Follow@cimini

Throwing in a new quarterback by going with someone that has no career experience would cause many to be worried. Ten years ago defenses would feed off of inexperienced quarterbacks. Not this day in age. Quarterbacks have seen the plethora of defensive schemes and are advanced in recognizing reads and where to go with the football.

Tampa Bay is going to test out their young quarterback Mike Glennon in favor of Josh Freeman. Freeman once stormed the league with a great season in 2010, but has fallen out of favor after repeated poor performances. Whatever Freeman’s off the field issues have been he is in need of a new situation. I believe Greg Schiano made the right move in not waiting any longer on seeing what Glennon can do.

The Buccaneers could easily be 2-1 even with last week’s loss at home to the Patriots. They let the Jets hang around enough to lose on a last second field goal. Against the Saints their defense was stout. It setup the offense with a short field on their only offensive touchdown of the game, and scored the other. Frankly, Freeman’s performance in that game should have had him on the bench.

You don’t want to lose your team this early in the season, and the Buccaneers at 0-3 are right on the cusp. They’ve signed some key veteran free agents that may value their contract dollars over their performance if things keep getting worse. Moving to Glennon bolsters the team to strive extra and see what happens. The NFC is already showing cracks in the NFC North and East divisions and the Falcons are only a game ahead of the Buccaneers.

Glennon is a big quarterback that is going to need time to unleash to his wide receivers Mike Williams and Vincent Jackson. This week against the Cardinals I’d expect the Bucs to give Doug Martin his biggest load of the year. If he can establish the run I do not see Glennon having an issue completing pass plays down the field to his big play receivers. Arizona has been suspect at allotting receiving yards, especially to tight ends.

Last week the Saints abandoned the rushing game early as they could not run the ball against the Cardinals. Still, even with the Cards defense knowing that Brees was throwing the football each down they could not prevent the Saints passing attack. Brees receivers didn’t even have a big day, it was all Jimmy Graham.

Obviously, Brees and Glennon are on opposite sides of the spectrum in terms of quarterbacking. But having a home edge and a basic offensive game plan should keep the Buccaneers in this game. They’ll need to rely on their pressuring defense to create turnovers. Turnovers have been Carson Palmer’s enemy on the road. The last two years he has thrown an interception on the road every game but one.

You can easily say he had a better running game in those environments in Oakland and Cincinnati as well.

Coming into this season Glennon knew he would likely get a chance to start. The media has been on Josh Freeman and the squabbles amongst the Buccaneers staff on his capabilities. He should be ready for this moment, and this is a good spot for him to get a start before the bye week.

This team is going to come out hard to grab a win to go into the bye week. All Glennon has to do is protect the football, as Palmer will be good for at least one if not more interceptions. If the Buccaneers can get an early lead, they should be able to protect it.

Don’t be surprised to see Glennon be the latest young quarterback to win his first game as a starter.