Well what can I say, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers finally won, beating the Green Bay Packers 38-28 yesterday in Tampa. Here are the week 9 grades…

Offense

Josh Freeman did a solid job yesterday at QB, something that has been lacking from Tampa’s last two quarterbacks Byron Leftwich and Josh Johnson. Freeman ended the day 14/31, 205 yards, including 3TD’s and 1 INT. Freeman showed poise beyond his age in the fourth quarter when he completed what would be the game winning pass on 4th down to Sammie Stroughter in the back of the endzone with 4:14 left to go in the game. However, the running game still needs to step up. As a team, Tampa Bay rushed the ball 25 times for a total of 81 yards (3.2 avg).

Grade: B

Defense

Tampa’s defense stepped up big in the second half holding Green Bay to only 7 points in the second half (21 in the first half). The Bucs D tallied six sacks against Aaron Rodgers by six different players. Tampa also included three interceptions against Rodgers, including the game sealing interception by Tanard Jackson for a touchdown with 35 seconds left in the game. Even though the defense gave up 404 total yards, they stepped up when they needed to, and prevented many of the Packers drives to go scoreless.

Grade: A-

Special Teams

By far the “X” factor in Tampa getting this upset win over Green Bay. First the blocked punt that was picked up by Ronde Barber for his 14th career defensive touchdown in the second quarter which gave the Buccaneers confidence for the rest of the game. Also, the superb kick return yards by Clifton Smith which included an 83-yard return to set up Tampa Bay’s first touchdown of the game. Smith also contributed with four punt returns for a total of 54 yards (13.5 avg) to give Tampa better field position throughout the game. Overall, without the amazing play of the Tampa Special Teams, the Bucs more than likely would not have been able to pull out the upset of the week.

Grade: A

Overall

Tampa Bay played their best game of the year in every category, which is why they were able to win their first game of the season, and end an 11 game losing streak dating back to November 2008.

Overall Grade: A-



0 Comments

Dear Guest, please login to comment

Login with BlitzNation account

Create New Account | Forgot password?

OR login with Facebook


Please keep the comments clean by not posting advertisements, profanity, or personal attacks. Terms of Use.

Special

Popular Blog Posts

Most Commented Posts

Newsletter

Categories


Archives


Tag Cloud


About BlitzNation

BlitzNation is a community for passionate NFL fans from all across the nation, sharing their love of football with other die hard football fans. We'll cover every angle of the game, from the start of kickoff till the final whistle, all from a fan's perspective.

Follow Us


Tips

We love to hear from our users! Let us know what you'd like us to write about at tips@blitznation.com.

The Bloggers

Contests

Current: Coming Soon!

Past: Madden 2010 Video Game or Game Controllers

Blog Roll