Orange You Glad I Didn’t Say Banana?

November 09, 2009 at 11:40am by Scott   •  12 Comments »

I spent the last couple weeks doubting that Josh Freeman could have made enough progress from his slow training camp and unimpressive preseason to be effective in a real game against a solid defense. I was actually quite concerned that if he were to get the shit beat out of him badly enough in this one game, he might not recover and we’d spend the next couple years watching Freeman turn into Joey Harrington, except with much better hair. Well, it looks like I have to find a couple good crow recipes because I was obviously wrong. Freeman did not look like the game was too big for him at all. He stood tall in the pocket, kept his poise, made his reads… most of the time. He wasn’t going to be perfect, and there were some plays (especially in the beginning) where he looked pretty green. He had a tendency to stare down receivers and he did bail out of the pocket a little quick a few times. There’s a lot of development yet to do, but my point is that he’s ready.

One of the big knocks against Freeman coming out of college was his accuracy, and that’s the one area that doesn’t look like it has improved much since the preseason. Both Michael Clayton and Maurice Stovall were the victims of overthrows when they were nice and open. And his interception could have been avoided if he had re-established his feet after slipping on the turf. The game announcers both took special pains to say that Freeman didn’t throw off his back foot, but they are wrong and can hug my root if they want to argue about it. Freeman never lifted his right foot off the ground after it slipped, so he was throwing from too wide a base and wasn’t able to drive off his left foot. Anyway, Freeman was throwing at 45% accuracy yesterday, which is what he was in the preseason, and what he was some of the time in college. He may never be better than a 55% passer, but as long as he’s not turning the ball over and making the most of the throws he does complete, he can get away with it. Ask Doug Williams about that.

Jeff Faine and Freeman need to spend some serious time together this week working on the exchange. This is where more time during the bye might have come in handy. Freeman is obviously more comfortable in the shotgun, but in the pros you have to learn how to take snaps with your hands under another man’s asscrack. It’s the most basic movement in football and is worse than a sack when it doesn’t go right. Get that shit fixed.

With the exception of the two penalties they had (Donald Penn‘s hold and Jeremy Zuttah‘s false start, which came at the absolute worst time possible), the offensive line did a fantastic job yesterday. They knew coming in that the Packers were going to take away the run. I don’t blame the line for the only 61 yards on called running plays. Greg Olson took a leap of faith with Freeman and called 35 passing plays (4 of which turned into keepers, but were not called that way), which is pretty unusual for a rookie quarterback in his first start. The offensive line played excellent pass protection and didn’t give up a sack; Freeman has to take responsibility for the one sack he took when he didn’t throw the ball away. Most times, the line maintained a nice, solid pocket and gave Freeman enough time to scan the field — or stare down his receiver. Either way, he had time.

Hey, you know whose name was never mentioned once during the game? Jeremy Trueblood‘s. I call him out so often for his penalties, I think it would be hypocritical if I didn’t at least say something nice when he plays a good, clean game. Well done.

Derrick Ward may have only gotten five yards on the ground, but he was the second-leading receiver with 54 yards. Cadillac Williams never looked like he got going, but he somehow managed 56 yards. But, more importantly, with Olson choosing to stick with the passing game, all the running backs did a great job of picking up blitzing linebackers. You never know where they’re going to come from in a 3-4, and when you can get a guy like Williams, who certainly wasn’t drafted because of his pass-protection, to stonewall an edge-rusher, that’s some excellent effort by the player and coaching by the running backs coach.

I enjoyed the attempt at razzle-dazzle with the halfback pass to Freeman, but Clifton Smith probably isn’t the guy to do it. I appreciate his 83 yard kickoff return and love the guy to death, but I still remember all the fumbles and think that giving him extra, even more complicated shit to do with the ball is probably a bad idea. That play would have been better with a sure-handed player like Derrick Ward.

Clayton had a rebound game, nicely adjusting to an underthrown ball for 29 yards. I’m not sure if the ball was brilliantly underthrown so Clayton could get separation from Al Harris or if it was just a poor pass from Freeman, but it was a heck of a play either way. Clayton also got himself open for a two-point conversion late in the game. He seemed to getting more separation yesterday than he has in the last few weeks. If Freeman’s passes had been more on target, Clayton would have had a much bigger day.

It was nice to see Stovall get involved in the game. He took Antonio Bryant‘s spot yesterday, and if Stovall can continue to make the most of his opportunities, he will present Mark Dominik with an interesting decision in the offseason.

How high did Kellen Winslow jump for that touchdown? A hundred feet? What a brilliant catch.

I had already started formulating my rant on how awful the Bucs’ defensive line was because they couldn’t sack Aaron Rodgers in the first half. They must have known how scathing my article was going to be (because it’s all about ME!) because the second half was a complete 180 for them. Six sacks, all by the defensive line and half of them by guys who weren’t even on the team last year. Michael Bennett, Tim Crowder and Roy Miller all got sacks.

And the defensive line came up big in the running game, too. After getting stifled all year long, they really notched the tackles yesterday. Chris Hovan got five, Crowder got four, Miller and Bennett each got three. Greg White was the big winner yesterday with 1.5 sacks, four tackles, and four quarterback pressures. The only defensive lineman that disappointed was Jimmy Wilkerson, whose main contribution to the game was getting juked out of his jock by Rodgers on his way to a touchdown. Everyone has a down game, though. I’m not worried about Wilkerson.

The fact that the defensive line made a lot of tackles lessened the linebackers’ counts, which is fine. But somehow the Packers still wound up with 170 rushing yards, and that’s generally on the linebackers. Barrett Ruud missed a couple tackles on Ryan Grant and I’m not sure what happened to Quincy Black, but he was pulled from the game. Adam Hayward came in in his place.

But how about Geno Hayes? His second blocked kick in as many years returned for a touchdown. And don’t give me that shit about how he came unblocked. He still had to make the play. He came so fast, he nearly tackled the punter with the ball in his hand. Hayes was also the leading tackler on the team with seven, including a nice one where he dragged Grant down from behind for a loss.

This was a huge game for the Bucs’ secondary, both bad and good. Elbert Mack gave up another huge touchdown, which is starting to get predictable. But then he comes back with an interception to set up the first Bucs score of the game. Ronde Barber got caught with his eyes in the backfield and let Donald Driver run by him for another touchdown. He responded with a fumble recovery for a touchdown on special teams. Aqib Talib gave up a first down pass to Greg Jennings on another Green Bay touchdown drive, but then he picked off a ball tipped up by Corey Lynch. I guess this is how Jim Bates‘s defense works. They said it was high-risk/high-reward, so they’re going to give up some big plays in exchange for making some. The hope is that as they get better in the system, they start making more and giving up fewer. They certainly made more yesterday. Maybe the learning curve will start to level out soon.

Special note has to go to Torrie Cox, who replaced Mack after he hurt his ankle. Cox had three tackles on defense and another three on special teams. Every time I looked up, it seemed like Cox was making a play. Someone remind me of this game next offseason when I wonder aloud why Cox is still on the team.

Tanard Jackson capped the game off with an interception return for a touchdown. The play came with 52 seconds left in the game and the Packers out of time outs. Some football snobs will tell you that Jackson should have either batted the ball down or just fallen on it when he picked it because the Bucs could have ended the game on a kneeldown. Instead, after the score, the Packers had 28 seconds to try and work a miracle. The Football Outsiders even Twittered a reminder (hat tip: Prof Joe) of Troy Brown‘s strip of Marlon McCree‘s interception during the 2006 playoffs which essentially ended the Chargers’ season and Marty Schottenheimer‘s tenure with the team. And to everyone who shares that sentiment, I say thank you for your cold, logical concern, now shut the fuck up.

Did you see the sidelines when Jackson was running that pick back? Not a soul was waving to him to get down and cover the ball. No one had their hands covering their face just waiting for the other shoe to drop. They were absolutely ecstatic. Everyone was jumping up and down and hugging and oftentimes doing both simultaneously. This team needed that ending after the season they’ve had. That touchdown took a very good game and made it a fucking fantastic game. The playoffs aren’t happening — moments like that are all this team is playing for. Big, game-sealing moments are what memories are made of. The 2006 season was shit, but you remember Matt Bryant‘s huge field goal at the end, right? Would you have told Ronde to fall on the ball in the 2002 NFC Championship game? Let them have their big moment and in a big way. This was their day. The throwbacks, all the orange, the old rivalry, the new quarterback — a victory was a great way to remember the day. It was the cake, but the final touchdown was a huge fucking cherry on top of it. These guys have suffered so much during this season. Let them have their cherry.