Raheem Morris is ready to start the offseason and help the Tampa
Bay Buccaneers turn things around.

Whether he will get that chance remains to be seen.

Dropping their season finale 45-24 to the Atlanta Falcons on
Sunday, the Bucs closed the year with 10 straight losses _ the
franchise’s worst in-season stretch since the 1977 team lost its
first 12 games.

Morris, though, isn’t planning for Monday to be any different
from the day that followed last year’s encouraging 10-6 finish that
left Tampa Bay barely out of the playoffs.

“If I was in the business of worrying about my future, I
wouldn’t be coaching,” the third-year coach said. “I’m going to go
to work tomorrow. It’s not the time to talk about that type of
stuff. That’s for mental midgets. For us, we’ve got to go out and
play football and do what we have to do.”

Center Jeff Faine indicated that Morris’ postgame speech made no
mention of the meltdown that began with the Bucs trailing 42-0 in
the second quarter. Instead, the focus of his talk was to encourage
players to dedicate themselves in the offseason.

As the NFL’s second-youngest team, the Bucs (4-12) might have
not handled last year’s NFL lockout as well as an experienced club,
but Tampa Bay still managed a 4-2 start that included an emotional
16-13 win over Atlanta. That Week 3 victory ended a five-game
series losing streak that gave quarterback Josh Freeman his first
win over the Falcons.

But this time, Freeman threw a first-quarter interception to
Dominique Franks that set up Julio Jones’ 48-yard touchdown catch
on the next play to put the Bucs in a 21-0 hole.

Tampa Bay ran four plays on the ensuing possession before
defensive end John Abraham sacked Freeman and stripped the ball
away for a fumble recovery. Michael Turner’s 1-yard run six snaps
later made it 28-0.

Freeman’s next drive ended with linebacker Curtis Lofton picking
him off and running the ball back for 35-0 lead.

“It’s always tough when you fall behind and fall behind early,”
Freeman said. “Today was no different. You have to, as an offense,
find a way to keep the game close. Early turnovers don’t allow you
to do that. They capitalized on every single turnover and with
that, you aren’t always going to win football games.”

When Tampa Bay struggled badly in Morris’ first season of 2009,
the Bucs still had a reputation for playing hard despite their 1-12
start.

But they won 16 of their next 25 and seemed ready to challenge
New Orleans and Atlanta for supremacy in the NFC South.

Everything began to unravel, however, after they beat the Saints
26-20 on Oct. 16. They lost their next 10 _ the franchise’s worst
stretch since the 2008-09 teams combined to drop 11 straight.

Sunday marked the seventh loss this season by 16 or more
points.

“The team was prepared to play today,” Morris said. “We got
outplayed by a better football team. They went out there and played
hard, got out of the box quickly and we couldn’t tackle them.
That’s an issue, and when that snowballed and got away from us and
went back and refocused and played a little bit better in the
second half, it wasn’t good enough.”

Tampa Bay’s defense struggled fundamentally and trailed 42-7 at
halftime after allowing 186 yards rushing and 133 passing.

“It boils down to guys not doing their jobs, and it all goes
from there,” linebacker Geno Hayes said. “If everyone isn’t doing
what they’re supposed to do, it doesn’t work. We get paid to a job,
and it hasn’t been working.”

Cornerback Elbert Mack returned an interception of Atlanta
backup quarterback Chris Redman for 40-yard touchdown to make it
42-18 late in the third quarter, and the Bucs went on to score 24
unanswered points against a Falcons team made up mostly of
reserves.

But the effort wasn’t nearly enough.

“You’ve got to start fast in this league,” Mack said. “We didn’t
execute what the coaches have been preaching all week.”

Morris hopes he gets a chance to keep coaching these players
next season.

“There will be a 10 a.m. meeting, there’ll be another one at 11
and there will be a noon press conference and I’ll see you there,”
Morris said. “I’ll go to the Outback Bowl in the afternoon. I’ll
come back and do a radio show and be ready to deal, ready for this
offseason and get back and attack it.”

Morris was then asked if he expects to coach the 2012 Bucs.

“That’s like asking you if you expect to be a work tomorrow,” he
said. “Correct.”

Even now, even with all of the losses and all of the interceptions and all of the chaos, it is about the quarterback.

Even now, when no one knows who will be his coach or which teammates will survive or whether next season will be any better than this one, it is about the quarterback.

Even now, with all of the doubts and all of the questions and all of the disappointment, it is about Josh Freeman.

Rescue him, and the Bucs franchise still has a chance. Fail, and the chaos is going to continue. Now, as much as ever, the futures of the Bucs and of Freeman are intertwined. They will succeed together, or they will continue to let each other down.

Soon, we will see what the Bucs plan to do about it.

In the marriage between the Bucs franchise and Freeman, this has been one of those “or worse” seasons. By any measure, he has had an alarmingly dreadful season. His regression has been historic. His interceptions have more than tripled (from 6 to 19). His touchdown passes have fallen by 11 (from 25 to 14). He has lost 21 points off of his QB ratings.

It has been a wobble wrapped in an overthrow inside of a cry of, “Where in the heck was he throwing that one?” There have been the times his release has been slow, times his footwork has been off and times his accuracy comes and goes. He has been hurt by slow starts, forgettable finishes and the regrettable decision to play with guns.

It is staggering when a quarterback has a breakdown season after a breakout. Of the NFL quarterbacks who have thrown at least 14 passes a game, there are 25 who have higher ratings. No one has more interceptions. No one else who has thrown 500 or more passes this year has fewer touchdowns. (For that matter, no one within 90 attempts of Freeman’s 506 has fewer).

Consider this: According to NFL stats, 76 quarterbacks have thrown passes this year. No one else has five more interceptions than touchdown passes. If he had fallen any further, for crying out loud, Freeman would have landed on Rex Grossman.

Then there are the increased number of checkdown passes. Last year, Freeman’s average completion gained 11.9 yards. This year, it’s down to 10.5. If that doesn’t sound like much, consider this. If Freeman was still at 11.9, his yardage total would be 430 yards higher.

Despite it all, the Bucs still need Freeman. Because, really, who else is there to build around? Because starting over with another quarterback takes so long.

As the Bucs contemplate their future after today’s final attempt at football, Freeman should be the utmost concern. If the Bucs hire a new coach, they need to do it with the saving of Freeman in mind. If they ponder possible free agents — as good an idea as ever — they should do so with helping Freeman in mind. As they prepare for the NFL draft, they should do so with Freeman in mind.

After all, a team can’t replace everyone. As bad as he has been, Freeman has still outperformed most of the Bucs players. As bad as he has been, you can at least see the possibility of highlights in his future.

Once, the Bucs had another quarterback stand in the middle of the chaos. Back in 1995, Trent Dilfer struggled along with his franchise through a tumultuous season like this one. In 1998, he was blamed heavily as his team regressed from a playoff season.

“I’m a Josh apologist, and I have no problem with it,” Dilfer, an ESPN analyst, said. “He has the potential, the mind and the will. It’s easy to say, ‘The team stinks, so he stinks.’ Some analysts go whatever way the wind blows. I’m probably overly sympathetic because I’ve been where he is. My toughest year was 1998. We just played (very poorly), and I got blamed for it.

“He’s regressed a little bit. He’s made a ton of mistakes. But I’ll put my stamp on him right now. This is one of the jewels of the league.”

If he had to bet his house, Dilfer said, he would wager that Freeman will be a success. Not only that, but he says Greg Olson is one of his favorite offensive coordinators in the league.

So what has gone wrong? Dilfer says the wide receivers on the perimeter haven’t been as good as everyone expected them to be. He also says the Bucs could use more multiple tight end formations because it gives the quarterback his easiest reads of defense. As much as anything, Dilfer said, the Bucs need to be better defensively.

“You can’t be a good quarterback when you’re two scores behind,” Dilfer said. “And you can’t play when you’re overly conservative. You can’t play from the position of fear.”

For whatever reason, Freeman has struggled. For the year, Freeman’s quarterback rating is 74.9. Remember Vinny Testaverde’s final year with the Bucs? His rating was 74.2. Remember the disappointment in Jack “The Throwin’ Samoan” Thompson? He was at 73.3 in his full year as a starter.

In Dilfer’s final year, he was at 75.8. In Shaun King’s full season as a starter, he was at 75.8. The Bucs have replaced a lot of quarterbacks who played at the same level Freeman has this year.

You probably remember the closest fall to Freeman’s. It was Brad Johnson, another Buc quarterback. In 2002, the Super Bowl season, Johnson threw only six interceptions. In 2003, when the team fell to 7-9, he threw 21. Still, Johnson threw for more touchdowns and more yardage that year, so his overall rating didn’t plummet as sharply. In 2006, Steelers’ quarterback Ben Roethlisberger had a similar drop, his interceptions climbing from nine to 23 and his rating falling by 23 points. Still, his touchdown passes didn’t fall off in the same way.

Yes, there are factors. Freeman hasn’t had a lot of help. The offense lacks speed. It lacks playmakers. It lacks consistency. It lacks points (14 offensive touchdowns in the past 10 defeats).

This season, it has also lacked the promising quarterback it saw the year before. Remember him?

“Here’s what the tape says,” Dilfer said. “Josh hasn’t played with the same energy, the same kind of life to his game. You can see some quarterbacks’ body language and energy and tempo, and you feel like they’re always climbing the hill. That jumps out of the tapes.

“The biggest thing he’ll learn for this year is that he didn’t change the environment. He wasn’t a thermostat player. There are thermometer players who just react, and there are thermostat players who change the environment. It’s hard. You get beat down. You feel like it’s too steep a hill to climb. It sucks the life out of you. You’re watching quarterbacks who are successful, and you know that they don’t have half of your talent.”

If that’s true, then Freeman needs saving. The Bucs should not make a decision this offseason without considering the impact on Freeman. A new coach? How does it affect Freeman? A new quarterback coach? Can he make Freeman better? A new offense? Does it fit Freeman? A speed wide receiver? Shouldn’t that help Freeman? A complete back? An offensive lineman? A better defense? All roads lead back to the quarterback.

Freeman is 24, after all. He has time to smooth out the edges. On the other hand, he is three seasons into his career. It is not too soon to expect more. It is not too much to expect it soon.

Put it this way: One of the last two seasons was a fluke, and the other was the truth. Freeman is either the leader we saw in 2010 or he is the scattergun we saw in 2011. From here on, the goal is to turn things around. The goal is to avoid this kind of misery.

That’s true of the franchise, and that’s true of Freeman.

TAMPA — The losses have piled up, and the streak continues. Yet the Buccaneers coaching staff believes there is reason to smile when the subject of the future is broached.

Particularly, it’s the future of quarterback Josh Freeman.

The numbers posted by Freeman this fall don’t suggest there’s much to be optimistic about. But those who know him best say they see as much upside as ever.

“Certainly, you’d love to have him go through his entire career having success from Day 1,” offensive coordinator Greg Olson said. “But it doesn’t work that way. And he’s been a guy that went through some years at Kansas State that weren’t so good.

“But when he came in here — and you can talk to the guys in the locker room — he has that ‘it’ factor. And he has that confidence, and he knows what he’s going to need to work on.”

The Bucs have suffered because players’ confidence has been affected by the nine-game losing streak. How they recover next season remains to be seen. But Freeman, coaches say, is one they can rely on to bounce back.

“He’s a tremendous talent,” Olson said. “The numbers indicate it’s not the season any of us expected of him. I would say he’s had one offseason with this particular system. He’ll learn from this season. He’ll get better.”

That’s something Tampa Bay is counting on heavily. Coach Raheem Morris remains in danger of being fired — meaning his offensive staff is in jeopardy, too — and it’s unclear what type of offensive system the Bucs would run if there was a change in coaches.

But whether the current staff remains or another coach is brought in, Freeman’s play will help determine the team’s fortunes. After his 25-touchdown, six-interception 2010, Freeman has struggled. He has completed a slightly higher percentage of his passes but thrown 14 touchdowns versus 19 interceptions (tied for the league high). His average per completion is down from 7.3 yards to 6.6.

In addition, Freeman, 23, has coped with thumb and shoulder injuries, missing a game for the first time in his three-year career, on Dec. 4 against Carolina.

“It has been a struggle,” he said this week.

But he’s already moving toward Olson’s goal: learning from what went wrong this season. To that end, Freeman recalled a point emphasized recently by running backs coach Steve Logan.

“He talks about when things aren’t going your way, there are one of two ways you can go,” Freeman said. “Some people … don’t want anything to do with it. And then other people might tend to press a little too hard.

“I think that’s a little bit where I was this year in terms of decision-making; trying to press, trying to make things happen, get things done. It was unfortunate, but at the end of the day, you have to step back and look at where you are (and) continue to try to get better.”

There already are examples of that happening. Take Freeman’s success Saturday against the Panthers in the no-huddle, high-tempo offense. He completed 13 of 14 passes in the first half, including 13 consecutive. That, Olson said, was a result of growth in Freeman’s game that allowed him to run the offense at that pace.

When Olson looks at the whole situation, at Freeman’s ups and downs, he feels as much conviction as ever about him.

“I don’t have any doubt that Josh Freeman will be the quarterback here in the future for a long time,” Olson said.

“(There) will be great learning for him in the offseason. I don’t see his confidence shaken.”

Stephen F. Holder can be reached at sholder@tampabay.com. Follow him on Twitter at @HolderStephen.

TAMPA — Quarterback Josh Freeman has only so much influence over the direction of games, but at least he has been given more control of the Bucs’ offense.

In Saturday’s 48-16 loss at Carolina, Freeman was finally allowed to push the pace of the offense, operating primarily from the shotgun and spreading the field with three and four receivers.

After LeGarrette Blount fumbled a handoff on the first offensive snap, the Bucs drove 80 yards in 15 plays on their next possession, ending in a 4-yard Freeman touchdown pass to Arrelious Benn.

On their only other possession of the half (not including a kneel down), the Bucs went 61 yards in 11 plays, and Connor Barth’s 42-yard field goal cut their deficit to 17-10.

Coach Raheem Morris said a big part of the game plan was to keep the ball in Freeman’s hands and give him a better chance to get into rhythm, a departure from the plodding, run-first ground attack behind Blount.

“Up the tempo. Increase it. Get the gas going, get into a rhythm,” Morris said. “Josh did a nice job of controlling it, looking at the coverage, looking at what we wanted, getting into the correct play, and those are the things that are frustrating for young Josh right now.

“He takes the blame.”

The third-year quarterback had one of his best games of the season, completing 28 of 38 passes for 274 yards, one touchdown and the interception for a 91.3 quarterback rating.

“The first half, excluding the first fumble, we only had two drives, scored on both,” Freeman said. “And the second half, we came out and turned the ball over.

“We were trying to go out, push the tempo, get the ball in our playmakers’ hands and make some things happen.”

With Blount benched for most of the game after his fumble, running backs Kregg Lumpkin and Mossis Madu were efficient rushing and receiving. Each caught four passes and combined for 44 yards rushing on 11 carries.

The Bucs turned the ball over four times, including a Freeman interception on the first series of the third quarter while they were trailing 20-10.

The Panthers scored 24 points off turnovers.

“I had the tipped pass,” Freeman said. “It could’ve been a little higher, but the guy made a great play on it.

“I thought it was going to be a big play when the ball left my hands. … Yeah, it just didn’t go my way.”

Perhaps not, but that up­tempo offense might be the best way to go for Freeman and the Bucs.

“I was liking what (Freeman) was doing,” Morris said. “I was liking what (offensive coordinator Greg Olson) was doing with the play calling.

“We had the alerts, we had everything we wanted to get going there, dictating what they were doing on defense, and we got something going. But we weren’t able to keep it on track.”

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The Tampa Bay Buccaneers made sure nearly everyone got an official NFL football for Christmas.

LeGarrette Blount gave one to Carolina linebacker James Anderson, fumbling a handoff on the Bucs’ first offensive play Saturday. Josh Freeman tossed one to defensive back Jonathan Nelson for an interception to start the third quarter. Kellen Winslow presented one to defensive tackle Andre Neblett. Sammie Stroughter donated another to linebacker Jason Williams.

The Bucs (4-11) turned the ball over four times, gift-wrapping half of the Panthers’ points in a 48-16 loss at Bank of America Stadium, their ninth defeat in a row.

In fact, so charitable was the Bucs offense that Carolina got into the spirit after it reached the end zone.

Cam Newton, who broke Peyton Manning’s NFL rookie passing yardage record while throwing three touchdowns and running for another, handed a football to a young fan in the first row after his 91-yard touchdown pass to Brandon LaFell. Later, after Newton’s 49-yard scoring run, LaFell took the football and gave it to another fan.

“When one person does one thing, everybody else does it,” Newton said. “Brandon got on me because I took his touchdown ball and gave it away. So I gave him my touchdown ball and he gave it away. It’s just the added dimension of just the fun we have on the field.”

Unfortunately for the Bucs, when the obituary is written on the 2011 season, the cause of death will be turnovers. In its first six games, Tampa Bay went 4-2 and committed eight turnovers. During this nine-game losing streak, the Bucs have given away footballs 28 times.

“That’s exactly it. That’s the story of the season — turnovers,” Bucs coach Raheem Morris said. “You cannot expect to win games turning the football over. The four turnovers (Saturday) led to points. Those things can’t happen. That was the difference between this year and last year.

“Last year, we didn’t turn the ball over. This year, we’re not able to maintain possession, we’re not able to keep people off the field, we’re not able to keep people on the field to wear them down. … That caused the lopsided margins. That’s making us look uncompetitive. That’s causing meltdowns. That’s causing poor (defense). That’s causing out-of-character offense. All these are happening because of turnovers. When those things happen, it’s a downhill spiral.”

Blount, who had fumbled four times (losing three) in his previous five games, was benched for the remainder of the first half after dropping the handoff from Freeman. Statistically, the fumble was credited to Freeman, but the quarterback and Morris put the blame squarely on Blount, who also said it was his fault.

“To not be able to execute the first play of the football game is unacceptable,” Morris said. “They’re obviously not ready to play. You’ve got to bring the other guys in. I’m not ready to quit on (Blount), but certainly (Saturday) wasn’t his day. You can’t let your team down that way.”

The Bucs defense also did its part. Newton and running backs Jonathan Stewart and DeAngelo Williams combined to rush 20 times for 219 yards. Even though they practiced stopping the Panthers’ spread option all week, the Bucs seemed helpless against it.

“It’s like college football,” cornerback Ronde Barber said. “You get ready for this week and you feel like you’re back at your alumni trying to get a big option guy down on the ground. (Newton’s) difficult.”

The first time Newton played the Bucs, he ran for three touchdowns and passed for another while breaking the NFL record for rushing touchdowns by a quarterback with 13. On Saturday, he passed for three touchdowns and ran for another in breaking Manning’s rookie record of 3,739 passing yards.

“We go out and do this all … week,” Bucs defensive tackle Roy Miller said. “It’s like Rah says, ‘How can we do this in practice all week and come in a game and not do it?’ You’re sad, because you’re looking at Rah because he’s taking all this. You fumble the ball, you give up a 91-yard (pass). You can’t coach that. We’re coached every day to stop that. He’s taking all the blame and that’s bad, man. That’s bad.”

If there was a silver lining, it’s that the Bucs finally decided to spread the field on offense with three receivers and allow Freeman to increase the tempo out of the shotgun. Freeman completed 28 of 38 passes for 274 yards and a touchdown for a passer rating of 91.3. He also rushed for a score.

“I really like the offense we were in today, utilizing me as a quarterback to get into a rhythm and spread the ball around,” Freeman said. “I feel like it gets everybody involved.”

It also seemed every Bucs player was involved in the gift exchange program on Christmas Eve.

Good thing there’s only one game left. They’re about to run out of footballs.

Game time moved

The Tampa Bay at Atlanta game on Jan. 1 has been moved to 4:15 p.m. due to NFL flex scheduling.