A look at Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ failures in 2011 season – NFL Season Review (Part I)
It was in 2002 when the Tampa Bay Buccaneers won their first Super Bowl title. They have registered two playoff appearances since winning the tile, but they were not able to even win their first playoff game both times.
When the last National Football League (NFL) season kicked off, many were expecting the Bucs to reach the playoffs again and some even predicted that they would go even beyond the playoffs.
The apparent reason for this perception was their performance in the 2010 season in which they did not qualify for the postseason, but their performance in the regular season received a lot of appreciation.
Bucs finished the 2012 season after winning 10 games and losing only six. With that record, when they started the last season, even the management was hoping the team to further build on its last year’s performance.
However, that was not the case and the Bucs ended up as one of the most notable failures of the season. They started the season pretty well and won four of their first six games, but what followed was utter disgrace.
They went on to lose 10 games in a row and were humiliatingly sent packing.
In this space, we are going to review Tampa Bay’s performance in the last season by having a look at each game the team played.
Let’s start with the season-opener.
Against Detroit Lions
The Bucs played their first game of the season on their home field at which they hosted the Detroit Lions.
Although the start was not pathetic, the performance of Lions, particularly their quarterback, Matthew Stafford, made it look so.
Lions were the first ones to score. They got a field goal in the first quarter to start the proceedings. The Bucs, however, did not take time to hit back and they first scored a field goal to level the score and then got a touchdown to take the lead.
In the same quarter, Lions added another field goal, but they lead stayed with Tampa Bay.
Lions found their rhythm in the second quarter in which Tampa Bay struggled to gain possession. Lions got two touchdowns in the quarter to take a healthy lead and managed to restrict the Bucs from scoring for most part of the quarter.
Tampa Bay eventually managed to score a field goal towards the end of the quarter. The halftime score settled at 20-13 in favour of Lions.
In the third quarter, Lions extended their lead by scoring a touchdown while Tampa Bay managed a touchdown in the final quarter, but lost the game.
The final score settled at 27-20.
Tampa Bay’s quarterback, Josh Freeman, said after the game:
"It's really frustrating because we felt like, for sure going into it, it was a winnable game. ... We just have to find a way to score points earlier."
He added:
"You hate to start the season out 0-1, but it's the first game of the year. It's not going to make or break anybody."
To be continued...
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