In Free We Trust
October 21st, 2012
Josh Freeman couldn’t have done much more today
Today the numbers tell a true story. Josh Freeman stepped up and played a hell of a game.
Freeman finished 24-for-42 for 420 yards and three touchdowns. The fantasy geeks are going wild, for sure, but Joe only cares that this was Freeman’s most complete performance of the season. He made a wide array of throws and showed some great poise. Freeman got bailed out on some near interceptions early, but largely his decision-making was sound.
It wasn’t Freeman’s fault that the Bucs coaching staff called for LeGarrette Blount to pound the ball three times from the 1 yard line and then sent Freeman on a naked bootleg that wasn’t so naked for the fourth-and-goal fail.
Joe’s looking forward to more of what we saw today from Freeman.
October 21st, 2012 at 5:14 pm
Spot on Joe. Great performance.
October 21st, 2012 at 5:19 pm
He read those awful things that Esaison said about him and wanted to make everyone who subscribes to that type of garbage, lick his boots!
October 21st, 2012 at 5:19 pm
Free was great…the offense good enough even with failure from the 1…..our problem is giving good QBs too much time. We didn’t lay a hand on Brees and he chewed us up….just like Manning.
Pick your poison….choose coveage and get eaten up….blitz and get eaten up….at least with the blitzing we hit him a few times. This game was lost by the defense….pure & simple.
October 21st, 2012 at 5:22 pm
Obviously we still have big defensive issues. But it’s all moving in the right direction at least.
October 21st, 2012 at 5:22 pm
@ Joe
I agree
October 21st, 2012 at 5:24 pm
The fact the Bucs had absolutely ZERO pass rush killed us, plain and simple.
October 21st, 2012 at 5:26 pm
It was a good performance with gaudy stats, but far from great. Time management left a lot to be desired, and the same old short-intermediate passing route accuracy issues were still present.
Also I had to double take at least a few times to make sure Chris Simms wasn’t out there throwing balls into D-linemen hands again. Still don’t understand how a 6’5″ QB can have so many batted balls, seemingly at times when he is staring right at these defenders too.
The stats tell one story, but I’m not convinced it’s as true as it’s being made out to be. I saw a good qb taking advantage of a horrible secondary, but not the elite brand of QB play that was displayed in a similar situation on the other side of the football.
October 21st, 2012 at 5:27 pm
The good thing…we’re in every game we’ve played this year. ALL OF THEM have been decided in the final minutes of the game except for our win against KC. Frustrating losses..yes, but sooooo much better than last year’s garbage. We need to get a pass defense quickly but we are heading in the right direction. Next year with Bowers and Clayborne healthy and some new pieces in the draft and I’m thinking playoffs. The offense is really starting to light it up.
October 21st, 2012 at 5:31 pm
Freeman has played really well while wearing those creamsicle uniforms. Hell, his first career win as a rookie, vs Green Bay no less, came in orange. Maybe we should stick with it
October 21st, 2012 at 5:31 pm
To see Freeman have this kind of day on the heels of his perfomance last week speak volumes about the future. The Defense can be fixed, if not this year, then next. But Freeman’s progress is critical to where we go from here!
October 21st, 2012 at 5:38 pm
This is a fourth year quarterback who continues to have time management and decision making issues. He had a good game, but he needs to string wins together consecutively to truly make progress.
October 21st, 2012 at 5:39 pm
I can believe i have to keep reading this crap, if josh could look off a receiver, learn to throw the ball away when needed or how to run, if you didnt hear the crowd we were booing him again, overrated as hell, stop shuffing this crap down my throat, Josh costs us time and time, only reason he had decent numbers is that Vincent Jackson played out of his mind, Its Jackson that should be praised not freeman
October 21st, 2012 at 5:51 pm
FLGirl I’m with you, sounds like frees dranking buddies are speaking up for him.
October 21st, 2012 at 6:13 pm
bigpictureguy….you’re just wrong. sorry
October 21st, 2012 at 6:36 pm
4 others in this thread disagree with you bucfanjeff so I’m not the only one who shares these observations. Care to offer up some reasons why i’m wrong? Or are you just trolling again trying to stir the pot?
October 21st, 2012 at 6:44 pm
spot on Joe !
Bobby your just wrong …you to big picture guy..
October 21st, 2012 at 7:00 pm
Bobby C, I don’t know what your talking about. I don’t. You don’t make long completions of 40 yards or more without looking off the safeties. Last two games freemsn has made multiple deep throws with the safety out of the picture….that is from looking off your main target. His short range throws lack accuracy but numbers don’t lie. 420 yards passing with 3 touchdowns and no interceptions. Something like 750 yards 6 touchdowns and 1 int last two games.
Seems like people just want someone to hate on…and GMAC is playing to well now-
October 21st, 2012 at 7:15 pm
I’m a big Free supporter who’s had to argue against those saying Free needed to be benched for Dan Orlovsky (LMFAO) so this game gave me a lot of personal satisfaction but…he’s got some more things to clean up. If he ever gets his ball location on the short to intermediate routes to be anywhere close to Brees he can be a stud in this league.
As of right now, he is what he is: a middle of the road game manager type that occasionally has a sparkling game like what he’s had the past two weeks. Keep it up Josh.
October 21st, 2012 at 8:08 pm
We could have used Talib today…only as an addition…not replacement….but 12 on the field won’t fly. Our problem is with our pass rush not Freeman. We didn’t even get a hand in Brees’ face.
Its easy to get down of Freeman because he’s just one guy. Tougher to blame a group D-Line/Coaching.
Twe things remain constant for the Bucs:
We can’t rush the passer
We can’t run for short yardage
Freeman has nothing to do with either.
October 21st, 2012 at 8:39 pm
“In Free We Trust”… It seems to me if this were true of the Coaching staff they would have at least called 1 pass play down around the goal line when the Bucs could NOT score after 4 straight tries…. That says to me that Freeman is not trusted by the coaches as far as his passing abilities…
Josh had a decent game but their were still several times that the Saints missed chances for an INT on the play… A few times that the balls were under-thrown and the receivers made the play on the ball… I personally feel that many other NFL QBs could have and would have won this game with the Bucs today…. I will not be surprised to see Josh have a hard time with the Vikings defense Thursday night!
October 22nd, 2012 at 12:35 am
im not sure what to think, this is the best back to back games freeman has had. i still dont trust him, if we are able to win thurs. then maybe he is getting now. im still not convinced he is the qb of the future
October 22nd, 2012 at 4:43 am
Sounds like we have some Saint’s fan posing as Bucs fans. Big (Not) Picture Guy, Freeman is still VERY young. If I’m not mistaken, He graduated high school early AND left college a year early for the NFL. As a matter of fact, he is only a year older than Luck. If you want to compare Your QB to Free, let’s do it at the same point in their career. For starters, Brees left as a senior for the NFL. In his second and third years, he had passer ratings of 76.9 and 67.5…hardly elite. Free’s stats are BETTER than Brees with 95.9 and 74.6 passer ratings in his second and third years. Freeman had better completion percentage, more yards, more TDs and less INTs. True he’s not elite yet, but you can bet your ass he is on his way.