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Bucs' discovery mission begins against Saints

Staff file photos

The Bucs are hopeful that Raheem Morris and Josh Freeman will grow together like their counterparts on the Saints, this week's opponent.

By MARTIN FENNELLY | The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 19, 2009

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TAMPA - This Bucs season went into a wood chipper awhile back, so now it's just a matter of how they stack up the rest of the season. If there's any promise out there, we just hit the magic stretch.

It's NFC South time.

On Sunday, the Saints go marching in to Raymond James Stadium, marching to a perfect beat. The league ought to make Drew Brees throw left-handed.

Just beyond that for the Bucs is a trip to Atlanta, fighting for a postseason life, then on to Carolina, aiming to climb back in after starting 0-3. The Bucs started 0-3 and, well, you know ...

On with the Raheem Team's mission of discovery.

Five of its last seven games are in the division, against teams the Bucs will eventually need to beat to amount to anything.

"That's how you get to the playoffs," General Manager Mark Dominik said. "You win your division. In part, that's how you get to the playoffs."

The NFC South is the nuttiest division going. Since it was formed in 2002, all four of its members have finished in every position, first through fourth. No team has won back-to-back titles.

The Bucs went 4-2 against the South their Super Bowl season. They went 5-1 against the South during playoff seasons in 2005 and 2007. It's as good a measure of success as any other.

We'll start to see how far south this young team is. But it's a perfect working lab, particularly for rookie quarterback Josh Freeman.

"I'm excited about the opportunity to have five division games," Freeman said. "I'll just get that much more experience versus the teams we play most often, leading to the end of this year and then I'll have something to look out for next year."

"It's awesome," Bucs coach Raheem Morris said. "It's really perfectly planned for No. 5, a chance for him to get five opportunities against division foes he's going to face the next 10 or 15 years, or whatever it is. Hopefully he can be Brett (Favre) and do it a little bit longer."

It begins with New Orleans, the first 9-0 team the Bucs have ever played. Freeman meets Brees is an interesting matchup, as Bucs offensive coordinator Greg Olson was Brees' quarterback coach at Purdue.

"I hear a lot about Drew Brees," Freeman said. "Coach Olson is trying to give me tips on how Drew works in practice, how he works throughout the week, just his commanding presence on the field."

At Purdue, Olson would take Brees to Indianapolis to chat with Colts quarterback Peyton Manning.

"I've spoken to (Brees) about the offseason, about him spending some time with this kid we have here," Olson said.

On a conference call, Brees had some fun with that ...

"Figure I could give him some advice that could come back and haunt me," he said.

But seriously ...

"No, I'm all for talking to young quarterbacks and I guess helping them along. I was that guy at one point. I'm still that guy in a lot of ways, looking for all kinds of ways to get better. So, yeah, I'm very receptive to that sort of thing."

School might be in session Sunday.

"With the Saints, you're playing the top team in the NFL," Bucs linebacker Barrett Ruud said. "That's what you want to do, play against the best.

"I was talking to Byron Leftwich today, and he told me one year they went 12-4 in Jacksonville, but lost twice to Houston, which was 3-13. It's all about the matchups ... We're not a great team right now, we're 1-8, but we're still improving. Maybe we match up great with the Saints. We haven't played them yet, but it'd be a great thing for a 1-8 team to knock off a 9-0 team."

Is that a wood chipper we heard?

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