Josh Freeman took the blame for the offense's lack of punch. While you stare at the carcass of that leftover Thanksgiving turkey, ponder these final thoughts and observations on the Bucs 17-10 loss at Baltimore:
First and foremost, these Buccaneers are a greatly-improved version of the team that lost 38-13 to the Steelers and 31-6 to the Saints.
The last two losses were 27-21 to the Falcons, and then Sunday's 17-10 effort against the Ravens.
Right now, the Falcons are being whispered about as 6 Sanchez White Jersey
the best team in the NFC, and perhaps the best performer in the entire NFL.The Falcons are certainly on a roll after that clutch win against Green Bay.
Getting back to Sunday's effort. . .
Quarterback Josh Freeman shouldered the blame for the offense—and that's what you'd expect of a leader—but coordinator Greg Olson really had a lousy day with both his game plan and his play calling. What was up with the bombs on third-and-two?
Give credit to Baltimore, the Ravens kept the heat on Freeman as he was frequently running for his life which threw off his timing. Still, his receivers didn't have much of a day either and that didn't do much to help him out.
Cody Grimm's season-ending injury was diagnosed as a fractured fibula—he will be sorely missed.
Indications are it was Sabby Piscitelli who was out of position on the 65-yard touchdown catch-and-run by tight end Todd Heap. Does that surprise anyone?
The defensive line had a decent game as Gerald McCoy had two sacks and continues to showimprovement every week. Overall, the d-line did a decent job until the final four minutes when Ray Rice ran it down their throats.
Aqib Talib is once again walking a fine line. He verbally attacked one of the game officialson his way to the locker room and will no doubt be fined. The game official, in turn, fired some profanities back at Talib, if that's the case, something should be done there as well.
The Bucs hurt themselves early in the game when they couldn't punch it in from the Ravens' four-yard line. You kinda got the feeling they wouldn't have scored if they had six downs.
The broadcast team was all over this and you have to agree with them—the Bucs waited too late to go into their hurry-up offense. If you go back to the Atlanta game, the Falcons waltzed right down the field against the Ravens with their own hurry-up and that should have been a bigger part of 6 Sanchez Green Jersey
the Buccaneer game plan.
No details yet on the injury to Davin Joseph. Jeremy Zuttah was called on early to fill in for him at right guard, but so far, they're saying it's some sort of foot injury. Joseph didn't elaborate on it after the game.
The Buccaneers had far too many penalties in this loss and Niko Koutouvides kept putting his team in poor field position early with his bonehead special teams penalties.
The pass interference call on Myron Lewis that set up the Ravens' second touchdown was offset by the holding call onRay Rice's 76-yard run for a touchdown on a screen pass from Joe Flacco. Both were bad calls so that one evened itself out.
This defense is getting better. They shut out that Ravens on their home field for the entire second half, but if time hadn't run out, they might have driven all the way down the field on that last possession.
Nice drop by Micheal Spurlock as Freeman must have hit him in a bad spot. That drop cost the Bucs about three minutes in clock time.
Does anyone else out there think that Bucs punter Robert Malone stinks?
How about tight end John Gilmore, he's got some open field moves, doesn't he?
These Bucs did get the attention of the Ravens. The Ravens were complimenting the toughness of the Bucs after the game, and LeGarrette Blount drew some praise as well for his hard-running—although he wasn't much of a factor.
Looking at the NFC playoff picture, the 2010 pro bowl Vikings 4 Brett Favre jersey
Bucs will have to compete forone of the two wildcard spots. The NFC South is looking like the strongest division in the NFC with the 9-2 Falcons and the 8-3 Saints.
This run to 10 wins is still alive and Sunday's the throw-back game and it was the throw-back game last year that produced a stunning upset of the Green Bay Packers.
A little deja vu would be a good thing, wouldn't it?
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