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In his post-game press conference after the game against the New England Patriots, Greg Schiano endorsed Josh Freeman as the team's started and said that he gives the Buccaneers the best chance to start. He denied that there was ever any thought of putting Mike Glennon in the game, although the backup quarterback was at one point seen warming up on the sidelines.
For those clamoring for Mike Glennon to come into the game, this is bad news. But there's another point that's easy to miss, here: while the passing game has been bad, the coaching staff sees Josh Freeman as the better quarterback of the two. And really, why would anyone expect a third-round rookie quarterback to be the answer to anything?
Still, there's no denying that this offense is just not producing. They have scored just three offensive touchdowns through three games. Josh Freeman's statistics on the season are awful. 43 of 94 for 571 yards, two touchdowns, three interceptions and eight sacks. That is a 46.2% completion rate. That's 6.07 yards per attempt. That's a 6.9% sack rate. None of these numbers are remotely acceptable for any NFL passing offense.
That's not to say that all of these are numbers are solely Freeman's fault. Vincent Jackson has had numerous drops the past two games, including one on third-and-short that would have put the Bucs in position. Kevin Ogletree seems to be largely useless as a weapon. Tim Wright had a drop in the endzone against the Patriots.
The Buccaneers have no tight ends capable of threatening anyone in the passing game, and the Bucs don't do much in terms of route combinations to create open receivers. They mostly rely on their players to line up and beat the opposing team's players, and it's tough to win that way -- especially so when Vincent Jackson and Mike Williams both suffer injuries..
In fact, overall I thought Freeman had the best game of the season against New England. He was generally accurate, made the right decisions and had just one really bad throw -- which turned into an Aqib Talib interception, of course. The team's only turnover on the day.
We'll see a lot of calls for Mike Glennon to start over the next two weeks, and probably the rest of the season unless Josh Freeman really elevates his play. But poor stats do not mean poor play, and even poor play on Freeman's part does not mean that Mike Glennon is a better option.