Late this afternoon, Joe was able to reach LeGarrette Blount’s lawyer, Ryan Morgan, who blasted the accusers of a Sept. 11 incident, calling it a “total shakedown” and a blatant money grab.

Per a St. Petersburg Times report, Blount is accused of being a “leader” in a physical assault after the Bucs lost to the Lions in the season opener.

Blount was with his seven-year old autistic nephew at the time of the incident, per police reports. While Blount may have been a witness, he was not involved in the physical altercation.

It was not until the alleged victim of the incident realized Blount was in the group did they try to squeeze the Bucs running back for money, Morgan said.

“We get a message from [counsel representing the victim] saying they want $95,000,” Morgan said. “He said at the time if he didn’t get the money he would go public. He had a relationship with a reporter to write a one-sided article.

“It’s baloney, you know. This guy drives around crashing into cars and he admits LeGarette didn’t do anything [physical]. LeGarrette was with his seven-year old nephew who is autistic.

“This is total baloney, it’s just not true. Look, there was a crash and an altercation, I can’t condone that. But even [the victim] admits LeGarrette didn’t do anything.”

Disturbing news is coming out about an incident where Bucs running back LeGarrette Blount is alleged to have been involved after the Bucs’ loss to Detroit Sept. 11, per Mark Puente of the St. Petersburg Times.

According to the police report, a man and his girlfriend, both wearing Bucs shirts, drove their 2008 Toyota pickup into the Visconti at International Drive apartments not far from Raymond James Stadium. The pickup then hit the mirror on a silver 2005 Ford Expedition, next to which Blount and two other men were standing. The victim did not want to stop next to the Expedition because the pickup would block other traffic. The three men got into the Expedition and drove around the pickup, cutting it off.

The three men got out of the Expedition. One of them “reached in and punched (the pickup driver) several times on his eye, nose and jaw,” according to the report. The victim “realized a second male was on his hood and was jumping onto his windshield and ultimately shattering the glass.”

The victim said the third man “was the leader and directed the actions of the other two.”

Blount was not charged in the incident. Per the article, Blount was said to have not been cooperative with police. Blount also refused to comment to the Times.

If Blount is not charged, Joe doesn’t know if this is a big deal or not.

What will happen to the Bucs, specifically Bucs head coach/defensive coordinator Raheem Morris, at season’s end is anyone’s guess.

No one, not Bucs rock star general manager Mark Dominik, not Team Glazer, has come out (yet) and given the embattled Bucs coach a vote of confidence. So without sitting in a boardroom at One Buc Palace, no one knows if Morris is twisting in the wind or if his job is safe.

Morris has one year left on his contract, which could be a can of worms. Mike Florio, the creator, curator and overall guru of ProFootballTalk.com recently said that one of the paradoxes of having a coach with one year left means “free agents won’t want to come here” because of the uncertainty.

Of course, until 2013 when teams are required to spend a large percentage of the salary cap season on player payroll, that is probably irrelevant as the Bucs are building through the draft. Having but one year left on Morris’ contract also handcuffs the Bucs if they would want to bring in new assistants or replace departed ones; good assistants don’t want an uncertain future.

Joe rmembers last winter he was talking with Gil Brandt. For those unaware, Brandt may have been one of the greatest front office minds in NFL history. He was the architect of the Cowboys from their franchise birth through the first months of the Jerry Jones/Jimmy Johnson era.

Anyone who listens to Brandt on SiriusXM NFL Radio knows Brandt is a treasure trove of information and was obsessed with scouting talent, going to all corners of the country to find players, and he possesses a photographic memory that is unequaled in sports radio.

When Joe asked Brandt if Morris would have his contract re-upped by the Bucs, Brandt looked Joe straight in the eye and without blinking responded, “How many tickets are they selling in Tampa?”

The response took Joe aback. Joe never thought of a coach’s job security in that manner, but it did remind Joe that, at the end of the day, the NFL is a business and it’s not exactly all about wins and losses, but dollars and cents (just ask Bill Bidwill).

Now let Joe be clear: Until this past Sunday, Joe thought Morris’ job was safe, that Team Glazer would bring him back if not extend his current contract. Since Sunday, Joe isn’t as certain.

Brandt’s response to Joe has haunted him ever since that freezing Dallas afternoon. It’s been lodged in the back of Joe’s head since and whenever someone asks Joe if he thought Morris would be brought back, Joe would respond, “Yes, but… ” and tell the curious questioner about Brandt’s statement.

Joe regaled a fellow media member Sunday with this story, and said media member scoffed that ticket sales are irrelevant, saying that revenue from TV networks so dwarfs gate revenue that it’s not worth even bringing up.

Oddly enough, Monday the Sports Business Journal reported that the NFL was on the cusp of finalizing new contracts with all of its media partners that would bring revenue for all teams to a staggering amount annually, with no end to the rivers of cash in sight.

The size and scope of these deals offer further proof of the stunning power of NFL programming, which makes up the highest-rated shows on TV. Looking at the total revenue from the next round of national media deals puts the immense nature of the deals into better context. Combined with ESPN’s annual average of $1.8 billion a year for “Monday Night Football,” DirecTV’s out-of-market “Sunday Ticket” deal, the league’s planned Thursday night game package that it is preparing to shop, Sirius Satellite Radio, Westwood One radio and Verizon’s mobile deal, the NFL could wind up generating close to $7 billion annually in national media revenue starting in 2014. That represents a whopping 64 percent increase over the $4.28 billion that the NFL received from national media before the most recent round of renewals.

In fact, the $7 billion figure is more than the league’s total combined revenue from just a few years ago.

The league’s huge rights fee increases are coming far quicker than even the most optimistic projections. In February, Moody’s Investor Services predicted that NFL media money would hit $8 billion annually over the next two renewal rounds. With these deals, the league will close in on the figure after just its first renewal round.

With a calculator, that brings revenue just from media partners alone per team to $218 million dollars a year. Without going into too much legal mumbo jumbo, the NFL salary cap for 2011 is roughly $120 million.

(These figures do not include Spanish-rights broadcasts which are being negotiated. All of the contracts are based on 16-game schedules.)

If the figures from the Sports Business Journal are accurate, Joe can easily see how gate revenue influencing Team Glazer’s decision whether or not to retain the services of Morris is trival at best and likely a non-factor. The number of season tickets sold probably will have zero influence over Morris’ job status.

While Brandt had a very, very, very valid point to Joe not quite a year ago, Brandt was using an NFL standard that is now obsolete.

Welcome to the new NFL.

Hand the rock to LeGarrette Blount 30 times a game. That’s what Raheem Morris says is the Bucs’ offensive identity.

Raheem has said that multiple times on The Raheem Morris Show on WDAE-AM 620, including last night.

Yesterday a caller into the show named Billy asked Raheem if he was ever going to keep the offense wide open after completing a first down in a four-wide-receiver set outside of a two-minute or four-minute offense. Billy said he thought the Bucs’ offense was too predictable and even fans can guess play-calls from the stands.

“It kind of goes to offensive identity,” Raheem said. “Right now, what your team is built for offensive identity-wise is to hand the ball to Blount 30 times.

“Once you go to a four-wide package you kind of take Blount’s ability to run behind a fullback and really be a power offense, ala some of the power offenses in the league, that got’em 10 wins last year. You know, it’s less about what the defense knows. They gotta go out there and be able to stop it. And right now they’re stopping it because they’re out-executing us at the point of attack, or we’re making mistakes on any particular play on offense.”

Raheem went on to say that the Bucs can’t go to four wideout sets early in games because the Bucs can’t change who they are effectively midseason – “to try to become something that you’re not,” Raheem said. “You have to have some sort of offensive identity before you mature.”

Raheem gave an example of Tom Brady’s evolution, growing into using multiple packages over years of development. Raheem acknowledged that the Bucs are nowhere near that level.

Joe always cringes when he hears Raheem say Blount should get 30 carries if a Bucs game is going according to plan. That reminds Joe of the mind-boggling opening day when Blount got only five carries, and other days when the Bucs seemed under-committed to the run.

Whatever the Bucs’ offensive identity is, Joe hopes it becomes noticeable and effective soon. And if any of Joe’s readers know what the Bucs’ identitity is in the red zone, feel free to share below.

Radio shock jock Bubba Clem, more famously known for being a cohort of “The King of All Media,” Howard Stern, now offers commentary for Joe’s proud television partner WTSP-TV Channel 10. Here, Clem points fingers at what is causing the last place Bucs season to circle the drain, but none of his targets include Bucs coach Raheem Morris.

Pharmacies across the Tampa Bay area are doing brisk business with sales of antacids the past few days given the nauseating play of the Bucs, in particular the defense.

It seems, per eye-RAH! Kaufman of the Tampa Tribune, that Bucs rock star general manager Mark Dominik may have also been afflicted with this malady.

Speaking on “Primetime” with Ronnie Lane and Tom Krasniqi, heard weekday afternoons on WHBO-AM 1040, Kaufman detailed a chance encounter with Dominik at halftime of the last place Bucs’ curb-stomping at the hands of the struggling Panthers Sunday.

Kaufman noted he was taking a break and leaving his press seat near the end of the first half when he saw Dominik exiting what Kaufman believed was the coaches’ box.

“He was ashen-faced, I mean he was grim,” Kaufman said. “I’ve never seen him have that look. I think he was shocked. They are not in these games, they are not close guys. They are giving up 30 points a game in this losing streak.”

Dominik wasn’t the only one in shock. So too was Joe. No one, no one expected the Bucs to be manhandled like this before the season. Sure, many predicted perhaps NFL reality would set back in and the Bucs would maybe go 7-9, but no one expected the team to spiral out of control the way it has.

As it currently stands, it appears the Bucs may only be able to beat the Jaguars on the road in their final four games, and even that is not a sure bet.

Former Bucs QB Shaun King continued his ongoing tirade yesterday against those who want to blame Raheem Morris for much of the Bucs’ troubles this season.

Speaking as co-host on The King David Show on WQYK-AM 1010, King reiterated his belief that Raheem is being asked to make lemonade for the second consecutive season without sugar (as passionate as King is on this topic, one would think Raheem is without a spoon or water, as well.)

King routinely has been demanding blame fall on rockstar general manager Mark Dominik. And as part of a take yesterday, King fired off a list of players he says will be gone next season, some because King thinks the organization won’t pay them.

Joe, of course, was taking notes. So here’s a summary of who King thinks the Bucs will ditch:

Gone from the 2012 Defense:

Geno Hayes, Sean Jones, Michael Bennett (Bucs won’t pay him, King says, and guys like him that can rush the passer are at a premium in the NFL.), Ronde
Barber, Albert Haynesworth (might stay if Gerald McCoy is hurt)

Gone from the 2012 Offense:

Josh Johnson, Jeff Faine, Kregg Lumpkin, Kellen Winslow, LeGarrette Blount

Yes, you read that correctly. King says Blount is a goner.

King claims Blount is “one offseason from getting fat” and the Bucs won’t pay him handomely “after throwing a punch in New Orleans” and because “he can’t get on the field on third down.”

Joe’s not sure where King’s take on Blount comes from, and Joe is not in King’s corner when it comes to assigning more blame to Dominik than Raheem for the Bucs’ woes. The Bucs have more talent on the field than last season, and the team is playing at nowhere near the same level, from execution on both sides of the ball to overall effort. That’s not on Dominik.

Are Bucs players feeling the warmth from Raheem Morris’ hot seat?

St. Pete Times beat writer Rick Stroud says they are in a big way.

“The first thing that several [players] mentioned was, ‘We got plenty to play for. We gotta play for our coaches’ jobs. There’s going to be changes in here if we don’t win,'” Stroud said, speaking on The Dan Sileo Show on WDAE-AM 620 on Monday.

Stroud went on to say the players he talked to Sunday like all aspects of the Raheem regime but may be concerned primarily about their own job security under a new head coach.

Joe really doesn’t care what motivates the Bucs. They’re not playing — or coaching — anywhere near their potential, except for a few bright spots.

But all parties involved still have ample time and opportunity to save the regime. Four games is an eternity in the NFL.

Earlier today Joe brought word of NBC Sports and Sports Illustrated scribe Peter King wondering about Raheem Morris’ job security and wagging a finger of shame at Raheem for a disparaging quote about the Panthers.

King now has apologized for screwing up the Panters quote.

Here’s King’s apology and correction from SI.com:

Raheem took to the podium today at One Buc Palace and first apologized to the media for the F-bomb he dropped before them yesterday.

Then Raheem went on to praise Mason Foster, Adrian Clayborn and Da’Quan Bowers and explain that he’ll “cut down the menu” for his defense so they can play faster and not have as much to process mentally Defensive calls will be “simpler,” Raheem said.

Joe’s game for anything that might work, but Joe’s not sure how simpler calls will help the Bucs shed blocks and win the one-on-one battles on the defensive line. The Bucs are hardly an exotic defense, and they’re already playing in a “one-gap” system .

Now Joe doesn’t think the Bucs’ fan club of a few hundred or so in England is anything to be heralded, nor is Joe a fan of their fearless leader, Paul Stewart, who once sent Joe an unprompted scathing e-mail filled with personal attacks against Joe.

However, Team Glazer and the Bucs organization have heaped gobs of love on Stewart. He’s been heralded multiple times on Buccaneers.com, even given a forum to write commentary there. Stewart has jumped in live on the Buccaners Radio Network and boasted of his special personal time with the Bucs’ heirarchy.

Therefore, Joe finds it interesting and relevant that Stewart has raised the white flag and called for Raheem Morris to be fired.

His firm “editorial” posted today on his website, BucPower.com. Here’s a snippet:

When teams like Carolina put 38 points up on you at home, when running backs lick their lips at the thought of the Buccaneers on the schedule, when every fantasy league owner in the world starts a player against the Tampa Bay defense, then someone has to be accountable.

The fan base is dwindling, the Tampa crowd is apathetic and the final game against the Cowboys is going to be a sea of blue in the stands. And the Glazers are not going to allow this to continue any longer.

So sorry Raheem, it’s been a great run and we’ve all enjoyed your personality and enthusiasm. But your time is up and the Buccaneer franchise needs to move on.

Joe, unlike Stewart, is not ready to call for Raheem’s head. Not that Joe thinks Raheem is doing a good job, but there’s still time for Raheem to pull off what now seems like a miracle turnaround and restoration of “yungry” over the final four games.

Whoa! What was that scatback-like guy doing in the Bucs’ backfield yesterday making a few plays and adding a new dimension to the offense?

No, it wasn’t a Darren Sproles mirage from many Bucs fans’ collective subconscious, it was rookie running back Mossis Madu making his NFL debut.

Madu finished with eight carries for 25 yards. Hardly great numbers, but it was at least one of a few small positives to take away from Sunday’s debacle against Carolina.

Madu was praised by Raheem Morris after the game and drew kudos from the critical eye of former Bucs tight end Dave Moore.

“I was surprised how nifty Madu was,” Moore said on the Buccaneers Radio Network. “He did a good job in protection as well,” Moore said.

Moore went on to say he wasn’t pleased with LeGarrette Blount’s “body language” and “intensity” running the football.

Joe agrees that it surely was Blount’s worst day of his career. Regardless, Joe would like to see what the Bucs running game could become with more Madu and less Kregg Lumpkin.

Called up to the Bucs roster off the practice squad at the 11th hour before yesterday’s debacle, quarterback Rudy Carpenter will stay on the roster the rest of the season as the Bucs’ third-string quarterback.

Rockstar general manager Mark Dominik delivered the news on WDAE-AM 620 on Sunday.

Dominik said he didn’t want Carpenter exposed to other teams, which is what would happen if he were cut and the Bucs tried to stick him back on the practice squad.

Carpenter’s one handoff in yesterday’s game was his first-ever regular season action.

Joe likes to call Tampa Tribune columnist Joe Henderson — a man he has the utmost respect for both professionally and personally — as the Tampa Bay sports voice of reason.

Henderson is hardly a rash individual and is rather thoughtful and analytical. He wrote a column about how the state of the last-place Bucs has created an intense apathy for the team, demonstrated at each home game by empty red seats.

In so many words, Henderson isn’t sure the Bucs can improve with head coach Raheem Morris as the team’s defensive coordinator and seems to sense there may be a change afoot.

Defense is supposed to be Morris’ specialty, but the head coach has to seriously think about firing his defensive coordinator – if he’s even in position to do that.

Look, let’s be clear about one thing: Changing the head coach isn’t always the best course, and I’m not saying it is this time. But I’ve watched enough football to get a feel for when a coaching change is in play, and I believe it is now.

The apathy angle is an interesting one. As Henderson pointed out, there were barely enough boos to be heard yesterday. It was almost as if fans knew what was coming, expected what was coming, and were resigned to what was coming. And they just wanted to share a moment of team history with Jimmie Giles being inducted into the team’s Ring of Honor. As if the game was just a background event, sort of like the socializing that goes on at high school football games amid neighbors.

To emphasize Henderson’s apathy angle, Joe was taken aback late last night while watching the Saints dismantle the Lions when he received a direct Twitter message from a long-time acquaintance who is one of the most hardcore of Tampa Bay sports fans Joe has ever met; a lifelong Bucs fan.

This person is also a former Bucs season ticket holder, but former is the key word. Not quite a decade ago, this guy admitted he was in ecstasy for days after the Bucs won the Super Bowl. But now, his fandom has whittled away to the following:

Didn’t watch a down … Sad, but I don’t even care about that lousy product #apathy

The media vultures are eyeing Raheem Morris not just locally, but nationally as well.

This morning the heralded Peter King, NFL guru of NBC Sports and Sports Illustrated, has seen fit to weigh in on the potential Tampa Bay demise of Raheem Morris in his must-read Monday Morning Quarterback column.

In one of the more scathing pieces Joe has ever read from veteran columnist Gary Shelton, the St. Petersburg Times fixture laid all his cards on the table, calling the Bucs current defense one of the worst in team history and boldly suggesting the defensive coordinator needs to answer for it.

For those a bit confused, Bucs head coach Raheem Morris is also the team’s defensive coordinator.

For a quarter of a century, it has not been this bad. Think about that for a minute. The Bucs are on pace to surrender more points per game (27.4) than any Bucs defense since Leeman Bennett left town.

Ray Perkins’ teams never gave up this many. Richard Williamson’s defense never gave up this much. Sam Wyche’s teams never gave up this much. At this pace, the Bucs will give up 438 points this season. Only twice (’85 and ’86) have they given up more. …

This performance should be below any level of acceptance and beyond any attempt at rational. Three years into a coach’s tenure, this should be intolerable. The Bucs cannot tackle, cannot cover and cannot remain disciplined. Yes, they are young. But five minutes ago, wasn’t that a good thing? Weren’t they young when they jumped to a 3-1 start?

As sort of a punctuation, Shelton also wrote, “Just wondering here, but shouldn’t it have been Brian Price who sent Raheem Morris home?”

As Joe has stated several times, it’s becoming more and more clear that Morris needs help. If he doesn’t want to give up the reigns of being defensive coordinator, then someone higher up at One Buc Palace should hire one for him.

This is not a total knock on Morris. The rigors and responsibilities of being a head coach are many and adding the duties of defensive coordinator to that mix may have Morris stretched too thin.

In not quite three seasons, Morris’ defenses have been ranked (as in yards allowed per game) 28th, 17th, and 31st.

Could it be that no offseason could affect this team this much? Or have the players simply tuned out?

Raheem Morris talks about the Brian Price incident in this NBCSports.com video. This includes the now famous F-bomb bleeped out in context.

Breaking sports news video. MLB, NFL, NBA, NHL highlights and more.

Yesterday was a first for Joe. He had never, ever been to an NFL game when the head coach literally told a starter to “go home” long before the end of the game.

But that is exactly what happened when the last place Bucs defensive tackle Brian Price was, for all intents and purposes, thrown out of the stadium along Dale Mabry Highway like a common fan who tried to jump on the field and accost Jamie Hanna.

And it appears Price’s agent Chuck Price is none too happy about it and ripped Morris for the act, per Stephen Holder of the St. Petersburg Times.

“(Brian) regrets the untimeliness and the foolish nature of the penalty, but if that pentalty [sic] was on first down, would the coach have thrown him out of the game?” Chuck Price said. “For a kid who’s probably never had an unsportsmanlike (penalty)? He’s a guy who has played through some enormous challenges.

“He spent six days in a (walking) boot last week. It’s that same fight and attitude that probably (prompted the Bucs) to say, ‘I’m sorry you just got out of a boot, but go ahead and play football for us.’ I know Brian personally had to be disappointed because I know how he loves playing for Raheem. He’s made statements like he wouldn’t want to play for anyone else.”

Holder also pointed out that Morris wasn’t sure exactly what Price did to spark a near-melee on the field. To be fair to Morris, WFLA-TV Channel 8 had a clip of the incident and it appeared — but was not clear — that Price tried to pull a Ndamukong Suh and step on a guy’s arm. Again, it appeared to look that way but Joe couldn’t tell for sure, it was inconclusive, even after multiple viewings.

Morris has walked out on a proverbial plank with this move. First, he admits he wasn’t sure what Price did. Isn’t that a tad overreacting then?

Second, of all the players to single out and tell to go home, it’s shocking for Joe that it would be Price. The guy is literally playing on one leg, with muscles bolted to his pelvis. Price could easily be dogging it because of his injury and he is not. That’s the kind of character that should be lauded, not disdained.

Further, aren’t there better examples of players to tell to go home? Without naming names, Joe knows of one offensive player who is a target of NFL officials and his penalties — not all deserved — have literally taken points off the scoreboard and cost the Bucs games. Why is he given a pass? The Bucs have a defensive player that had made far more headlines off the field than plays on the field. Why are his transgressions dismissed?

Joe has to be honest, he was confident Morris would be brought back for the final year of his contract, if not have his contract extended after this season. The Bucs were a tiebreaker from a playoff berth last year and it can be argued no offseason and a shortened training camp really messed with the Bucs.

But the way this team has imploded from within, Joe truly wonders just how secure Morris is. In short, Joe is less confident after Sunday’s transgressions.

Josh Johnson is not the reason the Bucs lost today.

That honor, if there is such a thing, would fall on the Bucs’ whimpering defense. They couldn’t get off the field on a majority of third downs, and they were gutted and gashed for 385 yards.

But Johnson was solid. He had some top-shelf deep throws and finished 16–for-27 with 229 yards and a touchdown and an interception. The pick was more the fault of an early snap that only Jeff Faine seemed to think was on-time. However, Johnson should have taken the sack.

Raheem Morris liked what he saw of Johnson and even compared him to the Panthers quarterback who thinks he’s Superman.

“[Johnson] had a Cam Newton–like day [without] the touchdowns,” Raheem said on the Buccaneers Radio Network after the game.

Raheem said Johnson needs “more support” from his teammates, and Raheem praised Johnson for delivering an “executed gameplan.”

Joe’s not going to go there now when it comes to the offensive “gameplan;” that’s another discussion.

But while Johnson’s surely no Cam Newton, he gave the Bucs about what they could have expected from him and showcased himself nicely for free agency after the season. Especially considering the Bucs never established a running game for him.

Another player who had a decent game amid the stench of the loss to the stinking Panthers was Elbert Mack.

In his first two years Mack had mixed results. Last year Bucs fans turned on Mack, giving him the E.J. Biggers treatment, wanting to jettison the product from Troy University.

But in recent games in limited playing time, Mack has played solid football. He credits “growing pains” with his development.

“I am just going hard every day, it’s an uphill battle every year,” Mack said. “I am getting older. When you play this game enough it slows down a lot and you start to understand formation recognition and know what teams are going to do with you and where they want to attack you.

“It’s just growing pains.”

Joe uses profanity.

So does Raheem Morris.

No big deal at all, except Raheem dropped one F-bomb while talking about Brian Price during his postgame news conference today, so reports the St. Pete Times. That’s when Raheem stands at a podium in the bowels of the stadium and takes questions for five minutes after addressing his players and a brief cool-down period.

Is cursing before a throng of media a big deal? Not really, in Joe’s mind. But when your team is seriously undisciplined, it’s not a smart act by the head coach and it begs to be questioned. If the coach can’t be under control, then will his players be?

Joe wonders whether Roger Goodell or Team Glazer will come down on Raheem for cursing.

The way the NFL loves to sell profanity on Hard Knocks it would be rather hypocritical for the league to slap Raheem with a fine. Therefore, Joe fully expects the NFL to act.

If there was any positive from this curb-stomping the stinking Panthers laid on the spinning-out-of-control Bucs, it was the play of defensive end Da’Quan Bowers.

The Bucs rookie was said to have been a steal in the second round, due to a bum knee that scared off the rest of the NFL, but not Bucs rock star general manager Mark Dominik.

In training camp and early in the season, Bowers didn’t appear to be anything special. But about midseason, Bowers began to show flashes in part-time play. In his second consecutive start Sunday, Bowers dominated and now will be hard to take off the field.

Following the game, Bowers was humble and only began to speak of his game when pressed by several members of the Bucs press corps.

In short, he couldn’t get over the fact the Bucs lost.

“I don’t really brag about personal stats, but I think I had a decent game,” Bowers said. “I’d rather have a win than a tackle for a loss.”

Bowers and the Bucs didn’t get a win of course, but Bowers racked up tackles in the backfield. He finished the game with seven tackles, a sack and a half, one he shared with fellow rookie defensive end Adrian Clayborn as they sandwiched Panthers quarterback Cam Newton.

Of the seven tackles Bowers racked up, five were tackles for a loss.

“It’s not important if you don’t win,” Bowers said. “Our job as players and coaches are to work hard and do everything we can to correct mishaps.

“It’s all about a building process. I am getting opportunities and I have to capitalize on them.”

Bowers said his vast improvement over the past couple of months is no secret.

“It’s just hard practices, hard work, film study and just having my teammates and coaches believe in me and giving me the opportunity.”

Bowers denied his rise has anything to do with his knee.

“It’s not much of a physical aspect, it’s more of a mental thing, watching film, understanding the game plan. I’ve always been comfortable. I just had to wait my turn and be patient.”

We’ve all heard Raheem Morris’ core beliefs; the Bucs goal is to play “hard, fast, smart and consistent” at all times.

But the Bucs haven’t been consistent when it comes to playing hard and fast, though they never play “smart.” That’s not Joe talking. That’s Raheem speaking on the Buccaneers Radio Network on WDAE-AM 620 after today’s blowout at the hands of the Panthers.

“We didn’t play smart today,” Raheem said. “We haven’t played smart all year.”

Sorry, but Joe can only pin a small fraction of unintelligent play Joe on the Bucs’ youth. The coaches’ messages just aren’t getting through.