Tiquan Underwood’s theft of an interception for a reception was one play that jumped out for Joe this evening.

If Joe’s memory serves, it hasn’t been since the latter stages of the Chucky era when the Bucs put up two touchdowns in the opening quarter.

While Joe isn’t counting preseason games, the same trend held true tonight.

But what Joe had to do is to do a double-take at the scoreboard at SunLife Stadium in Miami Gardens. The Dolphins had a big, fat goose egg for a score in the first half.

Joe cannot remember the last time a Bucs team held its opponent scoreless in the first half.

Sure, Joe knows: It’s a preseason game. And the Dolphins looked positively miserable, sans Ryan Tannehill.

Imagine the difference a new coaching staff makes. Rather than figuring out what player to hang out with at a trendy south Tampa hotspot, or to choose which rap artist to entertain players with at practice, new Bucs coach Greg Schiano has the Bucs paying attention to the details, the football details.

Given the fact the Bucs were able to overcome a rash of offsides penalties and a stupid personal foul penalty by Preston Parker, the Bucs’ defense still pitched a shutout and the offense put together two, clock-eating long drives for touchdowns.

Yes, it is early, very early. But thus far, Joe is liking what he is seeing.

Even LeGarrette Blount seemed to like how good practices are resulting in a good game.

“Everything that we’ve practiced is coming to life,” Blount said. “We’ve been well-prepared for it and we’ve executed everything to almost perfection. We scored on our first two drives, and that’s what you always plan to do. We came out to put points on the board, and the offense is just clicking.”

Joe first came to learn of Lavonte David when he watched Cornhuskers games. (Yeah, Joe likes to watch Big Ten football, guilty as charged). It seemed every play when Nebraska was on defense, Joe either heard David’s name called or saw him near the ball.

So when the Bucs drafted the sideline-to-sideline linebacker in the second round this spring, Joe was geeked. Finally, a playmaker at linebacker.

Well, even though it was a preseason game and it was against the dreadful Dolphins, David seems to have lived up to the hype.

Dude was everywhere, making plays. His interception of a tipped pass showed how he is a ballhawk and he simply crushed a Dolphin return man on a punt. With the rain starting to come down and most players appearing to run gingerly, David flew down the field as if he was in an Olympic sprint of some sort, enabling him to make the crushing open field tackle.

Joe is just geeked. It seems this drought of getting little to no plays made by linebackers is coming to an end.

After a 10-game losing streak, a win feels good, even if it is meaningless and came against a hardly good Miami team.

Bucs 20, Dolphins 7

The offensive execution was sharp. Tackling, penalties, secondary and special teams play weren’t strong, but overall the first-team Bucs looked pretty damn good.

Joe is in Miami and will have so much more through the night and weekend.

Yes boys and girls, football is back and Joe resumes his open forum for games so Bucs fans can get into sword fights over their Pewter Pirates.

Now behave!

Oh, and linking to illegal, pirated feeds will get you banned. You are welcome to e-mail links to yourselves but posting them here will be your last post.

Have fun!

Bucs icon Derrick Brooks took in a Bucs practice this week and walked away impressed and he even chuckled at the extreme discipline he saw, so Brooks explained during an interview on The Dan Sileo Show yesterday on WQAM-AM in Miami.

As for tonight’s game, Brooks expects to see a tempo that Bucs fans weren’t used to last season. And like many other former players, Brooks admitted that the team quit on Raheem Morris.

“From what I’ve seen in practice up close and personal you know I expect to the team in the first game out to come out with a little different tempo than you saw last them in Tampa,” Brooks said. “I felt the team that ended the season last year was a team that basically quit on its head coach, for whatever the reason, it doesn’t matter at this point. 

“I do know Coach Schiano has come in and brought a more disciplined regimen. …You can see that in the practice, Brooks said of Schiano holding players accountable. “There’s no wasted movement in a Buccaneer practice in 2012, (laughs) whether it’s drinking water, going from drill to drill, being coached, team drills, very little wasted movement if any at all. How well they play to this new approach, only time will tell. But I think this type of discipline. this type of approach was really what was necessary for a talented football team.”

Joe would like to see that tempo tonight, as well. Surely there won’t be any no-huddle to make Dallas Clark feel at home, but Joe hopes/prays there some attitude and urgency in everything the Bucs do.

Joe’s proud to introduce Tilted Kilt to JoeBucsFan.com. Their great location at Drew Street and U.S. 19 in Clearwater is an awesome place to watch games and enjoy the scenery — indoors and outside. It’s definitely a favorite of Joe’s and open late. Click below to learn more.

Preseason Week 1
Bucs at Dolphins
Kickoff: 7:30 p.m.
TV: WTSP Channel 10. The game will air tape-delayed on NFL Network Sunday at 7:30 a.m. and Monday at 1 p.m. The game is also available at NFL.com and on Apple/Android tablets with a subscription to NFL Preseason Live.
Radio: Buccaneers Radio Network (in Tampa WFUS-FM, 103.5 and WDAE-AM, 620); SiriusXM Channel 113.
Weather: Per AccuWeather.com, it will be a wet one. Thunderstorms are expected at kickoff and near the end of the game but the second and third quarters should be dry. Temperature at kickoff is expected to be 80 degrees dropping only slightly to 78 at the end of the game.
Odds: Per Sportsbook.com, Bucs +3
Outlook: Finally, there is some football, albeit a preseason game.

As Joe talked about on “The Tim Brando Show” yesterday seen on CBS Sports Network, there are major question marks on the defense that fans can get some answers to tonight. The Bucs defense was no less than horrid last year and of the four new starters on defense, two are rookies and one (Ronde Barber) has never played safety before. That’s a big red flag for Joe.
(Trivia: Do you know that the top four safeties on the Bucs current depth chart have a grand total of zero NFL starts at their position?)
Gerald McCoy must stay healthy, Mason Foster, who showed flashes last year, must improve. Quincy Black… well, he’s Quincy Black.
Joe’s of the opinion the offense will be just fine. It’s the defense where answers are needed.

Few NFL front office types have had the success that Bill Polian enjoyed in the past four decades. Polian built the Buffalo Bills from a moribund franchise into a team that went to four consecutive Super Bowls. He later built the Carolina Panthers from scratch and later, did another rebuilding job with the Indianapolis Colts, turning that team into a Super Bowl winner.

These days, Polian is as skilled as an NFL analyst on SiriusXM NFL Radio as he was in an NFL team’s front office. This week, Joe had the pleasure to speak with Polian about the Bucs for a few short moments as he and Alex Marvez broadcast live from One Buc Palace.

JoeBucsFan: Greg Schiano coming from college, you are Mark Dominik, what are your concerns?

Bill Polian: Well, first of all I wouldn’t have had any concerns because he had previous NFL experience. What you are looking for as a general manager is a template. “This is what I want from my head coach.” You always would like a guy who has been a head coach before. There is no job description that prepares you for it. There is no job, in professional or college football where you have to make the decisions and have to do all the things a head coach has to do. So you would like a guy who has had experience before. When you are in the National Football League you want someone who has had experience in the National Football League because it is unique, the relationship with players, the way you have to coach them and the way you actually have to play the game from a strategic standpoint. The college game is a system. The professional game is a players game, a matchup game. So when you draw up the template, you say, well, I would like to have a guy who has head coaching experience. I’d like a guy who has built a program before and I’d like a guy who has experience in the National Football League. Greg Schiano has all of that, so he is the ideal candidate.

Joe: Schiano is doing a lot of basic drills, fundamental drills, drills where you might expect to see in a high school practice, not necessarily at an NFL training camp. What does that suggest to you? Does that mean the players were that ill-disciplined that they have to go back to Square-1 and rebuild a foundation?

Polian: No. What it suggests is he is doing everything right. Success at every level of football is built on fundamentals. Vince Lombardi, who is arguably the greatest coach of all time, was a guy who said success is built on fundamentals. If you are going to be a good football team you are going to have to be a good fundamental football team and that is what Greg is doing. It belongs in the National Football League.

Joe: Your perception of the Bucs? You had stated earlier where you thought the Bucs defensive line was their best unit. Coming from Joe, it seemed — without the trained eye that you have — it was the wide receivers that was the Bucs’ best unit. What is the defensive front doing that impresses you so?

Polian: I think they have a lot of talent there. They have guys who can get up the field and get after the passer. They have depth there. They have Amobi Okoye who was a first round draft pick there. When you have a guy like that who is fighting for a job on your football team, that is a pretty good sign. Defense is based on the front. If you can rush the passer I this league and get up the field and disrupt, you have a chance to be a very good football team and I think, having played against them last year and seeing them now upfront, they are a very good group. That’s not to say the receivers isn’t either. They are very good. But I think the defensive line’s importance in the National Football League cannot be overstated and this is a good group.

Joe: Joe gets a lot of flak for writing this, but there were games where Gerald McCoy was simply disruptive. He was in the backfield often, but didn’t have many sacks or tackles to speak of. Joe is of the opinion that disruption is so important because offense is all about timing. If you get in the backfield, that messes up an offense’s timing and all of a sudden, you then have a busted play.

Polian: That’s exactly correct, I couldn’t have said it any better. The most important person you can find for a defensive front is a guy who can rush the passer. That’s the hardest person to find, other than a winning quarterback. So, bottom line, [GMC] has that ability, he just has to stay healthy. You would hope that he would and you hope that those two injuries are just freak injuries. I’ve only seen one player in 35 years in the NFL that had two bicep tears and that was Bob Sanders. These are freak injuries. I asked him on the air today, and he said he is fine and everything is good. Let’s hope that is the case. That position is critical in the National Football League and if you have that, you have a chance of being successful.

Joe is en route to Miami tonight for this historic preseason Bucs game, the on-field debut of the New Schiano Order.

For those unfamiliar with Joe’s postgame coverage, Joe gets after it in a huge, fast and furious way.

You’ll want to stick with Joe into the wee hours and all weekend long for the freshest takes, quotes and more. And don’t worry about Joe, the good folks at Paradise Worldwide Transportation are taking Joe to and from the game in style, so Joe’s icy cold postgame liquids will not be a danger on the road.

Here is an edited video of Joe’s appearance on “The Tim Brando Show” yesterday, seen on CBS Sports Network and heard on various radio outlets throughout the country. Major props to Big Papi and Brian Jones for inviting Joe on!

You want a good taste of how the Bucs under the New Schiano Order have gone back to basics?

Greg Schiano spelled it out very simply during an interview on WQAM-AM 560 in Miami yesterday. Make a tackle, shed a block, execute the most basic of football plays, and you’ll score points with the head coach.

“I want to see who the football players are,” Schiano said. “It’s not going to be an overly complicated game plan. You know, I don’t want any of the guys that we’re trying to evaluate to have indecision be an excuse for lack of performance. I want to see them tee it up and go play, and who can get off a block, who can make a tackle, who can block somebody, catch a ball and run with it and not have it be a mental thing.”

After watching the Bucs’ defense for the last 3 1/4 seasons, Joe also would like to see who can get off a block and make a tackle.

Joe has seen it in the comments on this here speck of the Interwebs; he’s read the posts on Twitter, he hears the chatter on sports radio.

Rookie linebacker Lavonte David is quickly becoming a fan favorite.

After last night’s performance when David came up big when the Bucs needed a play, David appears to be the real deal.

But David has three words for Bucs fans: “it’s just preseason.”

David was happy with his performance but no way does he believe he has arrived in the NFL. Instead, he wanted to talk about what his team did, not so much what he did.

“I think we did a great job,” David said of the win over the Dolphins. “We held them, held them in the red zone.

“The sky is the limit right now for everybody. We just have keep going in and preparing.”

Icing on the cake for David was that his first game as an NFL linebacker came in his hometown in front of his family. David once played high school football at Miami Northwestern.

“Great feeling, knowing i had my family here and to give them a chance to see me play again at a bigger stage.”

Joe’s pals over at WTSP-TV Ch. 10 have loads of Bucs coverage live from Miami kicking off in their 5 p.m. newscast today. There will be more at 6 p.m., followed by a pregame show and the game kickoff at 7:30 p.m!

Sportscaster Dave Wirth and his team have secured exclusive interviews with Mark Dominik, Greg Schiano and Vincent Jackson for the pregame festivities.

Ch. 10 is definitely the place to be tonight if you’re not going to the game in Miami.Glorious Bucs football returns!

The leader of the New Schiano Order made his feelings known on Miami sports radio

LeGarrette Blount may now sit atop the Bucs’ depth chart at running back, and the competition between Blount and Martin may be a fair one, but Greg Schiano has already decided who he hopes will be his starting running back.

That would be Martin.

Schiano made the stunning revelation yesterday to former Dolphins tight end turned radio host Joe Rose on WQAM-AM 560 in Miami.

Joe Rose: A lot of people love your first three picks in this draft, from a safety to a running back to a linebacker. You expect all three guys, [Mark] Barron, [Doug] Martin and [Lavonte] David to all start?

Greg Schiano: Sure hope so. Yeah. I mean they’ve been doing very well in camp. And, you know, I think they’re really talented guys and they pick things up very quickly, all three of them. So, that’s our hope. That’s our plan. But you know you can’t make stuff happen. It’s got to happen on the field. But I think it will.

Well, the head coach has a favorite in the running backs race. And that likely means Blount’s going to have to look a lot better than Martin in preseason to be the lead back come opening day.

Schiano might be trying to publicly light a fire under Blount, but Joe suspects Schiano was just calling it as he sees it and opened up a bit more than he probably wanted to. Listening to the nearly 15-minute interview — quite long for Schiano — the head coach was very relaxed with Rose, who seemed to be an old friend from Schiano’s days at the University of Miami.

Regardless, the Bucs need both Martin and Blount to grind out significant carries for the team to have a shot at a winning season.

Earlier today, co-hosts of the “Todd and Booger Show,” Todd Wright and Booger McFarland, heard on WHFS-FM 98.7, welcomed former Bucs great Simeon Rice to the airwaves to talk — what else? — Bucs football.

McFarland asked Rice about the lack of sacks the Bucs have compared to when Warren Sapp, McFarland and Rice prowled the line of scrimmage some 10 years ago, and the subject touched a nerve with Rice, who in so many words said Bucs fans if not Bucs management are living in the past.

“I think they have to stop looking back and look forward,” Rice said. “None of us are what we once were. Tampa isn’t what we once were. It’s just not going to happen. You are just not going to find a Warren Sapp. You are not just going to find a Booger McFarland, you are not going to find a nose tackle that runs a 4.7 [in a 40-yard dash]. You are not. There is no such player. You know what I mean? It’s rare. You are not going to find a defensive end that can run 4.4, it’s rare. So you have to appreciate those things when they happen. I think in order for them to make an impact, and I think that’s what it is all about, making an impact with the team that they have, to develop where they are strong, the offense. Envelope that quarterback. Defensively they have to pay a special mind into what they are trying to build for the future. Is it likely they will have sacks like that and players who play like that? No, unless someone is going back in a time machine and bring the players of the past back. And since I can’t do that, I would look at the players they have and really evaluate what I have and hope for the best and create a gameplan.”

And yes grammar Nazis, Rice used the word “envelope” as a verb when referring to building an offense around Josh Freeman.

Rice added a couple of other interesting thoughts about how the Bucs have no excuses for the lack of play and as long as a player is productive in helping win games, “That’s all you can ask for.”

Joe’s of the mind that Rice has a helluva point. Quit trying to find the next Sapp, the next Rice. They are not there and the game has in many ways evolved into a different game since both hung up their cleats.

Just go out there and find the best 22 players you can and go from there. Don’t set up someone to fail by asking them to be Sapp or Rice because, the chances are, they never will be.

Two years ago, Joe famously brought word how popcorn-munching, coffee-slurping, fried-chicken-eating, oatmeal-loving, beer-chugging Peter King had a major let down when, after excitedly filling his breakfast bowl at One Buc Palace full of steaming oatmeal over a bed of raisins, that the oatmeal was salty!

King took the Bucs caterers to task for this sin.

Well, it seems a trivial piece of food kept the Bucs food staff away from getting the coveted A-grade from King when he visited One Buc Palace last week.

On The Menu
In the Bucs’ cafeteria, the PR staff put Team SI (We’re on the SI-EvoShield Training Camp Trip, with a party of five) in a side room so we could grill Josh Freeman. And grill a turkey burger. I had the grilled turkey burger on a wheat roll with raw onion, lettuce and tomato (B-plus), along with a mixed salad with balsamic (C; the lettuce was a tad on the other side of ripe), and a bottle of fruit punch G2. Grade: B. Freeman rather enjoyed his healthy meal, led by turkey, lettuce and tomato on whole-wheat bread, with red beans and rice.

Now before Bucs fans jump on their laptops to upbraid King, notice this is his “Postcard From Bucs Camp,” and he has been grading camps annually for years on the strength of the food served.

For King, a B-grade isn’t so bad, overripe lettuce or not.

One guy that will get a load of playing time Friday night is rookie sixth-round cornerback-turned-safety Keith Tandy.

The traits that had the Bucs high on him back in April caught the eye of longtime NFL executive Bill Polian, speaking on SiriusXM NFL Radio on Monday after watching Bucs practice.

And rockstar general manager Mark Dominik didn’t hold back his enthusiasm when asked to talk Tandy.

Bill Polian: Tandy looked to me like he’s tailor-made for the style that [Greg Schiano] wants to play.

Mark Dominik: Yeah, he is. He really is. You know, watching him at West Virginia he was out there at corner, we sat there and said, ‘Geez. He can handle corner,’ but we kept thinking, projecting take him inside put him at safety. Let him use those ball skills but his physical play, but he had enough hips and enough looseness as an athlete that you thought you could take him inside and do the things that Greg wants to do in this defense. And he’s done a good job, and even today, you know, he got his hands on a couple more of balls out there, and he keeps making plays. And that’s everything in this defense, creating opportunities for turnovers.

The safety battle — and battle plan — is one of the more intriguing on the Bucs.

Guys ahead of Cody Grimm on the depth chart, Larry Asante and Ahmad Black, and Mark Barron and Ronde Barber, have zero career starts at safety. Obviously, the Bucs are high on Tandy, who’s been running a lot with the second team, and he’s a rookie.

It’s one position Joe is watching extra closely. Only Barron and Barber can consider themselves assured a roster spot. At least the Bucs have come a long way since gifting Sabby The Goat a starting job in 2009.

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Now Joe has done plenty of local radio interviews and has been summoned to appear on radio stations outside of the Tampa Bay area, such as in Austin and Fort Myers. But today, Joe breaks new ground.

Joe’s going national, baby!

At roughly 12:10 p.m. this afternoon, Joe can be heard on “The Tim Brando Show,” which is also simulcast on the CBS Sports Network (DirecTV 613). “The Tim Brando Show” is broadcast live on the Yahoo! Radio Network, Sirius Channel 94 and XM Channel 206.

What will Joe talk about? The Bucs, of course!

Former Super Bowl-winning coach Brian Billick, who earlier this year famously told Joe how former Bucs coach Raheem Morris was a disciplinarian, discusses the Bucs chances in 2012 with Taylor Jones in this FoxSports.com video.

Just in case you forgot, Joe falls into the camp of Bucs fans that believes the Bucs had significant talent last season but collapsed under a head coach that let things get out of control and coordinators that didn’t do much right during a 10-game losing streak.

There’s a reason the Bucs were 4-2 off a 10-win season. And that 10-win season, one many fans dismiss as supreme luck from the football gods, still looms as significant, so says Bucs icon Derrick Brooks. Ol’ Double Nickel explains in a video interview on Buccaneers.com.

“These [2012 Bucs] are better. These guys are better than we were in 1996,” Brooks said.  “Because they’ve been together and had that success of a 10-6, where in ’96, we hadn’t. You know, we were just a bunch of young guys that really don’t have but one proven winner, Hardy Nickerson, on our football team. But this year you’ve got a bunch of guys that have won some games. …

“We  had a little extra that I want these guys to get. We were hungry. We were thirsty. And we did whatever it took to win. You know, we said little. We listened a lot. It didn’t come together for us at first. Can this team be mentally tough to deal with bumps and bruises? That’s what we gotta wait for the season to find out.”

Brooks went on to give Greg Schiano a supreme compliment. (Click above to grab the whole video.)

Well, the ’96 Bucs went 6-10 under Father Dungy. If Brooks says these Bucs are better, then Schiano surely should be feeling a lot of pressure to win. He has the horses on offense to get it done, but the quality of the coaching staff and the defense remains a mystery.

Joe’s enjoying the New Schiano Order, but Joe holds a special place in his heart for former Bucs coaches and loves to track their movements.

The last Bucs head coach was a legendary quote/storyteller, from tales of the beatings by Michael, Barry and Harry Morris, to the rumor that his grandmother ran like a bulldog, to his famous underwear quote and many more, Raheem Morris was never boring.

So Joe was eager to hear Raheem’s interview on 106.7 FM in Washington D.C. this week.

Among the highlights, Raheem shared that he’s not a brainy coach, and how he gets guys to play and practice hard.

“We’re not really cerebral coaches,” Raheem said of himself and Skins special teams coach Danny Smith. “We like to be vocal. We like to talk to our guys. We like to be able to communicate across the field to those guys. And that’s something that I know I’ve brought to the table a long time and it’s been the driving force for the back end. We’re the bus drivers. We gotta go out there everyday and drive the bus and increase the tempo and up it every single day to make everybody play harder on the football team.”

And Raheem shared that Tanard Jackson is on the right path and has what it takes to return to top form.

“He’s just got to get his head on right,” Raheem said of Jackson. “And he’s done a nice job of that in training camp and keeping it that way and showing up to work and doing all the things you need to do. Everything with this young man, the sky could be up for him. And that’s all he can do, is go out there and go to work and keep playing like he’s been playing. He’s done a nice job here in Washington. And hopefully he can continue to do that stuff to get back on the field in order to become the player that he once was. I have no doubt in my mind that he can be that type of guy again.”

Joe wishes Raheem well.