Josh Freeman's first half stats were not impressive. Then again, it helps if you get the ball for the first time with MORE than half of the first quarter left on the clock!
Miami kicked off after scoring a FG with only 6:35 left in the first quarter! Yet the key word their is Field Goal, as in, thats all the Bucs defense gave up.
With defensive starters in most of the first half, Tampa Bay kept Miami out of the end zone in all but one of it's drives last night, the one right before the half which was the result of a turnover by the Buc's Josh Freeman: A rain soaked ball just slipped out of his hands untouched.
Right before that Miami TD drive to end the half, the Dolphins had the ball first and goal at the 7 hard line with around 4 minutes to go. A three yard loss by Akeem Spence started the goal line stand. Mark Barron smothered a receiver at the 5 yard line, and Bucs linebacker Mason Foster had his hands in receiver GIbson's face which was just enough to break his concentration on the ball.
Then to start the 4th quarter, the Bucs backups were called upon to save the day. Naje Goode helped out on first down, Lucas threw low on second down, and on third down, and LDE Bowers got his hands up to deflect the 3rd down pass to force another FG attempt by former Gator kicker Caleb Sturgis.
The defense kept the game close for a miracle finish to happen, a turnover, and a nice drive by Glennon Hillis and Douglas.
NOTES:
Any one notice Ronde Barber was noticably more excited as the Bucs started their comeback attempt ?
If anyone thinks new kicker Lindell was brought in because Schiano is not happy with rookie Derek Dimke, think again. Dimke is simply kicking too much…. and Schiano is doing LIndell a favor by letting him kick to put some film out on him as a way of saying thank you.
More thoughts during the week as we start to gear up for Bucs regular season football soon.
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