Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Winners and Losers at the Season's Quarter Mark

The 2011 Buccaneers are one of the youngest teams in the league but they are also one of the hungriest.

Raheem Morris calls them "youngry."  

The Buccaneers' youngriness has led them to three come-from-behind victories, a tie for first place in the very competitive NFC South, and a lot of hope for the franchise's future.

Here are the Buccaneers' winners and losers through the season's first four games. 

Winner: Josh Freeman

Josh Freeman continues to prove why he is not only the best quarterback of the 2009 draft class, but also why he is one of the better quarterbacks in the league.

Freeman is simply one of the most clutch quarterbacks in all of the NFL.

His fourth quarter stats include a 95.5 quarterback rating, a completion percentage of 71 percent and an average of 78 yards passing.

Freeman also has a 78 percent completion percentage and a 110.4 quarterback rating on third downs. When the Buccaneers are losing, Freeman has a quarterback rating of 94.

On second thought, "clutch" may be a drastic understatement.

Winner: LeGarrette Blount

Last season I questioned if LeGarrette Blount was durable and mature enough to be an every-down back. This season he has proven that he is.

When Blount has gotten over five carries in a game, he has averaged four-and-a-half yards per carry.

Blount is also averaging 93 yards per game over the past three weeks.

He's effective because his power-running style wears down defenses.

In the third and fourth quarters, Blount has averaged about five-and-a-half yards per carry. He has also averaged six yards per carry when the game is within seven points.

Blount has not only become a solid pro running back, but he has essentially become a game-changing player this season. 

Winner: Preston Parker

Coming into the season, we all knew that Josh Freeman was going to take a step forward, but we also knew that he needed more help in both the running and receiving games to make this a huge step forward.

One of the receivers who has helped Freeman take this giant step forward is Preston Parker.

Parker is averaging 14 yards per catch this season. He leads the team in yards after the catch, is second on the team in receptions and has also been a solid special teams player.

Parker is also a player who gets better as the game goes along, as he averages 25 yards per catch in the third quarter.

Parker also averages 14.5 yards per catch on third down and less-than-seven yards, 12.4 yards per catch on third down and eight-to-ten yards, and 25 yards per catch on third down and more than 11 yards.

Parker is averaging 71 yards receiving over the past three games.

On special teams, Parker is averaging over 10 yards on punt returns and over 23 yards on kick returns. 

Winner: Team Defense

The Buccaneers' defense has also played a huge role in Tampa Bay's three wins.

The Buccaneers are only giving up three-and-a-half points per game in the fourth quarter in these wins. Also, they've only given up 60 rushing yards per game and have forced about one-and-a-half turnovers per game so far.

The Buccaneers' young defense has been great so far this season and will just get better as the season goes on.

Winner: Raheem Morris

Over the past two seasons, Raheem Morris has a 13-7 record, giving him a 65 percent win rate.

In the three seasons before Raheem Morris was hired, the Buccaneers only won about 46 percent of their games.

Morris also drafted most of the Buccaneers' skill players and has won most of these games with one of the youngest cores in the entire NFL.  Morris is one of the youngest coaches in the NFL, and he and the Buccaneers will only get better with time. 

Losers: The Minnesota Vikings, the Atlanta Falcons and the Indianapolis Colts

When a team is winning as much as the Buccaneers are, it is tough to say that they have any losers on their team.

The Buccaneers have proven with every comeback victory that they are a team of young winners. They will continue to get better, and should be able to make a playoff run this season.