"It will be Throwback Day for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday against the Green Bay Packers, in more ways than one.

For the first time, the Bucs will wear their original orange and white "creamsicle" uniforms and helmets. They date to 1976-'77, when under coach John McKay and general manager Ron Wolf, the Bucs lost a National Football League-record 26 straight games.

Now the franchise is mired in an 11-game skid, its longest since then. As the NFL's only winless team (0-7), the Bucs have turned back the clock to their futile beginning and could threaten Detroit's single-season mark of 0-16 a year ago.

"I think Green Bay will just have too much offense for them," an executive in personnel for another NFL team said. "Defensively, I think they've got the scheme to confuse a first-year quarterback."

That would be rookie Josh Freeman, who on Oct. 28 was announced as the team's starter for the balance of the season.

Freeman, the 17th pick in the draft, spent three years at Kansas State and went 14-18 as a starter. His passer rating in the exhibition season was 41.0. His only regular-season exposure was nine snaps in the final two series of the Bucs' 35-7 loss to New England in their last game 10 days ago.

"Well, he's got the physical tools to be good," another scout said. "But they've gone through three quarterbacks already this year. I don't know what they do if this guy falls flat on his face."

That would seem to be a possibility. After studying Freeman before the draft, one NFC personnel director said: "Raw talent, but he has no clue. He has no vision. Very inaccurate. Their offense was one of the most inept I've seen. Him trying to run it, it was hard to watch.""