Buccaneers Refuse Redskins Gift Offer

Welcome to Oh and four, Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Welcome to a perfect start through the first quarter of the NFL season. It didn't have to be this way. Didn't have to because the Washington Redskins were more than willing to give you a helping hand this past Sunday. It couldn't have started better for these win less Buccaneers. They were up 10-0 early and held that margin at halftime and it looked like new starting quarterback Josh Johnson might hang in there long enough for his team to survive. Didn't happen. The 16 unanswered Washington points in the third quarter spelled the fourth Buccaneer loss. "A lot of positive stuff," said the positive stuff at the top of the coaching ladder for these Bucs, Raheem Morris. Raheem was ecstatic about Aqib Talib's three interceptions and the play of fellow corner Ronde Barber. He was overjoyed by the previously-lifeless body of defensive end Gaines Adams looking like it had a pulse. "He was looking like the guy we want him to be," Morris said on Monday. Still there was the hangover that is zero and four. "We're getting better and better," Morris said through the hanging gloom. "There's nothing to make excuses about." Talk about positive. Morris should have been captain of the Titanic, it might still be listing. Still, there is so much wrong with this Buccaneer team that from the outside, it is hard to see anything really, really good. This latest Josh Johnson experiment is just that. Johnson is not the future of the team, thus Morris and staff are delaying the future. At some point, they will need to see if their bonus baby -- Josh Freeman -- can perform in game conditions. They need to. Morris and general manager Mark Dominik have bet their future on this guy. Their other bets have been less than spectacular thus far. Receiver Michael Clayton is reverting to his old ways, dropping passes and mostly performing well as a blocker. Tight end Kellen Winslow Jr. simply isn't a big enough offensive factor to warrant his contract. It won't get easier for this team, at least not this week. They travel to Philadelphia on Sunday to play the Eagles, a team with much more firepower and much more defense than the Redskins. The Redskins are a team struggling, not as bad as the Bucs, but struggling nonetheless. Washington's coach, Jim Zorn, is directly in owner Daniel Snyder's firing cross hairs. It was a struggle for both teams on Sunday. The Redskins struggled just a little better.