Tampa Bay Buccaneers vs. Carolina: This Time, Josh Freeman IS Hurting

This time, there's no cover-up.

Josh "Dirty Harry" Freeman is hurting. This time it's his right shoulder and in Wednesday's practice, he didn't throw the football.

This latest bumfuzzle in the saga of the Buccaneers' own Dirty Harry came when Freeman lost the snap from Jeff Faine on the final play of last week's fiasco in Nashville.

"That's the shame of it. Executing the most simple play in football—the quarterback-center exchange—and we got a quarterback hurt, potentially," explained Raheem Morris after Wednesday's practice at One Buccaneer Place.

Sadly, that final play Sunday did indeed look like it came straight out of playbook drawn up by the old Keystone Kops.

Morris wasn't messing around, he didn't ask Freeman to throw and hopes his sharp-shooter will come around with treatment on his shoulder. He has three full days—today, Friday and Saturday—to ease the pain.

Bet here is that Freeman will play on Sunday.

The question will be how effective he can be without practice. He's been pretty lousy WITH practice.The Bucs will need a good effort on Sunday. The Carolina Panthers are in town for this year's "throwback" game and the Panthers did something the Bucs didn't do—they won in November.

The Buccaneer losing streak is at five straight and six of the last seven.

There is conversation about Morris' job security, but don't look for any changes this season unless the Bucs lose every game in December. Raheem Morris will most likely be back in 2012, but that doesn't solve the problem.

Though there is talk of possible staff changes, this team finds itself in a major Catch-22 situation. If Morris comes back in the final year of his contract, how could he attract a decent addition to the staff with no job security? Fact is he cannot.

Sunday's game will go a long way as far as showing the progress of the defense or lack thereof.

The Carolina Panthers can run the football with rookie quarterback Cam Newton, who has rushed for 10 touchdowns and his running tandem of DeAngelo Williams and Jonathan Stewart.

And last week in Nashville, we found out once again that if you're struggling on the ground (see: Chris Johnson), the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are the cure for what ails you.

Thursday update:  Freeman threw no passes during Thursday's practice at One Buc Place.