Josh Freeman Lost His Shit In The Red Zone

December 07, 2009 at 11:13am by Scott   •  7 Comments »

I’ll bet you never knew there were so many different ways to lose a football game until this season came along. Giving up the big plays? Check. The run defense falling apart? Check. Missed field goals? Check. And now this week we’ve got a new favorite: Game-crushing interceptions! The rest of the team wasn’t that bad. Some of them were even excellent yesterday. But Josh Freeman singlehandedly lost this game with his mind-blowing, receiver-staring, off-target, poorly-timed interceptions — ALL of them happening in Carolina territory. Come on down, Josh, and claim your prize: my foot in your ass.

The funny thing (well, not “ha ha” funny, but you know) is that on a couple of those drives, Freeman was moving the ball pretty well until he got to the red zone. To start the third quarter, he moved the team from their own 28 to the Carolina 4 (68 yards) before throwing the pick. Then at the end of the third quarter in the fourth, they went from their own 17 to the Carolina 3 (80 yards) before Freeman chucked one to Chris Harris. He also had drives of 62 yards, 61 yards and 45 yards that all either ended in interceptions or missed field goals. Of course, to balance that out, he had a drive of 0 yards and 1 play that resulted in an interception from the Carolina 20. Freeman just fell the fuck to pieces when he started sniffing the endzone. As a rookie you expect some boneheaded plays, so it’s not time to panic. It’s just one game. Hell, Joe Namath threw five picks in a game a couple times early on. And if Freeman going to have a game like this, best to do it this season. But there’s no doubt that if he’s even halfway competent in the redzone yesterday, the Bucs win that game big.

I’m not sure how it happened, but the Bucs’ running game started clicking yesterday. Both the offensive line and the running backs found their groove and produced a respectable 124 yards. Freeman tacked on another 30 and looked good in the 20-yarder he got on a broken play. The holes that the line were opening up were pretty big. I would have expected a few longer runs from the backs, but it seems like the linebackers can get a hand on them to trip them up. Clifton Smith might be the only running back left with the speed to break a huge one anymore, but I don’t know if he’s going to get much more work in the offense this season. But 5.9 YPC with a total of 154 yards is nothing to sneeze at, especially considering the production lately. I would have liked to see even more rushing, though. The Bucs were never far enough behind to move completely to the passing game, and 30 rushing attempts per game when you’re rotating two backs shouldn’t be too much to ask. The running backs rushed 23 times yesterday.

Speaking of the passing game, how about that pocket Freeman lived in yesterday? Not bad. He was sacked twice, but both times were because he held onto the ball too long. Freeman got 321 yards on 23 completions, which isn’t too shabby. Antonio Bryant and Maurice Stovall bailed him out of a couple poorly-thrown balls, but that’s what you pay them for. Bryant’s knack for amazing one-handed catches in Carolina showed up again along the sideline in the third quarter. I guess there’s a reason why he was bitching to get the ball more. He can produce.

I also see no reason to put Michael Clayton back on the field. Stovall caught the ball four times yesterday for 68 yards. That’s a #2 receiver right there.

The defense held up pretty well considering all the interceptions. The Panthers could only get nine points off all those turnovers, reinforcing the fact that if Freeman could have converted on just a couple of them, this would have been a ten point win easy. The only real complaint I have is on the pass-rush, which couldn’t seem to penetrate to hurry Matt Moore all that often. Tim Crowder got the only sack and Jimmy Wilkerson hurried him a couple times (stat sheet says once, but I know it was at least two), but after a six sack game a week ago, that was disappointing.

Actually, maybe that isn’t my only complaint. Now that I review the game and think about it, what the hell happened on that Jonathan Stewart 23-yard run in the first quarter? There were so many Buccaneer defenders around him that I completely lost sight of him, but he squirted out and eventually had to be tackled from behind by Elbert Mack. Is Stewart that strong, or is the tackling from the linebackers still that poor at times?

You want to look at the bright side? The Bucs “only” gave up 157 rushing yards. The previous two games against Carolina, they rushed for 566 yards. Suddenly, 157 seems like a bargain.

Mack and Derrick Roberson did their best to keep Steve Smith under wraps, and they mostly did a decent job, especially Roberson. Then Mack got burned bad by Smith who didn’t get help soon enough from Sabby Piscitelli and they coughed up 66 yards. It was going to happen. It had to. There was too much inexperience in the secondary going against Smith. I consider it a minor success that it was only the one big play. Other than that, Smith was held to 12 yards. I know… “other than” all the big plays, it’s a boring game. But come on, those two guys against Smith? He could have easily had a 200 yard game.

And speaking of Piscitelli, have we gotten to the point where we just expect to see him flying beyond a runner and landing on his belly at least once per game? He would have had Stewart in the backfield for a loss if he could have just held position and form tackled. It only wound up being a four-yard gain, but Tanard Jackson has got to be getting a little sick of cleaning up Piscitelli’s messes. Jackson was the leading tackler for the game. There’s a reason.

Do we want to discuss Connor Barth‘s 50% conversion rate today? Connor is now 7 for 11, 64%. He is the fourth-worst field goal kicker by percentage in the NFL. You know who the three below him are? Jason Elam (63%), Mike Nugent (33%) and Shane Andrus (0%). Dolphins kicker Dan Carpenter, an undrafted free agent out of Montana last year, is 19 for 20. Whoever is in charge of evaluating kicking talent for the Bucs can go mouth fuck a crocodile. Those three 50+ yarders in Miami were great, Connor, but everyone is forgetting about them real fast. If he makes those two kicks yesterday, it’s a four point game, field position changes and the strategy is completely different. Maybe they run the ball more. Maybe the offense isn’t completely deflated coming away empty off of 62 and 45 yard drives and they play the rest of the game with more enthusiasm. FIX YOUR SHIT!

Despite the miserable six points, you have to see that there are some positives to take away. The Bucs have no idea how to put an opponent away yet, but they are staying in winnable games. Five interceptions in the red zone and they only lost by ten? That’s not bad. Moral victories suck goat ass, but at least the team (except for Freeman) showed improvement in most areas. Bryant is coming back around to his 2008 self, Geno Hayes has found a home in the Tampa 2 and is making lots of plays, Roberson looks like a young keeper, the offensive line is starting to come together. Take ‘em where you can get ‘em.