When QB Josh Freeman scrambled and dslid a yard shy of a first down on the fourth play from scrimmage on Sunday, he probably walked away a little red-faced.

That's according to offensive coordinator Greg Olson who is still ribbing his young quarterback about his gaffe. And Freeman is hearing it from someone else, too: Former Bucs QB Jeff Garcia. He called Olson and left a message that he asked the coach to play for Freeman.

"That was not what you expect to see from him," Olson said. "I said, 'I don't know
where you learned that or practiced that.' Coming out of college, I'd
never seen that from him. In the preseason, he never slid, so that was kind of shock to everybody.

"I got a phone message from Jeff Garcia who broke his nose last year trying to get a first down. He said, 'Let him listen to what I have to say about that.' We talked in the quarterback (meeting) room about that. 'What do you want your reputation in the league to be? You want to be a tough guy. You're
6-5 and 260 pounds.' We looked back on the replay and the two defenders
who were coming up to tackle him weren't really aggressively coming at
him. I think they were kind of backing up as he was going toward them.
It was a good lesson for him."

Embarrassment will do that to you.

"He was embarrassed about it on Sunday, Olson said. "As part of playing
that position, you have to have a short-term memory and you have to go
out and play. But certainly, when it happened, he was hurt. He thought
he was beyond (the marker). But it's where you give yourself up. It's
not where (the defenders) touch you. So, we just cleaned up his thought process on
the rules. . . I think he wants to be a tough guy and he is a big guy. Those guys should fear him a little bit."