Josh Freeman leads NFL in interceptions
by LeeCaz on Oct 24, 2011 10:01 AM EDT
Email
Print
I suppose this doesn't come as a huge surprise after the four interception disaster that was yesterday, but I still can't wrap my head around it. How has Freeman gone from only throwing six picks all of last season to currently leading the NFL in interceptions through the first seven weeks? Not only that, but Freeman is very near the bottom of starting quarterbacks in standard quarterback rating with an abysmal 73.1. Say what you will about the merits or demerits of the rating system, but the fact of the matter is it paints a fairly accurate picture of the quarterback landscape.
I'm sure if we could get a QB rating for simply the fourth quarter then the picture would be a little less bleak. Freeman shined again late in the game yesterday and almost led the team back to another win. I was pleased to watch the offense finally click, but what in the world is going on with this team in the first three quarters? Did the Bears defense simply start going with a prevent that Freeman picked apart more easily? Did he finally get rid of the jitters? There has to be some type of tangible explanation for drastic turnaround in effective play.
The day was also fraught with injuries. Don't get me started on the turf at Wembley Stadium. It is clearly sub-par and not fit for the NFL. Earnest Graham's injury came before he was even tackled as he tried to cut on that joke of a playing surface. It looked like the injury to Price may have also been caused by the field.
Kregg Lumpkin looked less than fantastic as he took over for Graham. Rumor has it that Graham tore his achilles and may be out for the rest of the 2011 season. With Blount's return up in the air, the backfield is looking very weak at the moment. Hopefully Chad Spann can step right in, but I doubt it. Perhaps a phone call to Clinton Portis is in order. I know a few teams kicked the tires on him earlier this season and came away impressed. Even if Blount isn't ready to go after the bye week they need to bring in at least one more back. Whether that's Portis or another player that Dominic poaches off a practice squad is up to them. If Graham is indeed done for 2011 this team needs depth at the running back position, especially with the way Blount runs the ball and is likely to become injured again at some point.
Speaking of Blount, did anybody see him in street clothes on the sideline yesterday? Dude has to have gained 25 pounds since last season. Come to think of it, Freeman is looking a little portly as well this year. Is conditioning an issue for this team? I'm not saying anything definitively, but just throwing the issue up there for conversation.
All in all, we almost snuck out a win against an average team. If we are truly the playoff team we claim to be we should be beating teams like the Bears emphatically. I'd like to believe that it would have been a different story had Graham not been injured, but I'm not so sure. Graham doesn't play defense, and Matt Forte and Marion Barber simply did whatever they wanted to do yesterday. What do you think Bucs Nation? Would we have won with Graham playing? Is conditioning an issue for this team? Can Freeman turn it back around or has he truly regressed back to 2009 form?
42 comments
|
0 recs |
Do you like this story?
Comments
Why did we let Allen Bradford slip away AFTER Blount got hurt?
Was he that bad? Sure looks like a dumb move right now.
As for Freeman, I don’t know what to think right now. This entire team is maddeningly Jekyl and Hyde – mostly Hyde.
Yeah. He must have been terrible.
He didn’t look good in the preseason and all indicators point towards the fact he just never “got it”.
"Few things are harder to put up with than the annoyance of a good example." ~ Mark Twain
Bradford's still available
Seahawks are converting him to a linebacker on their PS. He can be signed off it as an RB, if he finds that prospect desirable.
Formerly knows as Vasilii, follow me on twitter @dolgorukii
by Thomas Beekers on Oct 24, 2011 11:56 AM EDT up reply actions
Interesting
We had originally wanted to retain him for our PS until Seattle pinched him. Should we grab him back? I don’t know but we sure need RB help desperately. If we don’t want him back then he must really suck.
Yeah, he's a USC guy too, so Pete knows him well
If Pete thinks his best shot in the pros is as a linebacker and the Bucs thought him terrible enough at RB to just cut outright in a time of need, that really says all we need to know.
Formerly knows as Vasilii, follow me on twitter @dolgorukii
by Thomas Beekers on Oct 24, 2011 2:50 PM EDT up reply actions
because of Tanard
They Needed to makeroom to add Tanard Jackson to the roster again, so they chose Allen Bradford
If Bradford doesn't suck, you don't let him go after Blount was injured
I think Sander has it right. Seattle converting him to LB says it all.
Lets not forget that Freeman isnt running either. His dual threat status is gone.
I’ll bang this drum again, I think this problem stems to his draft status, his inability to read defenses. His success last year came largely on playaction passes, which are set up (more times than not) by a successful ground game. The PA pass has more bite with a good/established run game, but we forget about the run. Plus, Freeman is being asked to shoulder the load (same with Morris). Call play, read defense, call out blocking assignments and then run the play. Why not let Faine or someone else call out the blocking assignments? Lets set up Freeman for success. We had a player last year who helpe with this and it worked pretty well.
As you can always expect come from behind victory is when you least expect it.
I personally feel like Freeman to threatening to run the ball himself
is one of the biggest reasons why he is not having success this year. When the other team has to worry about Freeman scrambling for a decent gain (like he did so many tmes last year) that can pull coverage from receivers to account for him running. The run game in general has lacked this year as well which hurts. But so many times last year once Free was flushed from the pocket he busted out some nice gains on the ground which I felt kept opposing defenses looking in the back field even on passing plays. Now I am not a hug advocate for running QB’s, but if that is the hand you are dealt then I feel like you should utilize it. Several times this year Free has been flushed out of the pocket & had room to run at least for a 1st down, he has chose to pass the ball in most all of these instances, which is fine…right up until your receiver drops the pass or your pass is off target.
by RuudAwakening on Oct 24, 2011 10:51 AM EDT up reply actions
The defense didnt play spectacularly at all but had there moment. This loss however falls on Freeman
Freeman has played horribly this year. He was horrendous yesterday. He doesnt see the field clearly, and that was one of the knocks against him coming out of the draft. Did we see the best he can do last year? I hope not.
Losing EG and putting in Lumpkin was a disaster. I hope EG can make a full recovery, however, due to his age and type of injury sustained, it may be a long road to recovery.
Mike Williams!!!!! What is this guys problem? He dropped a ball again, on a perfectly thrown pass at the goal line that hit him in the chest. How ridiculous is that? The resulting play is an interception by the Bears. He catches that ball, the result is a Touchdown…. The play epitimizes the play of that guy all year long. He couldnt catch a cold of someone coughed in his face. He should be benched an the starting three wideouts should be Benn, Parker an Briscoe. Williams is our fourth best option.
Aquib Talib!!!!! What a poor excuse of a player…. He literally cost this team a chance to have a drive with maybe 70 to 100 seconds more on the clock with his boneheaded 15 yard unsportsmanlike penalty after a great goal line stand by our defense. This guy is over rated and is not worth our time and investment. He is a loose cannon who the Bucs should get rid of the first chance they get. I hope he gets suspended by the commissioner and then goes to jail for his gun crime committed in Texas over the offseason. Get rid of him!!!
Finally the coaching!!!! The players are undisciplined… This falls back on the coaching. specifically coach Raheem Morriss. I know this is going to piss some of you off but I stand by my statement that the problem with our team is coach morriss and his assistants. We are the second most penalized team in the NFL. Second only to the Raiders. These penalties always come at a bad time and kill drives. The penalties show lack of discipline on this team, and the excuse I hear about this team being young. Hogwash… Overused….. Tired of hearing it….
Regardless of age, these guys are professionals. This team lacks real discipline and until this changes this team will continue to be middle of the road. With no real shot at the playoffs. I think a coaching change is in order. Whether it is the head coach or assistants, I m not sure. But something here needs to be addressed.
After all of that I still say that the BUCS are my team and I wish them success!!!!!!!!!
Go Bucs!!!!
East Coast Fan
Can't say it better so I won't
When I’ve made these same comments on other comment boards I’ve been villified and cast as a Buc hater. B.S.! Bucfan nails it with each and every word here.
You can get QBRating for his 4th quarter performances
Yahoo offers such split stats. Right now his QBRating goes:
1st: 53.5
2nd: 79.7
3rd: 65.9
4th: 84.4
His QBRat is 61.9 when ahead, 61.1 when tied and 78.4 when behind.
Formerly knows as Vasilii, follow me on twitter @dolgorukii
by Thomas Beekers on Oct 24, 2011 11:55 AM EDT reply actions
When does Talib's suspension start?
I have watched enough of this guy this season to see that he is not nearly the player that he is touted. Biggers has been a better cover corner this season. Talib looks slow, doesn’t tackle, jogs downfield on long plays, and is nowhere near talented enough to earn the reputation he has. That penalty was unbelievable.
I don’t know what is wrong with Freeman. He seems to be a good leader, he seems really smart, which would lead me to believe that even if coming out of the draft the knock on him was an inability to read defenses, this is something he could improve on given his intellect.
I love Freeman. Seriously, I freakin love him. But man does he look off. Watching the final drive yesterday, right up to the second that he threw that last INT, I was completely confident he would drive us down the field.
I don’t want him to fun on every play, but once in a while Josh, it is ok to take of and run.
I am scratching my head with Mike Williams. He seems to be a good guy. And hard working, taking the blame on himself for his poor play. But seriously dude, the ball hit you in the chest.
Inconsistency will cost us
To everyone thats completely downing Josh Freeman you really cant blame him because you had your bar set so high. Last year was a great year for him but you could not have expected the same numbers from especially given the fact this guy barely had a offseason to work on issues that struggled him last year. I will say though personally 75% of yesterdays loss falls squarely on his shoulders. The other 25% goes to a D line that cant seem to figure if they wana be great or be labeled as a “young talented group with potential”. With the team we were playing and the line they was up against those “youngry” fellas shouldve had a MINIMUM of 5 sacks and Forte shouldnt have even came close to 100yds given the fact yu know Mike Martz doesnt wana fully put the game in hands of Cutler. Within 2weeks Tanard Jackson has shown why we have missed him so much and that he undoubtlely our best secondary player if not best defensive player period. I dont know what Aqib Talib problem is but he surely isnt looking like himself. He does seem to be playing slower and making far less athletically gifted plays and dropping interceptions that he usually makes. I dont know whether his legal issues are wearing on him but he need to sort out his inner demons quick. I feel as though coaching has the smallest part to do with this team and there inability to consistently progress. After frustrating losses its easy for us as fans to point to the person we cant see other than during press conferences as the villian to the movie BUT Raheem Morris did the smart move. He took his team over a week early to get acclimated and get prepared without the feeling of being rushed or drowzy from the trip. Discipline is not a issue, far too many times we hear the word “football” and immediately link it to “children and discpline”. These are fully grown men. You cant teach a fully grown man discipline its something that they already have or wont ever have. Its up to each and every individual palyer to look at themselves in the mirror and gut check themselves. I would have loved for Tampa to be 5-2 headed into a bye with a game against a divisional opponent we already beat up next. But these are the cards we were dealt, lets see how we play our hand..
Try a few paragraph breaks in there next time please
That wall of text is hard to read. While I agree with you that Tanard Jackson has looked impressive in pass coverage, his tackling is atrocious. He absolutely whiffed on a few open field tackles yesterday that showed his rust.
I think most of us can be rightfully accused of expecting too much out of Freeman, but that doesn’t make it okay to lead the NFL in interceptions through the first half of the season.
"Few things are harder to put up with than the annoyance of a good example." ~ Mark Twain
The safety play was a big reason why Forte ran wild
A couple of times the safety had to fill the hole and just wasn’t there. Both Jackson and Lynch had trouble with that.
And I will take it one step further
I personally believe discipline when it comes to the players on the field is the coaches problem. When you have a player who does a bone head play, (Talib) and numerous penalties (second worst in the NFL) that absolutely is on the coach. He needs to coach these guys to play within themselves and the game itself.
When you see some of the more successful teams in the NFL, the more disciplined teams are the ones who control there emotiions on the field and dont make ridiculous penalties throughout the game. Bellichick is one.
East Coast Fan
Raheem is not a "dial the emotions down" guy
He fires up everyone. I think he gets more energy at the cost of discipline with that approach.
I'm not sure I'd blame the field for the injuries
The field is slick, but slickness doesn’t ’cause injuries. Certainly not spontaneous torn achilles tendons.
Trying to make a cut and having your foot slip one way or the other can absolutely cause injury
"Few things are harder to put up with than the annoyance of a good example." ~ Mark Twain
This ^^
A twisted ankle or even a bad plant of the foot can certainly result in a number of different ankle and heel related injuries. As a longtime player in the “other” football, I can tell you that every injury I ever suffered was during games played on slick surface.
I don't think it's nearly as clear cut as you say.
I think it’s pretty apparent that the field caused some injuries yesterday. You are certainly entitled to your opinion, but I am pretty set on mine, so we may as well just agree to disagree.
"Few things are harder to put up with than the annoyance of a good example." ~ Mark Twain
Good comments by all
Sadly, Freeman has been the player holding the Bucs back this year. Like most other posters, I love the guy! But, his head is not in the game until it is too late. Throwing late over the middle with frequency, missing wide open players that appear to be in his line of sight, and not pulling down the ball and running when there is a clear running lane for 20 yards is killing us.
Aqib Talib is killing us on defense, and Lynch and Jones are late to both running plays and deep coverage. I’ll give Lynch some credit for a few good plays yesterday though, but his record this season has not been that good.
What IS encouraging is that we almost pull out these games with ease in the fourth quarter. Consider how good this team would be with 4 quarters of focus and smart play. I think the fear of losing is forcing them to focus better in the 4th quarter. That indicates coaching is the culprit.
Raheem needs to find a way to make them afraid of losing in the 1st – 3rd quarters…maybe a benching or two is in order. They need to forget they went 10-6 last year, because that no longer matters. This was a winnable game on a hard schedule.
Jones isn't really the problem
He is what he is: mostly an in-the-box safety who is good against the run but lacks speed.
The Bucs really have a problem at free safety right now. Corey Lynch is terrible in the running game, Tanard Jackson hasn’t looked good as a run defender either. Losing Cody Grimm is a major problem there.
What happened to T-Jack yesterday?
He seemecd to just vanish…..
That's because he was off the field after his interception
Injured his hamstring reportedly. No details on how serious it is.
Yeah I knew he was off the field
Just didn’t know why. Hope it isn’t too serious
I think we could have still won without Earnest. Think the fact that Gerald was missing hurt us the most
Your right
I couldnt believe how much time Cutler had for some of his passes. Other than Clayborn, nobody on the D-Line was consistent yesterday
Hopefully this will quiet the naysayers some in regards to McCoy
McCoy is the heart and soul of our defense in my opinion. He is constantly penetrating and disruptive with several O linemen draped all over him. He makes our other D linemen that much better.
East Coast Fan
by Bucfan on Oct 24, 2011 4:34 PM EDT via mobile up reply actions 1 recs
We had interior rush. The d-line played great but the linebackers were the weak link.
Specifically Adam Hayward and Quincy Black
The linebackers aren't really involved in pass rush
Most of the pass rush came from blitzes or edge rushers, not up the middle. The Bucs don’t have a good interior pass rush without McCoy.
I agree with you 100% on that.....
East Coast Fan
by Bucfan on Oct 24, 2011 6:31 PM EDT via mobile up reply actions
I know linebackers arent involved in the rush. That was a side note.
But the interior was decent. But of course McCoy out does hurt.
Comments For This Post Are Closed
Secondary Sidebar
User Tools
Related FanPosts on Bucs Nation
Related FanShots on Bucs Nation
FanPosts
Community blog posts and discussion.
Recent FanPosts
SBNation.com Recent Stories
In Association With
Shutdown Corner - NFL - Yahoo! Sports
- All reports positive after Peyton Manning’s first OTA in Denver
- Ryan Tannehill won’t start right away, according to Dolphins’ owner
- Lions WR Titus Young barred from practice after starting fight with teammate
- Winslow move could be a costly one for Bucs in the short term
- Matthew Stafford spends $15,000 to win auction package, then gives it to a young fan’s family
