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CAITLIN CLARK GAME-WINNER ๐Ÿ”ฅ

Rams vs. Buccaneers: Turnovers Are Haunting Tampa Bay

Knox BardeenDec 23, 2012

Turnovers. Untimely turnovers. Limiting turnovers.

It was impossible to talk about anything other than turnovers Sunday after the Tampa Bay Buccaneers turned the ball over five times and lost to the St. Louis Rams 28-13.

The loss was Tampa Bayโ€™s fifth straight and the second game in a row that the Buccaneers have notched five turnovers.

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Itโ€™s starting to get ugly in Tampa, and only part of the problem is all the losing. Quarterback Josh Freeman has to get control of the football.

Freeman threw four interceptions in Tampa Bayโ€™s Week 15 loss to the New Orleans Saints. He did the same Sunday against the Rams. Freemanโ€™s eight picks in just seven days are more than Tom Brady, Ben Roethlisberger and Robert Griffin III have thrown all year.

And now thereโ€™s some chirping on the opposite side of the football. Veteran safety Ronde Barber didnโ€™t flat-out throw Freeman under the bus when he spoke to the Tampa Bay Times after the game, but Barber wasnโ€™t happy.

โ€œYou just have to keep playing,โ€ he said. โ€œOn our side of the ball, we just have to control the things that we can control.โ€

Then Barber offered this dose of reality: โ€œFrom a bigger perspective, if you lose the turnover battle, thereโ€™s a good chance you lose the game in this league. Thatโ€™s the No. 1 correlation (to winning). We say it every week and itโ€™s never going to change.โ€

Head coach Greg Schiano has run a tight ship all season long, and for the majority of the year all the players in the locker room have been on board.

But over the last two weeks thereโ€™s been some dissension in the ranks.

After last weekโ€™s game an anonymous player made a comment to Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk asking if they could send the coaches back to college. There was also a sideline altercation between linebacker Adam Hayward and defensive coach Bryan Cox that was caught on film.

Barberโ€™s pubic display of frustration is another straw that Tampa Bay canโ€™t afford to have break the camelโ€™s back. Barber is a seasoned veteran, a very respected leader on and off of the field. If heโ€™s angry enough to start chirping to the media, who will be next if the team doesnโ€™t turn things around in Week 17?

Unless otherwise noted, all quotes and statements were obtained first-hand.

Knox Bardeen is theย NFC South lead writerย for Bleacher Report and the author of โ€œ100 Things Falcons Fans Should Know & Do Before they Die.โ€ Be sure toย follow Knox on Twitter.

CAITLIN CLARK GAME-WINNER ๐Ÿ”ฅ

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