In a bold, strong, damning opinion piece, veteran sports columnist Gary Shelton came “this close” to demanding Team Glazer jettison embattled Bucs coach Raheem Morris.

Instead, the St. Petersburg Times scribe tried to think of a defense for bringing Morris back for the 2012 season.

Shelton couldn’t, and stated the best thing for the Bucs is if the team parts ways with Morris.

As far as any lingering debate over Morris, this should just about do it. How can the Glazers not demand more than this?

Argue, if you will, that this team was just too young, or that the owners were just too cheap, or that the roster had more holes than spackle to patch them all. All that noted, there isn’t enough improvement to this roster for Morris to keep his job. This team is lost. It does not have enough maturity, or enough resilience, or worst of all, enough effort to stay on this wayward course.

This was too ugly for human eyes, and where have you heard that before except every week for two months? The Bucs made it close with a couple of scores in the third quarter, but that doesn’t change things. The players of the Bucs provided a rather weak argument that Morris should keep his job — or that they should keep theirs. They lost for the eighth straight time, a number that should climb to 10 over the next two weeks, at which time the unraveling should be complete.

Shelton is right, there is little defense for Morris at this point. Sure, people could nitpick at Dominik, though his decision not to bring back Barrett Ruud — a point that Tim Ryan of SiriusXM NFL Radio was absolutely accurate in every way when he defended Ruud this summer — seems to have blown up in Dominik’s face.

Sure, some could make a stretch and suggest the lack of an offseason hurt the Bucs. This just in: the other 31 teams in the NFL also didn’t have an offseason or a full training camp.

How many people were complaining about a lack of an offseason when the Bucs were 3-1 with a win over the Falcons… and later 4-2 with a win over the Saints? Limited offseason wasn’t much of a stumbling block then. Two months later all of a sudden it Pearl Harbored the Bucs 2011 campaign? Oh.

As it stands now, the horrid play of the linebackers can be directly linked to letting Ruud walk away, and that’s on Dominik. But it’s not just the linebackers that are playing bad, it’s the whole team, sans a pair of rookie defensive ends (which Dominik drafted).

The same things have reared their ugly heads each week for roughly two years now have killed the Bucs the past two months: Slow starts. This malady has never been corrected and that is on the coaching staff, plain and simple. The lone game the Bucs actually had a strong start, they still lost by 27 to a garbage team (Jags).

There is no way to sugarcoat it now. The Bucs defense is bad. And it just so happens the head coach is also the defensive coordinator. Didn’t Morris bring a halt to the heinous Jim Bates Experiment because it wasn’t working? The defense is just as bad now, allowing an average of 32 points a game in this eight-game tailspin which is simply unacceptable.

The Bucs gave up 28 first downs last night. Are you kidding?

Unless the Bucs upset the Falcons, Joe cannot see Morris returning. Not even a win on the road against the Panthers will likely save his job.

And yes, Joe is sad about this. Because if a coach has to be replaced, that means the Bucs are underachieving and not making progress.

In this mess that is the Bucs season, at least Joe can bank on the play of rookie defensive end Adrian Clayborn.

The gentle giant from St. Louis by way of the University of Iowa has a motor that just won’t quit. When you hear others claim the Bucs give up, they are not referring to Clayborn.

After the game, Clayborn actually didn’t want to talk. The soft-spoken man was upset with the team’s loss, of course, but more so over what he perceived as poor play.

It was Clayborn who helped put the Bucs on the scoreboard first with what NFL Network analyst Mike Mayock called “relentless effort,” chasing down Tony Romo for a sack and a forced fumble that Dekoda Watson scooped and scored with.

“It was just one play in the game,” Clayborn said. “I messed up a lot in this game but [the sack] was a critial play. I was lucky to come up with a sack. I could have had a lot more if I played my normal game.”

Now that Clayborn has played in 14 games, more than any college, one could argue he is hitting his rookie wall. Clayborn quickly dismissed such a notion.

“Nah, man. When you love football you can’t hit a wall.”

Joe loves Donald Penn, but he’s played a couple of bad games in a row and some of his postgame words to Tampa Tribune scribe eye-RAH! Kaufman were ridiculous.

Per the TBO.com Bucs Twitter feed, Kaufman shared this Penn quote:

@TBO_Buccaneers: Ira: More Donald Penn — “We’re such a better team than we’re showing. It’s a bump in the road. We’ll get things right in the offseason.”

No, Donald. The Bucs are not a better team than they’re showing. Your teammates have been embarrassed three weeks in a row when they’re supposed to be playing their best yungry football. Thankfully, tonight you broke a streak of 69 unanswered points scored against your team, but that doesn’t mean you’re good.

Bump in the road? More like a giant pothole.

Joe’s heard this kind of we’re-better-than-our-record mentality from Josh Freeman on his radio show and other Buccaneers. It’s like they’re in denial that they repeat the same mistakes repeatedly and have lost eight in a row.

Joe appreciates the Bucs that are willing to talk to the media during this epic slide, but at least call it what it is.

Veteran defensive tackle Albert Haynesworth was one of the few Bucs players willing to talk after yet another beat down, this time by the Dallass Cowboys.

It’s not that the players were rude, it looked like they were in a wake. The locker room was a virtual morgue. Big Frank Okam sat in a folding chair, body language screamed frustration. Okam just stared ahead with an empty look in his eyes, as if he was staring down nothing in particular.

He looked like he just learned someone ran over his dog.

Albert Haynesworth spoke and attempted to a mount a massive defensive for his embattled coach Raheem Morris. But in doing so he mentioned some damning things.

Haynesworth kept saying how the blame should go on the players, not Morris. Then he said of when with his previous team, the Patriots, they were about to play the Bucs in the preseason, “Bill [Belicheat] talked about, how much talent this team had. How fast they are, how they can run away with the game.

“We have to put that all together and play like that now. We don’t need to be down 28-0 and have Raheem come in here at halftime and tell us to suck it up. We don’t need that. We need that at the beginning of the game so we don’t have to rally at the end.”

Joe can at least feel a pocket of warmth in his heart thinking about Adrian Clayborn and his relentless motor and 7  1/2 sacks, including a sack and a forced fumble tonight.

The Bucs haven’t had a defensive end with that many sacks since Stylez White had eight in 2007.

But the downer is that Clayborn is such a standout on the field when he’s primarily right now a hustle player. Buccaneers Radio Network analyst and former tight end Dave Moore got to the essence of this point about Clayborn after the game when he said, “The problem is his effort stands out.”

Moore went on to praise Da’Quan Bowers’ effort and say Clayborn’s other teammates need to look within themselves and raise their intesnity to put out some good film in the final two games.

A nationally televised night home game against the Dallas Cowboys and the Bucs don’t even bother to show up in the first half?

Nice job, fellas.

Adding insult to injury, Deion Sanders was on the Bucs’ sidelines telling the NFL Network audience at halftime that the Bucs have quit on Raheem Morris. And colleague Marshall Faulk agreed. “A lot of these guys have quit, man. … I know quit when I see quit,” Sanders said.

Of course, Bucs fans and Joe didn’t need Hall of Famers to tell them the obvious — that the Bucs have forgotten how to compete.

Raheem Morris might be pounding “core beliefs” to his team, but they’re not getting through. More dumb penalties, poor ball protection, ugly tackling, a slow start and an anemic offense were on display again, and the defense continues to have no answers and is historically dreadful.

In addition to the now eight-game losing streak, this makes three consecutive home blowouts to close the home schedule. No franchise can accept that.

Something has to change radically.

OK boys and girls, have at it. Open thread for the Cowboys-Bucs game. Will this be Raheem Morris’ final home game as Bucs coach?

Cowboys at Bucs

Kickoff: 8 p.m.

TV: NFL Network. Also, for those sorry individuals/women who do not have the NFL Network, the game will be streamed live on NFL.com.

Radio: Buccaneers Radio Network (in Tampa WFUS-FM, 103.5 and WDAE-AM, 620); Sirius Channel 93.

Weather: Per Accuweather.com, sweatshirt weather. Still hard for Joe to believe at night in December one only needs a sweatshirt or a light jacket but this is such a game. Temperature at kickoff will be 67 and won’t fall much farther, with a projected temperature of 65 at game’s end, all under partly cloudy skies.

Odds: Per Sportsbook.com, Bucs +7.

Outlook: Is this the last time Bucs fans see embattled coach Raheem Morris walking the sidelines at the football stadium on Dale Mabry Highway? Morris is certainly on thin ice as Bucs coach, very thin ice and seemingly the only way of saving his skin is if the Bucs win a game or two in the remaining three weeks. Problem is, one of those games, tonight, the Bucs are playing a team fighting for its playoff life. The Cowboys are a damned good team and somehow have choked away three wins this season late in the game, twice the past two weeks. For the Bucs to somehow keep the game close in the fourth quarter, the Bucs will somehow have to stop Felix Jones. As we all know, that’s not likely to change the way the Bucs defense is giving up chunks of yards on the ground. If the Bucs get blown out (again), it could get very, very ugly tonight as Bucs fans have had all day to get lubricated. If the Bucs (Donald Penn) can keep DeMarcus Ware off of Josh Freeman’s back, the Bucs may have a prayer.

Video: The good people of the NFL Network have a game preview. … and NFL Films looks at the game in their own unique way.

It’s unclear to Joe why St. Pete Times Bucs beat writer Rick Stroud refuses to believe that Team Glazer is true to its word and doesn’t consider money when planning to make the Bucs a winner.

To refresh fans’ memories, about 20 months ago Joel Glazer said “money will never be an issue” when building the Buccaneers.

But in a column today Stroud speculates about Raheem Morris’ future and urinates in the face of Glazer’s statement, saying the Bucs won’t open their wallets wide enough to replace Raheem with a big-name coach.

Personally, I believe the Glazer family (which owns the Bucs) is rooting for Morris to win the final three games, silence some of the critics and keep its plan on course.

Why? For starters, they like Morris. Bryan Glazer sits next to Morris on the team charter to and from each road game. They’re frequently together socially.

But a bigger reason should be obvious: The Bucs aren’t looking to pay a big-name, proven coach $5.7 million a year knowing full well they can’t hire one without agreeing to spend at least $50 million of salary cap space on veteran free agents.

Hmm, $50 million on free agents next season? That’s a pretty ludicrous figure. The Bucs could have seriously upgraded their talent level and depth this season for about $15 million.

Joe also must add that the Bucs and the rest of the league, per all legitimate reports, will be forced to spend a cash minimum starting in 2013, so in some ways the Bucs job would be very attractive to a big-name coach. The Bucs currently have good young talent in the trenches and at quarterback, and a pile of money to spend on the horizon.

But all that aside, it’s entertaining and interesting to Joe how Team Glazer says one thing and a beat writer scoffs at it and ascribes sinister motives to ownership.

Joe would be interested to know why Stroud thinks its “obvious” Team Glazer won’t invest heavily in a head coach. They did it with Gruden’s second contract, then fired him three years early and paid him off a fortune. They also had no problem hiring veteran assistants Jeff Jagodzinski and Jim Bates and then firing them and paying them to watch soap operas for years.

If Raheem had a respectable season this year, Team Glazer surely would have been forced to extend his contract and pay him at least a few million a season. If Raheem returns next season and has success as a lame duck coach, then he’s sittting on a huge future payday.

Joe’s not buying that money will be an issue in deciding the next head coach.

Veteran WTSP-TV, Ch. 10 sportscaster Dave Wirth offers some powerful takes in his look at tonight’s Dallas-Bucs game. It’s all part of the great sports coverage at WTSP.com.

There’s no good explanation for the depth of the Bucs’ demise, but Josh Freeman stood tall and tried to offer some insight during The Josh Freeman Show on WDAE-AM 620 Wednesday night.

Freeman said last year’s team was much better despite largely the same roster. Penalties and losing got in the team’s head this season, Freeman said.

“Honestly, it might have played on our confidence a bit. Guys for whatever reason couldn’t get over that hump,” Freeman said. “It’s cost us ballgames, you know, and really that should never be the case. You kind of gotta put each week behind you and get prepared for the next week.”

It’s sad to Joe that the Bucs lack the necessary mental toughness that’s led to this heinous seven-game losing streak. If the coaches and the small handful of veterans can’t get through to the team very quickly, then Joe’s not sure what the 2012 fix is other than bringing in the right free agents and gutting the coaching staff.

Former Bucs QB Jeff Carlson

Former Bucs quarterback Jeff Carlson (1990 & 1991) writes The QB Blast column here at JoeBucsFan.com. Joe is ecstatic to have him firing away. Carlson is often seen as a color analyst on Bright House Sports Network, and he trains quarterbacks of all ages locally via his company,America’s Best Quarterback. Plus, he’s a really cool dude.

By JEFF CARLSON
JoeBucsFan.com analyst

The “Us vs. The World” bunker mentality has been used successfully to help teams play with a chip on their shoulders, producing a more intense, closely-knit team effort.

This kind of concept was probably used to get the much-improved Bucs effort against the Green Bay Packers after looking so bad against the Houston Texans the week before.

It was short-lived as they got blown off the field by teams in the cellars of their respective divisions in the Panthers and Jaguars. Can Raheem Morris find that chip again and put it back up on their shoulders tonight as the Bucs show their brave home fans and a national television audience that they are not the Colts of the NFC?

Enough “gray-matter” talk

Does anyone find it as hard to listen to Morris tell all the long-time Bucs beat writers that everything they write is just gray matter and nobody outside of their palace means anything? I was taken aback to hear just how sunny it is inside One Buc Place and how it is everyone else making it seem so gloomy. Really? I’m all for positive attitude and the power that it has in life, but getting ready to set an all-time NFL record for giving up 9.1 yards per (first half) play should be a time for sober reality-checks.

Tim Tebow showed up at my house this week on the cover of Sports Illustrated and I was immediately inspired! His accomplishments this year have been simply amazing. He has taken on every naysayer with grace and is simply playing unbelievably hard-nosed football.

He has smiled all the way while stuffing everything back in the face of every “expert” on all the networks, newspapers, magazines and blogs. In the face of never-before-seen levels of scrutiny, he is going about his business with a similarly sunny disposition as well, but he is succeeding (7-1 starting record), not failing miserably. He has his teammates, coaches, management and fans believing in his intestinal fortitude, hard work and maybe even his God.

The Broncos’ coaching staff decided it was better to win in unconventional (ugly) ways than lose by trying to make Tebow play a game of football ill-suited to his abilities.

Amazing how the same players that started the season 1-4 could go 7-1 with the switch of just one player. Almost as amazing is starting the season 4-2 and going on to lose seven straight, some in pretty embarrassing fashion. The embarrassing fashion has been in effort level for many and some of those same players now telling those gray matter reporters that it would be sad for Morris to lose his job.

How about this Kellen Winslow? Go out and give a speech like Tim Tebow did after losing to Ole Miss (that was commemorated on a plaque at Florida Field and followed with a national championship) and better yet, give an effort anywhere close to the lip service speech you gave a years ago about being a soldier.

Tebow walks the walk of his talk and, although many get turned off by it, the Denver Broncos are on the verge of the playoffs and even a division title after starting off the worst in the league if it weren’t for the Colts.

This season may be lost for our beloved Buccaneers, but spreading some of that sunshine outside the walls of Buccaneer Island by leading your young teammates on pure effort level might be the way back from the black hole that all of us in the gray matter watch each week.

It is serious time for a sober response to the dire circumstances of the future of this franchise and just how far the fans can be pushed before mutiny.

Like children so eager to believe in Santa Claus, just give us your best Tebow-like effort against the Cowboys and we will believe too. Make the gray matter writers put something in the paper that gives all of us hope that there is more in our stockings than just coal.

The lovely Tifany Simons and Gregg Rosenthal discuss the mess that is currently the Bucs in this NBCSports.com video.

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

Could Saturday be the debut of the Dezmon Briscoe end around?

That’s quite doubtful, but we do know that Arrelious Benn won’t be dropped for a loss this week. He’s been ruled out of Saturday night’s game against the Cowboys. Benn was concussed against Jacksonville and it seems he’s not ready to go, so the Bucs revealed via their official Twitter feed.

@TBBuccaneers: The Friday injury report is out. WR A.Benn is the only Buc ruled out so far. DE M.Bennett, DT B.Price & WR S.Stroughter are questionable.

The Cowboys hardly have a lockdown secondary, so the loss of Benn is a blow to the Bucs’ chances on Saturday, assuming they can shake their demons and compete.

Remember just before the season when Bucs rock star general manager Mark Dominik nearly inked Cowboys offensive tackle Doug Free?

Yeah, Joe thought you may have forgotten about that.

The Cowboys and Bucs were feverishly going after Free’s services when Free decided to stay in Dallass. Now, Saturday, that may come back to haunt the Bucs and Dominik.

Free will be squaring off against Adrian Clayborn. While Free gave up a couple of sacks last week against the Giants, he believes he is ready to shut down Clayborn, writes Charean Williams of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

Cowboys left tackle Doug Free uncharacteristically gave up two sacks to Giants defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul last week, including one that cost the team a safety. Freeseems intent on playing better this week against Bucs defensive end Adrian Clayborn, who has 6.5 sacks this season.

“I’ve just got to keep working. That’s about it,” Free said Thursday.

Free has allowed six sacks, three quarterback hits and 22 quarterback pressures this season, according to Pro Football Focus.

This could be a critical area for the Bucs. Glamour boy Tony Romo seems to melt down late in games. If the Bucs can keep the game close and Clayborn can get some heat on Romo, Joe suspects good things will happen.

Jason Horowitz and Pat Kirwan discuss not just the Bucs game against the Cowboys Saturday night, but the future of embattled Bucs coach Raheem Morris in this CBSSports.com video.

Back for his weekly trip to the end zone of the NFL universe, popular sports radio personality Adam Schein travels through football space and time outs. Check out what Schein says about the Bucs this week. Consider yourself sucked in to the latest episode of Cosmic Schein!

One thing the Bucs’ organization does have left to play for this season would be national perception heading into next year.

Why should fans give a crap about that? Well, that’s what TV networks obsess about to determine the 2012 slate of televised games.

The allegedly upstart, surging Bucs got two precious home night games this season. Not coincidentally, those games sold out. Without a turnaround of biblical proportions through the final three games of this season, the nationally irrelevant Bucs are going to be shut out of primetime in 2012. That likely means a full slate of blackouts and more fan apathy out of the gate.

Don’t think that would happen? Back when Chucky patrolled the sidelines, the NFL punished the Bucs and their 5-11 record in 2004 and scheduled the 2005 Bucs with a full slate of 1 o’clock home games.

This year, the Bucs sold the “home” game in England to fans, in part, explaining the excitement and importance of showcasing the Bucs before a bigger-than-usual TV audience that the England game would pull. Joe’s had face-to-face conversations with high-ranking Bucs officials, and it’s clear they crave getting the team broad exposure. So Joe wonders how that could affect Team Glazer’s decision-making when it comes to a decision on Raheem Morris. Hiring a big-name coach, for example, could be enough to get the Bucs a primetime game or two next season, even if they don’t win another game this season.

As for the Bucs’ actual schedule in 2012, Tim Tebow and the Broncos are on the docket and might be the Bucs’ best hope of a night game. With the many billions the networks are shelling out now annually to air games, Joe suspects the Broncos will get more night games than any team in NFL history.

Joe has been a Bucs fan ever since watching Doug Williams and Jimmie Giles and Batman Wood from his boyhood home amid the Illinois cornfields.

Though Joe has only been a resident of the Tampa Bay area since the 1990’s, Joe has never, ever, seen anything in this area like the current state of the Bucs and the outrage of the Bucs fanbase.

Since the seal-clubbing at the hands of the Jags (on a short week for the Jags no less), yes, the same Jags that were alley-beaten last night by the Falcons like they were some Division I-AA team, the unrest among Bucs fans has risen each day that embattled Bucs coach Raheem Morris remains in power.

Turn on local sports radio shows and it is a non-stop din of wailing from Bucs fans — if not the hosts themselves — who seem to be one step away from storming One Buc Palace in rebellion and who refuse to buy a ticket next year if Morris is retained.

Joe suspects that if Dallass jumps out to a big lead Saturday night, after Bucs fans have had all day to lubricate themselves, it could be the ugliest scene ever witnessed at the football stadium on Dale Mabry Highway.

Seemingly, each day a new ugly rumor surfaces, whether it is a perceived leak from the inside that Morris covets troubled cornerback Aqib Talib too much, to a crazy story that Morris would have been jettisoned Monday if the Bucs had enough coaches on staff to take over his duties.

Interestingly, all the while Bucs rock star general manager Mark Dominik has been strangely quiet. Yes, Dominik is still around, Joe saw him with his own eyes prior to the beat down by Carolina.

Tampa Tribune humorist Martin Fennelly has noticed this too. He believes Dominik is laying low for one of two reasons if not both: he’s distancing himself from Morris, or Dominik himself, despite just signing a four-year contract extension, is concerned about his own job security.

You can almost feel the separation right now between the coach and GM, friends or no. It’s nothing new. I mean, does anyone recall Rich McKay resigning over Tony Dungy’s dismissal?

Yes, the Talib thing always worried us. It’s the smoking gun in so many ways, because it spoke to Raheem having favorites, or double standards. It was cool at 10-6, but it was always lurking, always.

I’ll bet Dominik thought and worried about that, too. But a lot of the decisions he was in on, team building that he was behind, have also conspired against Raheem and in their own way have helped doom the head coach.

Let’s not get carried away. Doom the head coach? Was Morris doomed when the Bucs jumped out to a 4-2 record this season with wins over NFC South rivals New Orleans and Atlanta? Was Morris doomed when the Bucs won 10 games last year?

Did Dominik conspire to knife Morris in the back when Dominik helped sign/acquire/secure a franchise quarterback, a veteran offensive line with two Pro Bowlers among the ranks, one of the better tight ends in the game and a running back who averages over four yards a carry?

How exactly is it Dominik’s fault that the offense has been a trainwreck these last seven games and could only muster 14 points against the putrid Jags?

How did Dominik undercut Morris when he drafted a pair of solid rookie defensive ends, one of which has already been the best defensive end the Bucs have had in years?

Now if one wants to finger Dominik for the signing of Quincy Black, that’s fair if not accurate. No question that was a deal gone very wrong (except for Black’s portfolio, or course).

But the fact that Dominik is laying low does have the appearance that the front office is letting Morris twist in the wind while each day Morris has to answer questions about alleged clashes he has had with the administration or answer questions about his job status.

Sometimes, silence is deafening.

Listening to Ronde Barber’s one-hour chat this week on the Buccaneers Radio Network, Joe couldn’t help but think that Barber is a lot more of a vocal leader than fans are often led to believe.

Barber shared how stepped forward to counsel Blount following his costly fumbles against the lowly Jaguars on Sunday.

“Fundamentally strong players know how to protect the football. It’s just Football 101. I remember when I was telling LeGarrette, actually, because he was really down after the game saying, ‘my fault. my fault.’ All this stuff. I was like, ‘Hey man. My brother went through the same deal. There was a two-year stretch there where he led the NFL in fumbles, you know. And he was a dynamic runner, he was exciting to watch. He was half [the Giants’] offense it seemed like. But he couldn’t hold on to the football, man. And he made it a priority one offseason and he didn’t fumble after that. You know, he made it a priority.’

“We all know how [Tiki Barber] changed his running style. And he changed the way he carried the ball. He changed the way how he protected the ball — because it was important to him. And if we’re going to go forward and get better as a football team, all of us need to learn how to protect the football better. And that from Josh [Freeman] all the way down to the last guy on defense who may or may not ever touch a football.”

Barber also shared other mentoring examples. Interestingly, Tuesday night during The Donald Penn Show, Penn was asked about Barber’s leadership and Penn said Barber leads by example, making it clear that Barber isn’t very vocal. Of course, it could be that Barber picks his spots and isn’t one to mingle with the offensive line in that way.

Regardless, Joe found Barber’s message to Blount interesting, and one can only hope Barber can orchestrate an offseason ball-security lesson or two for Blount by his twin brother.

Word is Tiki isn’t too busy these day.

The glorious NFL Network, in advance of its nationally televised game between Dallass and the Bucs Saturday night in prime time, decided to turn its klieg lights on the Bucs and in particular, embattled Bucs coach Raheem Morris.

With the John Clayton rumors of Morris’ near-demise Monday buzzing across Tampa Bay, Bucs beat writer Rick Stroud of the St. Petersburg Times offered his takes to the NFL Network on what is wrong with the Bucs, and more.

Stroud stated that Morris is “grasping at straws” and that the team has not been the same since it left for London with a 4-2 record. He also uttered the headline quote above and explained.

Also, Stroud notes that despite an ugly seven-game losing streak including a curb-stomping by Carolina and a seal-clubbing at the hands of the woeful Jags, Morris still has a chance to save his job.

Raheem Morris calls the chatter for his head and critcism of his team “gray matter.”

Well, reports of the head coach’s near beheading on Monday just made it to NFL.com. That’s some painful, prominent gray matter.

In addition to BSPN’s John Clayton’s skewering report that Raheem would have been fired Monday if the Bucs had enough coaches left after his ousting, NFL.com and NFL Network insider Jason LaCanfora is now guaging the temeperature of Raheem’s hot seat.

NFL Network insider Jason La Canfora reported that Morris is under review and in danger of being fired. He will have to win at least one game to have a chance to retain his job, according to league sources, who said that coaching staff changes in the mail regardless, particularly on the offensive side.

Joe wonders whether there will be a response about these reports from One Buc Palace  (No, Joe hasn’t asked for one.) One might classify the silence as more gray matter for Raheem.