Both “Evil” And “Good” Josh Appear
August 8th, 2013
Josh Freeman is sacked on the Bucs’ first series on offense Thursday against the Crows to open the 2013 preseason.
Like it or not, good or bad, Bucs franchise quarterback Josh Freeman is the story of offseason, preseason and he will be during the regular season.
Many of Freeman’s harshest critics, led by the notorious Mike Glennon Mob, rail about Freeman’s inconsistencies. Many of Freeman’s biggest supporters point to his measurables and his fantasy football numbers last year.
Well, tonight in his only two series against the Baltimore Crows, Freeman gave both groups ammunition.
In Freeman’s first series, an awful throw from shotgun to Kevin Ogletree fell short. On the next play, Freeman was sacked by Chris Canty.
In his second and final series of the evening, Freeman was extremely sharp. Spreading the ball to four different receivers on four straight attempts, his prettiest throw was a deep pass down the left sideline to Vincent Jackson. Freeman put the ball exactly where Jackson had a chance to make a play and Crows cornerback Jimmy Smith, who had good coverage on the play, had no prayer of getting to the ball.
Even though the zebras determined Jackson had bobbled the ball and didn’t have control, it was a beautiful pass from Freeman.
So what did Bucs fans learn of Freeman in his first preseason game of 2013? That he’s still Josh Freeman, a Six Flags-type of quarterback.
August 8th, 2013 at 11:01 pm
Josh did pretty good. I think the sack was more his fault than the O-Line but other than that I don’t think he was disappointing.
August 8th, 2013 at 11:04 pm
what? who ever pointed to his fantasy football numbers.
August 8th, 2013 at 11:07 pm
I had him in Fantasy last year he was a good backup to Brady
August 8th, 2013 at 11:07 pm
@Couch I was going to say the same thing. That o-line got blown the hell up on that play.
August 8th, 2013 at 11:07 pm
Same o same o Freeman he looks lost, we haven’t made it to a playoff game yet with him at the helm. Glennon looks worse.
August 8th, 2013 at 11:09 pm
Josh looked a little out of it on his first drive, much like the first half of most games last season. But I find it encouraging that he seemed to settle down and get it together against a very good Ravens’ defense in the second drive. Last season it took him an entire half to get into games, and without that juggle by V-jax(a drive killer), I have no doubt that the Bucs’ would have scored.
August 8th, 2013 at 11:10 pm
Seeing as the first play from scrimmage was a two yard loss they were at a disadvantage to start. They were no worse than the Ravens first drive.
Either way, it is really hard to evaluate anything from two drives. I thought he looked okay in his (very) limited attempts and, most importantly, he didn’t turn the ball over.
August 8th, 2013 at 11:15 pm
On that 2nd drive that 3rd down 6 yard completion to ogeltree that stalled and led to a fg, freeman has GOt to hit him in stride. If he does he doesn’t have to reach back. Woulda had a 1st or td. That’s why freeman leaves plays on the field.
August 8th, 2013 at 11:21 pm
Stop it. Freeman’s fine. This will be the best offense the Bucs have ever fielded. The pass rush and Bowers will pull this team down faster then Freeman will.
August 8th, 2013 at 11:22 pm
You can’t tell squat from 2 drives. You can’t even tell very much from the preseason in general. We spanked the Patriots last year in the preseason, in the third game no less. I’m pretty sure they didn’t open up the playbook too much today on either side.
August 8th, 2013 at 11:25 pm
My main worries right now are on special teams and that defensive line. I really dont feel comfortable with our depth there. Other than that everyone else played about what I expected. I really like Banks. I have a good feeling about that kid, and for the record the last time I said that was about Doug Martin.
August 8th, 2013 at 11:26 pm
At keast flacco was a six flags guy too. Ih, and i was watching atlanta, yep matt ryan looked like a six flags qb too.
August 8th, 2013 at 11:27 pm
@Chris
I just re-watched that play. There were two defenders right behind the receiver. That, and, Freeman was hit as he threw. He could have placed it slightly more out in front but Tiquan was never going anywhere on that play.
August 8th, 2013 at 11:28 pm
Scratch that, one defender on Underwood. One that got there as he caught it.
August 8th, 2013 at 11:33 pm
Its not about win or lose its about how the player(s) has improved, well ask yourself do you see any improvement thus far? You wont, a good player doesn’t lose his skill over the off season. We need to fire all the scouts, why don’t we have a RG3, Flacco ect. ect please don’t preach about other QB’s who are worse, Tampa hasn’t had a MVP QB in since hmmmm I don’t know when,
August 8th, 2013 at 11:33 pm
Freeman did ok.
He almost had a pick on his roll out, and he did not get rid of the ball on his sack.
However, the near catch to v-jax and looking thru progressions on a 3rd down looked good.
Glennon looked ok for his first time out there.
We need a TE to step up.
The D-Line looked weak at getting to the QB. GMC looked good and LvD 52 shined.
August 8th, 2013 at 11:39 pm
I’m not too worried about what I saw tonight. First a huge number of our players didn’t get on the field. They held out player too, but when the 1st team that did play was on the field, they held their own.
The sexy website thing to do is to talk about the QBs. That in my opinion misses the point. I don’t know what everybody else saw, but I didn’t see an evil Josh. If Freeman was evil, Flacco was Satan! For a rookie’s first outing under the lights, I thought Glennon did well.
If you want to be upset about something, you should be upset with our depth. If we’re fortunate to make it into the second half of the season competitively, we’re going to need a bench. And what I saw tonight gives me pause.
Schiano and Dominik made some offseason decisions to not resign people and not sign other defensive players with experience. In my opinion, that was a huge risk and one that my come back to haunt us. I saw Schiano tonight, he is not happy, but some of it may be his own doing.
I’m not panicked because it’s still early, but what we saw tonight is a harbinger of things to come and if not fixed somebody needs to be held accountable!
August 8th, 2013 at 11:42 pm
Freeman looked fine to me. I wanted nothing flashy out of him and the rest of the offense and they did just that. They even showed a possible upgrade in Olgretree as the number 3 WR. Only negatives I saw with our first string Offense is I hope our guards can get healthy and one bad throw by Freeman that could have been miscommunication. Oh, and Zuttah still looks like a weak link.
August 8th, 2013 at 11:44 pm
I feel like Joe almost couldn’t wait to use that six flags analogy. Josh was playing against their 1st stringers, and last years SB squad I might add. That so-called jailbreak sack was allowed by one of our second string lineman too.
August 8th, 2013 at 11:53 pm
Buc’n Junkie Says:
August 8th, 2013 at 11:44 pm
I feel like Joe almost couldn’t wait to use that six flags analogy. Josh was playing against their 1st stringers, and last years SB squad I might add. That so-called jailbreak sack was allowed by one of our second string lineman too.
You mean a depleted Super Bowl squad? Still its preseason game 1. Josh has looked great the past week in practice, but then I heard he wasn’t getting any pressure on him *hint(he struggles against it) That’s something that has to break. GLennon, albeit going up against 2nd stringers, looked ok. Had his moments but he didn;’t seem rattled to me at all. Very confident and poised. The WR play was sloppy behind the top 3.
August 8th, 2013 at 11:53 pm
I was clearly disappointed in out Special teams the most, but we also have to keep in mind that a lot of the players on the special teams will be stocking groceries in another month. So you really can’t put much stock in it either. What did we have 11 starters on the bench tonight?
August 8th, 2013 at 11:53 pm
in our
August 8th, 2013 at 11:54 pm
Wow 1 preseason game and according to some people on here the sky is falling. OK BUCS FANS SMH
August 9th, 2013 at 12:15 am
@chris
The Ravens kept most of their offense in tact but yes they did lose a couple of aging defensive players in the offseason. Which is why they slipped out of the top ten in defense to 17th last year.
August 9th, 2013 at 12:32 am
Fact : Flacco looked like six flags too. It is really silly to judge from 2 series and with so many starters not playing.
August 9th, 2013 at 12:49 am
First team o line, especially the two guards, was horrible on the first drive. No hole for martin and not enough time for deep route to develop. Ngata was dominating them. We need better depth at guard. Blitz was getting through the line.
I’m glad they took Martin out of the game. That’s a disaster waiting to happen. All of our physical back did better than the speedy type back. Including Hillis look like he average at least 4.5 yards before the injury an non fumble, which happen to be called one.
It seem the guard play was better with Glennon group. They should get promoted over the first group.
August 9th, 2013 at 12:49 am
He had 7 passes some people need to settle down jeez.
August 9th, 2013 at 12:49 am
START GLENNON!
August 9th, 2013 at 12:51 am
@red me too I was glad they took Doug out.
August 9th, 2013 at 1:14 am
Lmao. …it’s a preseason game….hilarious ..
August 9th, 2013 at 5:33 am
Just a preseason game but they did manage to look suspiciously like the team that went 1-5 down the stretch last year.
Our special teams are gonna suck all year, because Schiano just had to hire his old mentor to coach them, when no one else in the league would go near that walking disaster.
August 9th, 2013 at 6:19 am
I learned a long time ago (especially after the team won all of its pre-season games and lost all but two when it counted) to pay more attention to individual play than team play. This is a time to evaluate players and prepare for the season ahead; not a meaningless scrimmage. There is minimal game planning and only a limited number of offensive plays on the card. How many times did we see that inside toss to the wide receivers with little success? I try to pay attention to the new players. I was interested to see our back-up QB and was impressed with his poise and arm strength. Interesting that he has those stuttering feet going like that Peyton Manning guy. (No, I’m not suggesting he is Manning except the feet.) Every time I’ve seen Banks he has a swagger about him. I thought Spence hustled; especially for a big man. I was disappointed in Owusu who seemed to be pressing to impress. Our young kicker did just fine. We sure need a solid return man. Perhaps our Olympian can fill the role. To me, much of the difference between teams during the game becomes mental. Bucs were doing just fine and perhaps outplaying the Ravens until Owusu mishandled a punt return. After that, our youngsters looked intimidated. Biggest disappointment was the contingent of Ravens fans with their sparkling new jerseys who no doubt live withing 50 miles of here but reverted back to their old city (Colts left and Browns changed their home/name) so it’s likely that these fans are rooting for the roots they chose to abandon, that just happens to house the champions. Biggest thrill was when the Raven fans across the aisle got tossed by Tampa’s finest.
August 9th, 2013 at 8:15 am
So Freeman didn’t develop a brain in the off season? What a shock. You can’t fix stupid.
August 9th, 2013 at 8:16 am
Ok, I’ll bite. The first series was -2 yards, an intensely pressured rollout where he threw at a receivers feet, and a jailbreak blitz. Not great, but not all horrible, either. Instant pressure up the middle will kill any QB. He should’ve gotten rid of it on third down, though.
After that, Freeman did everything right. He hit on short throws accurately. On a CB blitz he looked to that side, saw the blitz get picked up and hit Ogletree (I think ) on the numbers over the middle. Great play. He hit Jackson even though it was overturned. The only other throw that missed was a miscommunication with Williams. That’s what preseason is for.
No offense guys, but Freeman got rid of the cobwebs and played like we’ve been asking him to. Our first teamers won this one handily. The concerns are depth and DL. Freeman hasn’t done what we’ve asked him to, yet. But give him a night off from the complaining when he gets it right.
August 9th, 2013 at 8:32 am
Oh my, Freeman didn’t put up 150 yards and two TD’s in 2 series in a preseason, non-game planned, vanilla offense – let’s put him on the cross and light him on fire.
You guys kill me.
August 9th, 2013 at 1:34 pm
Free is fine.. its all about the d line period.. if the front 4 cant create pressure we have no chance its really that simple