The Pats Won Practice; Freeman “Awful”
August 15th, 2013
JoeBucsFan photo by Michael Hamm
With all the analysis of the Bucs-Patriots practice happenings yesterday, Joe found Pats writer Jonathan Lemons’ notes to offer the most bold takes.
Joe referenced Lemons take note of the Bucs’ tackling work ethic earlier, but below Lemons answered the question Bucs fans ask most often: ‘How did Josh Freeman and the Bucs look?’
The Pats won practice, per Lemons, and No. 5 was “awful.”
1. New England was clearly the better team
In both 7-on-7 and 11-on-11 drills, the Patriots first team offense and defense clearly outplayed the Bucs.
2. Josh Freeman looked awful
The biggest disparity in the drills came at quarterback, where Freeman took forever to get rid of the ball and made countless poor decisions. Freeman wasn’t necessarily inaccurate with his throws, he just repeatedly threw to guys who were covered.
Take this 11-on-11 drive for instance:
1st down: Freeman throws easy interception that Steve Gregory lets bounce off his hands.
2nd down: Freeman incomplete to Vincent Jackson
3rd down: Gregory drops another easy interception
4th down: Vincent Jackson burns Kyle Arrington and is wide open for a touchdown downfield but Freeman severely underthrows him and Arrington breaks up the play
Of course, winning an NFL Draft on paper or winning a practice is meaningless. But this is the kind of stuff Bucs fans obsess about in mid-August.
So Freeman had a bad practice. Big deal. He’s had rusty summer days, good summer days, great summer days and bad summer days. It’s the summer version of his Six Flags routine.
August 15th, 2013 at 3:24 pm
Wow…you must have just posted this as I am shocked there arent 30 replies already. Anyway, here hoping that they let Josh play as long as NE has their starters in on defense. Maybe all of first quarter. That is, if we get the ball in the first quarter (not including our one 3 and out).
August 15th, 2013 at 3:29 pm
and here we go……..
August 15th, 2013 at 3:29 pm
If there was real hitting involved this would be a different story
August 15th, 2013 at 3:32 pm
And once we have our big 3 rolling (Nicks, Joseph, and Revis), we are gonna plow the Pats come week 4.
August 15th, 2013 at 3:34 pm
@SFA
I agree, Josh needs to play more preseason snaps. Even Braids is chomping at the bit to play against our #1’s Friday after bruising his knee.
I want to see Josh play against NE #1’s for as long as NE keeps them out there. I’d like to see him get an entire quarter.
August 15th, 2013 at 3:35 pm
thats what happens the first time you play a new team with a new look after a long time of not doing that, the routes you’ve been throwing to instictively KNOWING they would be open aren’t its a lesson in seeing the field, instead of anticipating the open routes.
Also probably why Freeman is better at the end of games (throughout his carreer forget JUST last year), he can anticipate the routes that are consistently open. He may be bad at reading defenses.
*(for the record, I AM a freeman supporter, this just makes sense to me)
August 15th, 2013 at 3:37 pm
Regular season, where art thou?
August 15th, 2013 at 3:39 pm
Joe- you may want to fix your typo… “The Bucs won practice, per Lemons, and No. 5 was “awful.””
A bit confusing.
August 15th, 2013 at 3:40 pm
There’s nothing about Free that makes sense to me unless the comparison is to a Roller Coaster.
August 15th, 2013 at 3:40 pm
Freeman made a comment yesterday that whenever his offense would come up with a strategy, the Pats’ defense would change its scheme and keep him off balance. He sounded frustrated. I was very surprised that this seemed like a revelation to him – that defenses would give you different looks. Hard to believe this is his fifth season as QB and explains his inconsistency from week to week, season to season.
August 15th, 2013 at 3:43 pm
Freeman in his own words is saying I can’t read Defenses and make the necessary adjustments.
August 15th, 2013 at 3:50 pm
Here we going comparing Tom Brady who has been in the same system for 11 years vs Freeman who has been in the same system for 1. Oh and it is second week of preseason practice against a belichek defense.
The sky is falling early this season!
August 15th, 2013 at 3:52 pm
They didn’t game plan you morons. He wasn’t saying that they couldn’t read the defense, it was just that without game planning for the different looks of the Pats it’s hard to adjust. Probably like it was for the Pats yesterday when the Pats writers were talking about how bad Brady looked. Things will be different when they actually study film and see the different defensive alignments. Not concerned.
August 15th, 2013 at 3:52 pm
Rusty practice? More like a preview of The Moron vintage 2013.
August 15th, 2013 at 4:00 pm
Comparing first ballot HOFer Tom Brady who has spent 11 years in the same system with the same coach against Freeman who has spent all of one year in his system is crazy town. Plus Freeman is going up against an extremely well coached Belichek defense. And try not to forget that this is practice…a place where you are supposed to work on things and make mistakes to get better.
The sky is falling early around here this season!
August 15th, 2013 at 4:01 pm
HOLY S*%^ WE NEED TO START MIKE GLENNON. HES NEVER HAD A BAD PRACTICE!!!
August 15th, 2013 at 4:08 pm
It wasn’t that Freeman couldn’t read a defense…it’s just that without game planning every look is different and it’s hard to adjust. Probably like it was yesterday for Brady when the N.E. Press was writing what a bad day he had.
August 15th, 2013 at 4:09 pm
Well from the video I saw it certainly looked like Clayborn was winning
August 15th, 2013 at 4:12 pm
Ho hum
August 15th, 2013 at 4:20 pm
When Your headline reads Freeman “Awful” Joe knew that it would bring all the haters out of the wood work like roaches. This is becoming redundant and it only serves to divide an already weak fan base. How about some articles with substance instead of constant controversy. That story Joe did on FB Larsen was interesting and fresh.
@Bucs’n Junkie – Scroll down a bit and you’ll see a post on tackling with fresh quotes from Mike Adams. Also, keep in mind that a large majority of Joe’s readers don’t even read the comments let alone type a comment. So for most of these folks there is no controversy and outrage like there is for the beloved crazies in here. –Joe
August 15th, 2013 at 4:34 pm
@ShutTheBucUp
I agree.
August 15th, 2013 at 4:45 pm
This is bad news, we usually win the practice championship with ease.
Freeman could have the same offensive coordinator for a thousand years and not touch Brady.
August 15th, 2013 at 4:59 pm
How many practices or games in a row did you expect him to be good? Where have some people been for this guy’s entire career?
August 15th, 2013 at 5:11 pm
Joe correctly claims Glennon isn’t ready but refuses to acknowledge that Free looks just as bad. Fact is Joe, it is a big deal that Freeman is so up and down this summer because that is evidence that he may not have fixed his inconsistency issues and that is the biggest problem he has.
You say no big deal, I say very big deal but it is expected. Until he proves otherwise I will accept the facts about Free. Its his 5th year now, hopefully the apologists will as well if he doesn’t turn it around.
August 15th, 2013 at 5:14 pm
Unless of course you guys like QB’s that are as random as a lotto number. Hard to win NFL games when the coaches have no idea how well or poorly their QB, the guy that drives the offense, will play any given sunday. Can’t plan around it.
August 15th, 2013 at 5:20 pm
@BigSombrero
Freeman has never looked as bad as Glennon this summer. Both players look exactly like their roles. Freeman looks like a starter and Glennon looks like a 3rd round pick hoping to be the backup. And no its not a big deal when its only been one day, a day where Tom Brady rolling on the ground shook the eastern coastline.
August 15th, 2013 at 5:32 pm
The bit about him taking forever to throw the ball is very interesting. This is the biggest thing I’m going to be watching this year. If you look at the great quarterbacks, they can quickly scan the field and make a split second decision to throw the ball to a receiver if they see that he’s open.
My biggest gripe with Freeman (aside from the accuracy issues) is that he always takes an extra moment to make that decision, Instead of “Scan Left, Scan Middle, Scan Right, throw to open receiver,” it’s “Scan Left, Scan Middle, Scan Right, see open receiver, process for 2-3 seconds, throw to open receiver.”
I know he’s a smart player, but I’m just not sure if he has that seemingly innate ability to process what he sees quickly like the great quarterbacks.
August 15th, 2013 at 5:42 pm
And whom said he was awful? They write for whom? And wrote this after we hurt ‘what’s his name’? After an earlier tweet said Freeman was looking better today than yesterday, but yesterday wasn’t awful?
Uh, ok.
August 15th, 2013 at 6:07 pm
Geez, look at that picture. Who the hell taught him how to throw a football? There’s nobody near him.
August 15th, 2013 at 6:15 pm
@kyle what place did we finish in the league with sacks allowed? As a matter of fact watch josh freemans highlights of 2012 2013 on youtube. You will see quick decisions with unblocked blitzers in freemans face. Pressure n quick decisions 2 things fans and reporters think he struggles with. Dont generalize ur opinions on what others say.
August 15th, 2013 at 6:16 pm
I’ll add a few points to consider.
A. It is quite possible that after the TomBrady incident yesterday, both the Pats players and the Pats media were looking for blood.
B. In the example given, Freeman targeted Vincent Jackson on most of the plays. Sounds to me like Free and Jackson were working on timing and it made the plays predictable. If the CB knows the ball is coming his way on every play, he’s going to make plays.
August 15th, 2013 at 6:23 pm
Joe would you please set these two ((Edited for foul language)))straight since you’ve been to every practice and they are just making shyte up mpmalloy and ShutTheBucUp.
Please explain to them how great Glennon looks in practice since they seem to think he has yet to have a bad practice.
August 15th, 2013 at 6:27 pm
Buc’n Junkie Says
“I want to see Josh play against NE #1′s for as long as NE keeps them out there. I’d like to see him get an entire quarter.”
It’s possible but I don’t see it happening. I can see 2-3 drives. But Schiano wants Glennon to work against starters as well, since the preseason is all he’ll get.
Plus it’s the 2nd game.
Next week I could see Freeman and the other starters playing into the 2nd quarter. But doubtful this week.
August 15th, 2013 at 6:40 pm
That’s it! Seasons over! I’m gonna watch the Little League World Series tomorrow night…and I f-ckin Hate baseball!
But I agree that Freeman needs more playing time. At least the first half of tomorrow, and obviously next week.
August 15th, 2013 at 7:00 pm
Lol the sky is falling…
Hey didn’t Brady have an off day earlier in the week..
August 15th, 2013 at 7:17 pm
Blah, blah, blah.
Let’s wait and see how our 1’s look tomorrow vs their 1’s in preseason game action. We looked fine against the Ravens with our starters and I expect the same against the Pats.
No worries whatsoever. This will be our best season in quite some time.
August 15th, 2013 at 7:57 pm
Agreed ^^^^
August 15th, 2013 at 11:14 pm
typical “story” about …what? the same old shit we’ve heard for weeks.
#pageviews….and it works. You go Joe..you know what creates “buzz”
August 16th, 2013 at 6:14 am
Who cares what a writer for the nose in the air Flying Elvises thinks? What a shock to think Josh Freeman isn’t Tom Brady………..few are.
August 16th, 2013 at 10:07 am
If you are a Bucs fan and you don’t have your doubts about Freeaman and whether he can get it done this year then you are delusional. This is a quarterback driven league. Great quarterback’s get it done. Brady has made every offensive coordinator he’s had look good. Whoever said he’s been in the same system in his entire time in New England is wrong.