What the Buc? What went wrong for the Bucs this season

Last year, everything seemed pretty great for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. A stud QB and running back in Josh Freeman and LeGarette Blount aswell as a promising young receiver called Mike Williams who set a Buccaneers franchise record for receiving TDs and led all rookies in receptions. Former coach, Raheem Morris received the Coach of the Year award last year too. I even touted them as a team for the future in an article on 606 seen here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/606/A79072879

So what went wrong for a young team who seemed to have such great talent? In my opinion there are a number of contributing factors. They are as follows:

1.Lack of investment in the team- The Buccaneers only signed Michael Koenen , a punter, during Free Agency. They retained a lot of their players but released Carnell "Cadillac" Williams and Barrett Ruud. Releasing Cadillac was a big issue. LegGarette is either not trusted or not capable of playing on passing downs and it was easy to surmise that the Bucs were passing when one of Kregg Lumpkin or Earnest Graham were on the field.
2.The regression of Josh Freeman- A crucial factor this year. Freeman himself admitted how he was overconfident at times this year forcing the ball to covered receivers. He said how he may have been a bit cocky after the success of last season. His thumb injury may have plagued and hampered him at times too. Free was also guilty of staring down the receiver and throwing off the back foot. Freeman scored rushing TDs this year but this year he had 13 less attempts for a 4.3 average and 238 yards. Last year in 68 attempts he had a 5.4 average for 364 yards/ The ability to extend plays and drives was key for the Bucs last year.

3. The receivers- Last year the Buccaneers receivers were getting free of coverage and getting decent yards. This year they have been unable to get any sort of freedom and it's no surprise that Freeman's average yards per throw and his interception total rose because of this. It has also led to Kellen Winslow II being targetted and ultimately picked off.

4.Tackling- Mainly a fault in the secondary .the Buccaneers linebackers, corners and safeties have shown an inability to tackle and get the man on the floor. At times it appears that they are simply missing and some times just having God awful technique that allows the man to get those extra yards. Last year, the Bucs got away with some terrible tackling and overall shoddy defending with interceptions. This year they had 5 less with nearly 200 yards less on the takeaways. While some believe Barrett Ruud didn't make big plays, his ability to make tackles was valuable. His total which was the highest for the Bucs last year was 118. This year a safety, Sean Jones, had the highest at 92 ,a pretty big drop.

5.Playcalling- The Bucs seemed to have a play every game that never worked. The Benn'd Around https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TF3MktSo5vw Olson was the only one not recognise it's failure. It was also pretty obvious were the Bucs were going on 3rd down,. It was always going to be K2 ball. The defensive playcalling has been suspect too. Against the Saints in the Superdome a baffling decision to give the receiver a 5 yard cushion a 1st and goal for the Saints on the Bucs 4 yard line being one infamous case. Raheem had a defensive co-ordinator at the start of his tenure with the Buccaneers and fired him so Rah takes the blame on the defensive side of the ball.

6. Discipline- While I have never played American football for a team, like any other sport it is the Head Coach's job to instil discipline in his team. Raheem Morris failed to penalise players for ridiculous penalties until it was too late. The man he singled out as his scapegoat was a particularly unlucky victim as he had been playing injured for the majority of the year. The penalty count effected the Buccaneers a lot of the season. In one game the Buccaneers were 3rd and 10 in Field goal range and were backed up 3rd and 25 due to ridiculous penalties.

7. International Series- Mightn't be a reason more of a theory as I suppose it can't be proved. People in the US in particular believe the team suffered from a bit of jet lag over in the UK. The loss of Earnest Graham also hurt the Bucs big time in the game. I think it began to unravel after the game for one reason or another. Perhaps some of the guys went a bit wild over who knows.

8. Lack of Leadership- Linked to discipline, there was no one really standing by to shout and scream at team members after making a mistake a polar opposite to the Jon Gruden times. Ronde Barber being the oldest member on the team among a group of 3/4 year guys with many even younger. There was no leader or talisman to pull these guys together and get their asses in gear. Or at least there weren't a few anyway.

So with a new head coaching staff on the way (hopefully Defensive Line coach Keith Millard will stay as he seems to be doing a stellar job with is young front 4.) what lies in store for the Buccaneers? There is no doubting the side is sprinkled with some talented individuals who have a lot of growing to do. The 2012 Draft is of utmost importance and with such a high pick it cannot be wasted. GM mark Dominick stated previously his team plan to go after some Free Agent signings in what he dubbed "Year 3" With needs at CB,LB and on the Offensive line( not to mention at WR) and some high profile players like Cortland Finnegan, Brent Grimes, Carl Nicks, Stephen Tulloch and Vincent Jackson. You would have to hope the Buccaneers go after some of these guys to supplement their draft and talented youngsters

I have to agree with the vast majority of what's written here.

I for one am looking forward to a new era in Tampa Bay and am encouraged by the Glazers' promise of more spending to come in the offseason.

I just hope that we get an offensive minded coach to work with Freeman and take his game to the next level.

2.The regression of Josh Freeman- A crucial factor this year. Freeman himself admitted how he was overconfident at times this year forcing the ball to covered receivers. He said how he may have been a bit cocky after the success of last season. His thumb injury may have plagued and hampered him at times too. Free was also guilty of staring down the receiver and throwing off the back foot. Freeman scored rushing TDs this year but this year he had 13 less attempts for a 4.3 average and 238 yards. Last year in 68 attempts he had a 5.4 average for 364 yards/ The ability to extend plays and drives was key for the Bucs last year.

Is it just me or have a lot of young QBs who started straight away to rave reviews either failed to progress to the next level or actually regressed? Ryan hasn't really been able to reach the heights that were expected so far, Flacco and Sanchez still look pretty limited, Bradford looked good last year but couldn't repeat it this year. Stafford probably looks the best right now but he's been injured a lot so hasn't really played.

I think a lot of the blame has to lie with Freeman himself. Like he said, he got too cocky and forced a lot of balls when they shouldn't have been thrown. Last season he was playing a mature game, and his stats reflect that.

@lowlandbrit: I agree about the young QBs comment. Bradford I thought was going to have a great season off the back of last year. Sanchez is just rubbish, and never worth a first round pick. Similarly with Gabbert-how was he ever taken in the first round off such crud college stats?! Ryan is progressing nicely, and Stafford is going to be great I think.

Sanchez has never showed a lot of promise and Flacco has been just a game manager. I would place blame on Freeman but not a lot of it. I believe that he was playing with an injury for a few weeks of the season and it's hard to make plays when your receivers are covered. What I noticed in London though was that he refused to run the ball when they were plenty of opportunities.


Freeman is still a great talent. You don't throw 25 TDs and 6ints in a season by accident. Also I'm going to praise myself for coming up with a great name for the thread.

The thread name did make me chuckle, well done sir! Freeman is definitely a great talent, it's just this season was a bit of a let down.
Wasn't one of his major strengths coming out college his mobility an ability to run the ball? Considering that, he hasn't/doesn't run it that often, and he certainly has the physical attributes to do so. Hopefully next season will be different.

He isn't an incredibly fast guy(slower than Cam) but since tackling in the NFL is urine poor anyway he can make a lot of yards and he did last year.

are you a bucs fan thomond?

He ran nicely for a TD in the Jacksonville game that I was at, just wish he could do that more often!

exactly, that was a great TD! just looked at his college stats and he was a rushing TD machine- hopefully he'll find his form next season, because he has great potential

I am in deed. Have only been following football for 2 season but have ties to the Tampa area so. Myself, Pr4wn and GurTPl are the only Bucs fans on here I think. What about yourself, are you nee to the board? As I said above, Free rushed for around 4/5 TDs this year where he got none last year but he rushed more often last year to greater effect.

I'm a Packers fan myself, but I hasten to add that I have been since 1994 when my Uncle bought me a jersey with Favre on the back! Not one of these new-age glory guys! Not too new to the board, spend most time on the rugby pages but dabble here too occasionally.

Once Freeman finds his feet (which I think he will next season), his passing and running game combined with Blount could be incredibly threatening.

Blount has been poor enough this year. A lot of fumbles. Some fans stateside believe he is on thin ice. He also allegedly assaulted someone a while back. Blount isn't a factor in the passing game. Jason Snelling in FA or a 2nd round for Montee Ball would help the rushing game. which helps Freeman a lot.

I thought the team could be playoff contenders this year but after watching two of their games this season and seeing other plays on redzone, it seems they have no impact players. I always thought freeman was average and I think he has shown that this year, add to that the lack of a shutdown cb, good pass rusher, big time wr, they just don't have anyone that you can call a playmaker. They have to have a great draft this year, as unless there is a huge turnaround, they won't improve much next year. If they can get a few offensive weapons in the draft and a defensive minded head coach, they will make strides. Also want to add that their conditioning may be a problem, as altough I haven't watched all of their games, they seem to give up a lot of points once they go behind and their D has been on the field a while

I didn't mean Blount as a factor in the passing game, I meant his running threat. He's very much a hard, straight runner, which combined with Freeman's elusive ability, could see them do quite well.

Niner, one player admitted they didn't but into Raheem's defensive schemes and if you look at some of the games you can tell some of the players just gave up when they went behind. While I love him as a player, the attitude problems seemed to start when Aqib Talib was brought back it seemed to say "hey if a guy can shoot someone and paly on this team, then I can do whatever"

Having been at One buc place, I can honestly say that the bucs strength, conditioning and nutritional facilities are by far the most impressive I've ever seen. Everything was very thorough.

Thomond wrote: if you look at some of the games you can tell some of the players just gave up when they went behind.

This is what I wanted to say but couldn’t because I hadn’t actually watched many TB games late in the season. Looking at the scoring though it seemed to me that the team had completely quit by the end of the year. Too often when watching the Buccaneers early in the season I was confused by the offensive playcalling/gameplan and felt they abandoned the run (one of their strengths IMO) far too easily. This was especially confusing because it was clear that Freeman and the receivers were struggling.

Well they got rid of their OC and all their staff so next season will be interesting. Mike Sherman is apparently the leading candidate.

Mike Sherman. Wow.

A coach that inherited a great team and was mediocre. Then went to Texas A&M and was fired.

Can't wait.

Pr4wn wrote:Mike Sherman. Wow.

A coach that inherited a great team and was mediocre. Then went to Texas A&M and was fired.

Can't wait.

Best thing that happened to Green Bay was Mike Shermans 4-12 season that lead to the Mike McCarthy era!

bluestonevedder wrote:@lowlandbrit: I agree about the young QBs comment. Bradford I thought was going to have a great season off the back of last year. Sanchez is just rubbish, and never worth a first round pick. Similarly with Gabbert-how was he ever taken in the first round off such crud college stats?! Ryan is progressing nicely, and Stafford is going to be great I think.

I never got the love for Sanchez either - and I found it strange how Gabbert went from 'first round pick' to 'could go first overall' just because Luck didn't declare - but I thought Ryan, and to a lesser extent Flacco, would have shown a little more by now.

crazy_dave23 wrote:Best thing that happened to Green Bay was Mike Shermans 4-12 season that lead to the Mike McCarthy era!

Amen to that.

@Lowlandbrit; Yeh Gabbert is a strange one, and I really don't understand what any of the scouts saw in him at all. I read an interesting article which stated that Chase Daniel, the former Missouri QB before Gabbert, threw 39 TDs in the same offence that Gabbert threw a mere 16 in. Daniel went undrafted in 2009 and is holding kicks for John Kasay at New Orleans, without ever having started a game.
Why was such poor production seen as NFL first-round quality...?!

Gabbert was off the radar before todd mcshay started hyping him, then he blew up big time into the potential 1st overall pick