“‘The Enforcer’ is back.”

Boy, it was an early holiday present to see ornery (on the field) Luke Goedeke back on the field at right tackle for the Bucs.

Goedeke hurt his foot in the Week 1 game at Atlanta. He tried to play through it in Week 2 at Houston but didn’t make it to halftime.

He was on the injured reserve list until over a week ago and he made it back to the starting lineup last week against New England.

Now one of Goedeke’s offensive line coaches, assistant offensive line coach Brian Picucci, was on Buccaneers Radio Network prior to the New England game and admitted he wasn’t sure if Goedeke’s foot was healed enough to stop bullrushes from the Patriots.

Joe spoke one-on-one with Goedeke last week and asked him about Picucci’s worries. Goedeke said it was a legitimate concern. Because the Patriots, early in the game, bullrushed him constantly.

Tests passed, Goedeke believes.

“I think I did solid,” Goedeke said. “I mean, I definitely have things to improve on. I mean, I practiced [just] two days last week in the last six weeks.”

Goedeke told Joe that he wasn’t sure how he would respond with so little practice in the past two weeks. Just one of those two practices was a padded practice.

“It was kind of just take the rust off,” Goedeke said. “I was kind of trying to build up that confidence of a bullrush in practice.

“And then I saw a lot of bull rushes in the game. So that confidence continued to grow. I thought I handled it decent.”

Yes, Goedeke added he can improve. He said his blocks weren’t exactly the “cleanest.” And he also said he spent much of the second half just trying to improve on his fundamentals.

But if you ask Joe, he thinks Goedeke may have been the best Bucs’ offensive lineman last Sunday.

The game also marked the first time all season the Patriots allowed over 50 yards rushing to an opposing running back, Sean Tucker.

Goedeke, starting for the first time since Week 2, was part of that, Joe believes. Joe is not a believer in coincidences in the NFL.

“‘The Enforcer’ is back,” Bucs left tackle Tristan Wirfs said. “It’s just nice having him out there and just hearing him. Knowing my guy is back out there, balling, throwing us bones.

“I think for everybody, knowing No. 67 is back out there, it’s pretty sweet.”

And that’s why Joe has hope — even though that is an evil word — that the Bucs can get a ground game going today. They’ll need it.