Last Updated on December 9, 2010 3:53 am by Anthony Rome
Bucs vs. Redskins Preview
LANDOVER, MD (AP) – With his team still in the playoff hunt, Tampa Bay Buccaneers coach Raheem Morris was all smiles when he addressed the media earlier this week. Washington Redskins coach Mike Shanahan may simply be happy about to be rid of a distraction.
Trying to avoid a third consecutive loss and keep pace in the NFC South, Tampa Bay looks to win its eighth straight versus a team below .500 on Sunday at FedEx Field, where the Redskins will play their first game since suspending All-Pro defensive tackle Albert Haynesworth for the rest of the season.
According to latest NFL odds, oddsmakers from online sports book Sportsbook.com have made the Bucs 1-point spread favorites for Sunday’s game against Redskins. Current NFL Public Betting Information shows that 81% of more than 6,181 bets for this game have been placed on the Bucs -1.
Coming off a 17-10 defeat at Baltimore the previous week, Tampa Bay (7-5) lost 28-24 at home to South-leading Atlanta last Sunday to fall three games behind the Falcons with four to play.
The Buccaneers gave up 14 unanswered fourth-quarter points after fullback Earnest Graham tossed a 2-yard score to John Gilmore with 10:24 left.
“We felt like we really outplayed them for most of the game, but it’s the NFL,” quarterback Josh Freeman, who has thrown for 189 yards or fewer in four of the last five games, said. “You have to find a way to win in the fourth quarter nearly every week, and today we weren’t able to do that.”
The remaining schedule sets up relatively nicely for the Buccaneers, who are 7-0 against teams with sub-.500 records. Tampa Bay hosts Detroit (2-10) and Seattle (6-6) before its regular-season finale at New Orleans (9-3) on Jan.2.
“The mood in the building is pretty good, ” Morris said Wednesday. “They guys got their bounce back. (We have) a test we haven’t faced this year – coming off two losses. …it’s a great opportunity for us. We’ll have to go on the road and do it again.”
While Tampa Bay seeks to clinch its first winning road record in five years, the Redskins are trying to avoid their first 0-4 stretch at home since Sept. 27-Nov. 14, 2004.
Washington (5-7) will try to do that without Haynesworth, whom the team suspended without pay for the rest of the season Tuesday for “conduct detrimental to the club.”
The two-time All-Pro, who signed a $100 million contract following the 2008 season, has been a major distraction since Shanahan took over in January. He skipped offseason workouts, boycotted a mandatory minicamp, struggled to pass a conditioning drill at training camp and constantly voiced his displeasure with the team’s defensive scheme.
“He didn’t like the 4-3 defense a year ago,” said Shanahan, who made Haynesworth one of his inactives for last Sunday’s 31-7 loss at the New York Giants. “He didn’t like the base defense. He didn’t like the nickel defense. He didn’t want to play nose tackle, didn’t want to play defensive end (in the 3-4 defense). We got him playing the nickel package, first and second and third down. He didn’t like first- and second-down nickel, wanted to play third-down nickel in passing situations. Hey, it was just time. It was just time to go in another direction.”
Redskins quarterback Donovan McNabb, no stranger to distractions as a former teammate of Terrell Owens in Philadelphia, is glad the team is finally moving past the distraction.
“The relief of the whole deal is the fact that it could be possibly be over, and we can focus on what we have to do, instead of answering questions all the time,” McNabb said.
While the distractions will likely subside – even though Haynesworth is appealing the suspension – the Redskins have plenty of game-day problems to sort through.
McNabb, a six-time Pro Bowler, is having one of his worst seasons, getting picked off a career-high 15 times with a 75.2 quarterback rating. The Redskins’ defense is allowing a league-worst 397.3 total yards per game and 5.0 yards per rushing attempt.
That could help revive a Buccaneers offense averaging 295.7 total yards over its last three games.
However, the ground game has remained solid by averaging 138.0 yards during that stretch with rookie LeGarrette Blount accounting for the majority of the production.
Washington defeated the visiting Buccaneers 16-13 on Oct. 4, 2009, to snap a three-game skid to Tampa Bay.
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