"Let me tell you, Rah, you wanna be @#$'n successful head coach in this league, you better @#$%'n know everything about every @#$%'n player wearing a helmet in this @#$%'n country and Canada. You get what I'm sayin'? You gotta be a @#$%'n one-man freakin' genius like me."

Raheem Morris invoked the name of his great mentor Chucky today in a chat with the Carolina media.

And for those who don’t think Chucky was the driving force in Bucs personnel issues, Raheem might change your mind with his comments.

It seems the prized ripening fruit from Chucky’s coaching tree credits his noble mentor for advising him to know everything about everyone in order to get an edge on his peers.

Raheem was asked how he might prepare to face Carolina rookie QB Tony Pike, who will be the Panthers’ backup on Sunday. Raheem scoffed at the notion he’d have someone dig up college film on Pike.

Panthers reporter: How do you prepare for a guy like Tony Pike? Do you just base it on last week’s film in the fourth quarter? Or would you have someone go back and look at his college tapes?

Raheem Morris: You don’t have to go back if you’ve done a good job in researching guys throughout the draft and being detailed in your assignments. …That’s the only way you get better. That’s the only way you’re able to go out every week and understand people and know who people are so that you can have a chance to compete and have a chance to know.

You know I was told a long time ago by Coach Gruden to be a student of this league and understand all the players and know them all, pride yourself at being a master at personnel in this league. And that’s what I try to do by trying to go back and study film and draft evaluations and everything that we do.

It’s not the first time Raheem has referenced his many years being as involved as he could be in the draft and evaluation of players. It’s just the first time he explained that Chucky was his guiding light.

No touchdowns and 33 catches is the official stat line on Kellen Winslow.

Over the past three games, the Bucs’ big money tight end has just nine catches for 80 yards.

Obviously, his production is down from 2009. Josh Freeman said at his news conference today that it’s a result of defenses trying to make other players beat them.

“Defenses are doing stuff to take him away. Talking to buddies on other teams after the game they’re like, ‘Man, our whole gameplan was to go out and stop you from getting the ball to Kellen Winslow,'” Freeman said.

“He realizes that it’s going to be tough when they’re double teaming him, when they’re rolling a safety down to his side and in and out on all his routes.”

Joe would love to see the Bucs get more creative to get Winslow involved.

When he arrived last year, the big talk from the offensive coordinators was about getting him and Jerammy Stevens work on the field together to capitalize on the mismatches that would create — never materialized — and there was talk about how Winslow could be used as receiver in some sets.

It’s great that he’s getting double-teamed, which opens up the offense for others, but the guy’s a mad talent. The Bucs need to get Winslow more involved.

The gorgeous Jenny Dell is back from a week of hiding. In this BSPN video, rather than prattle about some statistical gibberish, Jenny actually talks real football with Tim Hasselbeck. Specifically, young NFL quarterbacks is the subject and Bucs quarterback Josh Freeman’s name is invoked.

Ex-Bucs QB Jeff Carlson

By JEFF CARLSON
JoeBucsFan.com analyst

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

Last week I wrote about the importance of performance in all three facets — offense, defense, specials teams — for the early season success of this Buccaneers team. There was no better example of this concept than this past Sunday against the division leading Atlanta Falcons.

Without the outstanding performance of the kickoff return team, they would not have been very competitive in the Georgia Dome.

After falling just inches short of winning on the road against a quality opponent, the youngest players on the team were mentioned as “the problem.” Well, the youth of this team can’t be blamed for the lack of success when it is just that youth that is responsible for their unexpected success.

There is a problem, however, with some of their veterans. Second year quarterback Josh Freeman threw an interception when he was hit while throwing by an unblocked defensive end. This was a simple “brainfart” (brainfart: (noun) a mental mistake made on a routine play) by veteran offensive tackle Donald Penn.

On that particular play, the Falcons had four down defensive linemen and a middle linebacker over center, while the Bucs had an empty backfield. There was no way to be confused in this set, but inexplicably Penn turned right to the inside and blocked nobody, because everybody was being blocked already. This left Josh Freeman, the second year QB, without a clue that his veteran left tackle just left him vulnerable to a potentially season-ending blindside hit and the team vulnerable to both losing their star quarterback and also to the resulting turnover. Pass protection assignments and proper reactions by QB and receivers is one area that needs continued attention for this offense.

On the right side of the line, Jeremy Trueblood missed his second straight game and the Buccaneers enjoyed their second straight game without a personal foul or illegal block in the back or illegal procedure call by their big, veteran right offensive tackle. Trueblood’s replacement James Lee was serviceable, but is probably not the long-term answer to securing the right side, as his lack of strength is reminiscent of Kenyatta Walker.

Now to the key play of the game which could have won the game and left the Bucs tied for the best overall record in the entire NFL and alone atop the NFC South.

The offensive line had been struggling regularly throughout the game as the Falcons’ defensive linemen were getting through the gaps before the offensive line could get there. The noise factor with the loud crowd should have been the deciding factor for the quarterback sneak, a play that Josh Freeman is currently sitting at 100% success rate.

And since Raheem Morris likes Rays’ Manager Joe Maddon’s style, which depends heavily on percentages, it would seem Freeman’s perfect past would have led to giving the “savior” the opportunity to save yet another game.

This is not “Monday Morning Quarterbacking”, Dave Moore, former player and radio analyst, was saying this before the play was called. I agree with him whether the Blount play worked or not. The defense is used to reacting to the ball movement and with the crowd noise they are far less likely to jump offsides with the quarterback’s snap count drowned out by the crowd.  So, getting the QB, and in this case a QB bigger than the big RB, to move forward immediately is the best call. 

Dropping games, especially road games, that are within your grasp are hard to swallow, but fortunately the Bucs are only a game out of first place at the halfway point and will get another shot at the Falcons at home.  If you asked Raheem Morris or his coaches or players in August if they would take 5-3 and one game out for their first half of the season, I doubt any would have a problem with that call.

“The Professor,” John Clayton, is shoving people aside on the Bucs bandwagon looking for a seat up front. Clayton dishes out his NFC South midseason report grades in the BSPN video and gives the Bucs the highest grade. Find out why and see if you agree.

Joe feared that when the Bucs drafted defensive tackle Gerald McCoy third overall in the past spring’s draft, he would forever be compared to manbeast Ndamukong Suh who was drafted by the Lions.

Some psychotic Bucs fans even went so far as to label GMC a bust before even the first preseason game kicked off, which to Joe is outrageous beyond words.

When GMC got off to a slow start — expected for rookie defensive tackles — certain haters began whipping Bucs fans into a frenzy, already claiming GMC was a waste.

Joe wrote many times GMC didn’t have a solid veteran playing alongside him as Suh does. This seemed to fall on deaf ears.

Well, not the ears of Joe’s good friend, Justin Pawlowski of WDAE-AM 620. Justin has evidence of how GMC is getting no help on the defensive line. In fact, Pawlowski believes GMC is actually playing quite well but the rest of the substandard Bucs defensive line is dragging GMC down.

I learned that Gerald McCoy is getting better and better every week and is becoming very fun to watch. After the last 3 years of keying in on Barrett Ruud, I have now shifted my focus to Gerald McCoy when the Bucs are on defense. I was pleased with McCoy’s effort to get penetration into the Falcons backfield. I think it’s easy for naive people to simply point to the highly touted McCoy when the Falcons were running all over the Bucs defense and when Matt Ryan has tons of time to throw, but that’s simply not his fault. When I see McCoy getting penetration and right next to him I see Roy Miller get completely blown off the ball, you have two guys going in opposite directions, which, in turn, creates a huge gaping hole. McCoy did his job. This guy is going to be very good with better players around him. I’m not saying they are the same type of player, but watch Casey Hampton of the Steelers get penetration, but watch how his teammates take full advantage of his disruption. McCoy needs his teammates to take advantage of his disruption. Until they do, McCoy won’t be viewed as a success.

GMC is starting to get the job done.

What puzzles Joe is how much Roy Miller has regressed. If Miller was playing anywhere near how well he played as a rookie, the Bucs may just be 6-2. The fact Miller has terribly regressed falls squarely in the lap of defensive line coach Todd Wash.

Simply put, with Brian Price, Kyle Moore, Miller and GMC all drafted in the first two days of the past two drafts, that’s a boatload of Team Glazer’s cash invested to rot away by not being coached up.

Is Wash up to the task?

Though the Bucs are in the midst of a playoff run — and a “Race to 10” — as we have reached the midway point of the 2010 season, to this day there are a number of Bucs fans who still hurl obscenities at their computer screen over Peter King.

The Sports Illustrated columnist stepped out on a ledge and guessed the Bucs would win a grand total of two games this year. Many Bucs fans erupted in outrage upon learning this prediction.

But King was hardly alone. Adam Schein of Sirius NFL Radio and FoxSports.com also had an equally dire forecast for the Bucs, going so far as to call the Bucs “a trainwreck,” believing the Bucs would fight the Rams for the first overall pick in the 2011 draft.

But things have changed. Schein, observed earlier this season attempting to board the Bucs bandwagon, is now on record as believing Raheem Morris is the NFL coach of the year, so he wrote on FoxSports.com.

Coach of the Year: Raheem Morris

I thought the Bucs would win five games – between 2009 and 2010. Tampa is 5-3 at the midway point. Morris finally took ownership of his staff and put the team in the hands of young Josh Freeman as the unquestioned leader. I think everyone who follows the league looks at the Bucs with a jaded view, wondering when they will collapse. Morris consistently has the Bucs ready, playing their best ball late in games.

Steelers coach Mike Tomlin is currently No. 2 on my list, and frankly more of a “1-A”. Separating Morris from Tomlin was rather difficult. Tomlin’s 6-2 start, while missing Ben Roethlisberger for the first quarter of the season, is incredible.

Joe agrees. To Joe’s knowledge, Anwar Richardson of the Tampa Tribune was the first to float this in the MSM, although Joe was squawking about it the minute the Bucs beat the Bengals. As Richardson has said on a number of local sports radio shows, look at the Bucs roster and see if any player is among the top-five at his respective position.

Joe understands how Bucs fans still wake from a deep sleep in a cold sweat, nauseous with the memories of Peter King claiming the Bucs would only win two games this season.

Strangely yesterday, King put down his coffee, pushed aside his bowl of oatmeal and forgot about shoveling popcorn for the moment to suggest the stinging loss to the Dixie Chicks Sunday was the Bucs’ best game of the season.

That’s what the SI.com columnist wrote in his MMQB Tuesday edition column.

“Can #Bucs fans feel like the team has earned some respect, despite a tough loss?”
–@BennyCline

Absolutely. That was the season’s most impressive Tampa Bay performance to me. Coming back late against a good 6-2 team on the road, and losing because they couldn’t convert a fourth-and-short near the goal line … for the Bucs, that’s real progress.

A loss is progress??? Joe is absolutely confused by this. “Progress” would have been LeGarrette bowling over Falcons to score a touchdown to end the game Sunday.

It’s hard for Joe to count a loss as progress when a team very clearly is in the hunt for a playoff berth.

Get the need-to-know on last night’s game at JoeBoltsFan.com.

It seems Jeremy Trueblood will be back at practice tomorrow and is on track to take back his starting job against Carolina on Sunday, so reports Joey Johnston and Anwar Richardson in a tag team effort on TBO.com.

Trueblood, who messed up his knee late in the Rams-Bucs game, says he’s agonized about not playing.

“It’s been torture,” Trueblood said. “The worst part about this is staying home on Saturday night knowing the guys in the team hotel are getting ready to play on Sunday. I’m looking forward to this week.”

Now Joe is sure Trueblood had a few bucks saved up to actually stay in the team hotel with his fellow Bucs. Why endure “torture” at home when you can hang out with the guys? Perhaps he wasn’t allowed. 

Speaking of torture, Joe hopes Trueblood doesn’t block anyone in the back two seconds after LeGarrette Blount blows past him this weekend.

Joe advises you to score a fat sandwich and settle in to read former Bucs defensive end Steve White’s Bull Rush column on his Passing on the Game blog.

White always writes in great detail about the Bucs defensive line, but his most recent entry is long, detailed, very pointed and really a must-read for anyone who calls himself a hardcore Bucs fan.

Joe’s not going to spoil it for you. But Joe suspects Bucs defensive line coach Todd Wash won’t be sending out links to White’s takes anytime soon. Here’s an excerpt:

(If you need a sandwich referral, try Mugs Grill and Bar in Clearwater or Honey’s in Tampa.)

As for pass rush games, the Bucs look worse than most college teams trying to run them. I won’t lie, it drive me nuts every time I see a defensive end take just two steps up field and then come underneath on a TEX game. That’s harry high school bullshit and they might as well not even run the game rather than running it so poorly that they give up containment like they did against the Falcons.

So far I haven’t seen the Bucs run a TOM game with the two inside guys which you would think we would do to try to help McCoy get free. Of course that would be a little too much like right. Better to just keep sending him out there with no plan and hope for the best.

People keep talking about Ndamukong Suh and comparing McCoy to him unfavorably. But if you ever watch the Lions play the one thing you notice is that they are constantly trying to showcase his talents. First and foremost he rarely moves from his left defensive tackle spot which means his development has been building every week. But when he DOES move its because they are trying to get HIM free so he can wreck shop. And oh by the way he has two pretty good pass rushers at end starting with him and they all haul ass every play at the snap of the ball.

The Bucs on the other hand have been too busy trying to showcase Quincy Black at the expense of McCoy’s development, to try to design any defenses for him to have a favorable match up.

Look, I like Black and I think he is a really good player, but this defense will be built around Gerald McCoy for the next 10 years if the Bucs are lucky. And that should have started THIS year. Again that’s something a good defensive line coach would have been fighting for.

If the Bucs want to get better at pass rush enough to make a difference the one place that they can make the most gains is pass rushing on early downs. Its a lot harder to get sacks, at least in theory, on third downs when the offensive linemen are more alert for moves and when quarterbacks are more apt to get the ball out of their hands quickly. But on early downs offenses tend to run a lot of play action which takes longer to develop and also can make for a harder block for an offensive lineman trying to sell run.

So how can we take better advantage of that?

Start Michael Bennett at left end.

Joe has long been in favor of starting Tim Crowder or Michael Bennett over Kyle Moore, who was gift-wrapped the starting left end job.

Crowder’s got the better motor and an extraordinary work ethic, plus 9.5 career sacks. Bennett has a big get-off, the best raw talent and a track record of making plays. Moore hasn’t done much and at 24 years old is only a year younger than Bennett and Crowder.

Joe hopes the Bucs aren’t favoring Moore simply because they drafted him.

There are fewer hardcore Bucs fans who wear their emotions on their sleeves than Joe’s good friend Justin Pawlowski of WDAE-AM 620. In short, Justin is frustrated.

After watching the Falcons run up 17 points without much effort in the first half Sunday, Justins’ fed up with the Charmin Bucs defense and believes Bucs general manager Mark Dominik should have one goal and one goal only in the offseason:

Fix the defense.

In writing his weekly “What I Learned About The Bucs” column, Pawlowski believes Dominik should only draft defenders in the first two days  of next April’s draft.

1. I learned the Bucs must go all defense at the beginning of the upcoming draft. I’m not going to harp on the lack of competition this defense has faced in regards to opposing quarterbacks this year. I also won’t harp on the poor showings against those terrible quarterbacks. However, when the Bucs have faced decent quarterbacks (Brees & Ryan) this year, they have been torched on the stat sheet and on the scoreboard. The Falcons exploited the Bucs needs on Sunday at linebacker, defensive end, and possibly safety. There are always good players at each of those positions to draft in the first 4 rounds of every draft. The Bucs seem to have their nucleus set on offense, now it’s time to give the fans back their dominating defense.

Right now Joe believes no later than the second round Dominik needs an inside linebacker, a glass-eating brute. In short, Joe wants a guy from the wrong side of the tracks, a guy raised in a broken home who didn’t have two nickels to rub together. An angry, bitter young man with a thin skin on a mission, bitter with the world, hates people and loathes human beings wearing the wrong colors, even more so, motivated to turn the NFL upside down.

Falcons CB Thomas DeCoud gave Bucs running back LeGarrette Blount fits all day.

The Bucs found their first bruising running back since Mike Alstott, so Bucs fans had hoped.

LeGarrette Blount was going to run over the Dixie Chicks Sunday for a mere few inches to give the Bucs a first down deep in Dixie Chicks territory and perhaps a go-ahead touchdown.

But no! (Comparably) tiny Thomas DeCoud, Dixie Chicks cornerback, blasted through Bucs blockers and stuffed Blount and the Bucs comeback bid.

How could this be, a smallish cornerback dropping a brutish, bruising running back? DeCoud explained to D. Orlando Ledbetter of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution how he brought Blount, and the Bucs, down.

“We knew it was going to come down to the fourth quarter,” DeCoud said. “It was a chance for us to show up and make a play.”

Blount is a 6-foot, 247-pound battering ram of a back. DeCoud is 55 pounds lighter.

“Just not slowing down,” DeCoud said of his crucial stop. “I couldn’t go into the tackle with any kind of hesitation or fear. . . He’s a big guy, and he was not going to be able to move as well. If you come in with force and with confidence, you are going to make the tackle.”

Joe gets depressed just thinking of that stop. Damn.

It’s losses like this that often haunt teams late in December.

Veteran St. Petersburg Times columnist Gary Shelton was at the Georgia Dome Saturday. He saw with his own eyes the Bucs’ frustrating loss to the Dixie Chicks.

It’s obvious to Joe and it’s obvious to many Bucs fans and it’s also obvious to Shelton. The Bucs need a nasty, snarling, glass-eating, physical brute of a player on defense.

They need a Mike Singletary. They need a Jack Lambert. They need one of those snarling, snapping defensive players who, frankly, scares quarterbacks into wearing diapers. They need a Warren Sapp. They need a Bruce Smith. They need someone whom Roger Goodell keeps on double-secret probation. A vicious outside linebacker, maybe. A relentless defensive end. A ruthless safety. A Derrick Brooks. A John Lynch.

Did you see the Falcons cut through the Bucs defense for most of the afternoon? The Bucs could not stop the run, and they could not rush the passer, and they could not slow down the Falcons. Even in a good start, there has been too much of that for the Bucs. Too often, they just look like a team trying to hang on.

In other words, the Bucs need to spend next offseason adding defensive playmakers. They need someone to make a crunching stop at a crucial moment and add fire to his teammates.

Joe texted his good friend Justin Pawlowski of WDAE-AM 620 during the first half of Sunday’s game that if Ray Lewis was a Bucs linebacker, he’d be so infuriated he’d probably punch someone. But that’s the kind of guy the Bucs need: Someone who will punish an offense so bad that running backs seriously wonder if they should start selling aluminum siding to senior citizens.

Shelton may very well be onto something. Joe finds it very telling that last week Bucs general manager Mark Dominik put in a claim for Shawne Merriman.

Arguably the most upbeat, positive-messaging coach in the league, Raheem Morris dropped a stunning negativity bomb about his defense during The Raheem Morris Show on WDAE-AM 620 last night.

A week ago the Bucs were “the best team in the NFC,” now Raheem is on the record saying he won’t have a feared defense in 2010.

A caller into Morris’ radio show last night asked him what it would take to get the Bucs back to having a great defense like in the old days.

Here is Morris’ candid reply:

“Anthony, you gotta have some patience, bro. We drafted Gerald McCoy this year. We’ve got a young football team. They’re babies. We don’t have Sapp. There’s no more Brooks. Lynch is not here. Ronde’s still here but he’s 30 years older. These guys are all young pups, man. Back in 1996 when those guys were young pups, they didn’t finish No. 1 in defense. But that’s what we’re trying to go to,” Morris said.

“You know, the second halves we’ve been able to play this year have been really good. It’s been awesome. We gotta find a way to come out and be better up front. We gotta find a way to come out rushing the quarterback and doing a bunch of different things. But right now, Anthony, it’s about trying to find the best way to win the football game every single week. And that’s the only thing that you’ll be guaranteed. We are not a feared defense in the league yet. We will not be that this year. But there’s no reason that you can’t go out and win as many games as you can with that happening right now.”

This really stood out for Joe, especially on the heels of Raheem talking more reality about the Bucs troubles stopping the run during his Monday news conference.

“We’re not the Ravens yet. You know I’m not going to kid you there. We don’t go out there and stand up …  shed blocks and shed tackles all day. Limit you to minus-2 rushing or something like that. I’m not going to be unrealistic,” Morris said Monday afternoon. “But what you do have to do is you got to get off on third down to limit the amount times [Michael Turner] touches the ball, because that takes three snaps off your plate every time you get off on third down.”

For a head coach who was talking so much about his philosophy of “mentality before reality,” Raheem’s comments yesterday are stunning. He sounds down on his defense, and to voice that publicly is a big leap.

Unless there’s some sort of new motivational tactic being rolled out (Joe doubts it), it sounds like Raheem looked at the Bucs’ talent and film at linebacker and defensive line and decided mentality can’t overcome reality in 2010.

One reason Raheem Morris says locals “gotta have a buzz” about Bucs football is because of the exciting action the Bucs are delivering on the field.

Exhibit B on the list of excitement out of the Atlanta loss, per the head coach, was the onside kick the Bucs attempted trailing 27-21 near the end of the third quarter. Raheem detailed the play during The Raheem Morris Show last night on WDAE-AM 620.

“I went to [Rich Bisaccia] before we ran back the [Spurlock] kickoff [for a touchdown] and I told him, I said ‘hey, if we score here, an offensive touchdown I want to kick an onside kick.’ I said, ‘Get away from me because I don’t want to be caught talking to you when it’s that time and I’m not telling anybody else on the football team.’  He was about it. He’s an aggressive coach. He’s an aggressive player. He’s an aggressive guy. We both are,” Morris said.

“And that’s how we want to play around here. We want to play to win. We were on the road in a hostile environment, and we’re going to take something from them. And that was our mentality.”

Raheem went on to say it was Bisaccia and Raheem’s predetermined call that the onsides kick would be the “middle dribble” with Connor Barth squibbing it straight ahead.

Raheem praised the execution, even though the ball hit Barth in the ass a few inches before the 10-yard mark and the Bucs were penalized and turned the ball over to the Falcons. Heyward gave huge props to Adam Heyward for violently sacrificing his body to clear the area for Barth’s recovery.

Joe was all in favor of the call, even though it was a very risky move. The timing felt right.

It was a bitter loss for the Bucs to take in many ways. Questionable spots by the zebras. Giving up way too many points in the first half. Coming inches short of a first-and-goal late with a chance to win.

It didn’t take long for Charles Robinson of Yahoo! Sports to dump a load on Bucs coach Raheem Morris. In Robinson’s “Winners and Losers” he lumps Raheem in with the latter group.

• Tampa Bay Buccaneers coach Raheem Morris
For a minute, the Bucs had you believing that maybe they were going to live up to Morris’ proclamation that they were the best team in the NFC. But while this one could be counted as a moral victory, you have to wonder why Morris took the ball out of the hands of his playmaker, Josh Freeman, when the Bucs had it first-and-10 at the Atlanta 11. The Bucs ran it four times and turned it over on downs. Freeman should have gotten the opportunity to finish. He has earned it.

Well, if one must nitpick, it was Bucs offensive coordinator Greg Olson who called the play in question, not Raheem.

There were a lot of places one could lay blame on this loss. Raheem wouldn’t be one of them.

Joe’s certain one can guage whether there’s buzz about an NFL team based on increased ticket sales and/or increased ticket demand for said team.

Now Joe’s not talking sellouts, just simply a significant bump in attendance or demand for tickets on the resale market (if a team is already sold out).

If there’s real buzz, people buy a lot more tickets. Plain and simple.

Raiders and Lions fans, both in seriously economically challenged markets that rival Tampa Bay’s plight, proved there is real buzz about their teams and sold out their home games Sunday, avoiding TV blackouts that had plagued those cities.

Today, Raheem Morris was asked about the buzz for the Buccaneers around the Bay area, and the head coach said he’s quite sure the locals are embracing the young Bucs and their exciting brand of football.

“I think the town’s really buzzin’. I think we’re starting to get a little national attention because of me [talking], to be honest with you. I’ve seen me on TV more than anything. My mom called me and told me she sees me more on SportsCenter than she sees me in person,” Morris said.

“I think the buzz is starting to happen from the young football team, the energy it brings, how we’re winning, how we’re calling games. You come to our game yesterday, you see a fleaflicker, you see an onside kick, you see a reverse, you see bonzai blitzes, you see all-out blitzes, all-out pressures, 60-yard touchdown runs, back-shoulder catches in the endzone, and a fourth-and-inches that we get stopped on, it’s just an exciting brand of football that Tampa’s trying to sell to people. And you gotta have a buzz about it.”

Frankly, Joe won’t believe there’s much of a buzz about the Bucs until Joe sees more ticket sales.

Again, Joe’s not talking sellouts, but Joe is talking about people actually using a much greater share of tickets already sold — 6,000 went unused for the Rams game — and an increase in ticket sales.

Official Bucs tickets-sold attendance for the last home game against St. Louis was 42,020. If that number doesn’t jump to 48,000+ on Sunday against Carolina, the biggest Bucs home game in 23 months, don’t ask Joe to believe “the town’s really buzzin’.”

See snippets of an edgy Raheem Morris and Father Dungy’s take on the Bucs in this NBCSports.com video.

"Is it me? Or are we down by two touchdowns again?"

The Bucs keep falling behind in the first half of games. It’s even worse in 2010 than during the Jim Bates era, when 14-0 deficits were as common as Michael Clayton drops.

Today during his news conference, aired on WDAE-AM 620, Raheem Morris was peppered with questions about why the Bucs struggle in the first half.

The head coach had a lot of answers — as in there are a lot of problems.

“Gotta get off on third down. [Atlanta] converted a third down and a fourth down on that first drive,” said Morris, who spoke multiple times of his team’s third down struggles and its devastating impact.

Why all season? the coach was asked.

“That’s a coaching thing. A plan thing. Somebody making a play. Could be youth. …A lot of things,” Morris said.

As Joe wrote earlier, Barrett Ruud said today that youth is the core of the problem.

Pressed today for what would make the Bucs defensive line significantly better during the Ron and Ian Show, former Bucs offensive tackle Ian Beckles said, “Experience. Period.”

It’s probably too late to fix the Bucs’ first-half defensive woes associated with youth. The challenge then lies with the defensive coordinator making the right changes with the available talent.

Hopefully it won’t take much, but it’s alarming that half a season has passed and Raheem Morris hasn’t found a fix.

Hey, whaddya know. At arguably the most critical point in the Bucs-Falcons game, the Bucs’ coaches headsests stopped working.

As a result, fans at home and at the Georgia Dome saw some frantic, disjointed stuff going on between Josh Freeman and Greg Olson with the Bucs on the cusp of scoring.

Sure it was a coincidence. Yeah, right. And Joe just happened to accidently toss a 12-pack of Becks in his shopping cart on Saturday.

Raheem Morris was drilled today at his news conference about why he didn’t challenge the spot on LeGarrette Blount’s third down run that brought the ball to about the Falcons’ 2 yard line. And Raheem explained there was a lot of trouble going down that forced the Bucs to burn their final timeout.

“We were in Atlanta. Somehow our headsets went out on that play,” Raheem said. “Never had the luxury of talking to our quarterback on that play.”

Of course, the Bucs need to be prepared for these kinds of mechanical shenanigans troubles. But it’s still suspicious and crappy nonetheless.

Perhaps Rich McKay just stepped on that funny orange button in his luxury box en route to the can.

Many Bucs fans are unsettled by the Bucs defensive showing this season. The Bucs have demonstrated a disturbing pattern of not showing up in the first half of games.

Joe documented that the Bucs defense is playing worse in the first half than last year’s heinous Jim Bates Experiment, as disturbing as that is to believe.

This was a subject of discussion with former Bucs Anthony Becht and Ryan Nece, who host a weekly Monday morning show on WHBO-AM 1040 when they welcomed Bucs linebacker Barrett Ruud today.

Nece claimed Michael Spurlock told him that, in short, some of the rookies seem to think they are still in college when it comes to preparation, that the week of film study and working out in the week preceding an NFL game is a different animal than the week leading up to a college game, and the rookies are still learning.

Ruud did not disagree, in answering Nece.

“When we arrived here, it was a veteran defense,” Ruud said. “I think the young guys need to have more of a General-type of mentality.”

What Ruud meant in saying “General” was a military-like focus. His statement seems dead-on.

What is the difference between the rookie defensive players and the rookie offensive players? The day of the draft this past April, Mike Williams and Arrelious Benn received a phone call from Josh Freeman, who told the wide receiver duo, in short, get your arse to Tampa and start working now.

Did we or have we heard or read anything similar about the rookie defensive tackles or for that matter, Roy Miller, and a Bucs defensive starter?

If you have, feel free to fill in Joe.

Ruud’s reference to veteran players struck a chord with Joe. Now Warren Sapp was gone by the time Ruud showed up but when Sapp was around there was no question who was the leader. Say what you will about Sapp’s boorish behavior, but if teammates did not put in their hours of preparation, Sapp made sure the world knew it.

In the fantastic NFL Network presentation of “America’s Game,” a significant portion of the Bucs feature flashed a spotlight on Sapp’s clashing with Meshawn Johnson. Sapp was morally outraged that Meshawn would not work out with the Bucs in the offseason. To this day that still irritates Sapp.

Sure, the Bucs have veterans like Ruud and Ronde Barber that could have showed the rookies and youngsters what being an NFL player is. That usually takes a vocal leader; both Ruud and Barber have many times confessed that’s not their personalities. If the youngsters ask Ruud and Barber for help, they gladly assist. But neither are the type that will grab a teammate by the facemask and forcefeed youngsters into the rigors of NFL life like Sapp did, and Freeman does.

Joe hopes that after the CBA is signed, Mark Dominik can sign a free agent defender (preferable a linebacker or defensive end) who is more of an in-your-face, workout warrior who will grab his teammates by the jersey and show them, force them to learn what it means to be an NFL defensive player.

And if needed, give them a swift kick in the rear end.