Louis Murphy’s clutch 41-yard catch on the Bucs’ final drive set up Vincent Jackson’s game-winning touchdown. Photo courtesy of Buccaneers.com.

It sure seemed like Louis Murphy’s days with the Bucs were done. Not long after hurting his back in the final game of the preseason, the St. Pete native was released in the final cut.

Last week, the Bucs re-signed Murphy cutting loose Chris Owusu. Murphy sure seemed like a guy who was out of football for nearly a month when he dropped a sure touchdown from Mike Glennon and, early today, generally played like crap. [read more]

A sweet open field tackle by Alterraun Verner was one reason the Bucs held Le’Veon Bell to a scant 63 yards. Photo courtesy of Buccaneers.com.

Entering today’s game against the Steelers, much focus spotlighted the atrocious pass defense of the Bucs. More on that later. However, today, the Bucs’ rush defense came up huge.

The Steelers had two solid running backs in Le’Veon Bell and LeGarrette Blount. Bell was averaging 5.3 yards a carry while Blount was 7.8. It wasn’t like these two guys were running against cottage cheese. Last week, the two both had 100-yard rushing games against one of the better defenses(?) in the NFL, the Stinking Panthers’. [read more]

Bad news? (Photo courtesy of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers)

The glorious sweetness of today’s stunning victory in Pittsburgh was indeed a little soured by the loss of wide receiver Mike Evans to what looked like a serious groin pull. (Fingers crossed on him not needing surgery.)

Finally. Finally! The Bucs targeted their big rookie deep, and Evans showed the baby soft hands and the savage in-air awareness that helped make Johnny Football a household name. [read more]

Gerald McCoy blasts Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger for one of the Bucs’ five sacks today. Photo courtesy of Buccaneers.com

The Bucs’ locker room was jubilant after the game, as one can imagine.

Coming from behind after playing lousy football against a team like the Steelers in their own crib, well, that doesn’t happen too often. And the players knew it. They knew what mountain they had just climbed.

One could point to Mike Glennon for engineering the last-minute rally. One could point to Michael Johnson who finally showed up and got a pair of sacks on Ben Roethlisberger. [read more]

Michael Johnson chases down Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger for one of his two sacks today. Photo courtesy of Buccaneers.com.

Joe had been dogging Bucs defensive end Michael Johnson because the Bucs put a nice chuck of Team Glazer cash in his lap to do one thing and one thing only: pressure the quarterback.

Until this afternoon, the only thing Johnson had pressured is the pen to sign his checks. [read more]

A student of Vincent Jackson, Shepard shined with his first career catches today.

When one of today’s heroes, special teams ace/wide receiver Russell Shepard, made the Tampa Bay roster this season, it was no given.

Joe had a long chat with Shepard after he got the good news, and Shepard admitted he was on the bubble trying desperately to improve as a receiver while working to stay in the league after a good rookie special teams year for the New Schiano Order.

His perseverance as a receiver paid off today.

[read more]

The Bucs were in NFL hell 10 days ago. Shamed on national television and buried at the bottom of the standings and in most NFL team statistics.

Lovie Smith didn’t panic, and neither did his Buccaneers. [read more]

His first game out from the shadow of Jeff Tedford, Marcus Arroyo opened up the offense.

Offensive coordinators aren’t celebrated very often, not in Tampa anyway.

But Joe’s got to give it up to Game 1 (officially) of the Marcus Arroyo era, the first out from the shadow of Jeff Tedford. The man called a heck of a game today, showed some balls and opened up the offense. And winning quarterback Mike Glennon revealed that a late play installation led to the victory. [read more]

Winner!

Oh, it feels so damn good to have joined the Mike Glennon Mob seven days ago. How about No. 8!

Calm, poised, not always great, but money, big money when it counted today. Glennon busted off 245 second-half yards and two touchdowns to stun the Steelers at the buzzer with a TD toss to Vincent Jackson.

Joe is fired up.

It’s Glennon’s team now. He earned it.

Stick with Joe for so much more out of this stunning victory. Joe will be in the euphoric Bucs locker room.

There were 1,400+ comments in this thread last game. Join the fun.

Joe is typing this here post from Heinz Field, where the weather in the Steel City has been perfect. Joe sees only a few clouds on an otherwise sun-drenched downtown Pittsburgh.

As you have read prior, Joe has no blind hope for the Bucs today, which likely means we will all get a surprise. Bang it here for all your Bucs thoughts from today’s game. As always, you are welcome to e-mail links of illegal video streams of the game among yourselves but pasting them in a comment can and will get you banned.

Have fun, and as always, go Bucs!

There are surprises here, for sure.

The first is rookie wide receiver Robert Herron. It seems his swiss cheese hands have caught up to him in the eyes of Buccaneers coaches. [read more]

Game 4

Bucs at Steelers

Kickoff: 1 p.m. [read more]

Right move or wrong move?

It’s a Bucs road game this afternoon in Pittsburgh, and that means you can be confident Lovie Smith doesn’t want his offense on the field first.

It’s an intriguing philosophy that came to light shortly after the pre-Halloween horror show in Atlanta 10 days ago. [read more]

Has Joe been too harsh on Josh McCown?

Maybe. Or maybe not. That depends on how you interpret the words of Tampa Bay’s Super Bowl winning quarterback, Brad Johnson. [read more]

The pass defense of the Bucs has been Myron Lewis-bad through three weeks.

Damn, it is horrible to watch the Bucs’ pass defense. Pitiful, in fact. Don’t get Joe started on Mark Barron and tight ends. It is the whole lot of them.

Look, if a castaway like Derek Anderson can beat you; if a freaking walk-on at Southern Miss can beat you; if a stud quarterback like Matty Ice can slice you up like Edward Scissorhands, just imagine what a guy like Ben Roethlisberger can do? [read more]

Whether the Bucs like to admit it or not, the offense is now defined by Marcus Arroyo.

These are tough times for Bucs fans. Just look at the win-loss record. Sales of TUMS are up in the bay area, as is alcohol consumption.

So, what to make of what has been a miserable offense when Bucs fans were promised the “Dunkaneers?” Joe is wondering himself. [read more]

Bucs GM Jason Licht

Ahh, the Bucs life. Already talking draft in September. Not good.

But that’s what happens when you’re 0-3 and two of the “easy” home games against backup quarterbacks are in the rearview mirror. [read more]

Wow, Joe can’t remember the last time there were so many garbage college football games on a Saturday night. Duke at Miami looks like the “best” game. Woof.

Feel free to kvetch here about the Seminoles or the Bulls from earlier in the day. Bang it here.

Joe thinks one is better off just concentrating on drinking tonight.

How many points is Gerald McCoy’s return worth?

Atlanta torched the Bucs for eight touchdowns — eight — in less than three quarters last week. Joe even saw droves of Falcons fans leaving the Georgia Dome in the third quarter, apparently tired from all the celebrating at the Bucs’ expense.

The NFL Playbook video crew dove into Bucs Xs and Os and implies a Sunday return of Gerald McCoy could make a world of difference against Pittsburgh. [read more]

Lovie Smith substantially turned over the Tampa Bay roster since arriving in January. Just on offense alone, the turnover was Chucky-like.

The Bucs opened the season with seven new starters on offense. Yet the offense — or lack of an offense — has been truly offensive. But in some circles, despite all the new blood, there is a belief that Lovie still needs “his guys.” [read more]

Underwear football folly led a longtime Tampa Bay Buccaneers analyst to issue an apology to his readers yesterday.

This veteran of all things Bucs feels duped. [read more]