is horrendous on short and intermediate plays, and cannot throw a timing route. He certainly doesnt have that ‘it’ factor that bigtime NFL qb’s have. Other than that, he’d be a decent backup, but NO WAY can he LEAD a team to the promise land…IMO.
October 1st, 2012 at 10:37 am
Freeman got a good payday now he is just playing not to get hurt. He wll not get a contract extension if he keeps playing like he is now.
October 1st, 2012 at 11:03 am
Freeman does not perform well if we got the lead or if the game is even during the 1st 3 quarters. That’s the reason why all of our games are close. We are unable to win by a large margin because Freeman’s execution is awful when its not a close game or desperate situation. This has been the case throughout his career, even in 2010 (his best season)
October 1st, 2012 at 11:20 am
I’m still trying to figure out that last time out the Little General made. Did someone unplug Greg’s headset?
Did he feel the need to stop the game, and draw up a 3 yard pass when he needed 9 yards for a first down and the victory.
Instead of passing on 2nd and 3rd down, they should have run Blount behind Nicks and Penn. That would have meant victory, whether they made a first down or not. The clock was the enemy, the Bucs have to be the worst time managers in all of football.
Schiano does not want Blount to succeed, that would mean he was wrong. He’s much too stubborn for that and he would rather take the loss than admit he is wrong.
How butch is that?
October 1st, 2012 at 11:46 am
TQ definitely showed why he should be the slot receiver. I think Sully Sullivan should think more pass on our side of the 50 and more run when we cross into enemy territory. Tampa 2 zone needs to come back, especially at the end of a game protecting against big plays.
RGIII is gonna be a very special player. Very smart and may have the strongest arm in the league. The bomb in college to beat Oklahoma was incredible. Some people thought it was a Hail Mary from the 50, he was aiming for the guy for caught the TD!!
October 1st, 2012 at 12:10 pm
We should trade our first and second rounder’s next year for a bunch of 3rd and 4th rounder’s.McCoy,Benn,Price,Martin all were bad pick’s for where they were selected.Dang Alfred Morris is way better than Martin.But these little back’s need some time it seem’s like.losing on the road in NY and Dallas was to be expected but losing at home to the skin’s is brutal.Nothing to lose now so let Freeman wing it
October 1st, 2012 at 12:31 pm
I lost my sunday ticket feed right after Blount gained a yard on first down.Then got it back after we kicked a field goal.Just like the Giant’s-Eagles game Giant’s deserved to lose for not running the ball in field goal range.instead they throw and get a offensive PI turning a 44 yarder into a 54 yarder.