Joe thought it was interesting that the Bucs’ rushing attack began to pop when there were injuries to the Bucs offensive line, including right tackle Jeremy Trueblood.

Joe also found it more than a little strange when Cadillac Williams sung the praises of Trueblood’s backup James Lee on Sirius NFL Radio, as if Lee was the second coming of Dan Dierdorf.

Tom Balog of the Sarasota Herald-Tribune seems to be sensing the same thing. As we begin the homestretch of the 2010 season, Balog has a hunch these games will be Trueblood’s last weeks as a Bucs starter.

”Anything they say, you just have to take it with a grain of salt, good or bad,” Trueblood said Wednesday. “Just use it and understand where they’re coming from. They’re the coaches, I’m the player. I play when I’m told. I just have to be ready to play whenever they want me to.”

Lee is a low-budget young player earning a minimum salary who has shown over four starts that he can protect quarterback Josh Freeman and block for the run much more cheaply than Trueblood, who is making $1.759 million this season after signing an original draft position tender.

”Effort, consistency, the desire to improve,” said Buccaneers offensive line coach Pete Mangurian, assessing Lee’s play. “He had some penalty problems early. He fixed that. He looks at what he doesn’t do well and he tries to do it better the next week and that’s all you can ask.”

Joe strongly urges his readers to browse through Balog’s story in its entirety. All sorts of good nuggets in there.

If Trueblood left the Bucs, this wouldn’t shock Joe one bit. If Lee can get the job done just as well as Trueblood, for a fraction of the cost, it would be crazy for Team Glazer to cough up the extra dough to keep Trueblood when that same cash could be used to lure a free agent linebacker, for example.

You’ve all read THE PESSIMIST, who spews his Bucs-related anger like no other. But Joe also wants you to know THE OPTIMIST. 

THE OPTIMIST is Nick Houllis, a Bucs fan and an accomplished writer whose steadfast allegiance to the team goes back to the 1970s. Houllis is the founder, creator and guru of BucStop.com, a place Joe goes to get lost in time via Houllis’ stunning video collection.

THE OPTIMIST will shine that positive light in your eyes. Some will love it. Some won’t.

“People aren’t excited.”

I hear the topic on sports radio a lot, especially now that the Bucs are winning. I could understand if the Bucs were 3-7, but they’re not, they are 7-3 and looking like they are going to contend for a playoff spot. This Bucs team IS, for a fact, going to play meaningful games in late November and early December, at least.

Why is no one excited?

Don’t get me wrong, there is excitement among Bucs fans. I’ve been to the stadium three times this year, and it is VERY loud out there for only being half full.

Bucs fans are a great bunch, very loyal. One thing has not changed much in Tampa Bay. There are about 30,000 to 40,000 Tampa Bay Buccaneers fans who will go to see games no matter what.

In 1996 when Tony Dungy had the team, though they were losing, you had 30,000 in the stands. In 1984, you had 30-40k then too. That’s what it is. When the team was selling out Raymond James for all those years, it was because you had an additional 30,000 casual fans. The kind that listen to “hey the Bucs are playing good football” and then decide to go to games. 

Josh Freeman throws a last minute comeback TD pass, and his reputation gets spread around the local airwaves on TV and Radio. Next thing you know, people want to go see this Freeman kid.

But until then, fans are going to have to get over their apathy. And a lot of it comes from what the media has reported over the last couple of years.

Concentrating on stories about how the Glazers don’t spend any money, even though they have it’s just the players they’ve spent money on haven’t panned out, that’s left the public with a negative feeling about them.

It’s been proven over and over that the Glazers keep separate bank accounts with their soccer team, yet the average Joe (not Joe on here mind you) thinks the Bucs are siphoning off their ticket money to England! Meanwhile English soccer fans are accusing the Glazers of doing the very same thing!!!

But the real reason fans haven’t fully come back yet is because this town has had something happen to it — that has never happened before. We’ve had our hearts ripped out, one special player at a time. This town was rebuilt for football by Mike Alstott and Warrick Dunn. By Hardy Nickerson and Derrick Brooks. By Warren Sapp and John Lynch, all of whom have gone by the wayside one at a time, and usually not in a flattering way.

Ronde Barber just isn’t enough, although it seems he will be the only one who will leave on his own terms.

But Tampa Bay has never had to deal with that. The Buffalo Bills, they have fans who know what its like. I’m sure they had a tough time watching Thurman Thomas running the ball…in a Dolphins uniform!! Trust me, no one in Dallas was happy to see No. 22 suit up in a Cardinals uniform. But those towns have been through it before. Buffalo watched The Juice and Joe Ferguson say bye bye. Dallas has seen so many stars leave Texas Stadium, they put a big one on their helmets! The Miami Dolphins said goodbye to Czonka, Morris, Griese and Warfield; so Losing Shula and Marino wasn’t much easier, but they were able to go through with it.

Tampa Bay?  It had been too long since the departure of Doug Williams and, truthfully, he alone didn’t do enough. When Pewter Power was born, it was like a new team was born. And fans were jumping on that wagon like they never have before.

These new Bucs are just as exciting, if not more so. Yeah this area was built with defense in mind, but everyone loves a little scoring machine and they will fall for Josh Freeman and Mike Williams in no time.

Bucs fans were never about 9-7 records or playoff positioning; they were about wearing their 99, 55, 40 or 47 jerseys. Now they have to go out and get some new ones as they learn about these new Bucs heroes, but it will happen. Tampa Bay may not get to see home games, but they didn’t back in 1996 and many years before.

Luckily the team wins those road games like it never has before!

"Where did all my turkey friends go?"

Joe wants to wish all his readers a Happy Thanksgiving!

Of course, Joe has much to be thankful for. Outside of family, friends and health, high on Joe’s thankful list is 7-3 and the many tens of thousands of readers that come here by their own free will every week. …Joe remembers the days when he pounded out everything Bucs on his keyboard daily for just a scant few hundred souls.

The intelligent business owners that grace both sides of this page are up on Joe”s thankful list, too.

Joe hopes everyone has a great day and can be thankful for a while. It’s a good feeling.

"It's time to win it all."

Playoffs or not this season, if the Bucs notch 10 wins, the whole rebuilding plan and Mark Dominik’s approach has to change significantly moving forward.

Right? Joe thinks so.

This is the NFL. In Joe’s mind, you win 10 games with a young club and you better do everything to push your team over the top to the promised land the following season. You go for it. Especially since, as always, an injury or two to a franchise player could change everything..

The “lasting contender” stuff would have to go on the backburner.

Of course, Joe hopes the Bucs bring home the Lombardi trophy this season (a guy can fantasize about more than Rachel Watson), but Joe is giddy over the thought of the Bucs finishing strong and making a huge offseason push to bring in some established studs get the team over the top, in addition to 2011 draft picks.

Frankly, Joe believes that approach would bring back legions of bandwagon fans and get the home games back on TV.

Thanksgiving is tomorrow, and you better believe Joe will be working.

JoeBucsFan.com delivers for Bucs fans 24/7. There’s a reason why Joe has become the premier can’t-miss Bucs site.

In addition to a Thanksgiving greeting from an old friend, Joe will churn out the usual Bucs news, fun and nuggets, plus chatter out of Baltimore. And readers will get takes from THE OPTIMIST and former Bucs QB Jeff Carlson.

So remember to put Joe in your Thanksgiving plans. And while you’re at it, follow Joe on Twitter, and get in the mix to win Aqib Talib jerseys.

Joe sees and reads the comments each day. He can envision Bucs fans pounding on their desks at work with their fists loud enough to startle the chicks in the nearby cubicles, interrupting the mindless prattling about Bed, Bath & Beyond.

“The Bucs are a fraud because they haven’t beaten anyone,” so the cackling goes from news sources based in Bristol, New York and further reaches.

Well, to be fair, the Bucs haven’t. The Bucs are still searching for that first elusive win of the 2010 season against a team with more wins than losses. It’s not the Bucs fault they are beating the dregs of the NFL, but the observation is fair if not accurate.

This has veteran sports columnist Gary Shelton irritated. Shelton points out how empty this thinking is because it was also used against the greatest team of the Super Bowl era: the undefeated Miami Dolphins.

As Shelton pointed out in his St. Petersburg Times offering, the NFL is not a beauty pageant.

For crying out loud, this isn’t college football, where a team can win three times as the athletic director makes out the schedule. The Bucs’ schedule is a result of cycle and circumstance and the fine fortune of playing the NFC West in a year where nobody’s home.

Look, I understand doubt. In some years, I’ve led the league in it. Even now, I’m as quick as the next guy to suggest the Bucs still have proving and improving in front of them. If the subject is the Super Bowl, there is plenty of room for skepticism. But I’ve never been one to fret too much about a team’s opponents. There are bigger worries.

Still, the talk of a weak schedule seems to be growing louder as the Bucs get better. More people seem to be talking about who the Bucs play than Boise State.

Possibly the main reason this complaint is lodged against the Bucs stems from two earlier losses to Pittsburgh and New Orleans. Those weren’t just losses. The Bucs were simply pistol-whipped. At home no less.

For Bucs fans who lie awake at night gritting their teeth in a controlled rage over hearing — again — how the Bucs haven’t beaten anyone, the only way this will stop is if in fact the Bucs do beat someone with a winning record.

A thumping of the Crows in Baltimore this Sunday would be a nice start.

As every Bucs fan can see, Cody Grimm has become a charter member of the man club in Raheem Morris’ eyes.

Grimm has taken off his underwear, put on his big boy pads and put his face on people in a big way since getting a starting job after Tanard Jackson was suspended.

The rookie safety is not going to scare anyone one in the tunnel or on the street, but he brings his hat to the field more and more every game. He’s having a rookie year that rivals’ Jackson big season in 2007, and is stirring memories of John Lynch with some of his tackles and near tackles.

Gerald McCoy also is taking notice. Talking about Grimm on The Gerald McCoy Show on WDAE-AM 620 last night, McCoy admired Grimm’s fearlessness and laughed at him being listed as a 200 pounder.

“It’s amazing how big he plays. He makes big boy tackles. Cody, he’ll come down and hit you so hard and he’s not afraid to tackle anybody. Cody’s probably 190. I mean, he plays like a big guy. He’ll hit with the best of them,” McCoy said.

Advised by gushing co-host Scott Ledger that Grimm is listed at 210 pounds, McCoy replied, “That’s paper weight.”

Joe hopes some of Grimm’s nasty and fearless edge rubs off on and fires up the guys playing in front of him up the middle in the Bucs defense.

Seems as though “The Professor,” John Clayton, is smitten with a certain Bucs rookie defensive tackle who Clayton referred to as “dominating.” Joe strongly encourages his readers to watch this BSPN video as Joe is confident Bucs fans will be more than a little interested in what comes out of Clayton’s mouth.

The guy in Baltimore with a 27-14 career NFL head coaching record talks about the Bucs and Tampa Bay’s “Ray Lewis” in this Baltimore Sun video.

Generally, if a team wins 10 games, a wild card berth is pretty much a lock. That may not be the case as eye-RAH! Kaufman of the Tampa Tribune explained in a recent version of the Bucs TBO question-and-answer feature.

Q: Do you think the Bucs have shot at making the playoffs this year?

Jarrod, Fort Polk, La.

A: In this much-publicized race for 10, it is suddenly becoming clear that 10 wins may not be good enough for a playoff berth in the NFC. To qualify, the Bucs would likely have to be one of three teams from the NFC South to get in, and three teams from the same division don’t advance to the postseason very often. Still, there’s plenty of time for the Bears and the Giants to fade. If the Bucs go 10-6, I think they’ll get in.

— eye-RAH! Kaufman

Joe would be absolutely chagrin if not in need of a three-day bender if the Bucs racked up 10 wins and missed the playoffs. That would simply be horrible.

The mantra of Raheem Morris was “The Race To 10.” Even at this late stage, 11 wins isn’t so crazy of a thought.

The youngest team in the NFL got even younger today as the Bucs cut 30-year-old defensive tackle Ryan Sims, so reports Woody Cummings of The Tampa Tribune.

Sims, who is often mentioned among the great draft busts of the 21st century, started every game for the Bucs last year and seemingly has been dumped because the Bucs see a little potential in Al Woods, who had a sack in San Francisco.

Joe thought this Sims video was a fitting farewell tribute. There are a couple of eye-candy moments.

In stunned disbelief, Joe had to call WFAN-AM in New York himself to confirm the news that former Bucs blocking icon Michael Clayton is now a member of the New York football Giants.

Injuries had the Giants looking for guys on the street who could allegedly catch the ball, and Big Blue apparently was duped by the notorious practice warrior Clayton, who was toiling in the UFL earlier this season after the Bucs gave him a highly paid vacation.

Kudos to the hard-working Clayton, a very wealthy man courtesy of Mark Dominik. Clayton surely could have given up on his dream, but instead he worked his butt off to stay in shape and impressed the Giants in a workout. 

For Clayton’s sake, Joe hopes he doesn’t drop passes in front of Giants fans. If he does, Joe advises Clayton to thicken his skin and keep the radio off.

Joe goes through the daily hate mail, love letters and Viagra ads in his inbox and will sometimes try to answer a question burning up the minds and hearts of Bucs fans.

Over the past couple of weeks, fans have asked Joe about the contract status of rookie LeGarrette Blount, who was signed off the street after being cut by the Titans before opening day.

Some fear the manbeast in the Bucs offense could walk after the season.

Don’t worry. Per a source with intimate knowledge of Blount’s contract, Joe has learned Blount signed a two-year deal with Tampa Bay this summer. So if there is a next season, he’ll be back and playing for the Bucs on the cheap, assuming he doesn’t try to squeeze Team Glazer for a new deal.  

Undrafted rookies sign three-year deals or less. Two years is the most common.

Beyond that, if the NFL collective bargaining agreement remains the same, Blount could be offered an “exclusive rights tender” by the Bucs after 2011, or a fancy new deal.

Exclusive rights tenders for third-year players don’t pay much. So that all could get extraordinarily messy if Blount has a great 2011 season.

Joe would love to see Blount close out 2010 with 1,000 yards and get rewarded by Team Glazer.

So how does 22-year-old Josh Freeman command massive respect, the kind that stops teammates in their tracks when he speaks?

Per Raheem Morris, some of that comes from Freeman’s extraordinary preparation and that guys know Freeman has worked harder than they have.

“Our young football team, they all understand the work that he puts into it. He’s accountable to all those guys to be on the details of everything. When Josh Freeman says something to our offensive team, they all listen. Because they know, ‘he might have looked at something more than I did.’ They want to make sure,” Morris said on The Raheem Morris Show last night on WDAE-AM.

” They’re going to win because of him not in spite of him. They understand that. These guys go out and do a great job for him. It spreads over to the defensive side of the ball now, too.

Joe is impressed and not surprised. A huge component of leadership is knowing more than the other guy — all the time.

Freeman obviously embraces every aspect of being a franchise quarterback.

Joe’s been banging on his laptop at a popular coffee shop doing real work for a change and is all caffeined up.

Generally, this means Joe is about to fire off a missive about the Bucs that would singe most people’s eyes, or write such a lustful post about Rachel Watson that it would cause most red-blooded American males to start downing shots or run for a cold shower, or both.

But neither is the case here.

Joe just can’t write enough about the stunning job Bucs coach Raheem Morris did in crafting a gameplan to shutout the 49ers. Blanking an NFL team on the road is spectacular enough but for the Bucs soft defense to do this, to hold Frank Gore to 23 yards and to rack up six sacks on a mobile quarterback, well, Joe thinks that was the performance of the season and perhaps the best coaching job done on the Bucs sidelines since Chucky in the Super Bowl.

It was the first time the Niners suffered a shutout at home in 33 years, a third of a century if you can imagine.

Since, Joe has written several times that almost as equally surprising to him is that Niners coach Mike Singletary is still employed after such an awful effort. National scribes made such a big deal of the Packers wiping the floor with the Vikings Sunday but Joe thought the (lack of) effort and coaching done by the Niners against the Bucs was far more shameful.

Given the fact Singletary didn’t lead the Niners to the NFC championship last year, Joe thought sure Singletary’s head would be on a platter before sullen, mumbling introvert Brad Childress, who Joe doesn’t think could lead a Little League team to an ice cream shop much less a gaggle of sailors on shoreleave to a house of ill repute.

Seems as if the blog Niners Nation agrees with Joe, and thanks to Raheem, has called for an outright firing of Singletary. Now.

Mike Singletary was out-coached in every aspect of the game. Raheem Morris, eighteen years younger than Singletary, put together a gameplan that was tailor-made to beat a team that would have a one-track mind. The 49ers deficiencies are clear and out there for everybody, and it falls on Singletary and his assistants to disguise and correct them. Raheem out-coached Mike at every single turn, and looked like a genius doing it, in only his second full-year as an NFL head coach.

That’s pretty much what Joe thought, that Raheem was two steps ahead of Singletary virtually each and every play. In Joe’s eyes for that Bucs rush defense (weak) to shut down Gore is such a way, and for that Bucs defensive line (anemic) to nearly double their season sack total was nothing short of brilliant.

If Raheem can keep that up, the next few weeks should be special for Bucs fans.

Former Bucs guard Ian Beckles (1990-1996) hasn’t been a fan of Barrett Ruud for a long time.

As Beckles continually has hammered Ruud as a shamefuly soft Bucs middle linebacker, it seems Beckles has been feeling pressure to explain in more detail why Ruud is second rate.

Speaking as the co-host on The Ron and Ian Show on WDAE-AM 620 today, Beckles said he was asked to give a more detailed on-air report on Ruud so he spent Monday night re-watching the Bucs game from start to finish with a pause button in hand and a notepad and pencil.

“He went the whole game [against San Francisco] and didn’t make a play,” Beckles said of Ruud this morning. “Barrett Ruud has no physical mentality. There were no violent plays.”

Beckles suggested fans go to the game tape at 13:55 of the third quarter to see exhibit A of Ruud not playing physical and downhill. And the former Bucs guard said if one were grading Ruud on physicality on every play, Ruud would never score more than a 6 on any individual play while averaging much lower than that. 

“He jumps around a lot,” Beckles said of Ruud’s style.

Raheem has called Ruud his quarterback (of the defense) on several occasions. Perhaps it’s time to get a franchise quarterback in the offseason.

Jay Glazer hosts Bucs cornerback Ronde Barber in his “After Party” video feature following the Bucs improbable shutout at San Francisco, the 49ers first home shutout in 33 years, in this FoxSports.com video.

Video: After Party: Ronde Barber

There are many things Joe enjoys about listening to his good friend Justin Pawlowski of WDAE-AM 620, many of which is his interesting if not unique perspective on the Bucs.

In his weekly “What I Learned About The Bucs,” Pawlowski — like Joe, shocked at how the Bucs held Frank Gore to a mere 23 yards — believes the secret weapon to the Bucs new-found rush defense is rookie safety Cody Grimm.

I learned that Cody Grimm might be the answer to the Bucs run defense woes. Although it takes away from the pass defense, having Grimm as the 8th man in the box completely shut down the 49ers rushing attack. Grimm is one of the best tackling safeties the Bucs have had in a long time. At the beginning of the year, the Bucs couldn’t run the ball on offense or stop the run on defense. Hopefully, Sunday was the first step on defense. Good luck against Ray Rice, Willis McGahee, and the Ravens.

Joe knows Grimm made sticks in the win at San Francisco that would have made Dick Butkus stand on his crippled knees and applaud. The dude was a heat-seeking missile out there against the run.

Joe wrote this before and will write it again: The gameplan Raheem Morris came up with Sunday was one of the best Joe has ever seen since he started following the Bucs in the John McKay days.

The fact Bucs held superstar 49ers running back Frank Gore to 23 yards and sacked 49ers quarterback Troy Smith six times, despite both the Bucs rush defense being putrid and pressure on the quarterback virtually non-existent entering the game, proved Raheem Morris had one of the best Bucs gameplans Joe has ever seen.

It was the best since Chucky crafted a plan to shut down Rich Gannon in the Super Bowl.

It was the kind of a performance that usually gets the opposing coach run, especially when said coach is hanging on to his job by a thread. Niners coach Mike Singletary made no bones about it. Raheem shamed him as a coach, so reports Kevin Lynch in the San Francisco Chronicle.

Singletary said he led the team, and he motivated his players, but that he didn’t prepare them. He also admitted that the Buccaneers didn’t do what they expected. He also said that the coaches didn’t adjust well. He admitted that receivers ran wrong routes. … By his own admission, Singletary is saying he hasn’t coached well. Can anyone argue with that?

Joe was surprised Singletary lasted to midnight Sunday night still employed. The Bucs shut out of the 49ers was the first time San Francisco was shut out at home in 33 years, a stunning factoid.

Pro Bowlers will be determined in four weeks and Raheem Morris thinks Donald Penn is deserving of his first NFL trip to Hawaii.

Speaking on his radio show Monday on WDAE-AM 620, Raheem talked about Penn’s touchdown Sunday and how he compares to his peers.

“Hopefully, he’s one of those guys who’s going to have a Pro Bowl candidacy this year because, you know, I don’t know who’s playing at a higher level than him right now at that position. You’d have to search long and hard to try and get that,” Raheem said.

“What he’s doing for us is very special and our offensive coordinator designed a little chicanery and debauchery for him. He lines up and he reports as a tight end, …we give him a hardcore playaction rollout to our left and Josh[Freeman] sticks a pass on him and Donald Penn makes an athletic move by lowering his hands and catching a big-time touchdown. The only thing I could think at that point was, ‘Please don’t get a celebration foul.'”

Now Joe had to laugh when he heard Raheem during his Monday news conference and on his radio show reference the “chicanery and debockery” designed for Penn by Greg Olson, as it relates to the call that got him a touchdown.

Joe’s not going to hazard a guess at what “debockery” is. A lover of words, Joe researched via various search engines and found some conflicting definitions for debockery. Whatever Raheem is referencing, it was a helluva call for Penn’s touchdown. Perfect, in fact. Olson is hitting his stride.

Joe agrees Penn deserves strong Pro Bowl consideration, but Joe doubts anyone on the Bucs offense will get to Hawaii. On defense, Ronde Barber or Aqib Talib now have about as good a shot as Penn.

It would be quite stunning if the Bucs, or any team, made the playoffs without a Pro Bowler.

Minutes ago, Raheem Morris was asked point blank whether he was concerned if Mike Williams might fail a urine test from a sample he gave at a Hillsborough County jail Friday morning following his arrest for DUI.

No concern, Raheem said at his Monday news conference.

“We gave Mike our own independent [urine] test. He’s completely clean,” Morris said.

Morris went on to say the Bucs gave a comprehensive urine screen to Williams on Friday morning after his release from jail. Joe was told by a Bucs official that Williams volunteered for the test.

Good to hear the Bucs were thorough in assessing Williams’ situation rather than wait for the State’s evidence to return sometime next month.

As Joe kills time before Raheem Morris’ 4 p.m. news conference, Joe thought he’d let readers know how the renowned annual JoeBucsFan.com pick-against-the-spread pool is going.

At this point, Joe is tied for 26th place out of a field of 49 allegedly intelligent JoeBucsFan.com readers. Joe’s not going to cry about that. There’s a load of games left and the pack is pretty tight.

Unfortunatlely, Joe sits at 49.2 percent, which means a farm animal putting his paw on a helmet would probably fare just as well.

Former Buccaneer defensive end Steve White is tied for fifth place, seven games up on Joe and with a very respectable 53.5 percent winning percentage.

Joe fully expects to be his best self and win the season-long pool.