TampaBay.com Bucs beat writer Rick Stroud, who doubles as a morning show host on WDAE-AM 620, got to the stadium on Dale Mabry Highway early yesterday and talked to healing offensive coordinator Jeff Tedford.

This morning, Stroud shared good news and bad on the radio. [read more]

A former Buccaneer says he’s ready for Mike Glennon if Josh McCown continues to play like he did yesterday

Yes, Joe realizes a Bucs victory next Sunday against St. Louis will bring a calm over the Tampa Bay area. Man, Joe doesn’t want to think about the alternative — followed by quick-turnaround, Thursday night game in Altanta.

Bucs fans need that calm, because it’s crazy out here in the real world of Bucs fandom. There’s mass rage and crazy talk. [read more]

Stats are a funny thing. Some think they’re “for losers,” as Raheem Morris claimed. Others swear by them, and teams even employ “analytics” departments (Bucs included) to spreadsheet every last thing to search for an edge.

But stats are also worthless at times, jibberish junk food for the brain. Lovie Smith evoked one of those yesterday. [read more]

A long look at the Bucs yesterday, today, and what to expect tomorrow and beyond.

Towards the end of the third quarter, Joe could not believe what he was watching. Joe has seen some awful Bucs quarterbacks in person.

Trent Dilfer still gives Joe nightmares he was so awful. Maybe Joe should seek therapy?

Witnessed Son of Bob, who was a pick-six waiting to happen. If you laid cash on a pick happening every time Son of Bob threw to the sideline, you’d have more cash in your pocket than you did when you started wagering.

Joe once watched Rob Johnson, who Chucky tried and tried and tried to find an excuse to start at quarterback over Brad Johnson. Yet even stubborn Chucky could see how awful he was.

Yes, even last year, mostly against teams with strong defenses, Mike Glennon looked lost.

But in none of those games, none, zero, did Glennon look as out of place as Bucs starting quarterback Josh McCown did yesterday. This is supposed to be the leader of your offense, a guy who treated the football as if it was contaminated with the Ebola virus?

Time and again McCown was headed for the ground and he simply just lolly-popped the ball in the air in a fit of panicked desperation. It was fortunate he only had two picks.

An 11-year NFL veteran? Joe has heard people say McCown looked like a rookie. No, he looked like a high school sophomore. Joe was so blown away he even Twittered after that ghastly fumble/interception late in the third quarter that McCown needed to be pulled. Somebody had to settle him down or get someone in there (Glennon?) who wouldn’t treat the football like a bocce ball. [read more]

Bucs fans were told Josh McCown is a superior leader of men.

Bucs fans were told Vincent Jackson is a leader and would be asked to make greater strides in that area this season.

Gerald McCoy acknowledges he’s had success but not yet as a leader who makes those around him better. [read more]

A Yahoo! Sports report suggests Bucs G Logan Mankins’ knee injury “not serious.”

Joe could just feel the air being sucked out of the Stadium on Dale Mabry Highway yesterday when coveted guard Logan Mankins, fresh off the boat from Boston, blew a knee early in the game.

Mankins, though he walked off the field, needed assistance and later went to the locker room. Bucs fans feared the worst. [read more]

One of the most interesting nuggets to emerge from the downtrodden Bucs locker room goes to 5-11, 260-pound fullback Jorvorskie Lane.

The Bucs newcomer, who was out of football last year, ripped off a 54-yard run on his lone carry of the afternoon against the hated Panthers. [read more]

Careers, seasons, perceptions and more can change on one play.

Just ask Danny Gorrer (2012) or Lavonte David (2013), among endless examples. Safety Dashon “Hawk” Goldson had one of those choke moments this evening at the Stadium on Dale Mabry Highway. [read more]

Joe has to give Lovie Smith credit. The Bucs head coach made no excuses for the terrible performance of his team, specifically the offense, for the first three quarters of today’s debacle loss to the Stinking Panthers.

In particular, Lovie was none too pleased at the careless if not irresponsible way Bucs quarterback Josh McCown handled the ball. He looked more like a skittish high school sophomore than a 35-year old veteran of the NFL battles. [read more]

Mark Barron plays the run well but as far as defending tight ends, he leaves something to be desired.

Now Joe may be many things, but he’s not stupid enough to call Bucs safety Mark Barron a bad player. Hardly.

However, Barron is not an elite player. And when a guy is drafted seventh overall in the draft, he should be an impact player at his position. Barron is not an impact player. [read more]

As loyal readers know, Joe lined up his shot glasses and ordered a case of Tums shortly after the Bucs signed veteran cornerback Mike Jenkins and it became clear Lovie Smith desired Jenkins to play a major role.

Jenkins got his shot today, and gave a lousy effort, one that Lovie noted after the loss to the Stinking Panthers. [read more]

It was near the end of the third quarter. The Bucs offense was dreadful beyond words. Josh McCown had been so careless with the football that even Brett Farve was screaming from his Mississippi home about McCown’s inability to protect the ball.

The stunts McCown pulled would have resulted in a high school sophomore quarterback getting his arse chewed out if not benched — and for good reason — much less a 35-year old veteran of NFL circles. [read more]

The Dunkaneers didn’t throw one alley-oop

Perhaps the saddest part about the Bucs’ offense was that their anointed leadership didn’t show up in the first half, or for much of the game. Captains Josh McCown and Vincent Jackson were at the top of the ugly list.

Vincent Jackson had two first-half drops, and Joe will have to check the video tape on whether he had a third. [read more]

Doug Martin claims OC Jeff Tedford’s medical leave has not hurt the Bucs offense. Joe finds that difficult to swallow.

Joe remembers writing that the medical leave of Bucs offensive coordinator Jeff Tedford was likely a monster story simmering in the background, lost amid the sleazy Richie Incognito romance and the trade for Logan Mankins.

As we learned from uber NFL insider Jay Glazer of FOX Sports, Tedford had a stent implanted. Since, he has been more visitor at One Buc Palace than employee. [read more]

The Buccaneers prepared hard for Cam Newton playing today. They didn’t prepare much for Derek Anderson, the former Pro Bowler who actually quarterbacked the Panthers.

That was the word in the Bucs’ downtrodden postgame locker room, along with plenty of respect for the job Anderson pulled off. [read more]

Bucs DE Michael Johnson (90) gets in on a tackle today. He had three tackles and three assists but was nowhere to be found when Carolina QB Derek Anderson dropped back to pass. Photo courtesy of Buccaneers.com.

Joe just wants to throw something, but is scared if he did he would be dragged away wearing bracelets owned by the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Department.

But the law should be called because it is downright criminal how seemingly no one can help poor Gerald McCoy get to the quarterback.

Oh, the Bucs did have a free agent defensive lineman drill Stinking Panthers scrub quarterback Derek Anderson, only not the guy who Team Glazer wrote a heavy check to for that reason alone. [read more]

Anthony Collins and the O-line were not the problem

The Bucs’ offensive line was not the problem today.

Patrick Omameh, making his first career start, held up at right guard. Pro Bowl guard Logan Mankins went down in the second quarter with a knee injury, but Garrett Gilkey, a seventh-round pick of the Browns last year, jumped in and you didn’t hear his name, which is what you want from an offensive lineman. [read more]

Why didn’t the Tampa Bay Buccaneers show up in the first three quarters today?

Why? It was opening day with a veteran coaching staff that’s supposed to know how to motivate. [read more]

OK boys and girls. Time for the real Bucs football!

Cam Newton is out. The weather his hot. Patrick Omameh is starting at right guard. And the Lovie Smith ere really begins.

Bang it here for all the fun stuff with the game and, as always, you may share URLs of illegal video streams among yourselves but pasting said URL in this thread can and will get you banned.

Have fun, Bucs fans.

Riverboat Ron is a full of baloney

Update: Cam Newton is inactive!

It’s 1 o’clock and it’s still a mystery whether Cam Newton will play against the Buccaneers in three hours. Of course, the Panthers surely know already and are simply playing head games with Lovie Smith and Leslie Frazier, and the oddsmakers in Las Vegas.

But now the head games have reached the company insiders at NFL Network. [read more]