Joe took a little time this morning to talk about all things Bucs on the Ron and Ian show on WDAE-AM 620. Joe hit on various topics. As for Joe’s assessment of the failings at No. 3 receiver, at one point Joe was indirectly referencing this connection between Greg Schiano and wide receivers coach John Garrett. Enjoy.

Joe always used to chuckle when Bucs fans were often angry with BSPN (not that the outfit doesn’t provide enough ammo on a daily basis for people to be angry) or NFL Network because they didn’t talk enough about the Bucs.

Well, if you want national outlets to talk Bucs, either the team needs to win or there must be a lot of drama going on. Given the fact the Bucs are 0-2, you can figure out why Bucs news is now all the rage among national media types.

Enter known stalker and girlfriend beater Jay Mariotti, who decided to pile on with a unique take on an otherwise nuclear blast on the team.

Mariotti drops references to “One Hazmat Place” and Bucs quarterback “Rip Van Freeman” in documenting what has to have been a harrowing past six weeks or so for Bucs rock star general manager Mark Dominik and Bucs commander Greg Schiano.

In an otherwise scathing column, Mariotti at least gives credit to Bucs star cornerback Darrelle Revis for trying to right the pirate ship.

Whether that love-in will lead to any measure of equilibrium on this wobbling pirate ship is your guess or mine. All I know is, I’ve never seen a month quite like it — so many detrimental stories from all sides attacking a normally efficient organization. “I thought those New York days were over,” said Revis, smiling, knowing the New York, Philadelphia and Boston media would be salivating. And while Revis again stressed the significance of this team staying together when so much is wrong and uttered these vital words — “I think the best thing through these situations is to be honest, and for us as a team to stick together. A win will change everything. A win will change this whole atmosphere.” — the reality of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers can’t be changed.

One, they don’t have a quarterback.

Two, their coach has lost seven of his last eight games and, no matter what Revis says, is a couple of more bad losses from losing his team — and, ultimately, his job. If Schiano is an avowed disciplinarian, why so many penalties, many of the idiot variety? If he’s an authoritarian, why so much disarray?

Mariotti makes a salient point that Joe has brought up previously. Schiano is a disciplinarian, meaning stupid mental mistakes are usually intolerable and drummed out of the players’ heads in practice. Yet many of those stupid penalties can be directly connected to costing the Bucs one game and perhaps both (remember, Vincent Jackson had a touchdown catch voided last Sunday due to a penalty).

Combined with the dysfunctional way the offense acted to open the season, it makes Joe scratch his head wondering what the heck the team had been practicing throughout the summer and preseason.

When a team with a disciplinarian coach plays undisciplined, that’s not good for anyone’s job security, players or coaches.

“Bill, I got V-Jax. That’s what I’m sayin’, Dawg.”

 Where would the Bucs’ offense be without Vincent Jackson?

It seems the Patriots are going to try and find out.

Per film guru and Patriots beat writer Doug Kyed of NESN, look for helmet-wielding, cabbie-slugging, Adderrall-popping, coach-cussing, referee-charging, pistol-friendly, granny-hassling Aqib Talib to man up on Jackson all over the field Sunday.

Vincent Jackson vs. Aqib Talib: At this point, Talib should be very familiar with Jackson. He was the 6-foot-5, 230-pound receiver’s teammate for the first half of last season, they practiced against each other for a week this summer and they matched up with one another during a preseason game. All that familiarity will likely help Talib more than Jackson. Talib did a nice job against Jackson in the preseason, but the Buccaneers’ receiver had some impressive moments during training camp practice. Talib typically sticks to the left side of the field, but in special circumstances, the Patriots will have him shadow a team’s top receiver. This will likely be one of those situations. Jackson has 12 catches on 24 targets for 231 yards and zero touchdowns this season. Talib has allowed two catches on five targets for 47 yards with two interceptions, according to my own film study.

Joe suspects the Patriots will focus more on taking away Doug Martin and making Josh Freeman beat them. So there should be plenty of opportunities for Jackson.

As for the Talib-Jackson matchup, Joe won’t bet against Jackson, though Talib surely has plenty of familiarity with Freeman’s tendencies.

Joe asked Mike Williams this week whether Talib could talk enough trash on the field to get in the heads of Jackson or Williams. That’s not possible, Williams said.

Williams went on to tell Joe he’s still in regular contact with Talib, one of his early mentors, and that the Bucs have made enough adjustments to the offense where Talib shouldn’t be able to pick up Tampa Bay play calls.

Joe watched the Bucs game against the Saints, and like most sober and non-sober Bucs fans, Joe was sickened by the ineptitude of Tampa Bay’s offense that scored just seven points.

Yes, the running game was effective, but there was no rhythm to the offense and the missing threats at No. 3 receiver and tight end was glaring.

But Bucs players see things differently. A few days removed from the 16-14 loss, optimism abounds at One Buc Palace. Lakeland Ledger beat writer Rick Brown took notes.

“I think we’re real close,” said Ogletree, who has one catch for 5 yards and a touchdown. “Our approach stays the same. If we come out and work we know it will get clicking. We have some talent on both sides of the ball.

Freeman, who has had to deal with rumors of him wanting to ask for a trade and him not getting along with coach Greg Schiano, admits he is a little frustrated, but not because of the rumors.

“I think the frustration of knowing we’re not that far away; of knowing this offense is capable of scoring a lot more than seven points a game,” Freeman said. “We just have to find a way to stop hurting ourselves, get better on third down and we’ll be just fine.”

Yes, Freeman is correct; the Bucs must get better on third down, and first and second downs, so third down is easier.

The Bucs have scored just three offensive touchdowns through the first two weeks. The “not-that-far-away” offense is going to have to show up immediately.

WTSP-TV, Ch. 10 sports chief Dave Wirth delivers an uplifting breakdown this morning in his exclusive Bucs-Patriots game preview for JoeBucsFan.com.

The Bucs’ $1 million-per-game cornerback, Darrelle Revis, says the Bucs did, in fact, gain an edge against the Patriots by practicing with them in Foxborough this summer. The question is whether the Bucs can take advantage.

Revis painted a picture of the Bucs gathering intelligence and now it’s up to the New Schiano Order to make the most of it.

“I think what we all got is we got to see what they do, you know, it’s almost like you’re in the bushes with a camera watching their practice,” Revis said on WDAE-AM 620 last night. “It’s almost like it’s just cheating. You get to see their formations. You get to see how Tom [Brady] runs the offense. You know, our offense gets to see their defense and vice versa. So it’s almost like an open book test in school. You’ve got the answers right there. You just gotta figure out a great game plan to go up there and beat those guys.”

Joe appreciated this take from Revis. Of course, it can be a huge edge to practice with a team and observe them for days. Downplaying would be silly.

However, there also is a superstar head coach on the other side, Bill Belicheat. And he knows all about cameras and hiding in bushes.

The Bucs have the talent to beat the Patriots, and on paper the Bucs match up pretty will with this banged up edition of the Pats. Joe suspects coaching, game plan and discipline will have huge roles on Sunday.

Much has been made of the relationship between Bucs commander Greg Schiano and franchise quarterback Josh Freeman. It’s even taken over talk across NFL circles; not just locally.

Super Bowl-winning quarterback Phil Simms recently dropped in on the “Booger and Rich Show” heard locally on WHFS-FM 98.7, and joked how the alleged rift between Schiano and Freeman is all the rage nationally.

When discussing Freeman, Simms strongly hinted that criticism of Freeman is in large part the Kansas State product’s own doing.

“I will just say this: you don’t see it too often from a starting quarterback is late to any team function or misses a team function. The quarterback is held to higher standard — you know that — and I think that is the right thing to do. Quarterbacks are the second-most powerful guy in every organization. The head coach and the quarterback have to be on the same page. They have to be the two hardest workers in the organization and if they are not, you know what, you are going to have problems.

“I always say this: If Josh Freeman goes out there and prepares and works hard on the practice field every day and he leads, you know what? Greg Schiano is going to be his best friend. I had kids that played football and if they were not starting I always told them the same thing, ‘Make the coach play you. Make him. Go out there and keep practicing hard. They will notice.’ I would say the same thing to Josh Freeman. ‘Don’t worry about all of this fighting. Do your job. Lead the team! Be a great example to everybody else.’ That’s how it works. That’s how it works. There is only one way out of it. If you think there is another team out there for you, get that out of your head. This league moves fast. There is no guarantee there is another starting job for you somewhere else. There are quarterbacks that come into this league every year. Two, three, four or five that are the so-called franchise guys. My advice is, make it work there in Tampa.”

Simms, in a roundabout way, said that if Freeman thinks he is playing for a hardass coach in Schiano, he has no idea what a hardass coach is, referring to his coach with the Giants, Bill Parcells. Simms then began to recount his days with Parcells saying that each and every practice Parcells rode him and was all over his case, largely only because he was the quarterback.

Joe wrote the following before and will write it again. Freeman’s future lies in Freeman’s hands, it is that simple.

Also, speaking of simple, winning cures all ills. If the Bucs go on a winning streak, all of this drama will be backburner material.

Ahmad Black, earning $555,000 this season per RotoWorld.com, is no fan of being a little lighter in the wallet after the NFL slapped him with a $21,000 fine for his clearly dirty hit on Jimmy Graham on Sunday. That’s much harder on Black than the $100,000 Dashon Goldson, an $8 million-a-year man, was penalized by Roger Goodell. (Frankly, Joe can’t relate to all those zeros.)

Black said what he had to say about playing within the rules and much more in the Bucs’ locker room today, including referencing his checkbook. (Audio via Joe’s partners at 620wdae.com.)

Joe talks about the “kick in the gut” of the Saints loss and a whole lot more during this weekly podcast with Ronnie Lane, the smooth-voiced dude of the Buccaneers Radio Network.

There is great news out of One Buc Palace. The Bucs had a fantastic week of practice to date, so said numerous players. Even commander Greg Schiano said the Bucs have put the Saints game behind them and have shown up with their lunch pails.

But most important, Josh Freeman says the offense has been feeling the vibe and is at its 2013 peak.

“This has been the sharpest that we’ve been in practice, so I look forward to seeing us transfer that to the game on Sunday,” Freeman said, via TBO.com.

Ok. So maybe, just maybe, the Bucs offense needed the first two games to wake up after being allowed to snooze through preseason. Davin Joseph and Darrelle Revis finally have their legs under them. Doug Martin is in a groove. Carl Nicks and Tom Crabtree might be back. Kevin Ogletree can only get better.

There is hope for Sunday.

Dashon Goldson is racking up penalties and fines faster than Kevin Ogletree accumulates drops.

Bucs icon John Lynch, known for his violent play, has called Bucs games recently for FOX and will again on Sunday. Lynch has done intensive film study on the Bucs, and has come away believing that much of what the NFL wants Goldson to change is unrealistic.

“You look at the [Darren] Sproles hit [on Sunday]. You gotta guy who is 5-8, being generous, and he’s going to the ground. (laughs) So how much lower can you go? I think some of what the league is asking the guys to do is impossible,” Lynch said on the Ron and Ian show on WDAE-AM 620. “It’s a fine line for Dashon, because that’s what makes him a tremendous player. He controls that middle of the field. I think we’ve already seen it; receivers aren’t so sure about going across the middle against him and [Mark] Barron. But at the same point, they need [Golson] out there, and he’s not going to be out there if he continues to play the way he’s playing.”

Lynch hits the core of the problem for many of the flags referees are throwing at Goldson and other Buccaneers. There’s just no way to play manly, fast football and avoid illegal contact in many cases.

And there lies the problem. The Bucs are paying Goldson $8 million a year. They’re not paying him to play soft and alter his style. Goldson, himself, has a lot of money riding on his ability to maintain an intimidating presence and he knows his style helped lead to his superstar status.

Don’t look for Goldson to change anytime soon.

Wait a minute. You mean Tom Brady might smile at the thought of going after every cornerback not named Revis on Sunday? Well, that’s no surprise. The Bucs are quite thin and inexperienced after No. 24.

Pats beat men Doug Kyed and Nick Underhill dive into all things Bucs in this NESN.com video, including how the Pats might “exploit” Johnthan Banks and Leonard Johnson.

Yesterday, New Orleans Saints quarterback sounded off on Bucs safety Dashon Goldson as being a dirty player. This, just days after the Saints narrowly beat the Bucs at the Stadium on Dale Mabry Highway.

Brees was quoted as saying, “He (Goldson) certainly has no regards for rules in the middle; he’s going after guys’ heads. You can see it. … There are some instances where it’s pretty obvious a guy’s going after another guy’s head.”

This morally offended Dory LeBlanc of WDAE-AM 620. She began tapping on her laptop to all but call Brees a hypocrite for his comments on Goldson and the Bucs.

What makes the comments ironic and almost hypocritical is that Brees and the Saints have just been reunited with their head coach after Sean Payton served a one-year suspension for what is commonly referred to as “Bountygate.”

Goldson had the right to appeal his suspension, just as the four current and former Saints players did in the Bountygate scandal. The end result was that former NFL Commisioner Paul Tagliabue vacated the players’ suspension, finding that the coaches were primarily responsible for the bounty scheme.

Brees was outspoken throughout last year, defending his teammates and coaches, even taking the discussion to CBS News’ Person To Person.

Yeah, Joe thought it was rich that a guy who plays for a team that was busted for bounties, which is as dirty at it can get, is throwing rocks at glass houses calling other players headhunters when the NFL does not exactly agree after looking at video evidence.

Joe guesses if Goldson was paid extra cash to knock people out of a game, then Brees would have been good with that.

Below is video of Brees spouting off on Goldson and the Bucs. Video courtesy of NOLA.com.

Tampa Tribune humorist Martin Fennelly and Patrick Welter of TBO.com discuss the Bucs’ current situation and, of course, franchise quarterback Josh Freeman in this TBO.com video. In particular, topic of discussion is trying to solve the riddle that is Josh Freeman.

The thing that has Joe puzzled in the Bucs losing streak has been the undisciplined play for a coach who is all about discipline.

First, there was the Chinese fire drill of communication problems right off the bat in the first series of the regular season in New Jersey. But what has carried over from that game into the gut-punching loss to the Saints has been penalties.

During a Saints series where the Bucs played Santa Claus by extending the Saints’ possession three times due to penalties, the Bucs didn’t directly lose points. But damn, if the Bucs could have gotten off the field like they should have, maybe they could have had decent field position to kick a field goal or score a touchdown?

The “Numbers Never Lie” crowd at BSPN (the name is a fallacy because Joe learned in high school anyone can twist numbers to prove a point) has a stunning statistic about the Bucs that should have Bucs commander Greg Schiano in an uproar.

@ESPN_Numbers: Josh Freeman has only 1 more completion (24) than the number of penalties committed by the Buccaneers (23).

This is just about inexcusable. Yes, the Bucs defense is playing lights out football, but can the defense, and more importantly, the offense, use their heads and cut down on the penalties?

The fact the Bucs offense is getting so many penalties, on top of that trainwreck performance in New Jersey, should send a blunt signal to Schiano that during next training camp and preseason his first-team offense needs a whole lot more work.

Jonathan Casillas and Derrick Brooks talk about chaos, discipline and uniting a team.

The media circus around the Bucs has been like one of those clown cars actually seen at the circus. In the Bucs’ case, instead of a clown, a new negative rumor, sometimes transparent BS, pops out seemingly every other day.

In the age of smart phones and social media, most Bucs players are hearing and seeing all the gossip quickly, either on their own or via friends, family and teammates tipping them off.

Bucs veteran linebacker Jonathan Casillas feels the impact of the media mayhem and said yesterday he believes it could be a good thing.

“I think it is going to bring the team closer,” Casillas said. “You gotta be in it together. The worse it gets on the outside, the more we got to get tighter. You know, I believe that. I think a lot of guys do believe that in this locker room. Our goal is to get 100 percent on board. You know, I’m not sure if it’s 100 percent yet, but that’s our goal. If we can get that done by Sunday, that’ll be great.”

Joe could get all negative here and ask, ‘What the hell does Casillas mean when he says the team isn’t 100 percent on board and it would be nice if they were by Sunday?” But Joe really didn’t get a negative vibe from Casillas and, frankly, so what if a few players are bitching and moaning about the New Schiano Order. No, that’s not a good sign, but there are plenty of great head coaches whose players questioned them and/or despised them at times.

Bucs icon Derrick Brooks made a great point yesterday afternoon during his “Tampa 2” show with Steve Duemig on WDAE-AM 620.

Brooks chuckled at fans and others who think a discipline-focused, toes-on-the-line coach is a problem. “The last two coaches I played for, it was that way, as well,” Brooks said. “This is nothing new.

“When Coach Dungy came in, he laid down his principles and you followed them. These were the marching orders. And I guess it’s the difference that I’m starting to see where the fans respond, is how [Schiano] went about doing it.

Brooks went on to say massive media exposure leaguewide has made it much harder for teams to keep their privacy and keep normal adjustments and discontent out of the spotlight.

Former Bucs QB Shaun King makes a plea to Mike Sullivan and Greg Schiano

Free Josh Freeman!

That was the message this morning from former Bucs quarterback Shaun King on WDAE-AM 620. King said the Saints-Bucs game film on Freeman doesn’t look so bad when you account for the “drops” and “slips” by his targets. One of three QBs to lead the Bucs to the NFC Championship game, King said the Bucs have to stop playing scared with Freeman.

“When you take the shackles off, there isn’t as many pressure situations as when they’re on,” King explained. “When you’re in that conservative gameplan, you’re always in 3rd-and-4 having to make a play. When they let you just play, and you go a little two-minute offense a little earlier in the game, and you throw the ball on first and second down a little more, you know it takes some of the pressure of those situations. I know he’s struggling a little bit, but I think you gotta let him. I don’t think you can try and win in spite of your quarterback. I think you just gotta let your quarterback play. If he can’t do it, he can’t do it.”

King, who works for NBC Sports, dives into the Xs and Os of the trust issues on the field with Freeman. “You’ve got to trust him if you want to win these games.” Enjoy the full King interview below.

Prickly Pete Prisco has the Bucs at No. 30 in his recent NFL power rankings. He details why in this CBS Sports video.

Early on The Gerald McCoy Show on WDAE-AM 620 last night, the man for which the show is named said he wasn’t going to say much about Dashon Goldson’s suspension.

“That’s a tough situation [Goldson] was in. But I’m not going to elaborate on it because it’s over with,” McCoy said. “He won [the appeal], and he’s playing this week.”

Then McCoy opened up a handful of minutes later.

“I don’t think we’re doing anything differently in practice,” McCoy said about what the Bucs are doing to eliminate their illegal hits. “They’ve just made us more aware of it, with what they show us on film and the penalties we have received from helmet-to-helmet hits. They’ve slowed them down. And we’ve went over them. And they’ve explained to us why this is a violation and how anytime that situation comes up they’re going to call it. Because their priority is to protect offensive players. And it’s just, I mean it’s just our game. It’s something we have to get used to. But we’re not doing anything different in practice.

“We’re not a dirty team and we’re not going to slow down. You know, we play on the edge and we’re going to continue to play on the edge. That’s just who we are.”

As Joe detailed extensively to The Big Dog, Steve Duemig of WDAE-AM 620, last night, what’s happening now with the Bucs defense is a dream come true for Greg Schiano. The Rutgers defense is working in the NFL. It’s intimidating. It’s leading the league in sacks. It’s not allowing a lot of points. Schiano is not going to mess with it. It’s working, and the fines aren’t his money. Schiano wants his team flying around and playing on the edge while trying to follow the rules.

Expect nothing to change other than, hopefully, eliminating the unquestionably dirty hits like the one delivered by Ahmad Black on Sunday.