Read More: Josh Freeman (QB – TAM), Jacquizz Rodgers (RB – ATL), Julio Jones (WR – ATL), Atlanta Falcons, Tampa Bay Buccaneers

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers headed to Georgia on Sunday for the final game of the regular season against the hometown Atlanta Falcons. The Bucs were hoping to snap a nine-game losing streak on New Year’s Day, but through one quarter of play it is looking exceedingly unlikely that will come to pass.

The Falcons have come out with guns blazing and unloaded on Tampa Bay right away. Jacquizz Rodgers scored on a one-yard touchdown run midway through the first quarter to cap off an 80-yard, 16-play drive and open the scoring. Five minutes later, Matt Ryan hooked up with Julio Jones on a 17-yard touchdown pass. One Josh Freeman interception later, Ryan launched a 48-yard touchdown pass to Jones to put the Falcons up 21-0 with the second Atlanta touchdown in 24 seconds.

That’s where the score would stand for the remainder of the first quarter.

For more on the Buccaneers, please visit Bucs Nation, SB Nation’s Buccaneers blog. For the perspective from the other side, please visit SB Nation Atlanta and The Falcoholic, SB Nation’s Falcons blog.

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.

CHARLOTTE – The good news for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers is that the season is almost over.

The bad news is they’ll have to see Cam Newton twice a year for a while.

For the second time this month, Newton handed the Buccaneers an embarrassing defeat, throwing for three touchdowns and rushing for another in the Carolina Panthers’ 48-16 victory Saturday. The staggering Bucs have lost nine straight games, perhaps putting coach Raheem Morris’ job in jeopardy.

“As a player, you try not to think of that,” defensive tackle Frank Okam said. “You want to play hard for him. We know how hard he works, and how he’s doing everything he can to help us win. Then, we go out and make him look bad. When we don’t execute, it’s on us.”

Buccaneers receiver Arrelious Benn, who scored one of Tampa Bay’s two touchdowns, echoed those sentiments.

“A team must go out and do what it’s meant to do,” Benn said. “A coach can do only so much. I know I want to play well for my coach. I can say everyone in here wants to play well for our coach. We have to learn from this adversity we’ve had, and know that we’re not going to do the things that got us here again.”

Morris blamed this loss — and the season — on turnovers.

The Bucs have coughed up the ball 36 times this year, while taking it away only 23.

“That’s the difference between this season and last season,” Morris said, recalling Tampa Bay’s 10-6 record a year ago.

The Bucs (4-11) turned the ball over four times Saturday, including a fumble by LaGarrette Blount on the game’s first possession. After that, a frustrated Morris benched the running back until the second half.

“It’s a basic thing, and to fumble like that, that’s unacceptable,” Morris said. “If some players aren’t ready to play, we’ll put others in.”

And hope they can do something to slow Newton.

In two games against the Bucs this season, Newton accounted for eight touchdowns — four passing and four rushing — as the Panthers totaled 79 points.

Newton, the No. 1 pick in the NFL draft, broke Peyton Manning’s rookie record for yards passing Saturday and set a franchise mark with a 91-yard touchdown toss to Brandon LaFell.

Newton threw for 171 yards and three touchdowns and scored on a remarkable 49-yard run up the middle in which he outraced smaller defensive backs to the end zone.

The Panthers (6-9) scored on eight of their first nine possessions and piled up 397 yards in three quarters against the league’s 30th-ranked defense. Carolina coach Ron Rivera pulled Newton and the other key starters early in the fourth.

DeAngelo Williams scored on runs of 8 and 22 yards, his sixth and seventh TDs of the season, and Jonathan Stewart ran for 88 yards and caught an 11-yard touchdown pass from Newton.

Newton entered the game needing 18 yards passing to break Manning’s rookie record of 3,739 and did so with a 7-yard pass to LaFell on the first possession.

“It’s tremendous, but if you ask the young man he’ll tell you the most important thing is we won the game,” Rivera said. “There’s a lot of good things ahead for us.”

Newton, however, was just getting started.

On Carolina’s third possession, he backpedaled into his own end zone and unleashed a strike to LaFell, who got a key downfield block from Steve Smith to spring him for a 91-yard score. That topped the franchise record of 89 yards set in the Panthers’ expansion season of 1995 by Kerry Collins and Willie Green.

LaFell finished with a career-high 103 yards receiving.

Carolina’s offensive line completely mauled a Bucs defense that was without starting defensive tackles Albert Haynesworth and Brian Price. The Panthers piled up a season-high 270 yards rushing and scored three times on the ground, giving them 25 for the season — most in the league.

Just as they did on Dec. 4, the Panthers jumped all over the Bucs early.

Newton led the Panthers on a picture-perfect, 80-yard, nine-play touchdown drive to open the game, with Williams scoring on an 8-yard touchdown run.

The Panthers led 20-10 at halftime but put the hammer down in the third quarter as Williams ran for a 22-yard touchdown and Newton threw an 11-yard scoring pass to Stewart on fourth-and-1 to put Carolina up 34-10.

Then came the play of the game as Newton faked a handoff to Stewart and took off through a huge hole on the right side of the line. Newton juked a defender before shifting into another gear and blowing through the Tampa Bay secondary for the longest touchdown run ever by a Panthers quarterback.

He added a touchdown toss to Jeremy Shockey to close out the scoring.

Josh Freeman threw for 274 yards and accounted for both Tampa Bay touchdowns — one passing and one rushing.

NOTES: Jordan Pugh was slated to start at strong safety for the injured Charles Godfrey, but developed concussion-like symptoms prior to the game and didn’t play. That forced the Panthers to start Jonathan Nelson, who was added to the roster from the practice squad. Nelson had the game’s only interception. … In two games against the Panthers, Blount was held to 30 yards rushing combined.

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.

Cam Newton is all but certain to break the NFL’s all-time rookie record for
passing yards Saturday against the woeful Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Bank of
America Stadium.

While he certainly understands the magnitude of that achievement, Newton -
as he has been all season – is more focused on beating his opponent.

With 3,722 passing yards, Newton is 17 away from breaking Peyton Manning’s
rookie record set in 1998. The No. 1 overall pick in the draft, however, has
other things on his mind.

“We got an excellent game plan to be successful against the Tampa Bay
Buccaneers,” he said. “We need this win, it would be an early Christmas gift on
Christmas Eve. I’m more worried about the win column rather than individualistic
stats.

“The big goal is to win the game.”

While much has been made about Newton’s eye-popping numbers, his impressive
early season stats didn’t lead to much success. Newton averaged 288.5 passing
yards and threw for 12 TDs through 10 games, but he also had 16 turnovers as
Carolina started 2-8. He’s since led the Panthers (5-9) to three wins in four
games, averaging 209.3 yards through the air while throwing for five TDs with
only two turnovers.

Newton didn’t commit one Sunday as he completed 13 of 23 passes for 149
yards and two scores in a 28-13 victory at Houston. He’s thrown 16 interceptions
during the team’s losses and zero in its wins.

“I think that’s the key to success for the Carolina Panthers offensively,”
he said. “I look at other quarterbacks across the league and when they do a good
job of protecting the football that’s just the key to the win.

“If you wanna be an elite player, you’re gonna have to do something
different. You have to be consistent. I don’t think I’m consistent enough, I can
be more consistent.”

He’s certainly been consistently good running the ball, averaging 50.2
rushing yards over the past eight games and 6.0 per carry. Newton’s 609 rushing
yards are one shy of Tim Tebow for the NFL lead among quarterbacks.

The Buccaneers (4-10), whose current eight-game skid is their longest in 24
years, know all too well about Newton’s tremendous ability.

His three most recent rushing TDs all came in a 38-19 rout of Tampa on Dec.
4, as he broke Steve Grogan’s single-season league record by a quarterback – set
in 1976. Newton’s 13 scores on the round are second in the league to
Philadelphia’s LeSean McCoy (17).

With the playoffs out of the picture, the Panthers are starting to turn
their attention to next season, and have plenty to be excited about given their
recent efforts.

“Some people may say that we aren’t playing for anything,” four-time Pro
Bowl wideout Steve Smith told the team’s official website. “But we are playing
for the next two Sundays and then the first Sunday in September.”

Smith needs five receptions to pass Muhsin Muhammad’s 696 for the most in
franchise history. His chances of doing so may have improved with the Buccaneers
placing cornerback Aqib Talib on injured reserve Monday with a hamstring injury
that kept him out for most of the past three games.

Tampa Bay opened 4-2 and looked headed for a successful campaign before
suddenly finding itself in a state of flux. The Buccaneers, who haven’t lost
nine in a row since Sept. 8-Nov. 3, 1985, have been outscored 256-134 during
their skid while turning the ball over an NFL-worst 24 times since Oct. 23.

“It’s hard to make those excuses right now. I won’t do that. Anything you
say about talent level, it makes an excuse for yourself,” coach Raheem Morris
said. “We’ve got to go out and do a better job coaching. We have to go out and
do a better job playing. We’ve got to go out there and do a better job getting
it done.”

The Buccaneers allowed 28 unanswered points in the first half of last
Saturday’s 31-15 loss to Dallas. Josh Freeman threw for a season-low 148 yards -
the third straight game he failed to crack 200 – and lost a key fumble.

“It’s the National Football League. You have to take some pride in what you
are doing, take some pride in being a Buccaneer,” he said. “If nothing else, do
it for your teammates, do it for your coaches.”

Tampa Bay, which ranks 30th in the league with an average of 141.1 rushing
yards allowed, is sure to have a hard time slowing down a Panthers team that’s
compiled 171.8 yards per game on the ground over its 3-1 run.