Hi all,

Just scrolling through the internet for Bucs related news and found the following interesting stat-based listings:

Josh Freeman

Cam Newton is Having an Interesting Year - stats from profootballreference.com

• In this article from Football Perspective, the author analyzes Cam's year and uses Josh as his comp throughout. I looked a little further and found some very interesting stats being produced by Josh this year.
  
• The stats illustrate a picture of the good Josh / bad Josh comparison we've been feeling all season as Josh has the league's best passer rating, by a large margin, on first downs this year, going 39 for 69 totaling 762yds passing w/ a 56.5% comp percentage, a staggering 11 yards per attempt and producing 8 TDs and no picks. He also ranks well on third downs, with the 8th best rating and producing another quality stat line of: 33/51 / 64,7% / 5.7 YPA / 3 TDs - 1 INT
  
• WTF is going on on 2nd downs this year??? He's producing a league worst 42 passer rating w/ some very UGGGGLY nos. between these slashes: 29/64 / 45.3% / 6.8 YPA / 0 TDS - 4 INTs

Checkdowns: Josh Freeman is three parts Steve Grogan, one part Eli Manning - stats from profootballreference.com

• In another article by the same author (created before Thursday night's win), he also notes how unique a season Josh has had this year, being 2nd in Adjusted Net Yards per Attempt, Net Yards per Attempt and Yards per Attempt while 1st in YPC by a large margin (almost 15 YPC!) while sporting a low Comp %.
• The only other comparable season, according to pro-football-reference.com, is the prolific Steve Grogan (who? lol), who turned in similar numbers for the 9-7 1979 Patriots.
  
• The Eli Manning comp is nice to hear, but not surprising given the similar offensive play calling and QB skillsets
  

Quick Hits: O-line

2012 OFFENSIVE LINES through week 7

• Football Outsiders nicely compiles the o-line stats for each team and ranks them, with TB ranking 11 in Run Blocking and Pass Blocking. I was a little surprised the Bucs were ranked that highly, but our oline has been very good since the bye.
• These stats also point out what we've seen from the running game so far this year: The Bucs excel from running Left End (6.25 Adjusted Line Yards / #1 rank) and Left Tackle (4.77 / #7 rank), but not very good running through the middle or right side of our line, ranking #23, #22 and #18 respectively.
• What compounds this issue is that the Bucs have only run 23% to the left and have rushed the most (61%!!!!) up the middle, our least efficient plays. Would our ranks be lower if we had more run plays through the left side?