Not even a business trip to Arizona can keep Derek “Old School” Fournier from putting his thoughts together about the Bucs win.

While happy, “Old School” sees areas where the Bucs must improve if they are to continue leading charmed lives.

Like most reasoned Bucs fans, he knows the Steelers will be a formidable challenge this coming Sunday.

Dick Stockton, Charles Davis and Jim Mora, Jr., break down the Bucs’ win over the Panthers in this FoxSports.com video.

Aside from Josh Freeman Sunday, no Bucs player came up bigger than tight end Kellen Winslow.

Close to not playing at all due to his bum knee, Winslow not just showed up, but played big. In fact, if it’s a key down, look for Freeman to hit Winslow, so notes eye-RAH! Kaufman of the Tampa Tribune, written on the TBO Bucs Twitter feed.

Kellen Winslow’s 8 receptions have each come on third down, where he leads all NFL players. Not too shabby for a guy on one good knee.

You know what that tells Joe? That Winslow is clutch. If all of your catches come on third down, that’s money. That’s what All-Pros do.

It’s very possible that the success of the Bucs offense depends on the health of Winslow’s knee.

In this video of the NFL Network’s Total Access, Marshall Faulk and former Bucs great Warren Sapp discuss if the Bucs, at 2-0 to start the season, are contenders or pretenders.

Among the things Joe learned in this video is that Bucs coach Raheem Morris is an avid fan of the NFL Network. Not to disparage Raheem, but Joe has to ask, who the hell wouldn’t be, unless they are a woman or have subjected themselves to living in an Out House?

There have been countless stories written, words spoken, beers swilled over the Bucs not selling tickets.

Sure, it’s hard to afford tickets if you don’t have a job, or your house is underwater worse than the reefs off Pinellas County.

Now that the Bucs have their best start since their NFC South title season of 2005, Stylez G. White is hoping Bucs fans can somehow scrape together a few bucks and support the team when the Bucs host the Steelers. White Twittered this from Carolina after the Bucs’ second win of the season Sunday.

Want to say thanks to the fans! I will see y’all nxt week for the steelers game! Y’all better be there we gonna need u!

The game is expected to be sold out. Will be interesting to see, after the Bucs have surprised everyone this side of Pat Yasinskas, what the ratio of Bucs to Steelers fans will be.

OK, by now many of Joe’s readers have read Peter King’s mea culpa on his prediction of the Bucs season. Here, in this NBCSports.com video, King describes how the Bucs are still undefeated.

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The Bucs’ defensive mastermind/head coach sees his team’s ugly rushing stats, but he says they don’t represent reality.

Cadillac Williams ate up plenty of clock, had some good runs and kept his defense off the field yesterday, Raheem Morris said.

“It’s not about how much success you have running the ball. It’s about doing it,” Morris said at his noon news conference. “You gotta go up in there and you gotta run the ball. …Success comes with our offense keeping our defense off the field. …Perception is not reality when it comes to the running game.”

Now Joe praised Greg Olson’s commitment to the running game yesterday. It was impressive and showed great maturity from last year, even if it wasn’t very successful. Joe gets that throwing 40 times a game, for this team, isn’t going to work. And Joe understand’s Raheem’s point.

However, Joe knows that the running game is, in fact, broken. After watching the Bucs-Carolina game again, it’s clear to Joe that it’s both the offensive line and Cadillac Williams, who finished with 27 carries for 51 yards.

Somehow, the Bucs, if they’re going to play winning football all season, must improve the running game. That’s reality.

It seems Bucs fans were jumping up and down about Peter King’s confession that he misjudged the Bucs more than Joe would the morning after consumating a lengthy,  intimate, sweaty, heavy-breathing late night encounter with Rachel Watson. 

So Joe can only imagine how Bucs fans will react after reading the words of Sirius NFL Radio’s Adam Schein who, like King, is admitting he may have been offbase in his expectations the Bucs would be abysmal.

In his opening monologue on “The Blitz” today, alongside co-host Rich Gannon, Schein all but begged forgiveness from Bucs fans.

“I am thrilled to eat crow when it comes to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers,” Schein said. “I honestly predicted this team to be wretched.

“How about Josh Freeman growing up before our eyes? The Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Rich, are 2-0.”

Like Schein, Gannon gave much credit to Freeman.

“I like the way Josh Freeman is playing, but it was the defense that won. I am really impressed with Josh Freeman, his ability to improvise, his ability to move around and make plays for as big as he is, he is really athletic.

“How about your guy Mike Williams making plays after the catch?”

As Joe has stated many times before: Want your team to get rave reviews from national talking heads? Then have your team win games. It’s that simple.

Watching all of Raheem Morris’ news conferences since he got the Bucs head coaching job, it’s obvious to Joe that Morris often feels that he and his team are treated unfairly by the media.

That first became apparent after Morris dared the media to write something negative about Michael Clayton following his five-catch effort in the Bucs’ season-opening loss to Dallas last year. Previously, the Bucs had gotten heat for re-signing Clayton to a fat contract despite years of poor production.

Since then, Morris has dished out one-liner jabs about negative press rather consistently, and there have been the occasional direct yet playful confrontations. All of which have increased of late.

On Sunday, after the Bucs commanding victory in Carolina, Morris took it all to a new level.

He closed his news conference with body language and a demeanor that lost the the playfullness he typically diplays when knocking the media.

Here’s the exchange and the video link.

Reporter: Rah, How bout if we start right here. We only got eight more to go on the race to 10.

Raheem Morris: That’d be nice. But I’m dealing with you guys, so I know you’re not going to write that. You know, last year we got off to an 0-2 start, and the articles were, ‘Do we have the chance to go 0-16?’ So I’m expecting do-we-have-the-chance-to-go-16-0 articles this week.

That ended the session and, as Joe mentioned, Raheem’s body language screamed anger. The smile was gone. The tension ran deep.

Earlier in the 7-minute news conference, Raheem fielded a question from Tampa Tribune columnist Martin Fennelly and then promptly cut off Fennelly before he could actually ask a question. Raheem stated he didn’t like Fennelly’s pregame column that mentioned the Bucs weren’t honest about Josh Freeman’s thumb injury 10 days prior.

Here’s what Fennelly wrote:

By the way, turns out Freeman not taking snaps at a practice last week wasn’t part of a Bucs “plan.”

Did this team tell the truth about anything?

We’ll know today if 1-0 was a lie, too.

In Joe’s opinion, Fennelly surely wasn’t harsh – didn’t even call out Raheem personally. But here’s the Fennelly-Morris exchange at the postgame news conference yesterday:

Martin Fennelly: Raheem, I know it was last year, but Josh threw 5 picks in this building last year (cutoff by Morris)

Raheem Morris: I know you reminded me in the paper today, Martin. You told me that I lied to you. So I don’t want to lie to you today. We didn’t have any turnovers, and it is what it is.

Later in the news conference, unsolicited, Raheem talked about Fennelly again, but concluded it with a smile and a wink in his direction.

Joe has heard Raheem talk about how he likes “angry workers” on his team, underestimated and highly motivated guys like Ronde Barber and others.  Now it seems like Raheem is an “angry worker” himself. Clearly, the down-on-the-Bucs rhetoric in the local and national media is under his skin, and a 2-0 record is drawing some of it out.

Maybe it’s good. Maybe it’s bad. As long as the Bucs are winning, it really doesn’t matter.

But Joe does think it’s a red flag that Morris was so visibly annoyed by what he perceives to be negative press just minutes after a victory. That tells Joe he’s taking all the chatter too seriously.

The best way to gauge the pulse of a community is to talk to the commoners. By that premise, Bucs quarterback Josh Freeman is king of Charlotte.

As Woody Cummings and his Tampa Tribune entourage were preparing to be whisked back to Tampa, the TBO gang filed into a shuttle van and Cummings overheard the following exchange:

“We’re you headed to today,’’ the driver of the rental car shuttle bus asked.

“Tampa,’’ my associate, Anwar Richardson said.

“Tampa? Man, I can’t believe that Josh Freeman,’’ the driver said. “He looks like the real deal. I’ve got Brett Favre on my fantasy team, but I’m going to pick up Josh Freeman as a free agent.’’

How about that? A fan of a rival NFC South team is so moved by Freeman, he’s ready to jettison an NFL Hall of Fame quarterback for the Bucs young thrower.

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Don’t put it off any longer.

Jon Anik and Cris Carter, of BSPN, discuss the Bucs’ road ass-whipping of Carolina Sunday.

When coffee-slurping, popcorn-shoveling, oatmeal-loving Peter King of Sports Illustrated came out before the season and suggested the Bucs would only win two games, Bucs fans erupted in outrage.

Joe stood back. He knew King was hardly the lone football analyst who predicted desperate hours for the Bucs this season, with a starting roster greener than the grass the Bucs play on at the CITS.

Now, after matching King’s predicted win total for the season in just two games, King has issued a very public mea culpa, via his must-read weekly missive, “Monday Morning Quarterback” on SI.com.

King actually has the Bucs as the No. 15 team in the NFL after one-eigth of the season has passed (damned, one-eighth already?).

15. Tampa Bay (2-0). Of all the surprises in the NFL after two weeks, nothing is weirder to me than the Bucs being 2-0. Boy, was I wrong about them.

It seemed not just Bucs fans were incensed about King’s prediction. So too was Bucs great Ronde Barber who King quoted in his column.

Quote of the Week II

“Tell Peter King we already got our two wins.”

— Tampa Bay cornerback Ronde Barber, in the victorious Buccaneers locker room at Carolina Sunday, after the Bucs beat the Panthers 20-7. Tampa Bay is 2-0. I picked the Bucs to be 2-14 in the SI NFL Preview Issue.

Oops.

Joe is as giddy as the next Bucs fan. This coming Sunday will be a different animal. Pittsburgh’s defense is downright frightening it is so good. Is there a more important player to a team in the NFL than Troy Polamalu? Damn, that guy is good.

At any rate, please read King’s column this morning. He leads his column with a brief interview with Bucs quarterback Josh Freeman.

Yesterday Bucs starting quarterback Josh Freeman looked every bit the black Ben Roethlisberger in the first half, defenders unable to bring him down, Freeman using his feet to buy time and nail targets downfield.

Why, even Peter King, of Sports Illustrated, was moved to set his mug of coffee down, push aside his bowl of oatmeal and pass up a handful of popcorn to Twitter how Freeman looked like a playoff veteran quarterback.

King’s cohort at Sports Illustrated, former Bucs beat writer and current NFL columnist Don Banks, wondered aloud if it is actually the Bucs that got the best quarterback in the draft a year ago.

Here’s a surprising thought: Is it possible that Josh Freeman, Tampa Bay’s 2009 first-round pick, is already further along in his development than either one of the higher-drafted first-round ’09 quarterbacks, Matthew Stafford and Mark Sanchez? I know this: Freeman is the only one to open his second season with a 2-0 record. Freeman totaled 225 yards (43 rushing) and threw a pair of TDs in the Bucs’ win at Carolina.

Joe will say this: Stafford appears to be damned good but thus far in his career the poor guy can’t stay healthy. Part of that is the sieve that is the Lions’ offensive line.

Sanchize looks to be the right-handed version of Matt Leinhart.

Joe’s a bit fired up this morning to hear what kind of love the Bucs might get today on Sirius NFL Radio.

Heck, Mark Dominik might even be interviewed, returning for more of the rock-star love he got on the league’s radio station after the 2010 NFL Draft.

Thinking of NFL Radio got Joe remembering when the Movin’ The Chains crew, Tim Ryan, Pat Kirwan and special guest Bill Cowher, came to Bucs training camp this summer to talk all things Bucs.

They churned out an excellent Xs and Os interview with Josh Freeman – highlights only transcribed by Joe – in which Freeman talked about running the ball more this season. And, of course, he’s done just that.

Tim Ryan: Do me a favor? Can you use those big legs and run the rock this year? Because I think that’s a big, big asset that wasn’t probably utilized enough. Ask [Cowher and Kirwan], they know a quarterback that uses his legs, you’re going to change coverages and do other things because you have that threat from the waist down.

Freeman: No doubt. We catch a lot of man-to-man, but hopefully we won’t see as much this year because those young receivers are able to do a lot of things. But I like seeing two-man, and we really didn’t see a whole lot two-man. …But this weekend Miami has shown a lot of tendencies with their new defensive coordinator …they play a lot of two-man in a lot of third down situations. So look for me this weekend to take off a couple of those times. Yeah, if it opens up I have no problem with running. 

There was a lot more to the interview. But, needless to say, Joe is not surprised to see Freeman lighting it up on the ground this season.

With the absence of a rushing attack, Joe is just speechless watching Freeman carry the Bucs’ offense on his back. Amazing. How hard must he be to prepare for at this point?

It will be quite a fierce test for Freeman on Sunday against Pittsburgh. It might be the toughest defense the Bucs will face all season.

Joe didn’t know this video existed but ran across it last night. Joe likes Gregg Rosenthal of NBCSports.com quite a bit. Therefore, he deserves a round of applause.

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Now Joe knows it’s outrageous if not irresponsible to talk playoffs after just two weeks, but Joe came across a little nugget thanks to Cork Gaines, the master of JoeRaysFan.com and Jason Floyd, engineer at WDAE-AM 620.

Both gentlemen posted this little nugget, unearthed by Kevin Seifert of BSPN.com:

Teams that have started 2-0 have made the playoffs 64.1 percent of the time (107 of 167).

That stunned Joe so much as he was drinking a beer and watching NFL Network last night (as usual, monitoring Twitter on his Blackberry) that Joe had to put the beer down.

Who on earth dreamed the Bucs would be in the same sentence as the word “playoffs” in late-September, other than to suggest no chance?

Caution: Last year Denver won its first six games and missed the playoffs.

PantherFan seems to be fighting back tears. Nearly a loss for words at the loss to the Bucs.

The folks at the Charlotte Observer seem to be a bit smitten with Josh Freeman.

They even penned a postgame story about his scrambling prowess, checking in with Donald Penn and others to get their take.

“We have to improve on that, but he’s a big guy and I think people were just having trouble bringing him down,” [Panthers linebacker Dan] Connor said.

Penn said Freeman “saved me two or three times” in the Bucs win at Carolina.

Joe recommends your read the story. Joe always enjoys seeing how Bucs’ reputations grow – positively and negatively – around the NFL.

Plenty of Bucs highlights over the Carolina kitties, thanks to the good people of the NFL Network.

First are the game highlights replete with the pipes of Gene Deckerhoff.

Earnest Graham skies over the goal line for a touchdown reception.

Kellen Winslow hauls in a huge 40-yard catch.

Mike Williams has his second touchdown reception in as many games in the NFL.

Ronde Barber grabs his second interception in as many games this year.

Matt Moore looks like the stiff he is as he fumbles.

Geno Hayes stops the Panthers on fourth-and-goal, thanks to help from tackle Brian Price.

Aqib Talib puts the dagger in the Panthers.

More clips of Graham’s touchdown catch.

Josh Freeman makes like Fran Tarkenton.

More Freeman highlights in the win.

Another look at Winslow’s big catch.

Stylez White buries Matt Moore.

Another look at Williams’ touchdown catch.

Watch the Raheem Morris and the Bucs react to the win in their postgame press conferences.

So many heroes for the Bucs today. But Joe wants to make sure nobody forgets the touchdown-saving tackle by Tanard Jackson on Carolina’s kick return early in the fourth quarter.

The Bucs were leading 20-7, and Mike Goodson fielded Connor Barth’s kick and ripped up the gut through some big holes before Jackson made an open-field, solo tackle on him at the Bucs’ 44 yard line.

If Jackson fails there, Goodson blows by Barth to the end zone.

Jackson didn’t have his best game last week against Cleveland, but he showed up very big in the second half today. It’s probably a very different game if he doesn’t make that tackle.

So how about that old fart Ronde Barber? An NFL senior citizen, despite self-admittedly not having that last “gear” to run back interceptions, is playing like a young stud.

He has two interceptions through the first two games of the year. His interception in the first half — again — may have set the tone for the Bucs going up 2-0 to start the season, the first time that has happened since 2005 (Ssssshhhh! The Bucs won the South that season).

Barber, perhaps in his last NFL season (labor negotiations will play a big part in whether Barber returns), is hardly playing like he’s in his final NFL season. Guy is playing just as well as he ever did.

When speaking on the Bucs radio network, Ronde, as always, deflected criticism and instead talked about his team, all but admitting the younger Bucs and coach Raheem Morris have him feeling like a reborn NFL player.

Enjoy it Bucs fans. This may be his final season. Already it’s a memorable one for one of the greatest players in Bucs history.

Josh Freeman has Peter King eating out of his hands.

Joe tries to be Mr. Multimedia.

Unlike too many in the MSM, Joe does not look down on Twitter, chats, the Devilnet, Facebook, et al. Those that do are no less than foolish.

So as Joe was running a live chat, monitoring Twitter and watching the Bucs game, Joe came across an interesting Twitter posting from coffee-slurping, popcorn-munching, Red Sox-loving Peter King, of Sports Illustrated.

He watches all the games from the NBC studios in Manhattan and was enamoured with Josh Freeman’s studly first half.

Josh Freeman’s looking like a fifth-year playoff quarterback. So confident.

Yes, Freeman in the first half looked like horny Ben Roethlisberger, sans the college chicks. Dude was making plays right and left.