Bucs Showed Up On Time; Greg Olson Didn’t
November 28th, 2010
Josh Freeman may have had a bad game and his numbers support such a premise. But Bucs offensive coordinator Greg Olson had a much, much worse game.
First off, what’s with all the long throws and bombs on third-and-short? Clearly Freeman was having trouble with his accuracy all day. It was like a flashback to his Kansas State days. It was almost to the point where you wondering if Josh Johnson should come in and take a few snaps from the shotgun and run out of that formation.
The Bucs were desperate to put together a scoring drive or two against one of the NFL’s nastiest, violent, physical defenses. Just when the Bucs seemed to be getting something going, the Bucs would find themselves in a third-and-short and Olson is calling for Freeman to heave the ball deep downfield?
Why?
You have LeGarrette Blount. You have Cadillac Williams. Hell, you have Freeman. With Freeman missing more passes than Joe in a clothing-optional establishment, why in the world would anyone call for Freeman to wing the ball for low-percentage pass completions when he was struggling with high-percentage completions?
This was just unbelievable to Joe.
As FOX’s Tim Ryan said at the start of the second half, Olson should try a no-huddle offense to switch things up when the Bucs clearly were struggling offensively so. When the Bucs did do that, the Bucs scored a touchdown, but it was far too late.
Sure, Freeman had an off game tonight.
Olson had a worse evening.
November 28th, 2010 at 9:03 pm
Freeman was OFF today. He had some horrible passes.
November 28th, 2010 at 9:03 pm
Agree 100% with that. That was the worst called game I have seen in a long time. Olson cost us that game IMO. 3rd and 2 bomb, 3rd and 1 bomb what is the deal with that. He calls a game like that against the dirty birds our season is done!
November 28th, 2010 at 9:07 pm
Tard:
Exactly Joe’s point. Re-read the post. If the quarterback is off, why continue to have him throw low-percentage passes?
Maybe the only “tard” is the guy who has reading comprehension issues?
November 28th, 2010 at 9:08 pm
HIRE GREG OLSON!! oh wait…what
As for the 3rd and short deep passes, I liked them..The receivers were on it but Freeman wasn’t. If Freeman would have thrown better passes y’all would be praising Olson for those calls.
The only fault i’m laying on Olson is not going with the no huddle offense any sooner than the last 7 minutes of the game.
November 28th, 2010 at 9:10 pm
Olson’s third-and-short play calling has been suspect everywhere he’s called plays in the NFL. Even though statistics prove that, optimally, teams should run 70-80 percent of the time on third-and-short, Olson tends to pass nearly that much in those situations instead.
Olson either has never seen such statistics, wholeheartedly believes that “stats are for losers,” or has retained Chucky’s philosophy that it’s better to try and trick the other team’s defense instead of just lining up, running what works, and making the other team stop you.
November 28th, 2010 at 9:12 pm
Yeah the commentator hit it right on the head about waiting too long to go hurry up. But even worse, once they did go hurry up THEY STILL ATE UP LIKE 4 FREAKING MINUTES OF CLOCK!!!!! Can it really be called hurry up offense if the drive takes that long? Definitely some of the worst clock management I’ve seen in a while.
November 28th, 2010 at 9:12 pm
I felt this was a regression by Olson. The running game was working well enough but he seemed to abandon it which made PA fail and when combined with the pressure the Ravens got and Josh’s accuracy issues today, spelled doom for the good guys.
Greg had two good games in a row. This one was crap. Back to the drawing board. Regroup. Learn from the mistakes and put one on the Falcons at home.
November 28th, 2010 at 9:12 pm
Guys:
Joe’s issue is not the match-ups weren’t there. They were. But when Freeman was clearly off-target and you only need a couple of yards, calling for bombs when you only need two yards is moronic.
If a guy on his couch in St. Petersburg could see that, why couldn’t Olson when he was on the sidelines in Baltimore?
November 28th, 2010 at 9:17 pm
Joe you nailed it.
News Flash Raheem/Greg Slowsen. You play to win the game. Not make it close. I felt like Lewis Black watching that offensive load of sh*t.
But hey Bucs fans now we’re going to run the 2 minute offense. When we dam well no that there isn’t enough time left in the game. How about having Freeman roll to his left in the final quarter of the game. Instead of the right on the short side of the field repeatedly. And when in the red zone call the same play 3 out of 5 times. Then kick a field goal. Dammit man.
Freeman didn’t play his best game. But Greg Olsen called a Mike Shula like game plan. I thought I went back in time.
November 28th, 2010 at 9:39 pm
The Ravens played a field position game. Freeman was under high durress which accounts for some errant throws.
But, they played the Ravens tough. My favorite play was the guy trying to put the big hit on Caddy and dang near knocking himself out.
If they can win vs. Atlanta they are in the chase till very late. Lose and its wait till next year as far as playoffs.
November 28th, 2010 at 9:40 pm
First of all, the Bucs defense gave up 17.
Is Barrett Ruud THAT slow??? He couldnt even catch up to Heap.
Once Sabby got in, a few more missed tackles.
Olson did piss me off though. They need to work on the hand offs to Blount, I mean talk about telegramming the running plays. Then, they dont stick with the run. Just stick with it and let Blount get a 100 or so. They also need to work on Blounts aggressiveness to the hole. He needs to stop dancing coach! One surefire way to show the rook how to run would be to let Earnest Graham hammer it in there. Was Olson even on the staff when Graham ran for a thousand? Because Graham knows how to run downhill… He could teach Blount a thing or two about running hard forward… Not bouncing around like Caddy. Yet the biggest problem was Olson not feeding Blount the ball… Olson needs to stop the Caddilac BS and start using the play action off of Blount.
November 28th, 2010 at 9:44 pm
Thats two games in a row that Josh has had an off day. I hope all of this new recognition is not screwing up his game. Listening too much to the scribes and they will get into his head. I notice he is being too careful with his throws, by being too careful he is missing his targets. The receivers are making some great catches to save his bacon lately. C’mon Josh man forget the stats and just do it.
November 28th, 2010 at 10:13 pm
Ruud had one of his better games today. He got in the way of the running at least 10 times .He had some great drag tackles on running backs 10 plus yds down the field. But his game went down hill after Grimm left the game.
Can’t wait to watch Michael Turner drag him down the field next week. He looks like a Bucs flag attached to the running backs helmet. Or maybe a wind sock.
November 28th, 2010 at 10:24 pm
@ MTM, I have a feeling there is a MLB in the draft Mark Dominik has his eye on. They didn’t renew Ruud’s contract. I think they want a run stuffing MLB.
November 28th, 2010 at 11:43 pm
@MTM- You have no idea what your talking about. Barrett Ruud did have a good day against the run. Ray Rice was pretty much shut down with the exception of the final drive. Try getting a clue before posting next time.
November 29th, 2010 at 12:13 am
@roe- You also need to get a clue. Freeman didn’t have an off game against San Francisco. He completed %65 for 2 Td’s and 0 INT. He only completed 13 passes but only threw 20. You don’t need to throw a bunch of times when your defense is pitching a shutout and your running the ball well. That was a perfectly efficient game from Freeman.
November 29th, 2010 at 12:19 am
@gitarlvr- What do you call a good game then? I have not seen Ruud have very many “good” games. Watch the film. He never runs down hill at running backs. He is chasing them after they past him. They are many others that agree. Get over the Ruud jock sniffing.
November 29th, 2010 at 12:26 am
Meh… being an armchair QB is easy ain’t it Joe? The bandwagon rocks a lot to see straight especially with your whiny ass hoping on and off it all the time. How do you know it wasn’t Freeman seeing the play and going for it on those bombs? Were you in the huddle Joe? Did you hear and know the audibles? Don’t you know that the Raven’s secondary is pretty bad and their run defense is pretty damn good? I say that was a hell of a call both times with both WR wide open, whoever called it, called it right. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don’t, but the game plan was sound.
November 29th, 2010 at 12:31 am
Joe, I disagree. A big part of successful play calling is going against tendencies. If Spurlock had caught that bomb from Freeman, would this article have been written? And shouldn’t Spurlock have caught that ball?
I have no issue with being aggressive on those plays — they were two of our best opps to get big yardage. And, of course, a first down there doesn’t solve your other concerns. Josh Freeman with a first down 2 yards closer to the end zone is still the Josh Freeman who’s been “missing more passes than Joe in a clothing-optional establishment”.
Personally, I believe Freeman could hit those long passes against that defense, and still do.
The thing that killed me was all the goddamn punting on short yardage and/or with a short field. 4th and 2 from the Bal 44 (netted 37 yds), 4th and 6 from the Bal 38 (netted 25 yards), 4th and 2 from TB 40 (netted 34 yards).
You’re just giving away yards when you punt on a short field — your punt will have limited upside, and then if your D does its job and holds them they’ll have a whole 70+ yards of field to punt to.
Couple that with the fact that you’re down two TD’s in the 2nd half, and you have to realize that to win this game you’re going to need some breaks to go your way. Going for it on 4th down when punting wouldn’t have bought you that much anyway is a way to create opportunities for those breaks to happen.
November 29th, 2010 at 12:51 am
Mom:
So by that question you are basically telling us you were in the huddle. Feel free to point out why Josh Freeman was so inaccurate Sunday night. Feel free to explain why Greg Olson was adamant that his quarterback, who the world could see was having a terrible day, throw low-percentage passes when said quarterback couldn’t even complete high-percentage passes and only needed short distances to continue drives when he has two solid running backs at his disposal.
Otherwise, you are in truth the gutless “whiner.”
November 29th, 2010 at 1:41 am
All Tim Ryan did for 3/4 of the game was praise the Ravens. I agree, Olsen could have opened it up a little sooner, and ran Blount more, but a blown assignment on Todd Heap, and a bad pass intereference call cost us this game. Tampa did not get blown out, we are getting better. We lost Grimm and Joseph, and Josh and his receivers were not clicking.
Really guys, WERE we supposed to win this game ? Sure, we all wanted Tampa to win, but we will regroup for Atlanta at Tampa Stadium.
November 29th, 2010 at 1:42 am
None of us were in the huddle. But typically there is a WR going deep in every pass play. That’s not usually the first read. It all depends on the defense. If it’s a blitz, it’s usually man coverage, and if a safety is up, it’s usually Cover 1 or Cover 3, which usually means single man coverage on the go route. With no time to go through progressions, it very well MAY have been Freemans choice to go deep on those two 3rd and short plays. If he read blitz and it appeared to be one-on-one outside, his first read may have been over the top. He really didn’t have time to look anywhere on those plays. He either had to tuck and run or throw to the one guy he knew should have man coverage.
Maybe the play call should have been a screen instead, to defeat the blitz, but that didn’t work earlier in the game, when the O-line got caught up on a defender and Williams actually ended up in front of his blockers and Freeman couldn’t get him the ball.
November 29th, 2010 at 1:46 am
Agreed, Apple Roof. We played the Falcons better than most anticipated, and we were actually in this game for the most part. I’ll concede the play to Heap was a great play call by the Ravens that got Ruud to jump the “run” and fail in coverage on Heap. The pass interference was bogus, Lewis had position, was looking back for the ball, and didn’t hold the receivers arms down (although he may have tried to). That one play kept the game out of reach. Other than that, we were with them the whole way.
November 29th, 2010 at 5:10 am
Olson did not call a good game. I’m sure he would probably tell you the same thing. However, he’s called some really good games, especially as of late, so I will chalk this one up to just not having a good day. After really opening up the playbook in the last few weeks, it seemed to me that we went a little conservative on this game. But I’m sure that having Ed Reed ball hawking in the secondary played a huge role in that. If I was a QB, I would be scared to death to throw it anywhere near him. I think we can really judge how good of a coordinator he is by how he adjusts for the Atlanta game. Our offense has been held in check the last couple games (even though it didn’t matter against SF), but we really need to score some points to beat Atlanta. I think he is a pretty good coordinator, so I would expect a good game.
November 29th, 2010 at 10:30 am
Eric, good post, and nice to hear from you again!
November 30th, 2010 at 4:53 pm
All is not Olsens fault. Its alot of simple things that can be fixed upon time.
#1 Freeman stares down receivers far 2 much(Mike W & K2)
#2 Too much shotgun(Easier presnap read 4 defenses)
#3 Not enough passing on under center formations
#4 Playclock management(Caddy & Freeman doing synchronized playreading with tha O-Line).
Far as tha game Olsen did ok. Had Freeman hit his targets on tha deep passes we’d label him a genius and he gets all tha praise. Since that didn’t happen he’s an idiot and gets tha blame 4 our defeat. We had a good gameplan that fell short. Ravens have a great run d and average at best DB’s (exception of Ed Reed) so I can see why we took many downfield throws. If anything tha real reason we lost tha game was due 2 our punter putting us in horrible field position time and time again.