There were several Buccaneers that hand a big hand in last week's Jekyll-and-Hyde, come from behind victory over the St. Louis Rams. Connor Barth banged home 4 key FGs, including a 53-yarder. Mike Williams, whose 5 catches for 82 yards gave him a ridiculous 4th rookie of the week nomination. LeGarrette Blount, whose 11 carries on 72 yards were a thing of beauty after the clownball that has been the running game for much of the season, and who would have had the first 100-yard game in forever if not for the antics of Jeremy Trueblood. Cadillac Williams for catching the winning TD pass and being a huge safety blanket in the passing game. Ronde Barber and Gerald McCoy for their solid games on the other side of the ball.
However, after leading his SIXTH come-from-behind drive to take the lead/tie the game in 4th quarter/OT of his brief career, the nod has to go to Josh Freeman, who was nails when it counted. After having watched LeGarrette Blount spearhead a pair of FG drives on the strength of his impressive play, Josh Freeman engineered a 16-play, 81-yard masterpiece spanning 4:45. He was patient, finding the Williams boys 8 times on the drive and hitting Kellen Winslow on a key 4th and 3 with under 2 min to play.
The bottom line is that Free continues to make the smart decisions and the right reads down the field without forcing throws into bad situations. He threw the game winning score to Cadillac for his 7th TD on the season with only 3 INTs, which is a godsend of an improvement from the 10 TDs/18 INTs from last season. More importantly, are there many more QBs you'd want out there with the game on the line late right now? He's starting to make this writer believe that if the Bucs are close late, they're in pretty good hands.
Josh (flips ball to Freeman)..........here you go, big man.