The Bucs have struggled mightily to punch the ball in on the goal line. The memories are fresh and painful.

Though admittedly not an excuse, Raheem Morris served up a bit of an explanation Monday on WDAE-AM 620. And he honed in on Earnest Graham losing a yard on 2nd-and-goal from the 1 yard line in the fourth quarter against Detroit.

“A lot of these [offensive linemen] don’t have live goal line reps under their belt. … We had a mistake from a younger player. We don’t make excuses. He didn’t fit it up right and we weren’t able to get that executed, and we actually lost a yard,” Morris said.  

“The last time you really get a live goal line rep in practice is in training camp. And a lot of the guys we have playing for us weren’t even in training camp with us. So right there you’re behind the 8-ball when you’re talking about some of those things. The first time a young guard like [Derek] Hardman, a young guard like [Ted] Larsen has a chance to get a live goal line rep is either in a big game in Atlanta on a 4th-and-1, or is a big game against the Lions when you’re fighting for playoff position on a 2nd-and-1. To be put in those situations sometimes for young players is tough. That’s part of the situational ball that you want to simulate in practice that’s harder to do during the season without having full pads on without going to the ground in practice and doing some of those things. Again, no need for excuses. We didn’t execute it, and we should.”

Prior to Raheem’s comments, he was backed up by Mike Alstott during a Monday interview on 1040 AM. Alstott was asked specifically why the Bucs struggle to get those critical yards.

“It’s a learning curve on short yardage. It’s hard to play in this league with no injuries let alone what the Bucs are dealing with,”  Alstott said. “There are rookies on the offensive line that weren’t in OTAs or camp. That’s tough. They’ll correct as time goes on.”

Hearing all this, Joe couldn’t help but wonder again why the Bucs had Hardman pulling on the goal line when he stripped Josh Freeman of the ball, which turned into a turnover against the Redskins that nearly cost the Bucs the game.

That aside, this is all just tough growing pains for the Bucs’ young roster.

Overall, clearly the Bucs have done a great job coaching around the inexperience.  

"Hey Olson, I've got enough on my hands with the defense as it is. Do I have to start calling plays on offense for you too? Com' on man!"

A lot of Bucs fans are angry with coach Raheem Morris, thinking he has gone all conservative of late, channeling his inner Father Dungy.

Well, Raheem is a defensive coach. And defensive coaches are, by nature, allergic to taking chances.

Consider that good guy Stephen Holder of the St. Petersburg Times is wondering that perhaps Raheem, also the Bucs defensive coordinator, is letting his defensive responsibilities get the best of him, so Holder wondered on Twitter.

Its fair to ask whether Raheem’s status as def coord might sometimes cloud his opinion of the unit. Just sayin’…

Well, unless there’s something going on Joe’s not aware of, Raheem isn’t the guy calling the plays on offense. If the offense is getting conservative, if the offense benches LeGarrette Blount for no good reason, if the offense doesn’t try to run quarterback Josh Freeman up the center’s rear end on short-yardage situations, don’t blame Raheem.

Point your finger at the guy calling the plays on offense: the offensive coordinator.

Reading between the lines here, Joe thinks it’s significant that Raheem Morris briefly mentioned the prospect of Tanard Jackson returning in 2011.

Speaking on The Raheem Morris Show on WDAE-AM 620 on Monday, Raheem talked about how exciting the future is with young players returning next year who didn’t get to show everything they had this year. He included the possibility of Jackson’s return, lumping him in with Gerald McCoy, Aqib Talib, Brian Price and Cody Grimm.

Raheem talked about players returning healthy and “in the right state of mind.”

Jackson, as Bucs fans know, allegedly hookah piped his way out of the league. He was suspended for the 2010 season under the league’s substance abuse policy.

One might think the Bucs would write him off after proving he can’t be counted on. But Joe suspects they’ll give Jackson another shot if they think his head’s on straight.

Raheem was secondary coach when Jackson was a rare rookie starter on Tampa Bay’s defense in 2007. Surely, there’s a deep bond.

Jackson will come cheap, and Joe is of the understanding that he’ll automatically be under contract.  Joe would be happy to have him back. Hopefully, the Bucs won’t make the mistake of counting on him contributing.

Joe wants to take a moment to introduce Bucs center Jeff Faine, a Notre Dame grad and a proud multibusiness CEO, to a little something called the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act.

Most regular working folks know it very well as COBRA, the federal law that allows workers to pay out the nose to continue their health insurance coverage after leaving a job that provided said coverage.

It seems Faine, the Bucs representative to the players’ union, isn’t aware of this little thing that should give his teammates peace of mind if there’s a short lockout and players no longer have medical coverage paid for by the NFL. Simply put, these players would be able to pay monthly to continue their health coverage that would be lost.

Apparently, Faine was fanning the flames of stupidity during an interview today on The King David Show on 1010 AM, which is hosted Shaun King and Toby David and not the ancient Hebrew king.

Per the show’s Twitter feed, Faine said players are worried about doctor bills during a lockout.

Jeff Faine on the lockout- Health insurance is a concern for some players who’s wives will be having babies during the time of the lockout

Joe has to think Faine knows better. He’s got hundreds and hundreds of employees.  He’s got to know that players can fork over a few grand a month tops to keep their families insured. Surely, they all make enough money to stash that cash away now.

The babies can be born in hospitals with the best care. No need for that $40-an-hour, cross- dressing midwife on Craigs List with good references.

Joe doesn’t typically write about the lockout. Frankly, Joe can’t imagine the NFL and its players would be stupid enough to miss real games like they did in 1987. The draft will go on regardless, and the billionaires won’t be interested in losing money.

But Joe was annoyed that Faine was trying to pass on this crap to fans. Either Faine isn’t advising the players he represents properly, or he’s throwing some BS out there to gain sympathy.

Just a quick love note from Joe.

It’s official; JoeBucsFan.com will have more than 5 million pages viewed in 2010. Not too shabby for a website that doesn’t make readers click around to all kinds of different pages to get what they want.

Thanks to all for this great holiday gift.

Joe expects to double his traffic in 2011. And Joe is grateful he was able to deliver such an insane bargain to his advertisers. These great folks have paid at least 85 to 90 percent less than they’d have forked over on other media sites for the same traffic.

Joe is humbled thinking about how this site started with a laptop, a dream and barely a few nickels.

Thanks again.

There’s no question who Raheem Morris’ favorite reindeer is.

By former Bucs defensive end Steve White’s count, Raheem was “Blitzen” 32 times against the Lions on Sunday. No sacks, but today we did learn the Bucs separated Lions third-string quarterback Drew Stanton’s shoulder in the first half.

In his must-read Bull Rush column on his Passing on the Game blog, White starts off his long critique of the Bucs defense with a take on the blitzes.

Oh and boy did Coach Morris call them.

32 by my unofficial count.

And yet after all that the Bucs still didn’t have any sacks, no interceptions, and very few pressures.

If you can’t play your base defense eventually its going to come back to haunt you.

It wasn’t as if the Lions came in with some kind of exotic blocking scheme. They ran basically what the last few Bucs opponents have run at them, zones, split action bellies and Iso belly cut backs (AKA The Saints’ play). And yet the defense still hasn’t seemed to fix it.

White goes on to explain about about how those blitzes are intended to cover up some serious problems. He identified Myron Lewis and Elbert Mack a guys forced into action who just isn’t ready. Again, Joe suggests you grab a cold one and read the whole thing.

Joe’s really not sure why the blitzes weren’t working. They should have had more success. The Bucs were coming after a third-stringer, and righfully so, but couldn’t force a turnover or take the guy down.

Hopefully, Matt Hasselbeck won’t be as sharp as Stanton was Sunday.

Veteran Tampa Tribune NFL writer eye-RAH! Kaufman has some uplifting words for Bucs fans still reeling from the heartbreaking overtime loss to the “rebuilding since 1957” Detroit Lions.

For Joe, the pain is running so deep. (And no, reminding Joe how far the Bucs have come this season and about the team’s many feel-good stories doesn’t help. An excruciating loss with the postseason on the line can not be soothed by anything other than intoxication, a visit from a cheerleader in a naughty Santa suit, or another victory.)

Kaufman brings word that Josh Freeman is on the cusp of setting the Bucs’ record for fewest interceptions. The ghosts of orange Vinny Testeverde and Trent Dilfer have never infested his big body.

“Certainly the biggest step he’s made this season is his decision making and how well he takes care of the ball,” Olson said of the second-year quarterback, who has thrown only six interceptions in 422 pass attempts while leading the Bucs to an 8-6 record. “We’ve got to continue to surround him with good players and he’s got to stay healthy, but there’s no reason to believe he can’t be one of the premier players in this league.”

The fewest interceptions thrown by Tampa Bay in a season came in 2007, when Jeff Garcia, Luke McCown and Bruce Gradkowski combined for only eight.

Freeman is a true stud. And Joe’s looking for him to finish very strong. How great would it be to see him have his best game of the season in the SuperDome with everything on the line.

Regarding the interception record, Joe’s so glad Micheal Spurlock didn’t toss one earlier this season on the ugliest fake punt Joe’s seen in a long time.

Joe remains ill that the Bucs had LeGarrette Blount on the sideline when the they needed a first down to all but ice the game and kick a short field goal.

Tied at 17, the Bucs had first down on the Detroit 15. Then two handoffs to Cadillac Williams and a quarterback keeper by Josh Freeman led to no first down and the Bucs kicked a field goal before Detroit closed out the game.

The Lions must have been celebrating that the guy they couldn’t stop all day was holding his helmet.

Speaking on The Raheem Morris Show yesterday on WDAE-AM 620, the head coach said fumbling issues was the reason Blount was off the field despite his 110 yards on 15 carries. Joe thinks that’s ridiculous and will explain below.

Here are Morris’ comments:

“The reason LeGarrette Blount wasn’t in the game at that point is at that time in the game you’re in 4-minute mode, a kind of a deal where you go with your ball security running back. Right now, Legarrette Blount has a couple more fumbles than any other running back that carries a ball a lot of the time. That’s a part of being a young player. You gotta know when to protect the ball. You gotta know how to run it when you protect the ball. And we had a lot of belief and a lot of faith in Cadillac right there to be effective. And also leads [the Lions] to believe we’re going to pass, so you get a better shell and a better look at what you run at. …I certainly wanted to go with the ball security running back.”

Unless NFL.com is wrong, Blount has two fumbles this season on 164 carries. Cadillac Williams has one fumble in 120 carries. Earnest Graham has one fumble in 20 carries.

Joe just doesn’t see Blount as such a fumbling risk that the Bucs had to sit him down in favor of Cadillac, who has been a poor runner this season on first and second down. The upside of Blount outweighed the other options.

Despite his consistent production when not in short yardage, for some reason the Bucs don’t have confidence in Blount. His 15 carries Sunday are very telling.

Update 12:12 p.m.: One of Joe’s loyal Facebook friends has documented Blount’s fumbles and it seems as if he should have at least three or four officially, as opposed to the two on NFL.com. Blount’s fumble cost the Bucs a touchdown in Arizona, and he fumbled in Washington and Atlanta. Blount and Freeman had a botched exchange at home against Carolina. …Still Joe turns to Blount on the drive above.

Derek “Old School” Fournier of WhatTheBuc.net is so unnerved by the Bucs loss to the rebuilding since 1957 Detroit Lions, he lost his composure and used foul language in his review of the playoff-killing loss.

As we approach the second decade of the 21st century, many in the sports world use cliches, often empty. They sound good but mean nothing.

Derrick Brooks’ famous “it is what it is” springs to mind. What is “it?”

Then there is another of Joe’s favorites, “We did what we had to do.” OK, what did you do?

Of late, there’s another empty phrase coined by Ray Lewis. “Imposing your will.” And what will would that be, the will to allow your friends to gun down innocent citizens outside an Atlanta nightclub?

Or would that be the will to stand in front of a judge and cop a plea?

(For the record, Joe likes Ray Lewis.)

It’s also a phrase Bucs coach Raheem Morris uses from time to time and it may have killed the Bucs playoff hopes.

Seems Raheem used this phrase at some point last week about playing the rebuilding since 1957 Detroit Lions. Instead, it was the rebuilding since 1957 Detroit Lions who imposed their will on Raheem Sunday, so reports Tom Kowalski of MLive.com.

“It will all depend on what they do and what I want to do and how I want to force my will on our opponent that day,” Morris said in the story. “The thing is, you always have a rotation in the interior line anyway, but now you particularly have to have a rotation inside because you’ve lost your franchise guy there in McCoy.”

Raiola was upset at the suggestion that Morris and the Bucs could “impose their will” on the Lions.

“Impose their will? Is that what happened?” Raiola said loudly as reporters entered the locker room.

How about imposing some will inside the opponent’s five? You know, the will to gain a first down if not a touchdown? That would be a nice will to start out with.

Dick Stockton and Charles Davis look at the Bucs’ galling, playoff-killing loss to the rebuilding since 1957 Detroit Lions and “miserable” Drew Stanton in this FoxSports.com video.

Video: NFL on FOX: Long time coming

At his afternoon press conference today, Raheem Morris said the Bucs had their worst tackling game of the season in the mind-numbing overtime loss to the Lions.

He also said the Bucs weren’t in all their gaps in the running game.

Joe’s sick to his stomach again knowing the Bucs turned out a defensive clunker in their biggest game of the season. It’s one thing to be overmatched. But playing poorly is hard to swallow.

The Bucs’ A game on defense seems to have fallen through a trap door that opened with the Falcons kickoff return for a touchdown on Dec. 5.

It’s a special Monday night with the Vikings and Bears playing a rare outdoor game in Minnesota with snow and bitter cold in the gametime forecast. 

And the best place in Tampa to watch the game is Honey’s.

No two words annoy Joe more than “kitchen’s closed.”

When Joe watches Monday Night Football, Joe likes to know he’s not going to be kicked out after the game or get those annoying it’s-getting-late stares from a server or bartender.

Joe wants to watch the game and not worry about his food and beer needs being met. This is why Joe insists you head to Honey’s in Carrollwood to watch Monday Night Football. It’s $1 draft pints every Monday night!!! And top notch food is served until 3 a.m. 

No lie. Here’s the menu:

Among Joe’s many favorites, the wings are the best in Hillsborough County — ownership is from the Buffalo area — and the place is a Tampa tradition all set up for sports fans’ enjoyment. They’ve got the NFL Sunday Ticket and all the college football, plus MLB and NHL.

Joe hopes to see you there.

NFL fans everywhere heard Lions fans cry and moan after the zebras apparently took a touchdown from them in a five-point loss to the Bears on opening day.

After yesterday robbery of the Bucs in Tampa, a Detroit Free Press scribe wrote that now the football gods have evened the score.

The breaks finally tilted in the Lions’ direction.

Detroit can stop whining now about the controversial Johnson non-touchdown in the season opener. The refs hooked them up this time on an equally controversial call midway through the fourth quarter, when Tampa Bay tight end Kellen Winslow and Lions safety C.C. Brown tangled in the end zone. Winslow caught the pass, but officials wiped it away due to offensive pass interference.

It was a badly blown call, because Brown kept his back to the ball, playing the man instead of the ball, and that’s defensive pass interference 99% of the time.

Only heard about the play on the radio? Here’s some evidence for you.

Joe knows the Bucs lost the game, not the refs. But that call was exeptionally heinous.

There were plenty of things that made Bucs fans scratch their heads over yesterday.

There was the benching of LeGarrette Blount late.

There was the bizarre play-calling late.

But good guy Stephen Holder of the St. Petersburg Times is particularly puzzled by a move made by Raheem Morris late in regulation in the Bucs loss to the rebuilding since 1957 Detroit Lions, a loss that for all intents and purposes, puts the Bucs in 2011 draft mode.

In short, after resting on the issue overnight, Holder cannot believe Raheem didn’t go for the win, and settled for a field goal in the final minutes of regulation.

@HolderStephen The more I think about Raheem Morris’ decision to put game in hands of a leaky defense the more stunned I am. ‘You play to win the game!’

Joe understands where Holder is coming from and doesn’t totally disagree, but Joe can also see where Raheem is coming from.

To that point, when the Bucs kicked a go-ahead field goal with 1:39 left in the fourth, the Bucs had held the Lions to one touchdown in the second half, that came early in the third quarter.

Raheem, being a defensive guy and seeing how his defense held the Lions scoreless for some 27 minutes, decided to trust his defense.

Joe can see where Raheem was coming from.

As a Bucs beat writer e-mailed Joe this morning, the Bucs all season have been searching for that “signature win.” Instead yesterday, they suffered a signature loss.

Joe’s surely no expert on voting rules for the NFC Offensive Rookie of the Year award, but Joe does know that Mike Williams and LeGarrette Blount are surely going to take votes from each other.

Crap, Bucs fans and media probably wouldn’t give a huge edge to either one if the vote was only local.

Blount, who got a late start to the season, has chrurned out 777 yards on just 164 carries. That’s an average of 4.7 yards every time he gets the rock, among the best in the NFL.

As for Williams, the fourth round pick has been a standout since arriving in Bucs camp after the draft. He’s got 58 catches for 888 yards (17th best in the NFL)  and eight touchdowns. That leads the Bucs in each category.

Both could have 1,000-yard seasons. And Blount would be as close to one as Williams if the Bucs fed the beast, so to speak.

Joe can’t decide between them at this point. The Bucs offense isn’t much without either one.

Former Bucs great Derrick Brooks minces no words when points a finger directly at the Bucs problems in this BSPN video.

The man Chucky craved but didn’t score in the 2007 draft, Calvin Johnson, looked like a man among boys Sunday against the Bucs’ overmatched defense.

Johnson’s been a stud since he entered the NFL, but his Sunday totals of 10 catches for 152 yards was one of the best games of his career.

Ronde Barber seems to think the Bucs weren’t ready for Johnson, which to Joe is a smack at his defensive coordinator, who also happens to be the Bucs’ head coach. Barber told Sarasota Herald-Tribune columnist Doug Fernandes that the Bucs were unprepared at times to handle Johnson. 

It marked the second straight week Tampa’s defense allowed a touchdown in the final two minutes. Barber had questions about that, along with the plan to stop Johnson.

“Bad plan,” he said, “and we didn’t execute it when it was a good plan. We didn’t do anything to stop him.”

Whoa!

Barber might be the only guy on the Bucs who can get away with publicly criticizing coaching.

Though the comment is  probably just a sign of Barber’s immense frustration after a brutal loss, as Barber’s usually pretty measured with his speech, Joe wonders whether it’s a signal that Barber is not leaning toward a return to the Bucs in 2011.

Veteran sports columnist Gary Shelton explains in this St. Petersburg Times video that for all the Bucs memories of the 2010 season, the loss to the rebuilding since 1957 Detroit Lions “was the worst.”

Sometimes a photo tells the story.

Below, Kellen Winslow and the Lions safety are locked up in the end zone with Winslow about to exercise his right to the ball and catch what should have been a fourth-quarter touchdown. But he was called for pass interference. Yesterday, Joe wrote it was the call that killed the Bucs’ season.

The safety didn’t turn or play the ball; either both guys should have been flagged or none at all. 

Joe knew it. Josh Freeman knew it. Savvy fans knew it.

There was Freeman, with a timeout in his pocket, standing at the line of scrimmage about to spike the ball with 12 seconds left in the first half on the Detroit 47 yard line. Freeman would have gotten off the spike at, say, 10 seconds, and the Bucs would have had time to run a play, call timeout and set up a field goal.

But out of thin air, as if the devil was cashing in on the breaks he gave the Bucs earlier this season, someone on the Bucs sideline called timeout. That effectively slaughtered the Bucs chances of throwing anything more than a dangerous out route or a Hail Mary.

Freeman was hot under the collar as he approached the sideline. The FOX cameras were all over it. The quarterback surely knew somebody allegedly smarter than him screwed up. 

To Joe, this was reprehensible. The Bucs were moving the ball and needed just 10 yards to give Connor Barth a shot at a 54-yard field goal. He’s a guy who has the range.

Joe’s glad Freeman was mad. This kind of avoidable mistake is not acceptable for a team that aspires to “play smart,” one of the core beliefs.

Freeman tossed two lame incompletions — no shot at the end zone — and the half was over. Opportunity lost.

Early in the season Raheem Morris used to openly fantasize to the media about his dream of pounding teams into submission in the fourth quarter with LeGarrette Blount.

That was his ultimate scenario, Raheem said, culminating with the Bucs taking a knee, which Raheem calls his favorite play in football.

You had your chance today, coach, and you abandoned your dream. Someone wearing a headset didn’t get the memo on your core beliefs.

Consider that on the Bucs’ scoring drive early in the fourth quarter that tied the game at 17, Blount powered his way 27 yards to get the Bucs to the Detroit 12 yard line. He wasn’t used again that drive, which ended in a field goal.

On their next drive, still tied at 17, the Bucs had first down on the Detroit 15 with a chance to run down the clock and get a touchdown or set up a game-winning field goal with little or no time for the Lions to return. Blount never got the ball again.

Two handoffs to Cadillac Williams and a quarterback keeper by Josh Freeman led to no first down and the Bucs kicked a field goal before Detroit closed out the game.

Alan Keyes isn’t that conservative.

Where the hell was Blount? Isn’t 15 carries for 110 punishing yards enough to realize the Lions couldn’t stop him?

Joe wonders who the Lions wanted to run the ball late in the game like that, Blount, Cadillac or Freeman? You can bet it wasn’t Blount.

Joe would bet anything that the Lions are grateful for the gift the Bucs gave them.

Merry Christmas, Detroit.