It seemed a bit premature when head coach Raheem Morris declared several weeks ago that the Tampa Bay Buccaneers were the best team in the NFC. Three weeks later, the claim doesn’t look quite so brazen or bold. The Buccaneers have won two of three, with their lone loss coming in a narrow defeat on the road against the Atlanta Falcons. Sure, Atlanta has staked their claim (for now) to the best team in the conference, but the Buccaneers have continued to prove that they’re a playoff-caliber team. Lots of football left though, beginning this Sunday against a San Francisco squad that’s fighting tooth and nail to get back into the NFC West race.
On Tuesday, Bucs quarterback Josh Freeman joined The Dan Patrick Show to talk about the growing confidence of the Buccaneers, how he thinks they’re capable of a run to the playoffs and beyond, their Sunday showdown with San Francisco, and the team still flying under the radar nationally despite their solid start. (Transcription via: SRI)
On whether or not he is surprised by the team’s success:
“I’m not really that surprised because I’m with the team, I’m with the guys, and I’m with the coaches everyday and I see the type of guys we have and obviously a lot of people are surprised because of our team last year. We feel we have a good team. We may be young, but we work hard and we want to come out and play good football and put our mark on this league.”
On the lack of attention Tampa Bay is getting:
“We don’t care. We really don’t care. There have been a number of issues, I don’t know if you want to call them issues, but selling out games or games getting blacked out, our guys aren’t worried about it and nobody takes it to heart. We’re just out to win football games. It’s about what you put on film and going out every Sunday and being your very best self. That’s what we try to do. We try to go out, prepare hard during the week, and play good football on Sunday.”
On whether or not Tampa Bay is a playoff team:
“Yeah. It’s been our goal from the beginning of the season. Raheem said it’s a race to ten games. Obviously we lost a couple that we feel like we could’ve gone out and played better and potentially won, but at the same time, we’re still on track and feel like every one of our games left on our schedule is a winnable game. I definitely feel like we have an opportunity.”