Josh Freeman Proves Mortal
October 17th, 2010
One of the reasons, if not the reason, the Bucs jumped out to a 3-1 record in their first four games was the play of quarterback Josh Freeman.
Local scribes typed accolades. National talking heads gushed. Freeman is the real deal and he will lead the Bucs to the promised land.
Not so fast. Freeman is still a young quarterback but as Bucs general manager Mark Dominik noted last week on Sirius NFL Radio, Freeman has yet to start 16 games, a full season.
That showed today.
Freeman looked very much the young quarterback. He overthrew receivers all day. Too often, he and his receivers were not on the same page. Receivers would run hooks when Freeman expected them to run go-routes. Receivers would turn right when Freeman expected a break to the left.
Receivers were open. Freeman, for whatever reason, missed his targets.
Granted, the Saints were getting pressure on Freeman. But as he noted in his press conference ,which can be viewed on Buccaneers.com, he didn’t take the cop out and use limited time to throw as an excuse.
“That comes with a young team,” Freeman said of too common instances of miscommunication. “Fortunately for us we have room to improve. [Lack of time] wasn’t an issue.”
This is one of those games to forget. Go out, have a beer (or two), put it behind you and grind tomorrow morning at One Buc Palace.
The Rams come into the CITS next Sunday. In recent years, they have been an elixir to many teams’ woes.
October 17th, 2010 at 5:11 pm
Whoa Joe… proof read what you wrote sir.
October 17th, 2010 at 5:11 pm
The Rams beat the Chargers today and are not the 2009 Rams…
Stephen Jackson is gonna have a HUGE game!
October 17th, 2010 at 5:17 pm
I thought Freeman played pretty well. He was put into a lot of 3rd and longs, but he converted a decent amount. Not to mention the fact that he no running game (again). There’s no way for us to know if the miscommunications were his fault or the receivers, but otherwise he was pretty accurate the majority of the game. He wasn’t perfect, but I have no problems with the way he played.
October 17th, 2010 at 5:17 pm
I do, however defend Freeman. I like Josh Freeman. He just needs better coaching. And that starts from the top down.
October 17th, 2010 at 5:20 pm
The Saints didnt beat us. We beat ourselves. I counted at least five misques, two or more fumbles and what is up with Conner Barth and his holder of the week. Two missed field goals? Come on guys. We can do better.
October 17th, 2010 at 5:25 pm
Buc Fan South Tampa:
Um, when you lose by 25 points, you got beat.
When you give up 158 yards rushing to a scrub on 10 carries, you got beat.
October 17th, 2010 at 5:26 pm
“The Saints didnt beat us. We beat ourselves.”
Actually, the Saints beat the hell out of us AND yes, we did help them out too.
So why is Rah beating his own team???
October 17th, 2010 at 5:33 pm
I am SICK of Tampa, just sick of them. I honestly hope St Louis spanks us, so we can hit our bottom on the Raheem experiment, and start over. Most fans in Tampa hate the Glazers right now for what they did to us. They replace a Super Bowl winning coach (Gruden) with some unknown egomaniac optimist with no proven NFL experience, then install Bruce Allen’s protegee to rebuild our team. Look at Kansas City ? They went for PROVEN coaches/GM, but the Glazers stick Tampa with these clowns. Tampa deserves better!
October 17th, 2010 at 5:53 pm
@Apple Roof Cleaning,
Yep, let’s blow this whole thing up with a 3-2 record with a young team. Let me spell this out for you and everyone else who wants a knee jerk reaction: They are not firing him even if we lose by 100 to St. Louis. There is a lockout looming, and they are not going to pay a coach for a season that may not happen. We are above 500, a much better record than expected, and we are only going to get better. Besides, every NFC team right now has at least 2 losses, so maybe they should all fire their coaches too. It was an ugly loss, but a loss is a loss, just like a win is a win. Relax, take a breath, and be a fan!
October 17th, 2010 at 6:10 pm
Freeman actually looked pretty good today. No running game and no defense isn’t going to give you a chance to win though. Unless your Peyton Manning I guess.
October 17th, 2010 at 6:30 pm
Freeman looked good. Seemed like it was mostly the receivers’ fault to me. In his PC, you could tell he didn’t want to call out Mike Williams, but he did say he wasn’t paying attention to some of the hand signals. Sure, Freeman missed a throw or two, but I don’t think it was as bad as it looked.
October 17th, 2010 at 6:38 pm
Freeman looked fairly good. I wouldn’t put much blame on him. If we can win 1 out of the next three games I would be surprised. Maybe Arizona, but we all know how hard it is for teams playing in a three hour time change. I really think that Carolina is the next win. This Defense is just too porous. And even then if they can run the ball on us they will probably win.
The future doesn’t look bright.
October 17th, 2010 at 7:42 pm
Freeman is probably the brightest spot on this team. He’s not the problem at all. Our joke of a D line is the main issue and the coaches don’t know how to use the running backs. They give Huggins 1 or 2 carries and then that’s it. Graham is a proven running back, but we all know he’ll never get the ball again. Blount……interesting pickup but more than likely won’t be anywhere close to being the solution. Think about it….the guy wasn’t drafted and he’s already been cut by two teams. And don’t say his troubles kept him from being drafted. Maybe it played a role, but somebody would’ve gotten him if they thought he could be a real difference maker. Don’t get your hopes up on him.
It’s unfortunate that Graham and Huggins both got injured and that’s really gonna be a blow to us. But what’s even worse is that it’s been 6 weeks already and we don’t even know what we have in Huggins. The coaches refuse to give him the ball.