The Tampa Bay Buccaneers had the best one-two offensive punch in the NFL in Week 16.
That's the opinion, at least, of football fans who voted on NFL.com to select Josh Freeman as the league's "Air" Player of the Week and LeGarrette Blount the "Ground" Player of the Week.
Freeman was chosen over fellow nominees Aaron Rodgers of the Green Bay Packers and Carson Palmer of the Cincinnati Bengals. Blount's competition was Matt Forte of the Chicago Bears and Adrian Peterson of the Minnesota Vikings. Both are Air and Ground winners for the first time this season, though Josh Freeman was named the NFC Offensive Player of the Week in Week Two.
Freeman and Blount combined to lead Tampa Bay to a 38-15 win over the Seattle Seahawks last Sunday at Raymond James Stadium. Freeman threw a career high five touchdown passes and Blount ran for a career-high 164 yards, becoming just the fourth pair of teammates since 1970 to reach those milestones in the same game.
Freeman also completed 21 of 26 passes for 237 yards and no interceptions. He became the youngest quarterback in the NFL to have five TD passes and no picks in a single game since Dan Marino in 1984. Those five scoring passes also tied Tampa Bay's single-game record, matching the total thrown by Brad Johnson against Minnesota on Nov. 3, 2002 and by Steve DeBerg against Atlanta on Sept. 13, 1987.
Blount had runs of 20, 48 and 53 yards as he posted the fourth 100-yard game of his outstanding rookie campaign. He posted his 164 yards on just 18 carries, compiling a 9.1-yard average that ranked fourth in team history (among players with at least 10 carries). It was the most rushing yards by a Buccaneer back since Warrick Dunn ran for 210 yards on 22 carries against Dallas on December 3, 2000 and the seventh-most rushing yards in a single game in team history. It also marked the first outing of more than 150 rushing yards by a Buccaneer since Cadillac Williams had 150 against Atlanta on Dec. 24, 2005.
Freeman and Blount are the first pair of teammates to sweep the Air and Ground awards in the same week in 2010.