Josh Freeman doesn't claim to be the answer to turning the Tampa Bay Buccaneers around.

The 21-year-old rookie quarterback just wants to do his part to give the struggling team a promising future.

Beating the Green Bay Packers 38-28 in his first start Sunday was a step in the right direction.

The Bucs (1-7) were the NFL's last team without a win and had dropped a league-worst 11 in a row dating to a December slide that cost them a playoff berth last season.

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"There's tons of room to improve," Freeman said after completing 14 of 31 passes for 205 yards and three touchdowns, including a pair of fourth-quarter TD throws to erase an 11-point deficit.

"It was great to get the win - don't get me wrong. But there's a lot of aspects of my game that I feel like I need to clean up to be more consistent."

The third quarterback selected in the draft behind Matthew Stafford and Mark Sanchez, Freeman became the youngest to open a game at that position for the Bucs, who have had 10 different players start there since winning the Super Bowl seven seasons ago.

The Bucs took him 17th overall, hoping they would not have to play him this year. After an 0-7 start under Byron Leftwich and Josh Johnson, rookie coach Raheem Morris turned to the former Kansas State standout.

"That's a great start to how we want to be, how we want to work, how we want to play," said the 33-year-old Morris, who has known Freeman since the young quarterback was a freshman in college and Morris was the defensive coordinator at K-State.

"However you do it, it's impressive. His age really doesn't matter at this point. ... He's got to lead us to where we've got to go."

Wearing orange throwback jerseys that are an ugly reminder of their past, the Bucs ended the franchise's longest skid since 1976-77, when they dropped an NFL-record 26 in a row wearing the colors they donned against the Packers.

The loss was the second straight for Green Bay (4-4), which fell to Brett Favre and the Minnesota Vikings the week before.

Three of the Packers' four victories have come against teams that have one win apiece - St. Louis, Detroit and Cleveland. Losing to a Bucs team that has five losses by double-digits did not sit well.

"We did not take them lightly at all because of their record. I was very concerned coming into this game," Green Bay coach Mike McCarthy said.

"I've been asked, `Did we rebound from Minnesota?'" McCarthy added. "We've got to rebound from Tampa Bay."

Aaron Rodgers threw for 266 yards and two touchdowns for Green Bay (4-4). The league's top-rated passer also threw three interceptions - one more than he had in Green Bay's first seven games - and was sacked six times.

Tanard Jackson returned the final pick for a TD that put the game out of reach in the final minute.

"I hope we have the resolve and leadership to get through something like this," said Rodgers, whose 12-yard touchdown run put the Packers up 28-17 early in the fourth quarter. "It's disappointing, but it's one loss. ... We still have eight games left, a lot can happen."

Freeman threw TD passes of 6 yards to Derrick Ward and 7 yards each to Kellen Winslow and rookie Sammie Stroughter, a seventh-round pick who caught the go-ahead touchdown in the right rear corner of the end zone.

Special teams played a big role for the Bucs, too, with Ronde Barber scoring on a blocked punt in the second quarter and Clifton Smith running a kickoff back 83 yards to spark the rally after Rodgers' TD run appeared to put the Packers in control.

"It doesn't feel good," McCarthy said. "It never feels good when you lose."