The buzz around the Bucs’ cramped locker room this evening was turnovers. Turnovers, turnovers, turnovers. The first team defense forced three of them in just one half of play. [read more]

Bucs WR Mike Evans hauls in a touchdown catch in the second quarter of the Bucs win over the bungling Bills today. Photo courtesy of Buccaneers.com.

What was impressive about the Bucs win today in the dress rehearsal for the regular season was how dominating the team was with starters in the game through the first half. And this was even after a terrible opening by the Bucs offense.

Joe knows after that start, some Bucs fans were so depressed, they muttered into their pints of beer for Mike Shula’s phone number. [read more]

Lovie Smith wants the return of “Buc Ball,” and while fans might want to see a high-flying offense targeting their giant receiving corps, Lovie is enamored with old school football.

Joe took note when Lovie explained the how proud he was of the quantity of the running game in the first half against Buffalo today. [read more]

Bucs DL Larry English brings Bills QB E.J. Manuel to the turf for one of his two sacks today. Photo courtesy of Buccaneers.com.

You know what jumped out at Joe more than anything in today’s Bucs win over the bungling Bills? There was actually a pass rush!

Oh, of course, Gerald McCoy was bursting through the line like he always does, as if shot out of a cannon. But of the five sacks today, none came from GMC. Imagine if the Bucs can continue to get heat from others who don’t wear the No. 93? [read more]

Starting strong side linebacker Jonathan Casillas was left home today, remaining in Tampa while his teammates were pounding the Bills in Buffalo.

Lovie Smith made it clear this was a punishment. [read more]

Avoiding a Ray Perkins milemarker may have been bigger than today’s win.

Joe is the first to tell anyone preseason wins and losses don’t mean a damn thing. Still, when someone invokes the name of “Ray Perkins,” Joe wants to sprint to the nearest watering hole like a scalded puppy and commence drinking like a thirsty fish.

That’s what happened today when the Bucs starters dominated in the first half and won their first preseason game of the season, beating the sad sack Bills. [read more]

Bucs RB Doug Martin celebrates after scoring his short -yardage touchdown in the win over Buffalo. Photo courtesy of Buccaneers.com.

The thing that jumped out at Joe about this win over the Bills was the play of the man known affectionately as “The Muscle Hamster,” Doug Martin.

Bucs fans, rightly so, were wringing their hands over the Bucs offense and the game began terribly. Call it a coincidence if you will, but it sure seemed like once Martin got rolling, the Bucs offense began rolling as well. [read more]

Injuries to the Bucs secondary, like S Bradley McDougal today, are starting to pile up.

Well, we’ve been beaten over the head how the third preseason game is a dress rehearsal for the regular season. And if that is true, the defense, as Joe thought before training camp, is going to be just fine.

That is, unless the Bucs suffer more injuries to the secondary. On the sideline stood Rashaan Melvin. Still in a boot. Not good. [read more]

Say what you want about Josh McCown, but he got the job done today in Buffalo.

It wasn’t always pretty and it wasn’t perfect, but it was darn good on the road behind a shaky at best Bucs offensive line. [read more]

The Bucs’ first-teamers walked off the field with a 24-0 lead

The Tampa Bay defense continues to dominate. Who needs offense? Joe can only imagine the furious chants of DEE-FENCE coming back to the Stadium on Dale Mabry Highway.

Lovie Smith said in January that nasty, turnover-forcing defense could win a team eight games without much of an offense. So perhaps the Bucs are at least an eight-win team? [read more]

Join the fun in the comments section all through the game

The Bucs have their last dress rehearsal for the starters, or who they think will be starters, at 4:30 p.m. in Buffalo. Of particular interest is how the Bucs offensive line does against one of football’s better front sevens. How far along the offensive line likely will be revealed this afternoon.

Joe has a hunch there will be players picked up off the waiver wire after cutdown day later this week, as teams trim their rosters to the mandated 75 after the third preseason game.

Bang it here with your comments early and often. The game is nationally televised live on NFL Network, so for folks who are out of the Tampa Bay area, there should be no need for illegal video streaming of the game.

Leadership skills and experience are massive reasons Josh McCown was anointed Tampa Bay starting quarterback. It certainly wasn’t his 16 career victories since being drafted in 2002.

McCown is smart, wise and serene under pressure, Lovie Smith said in March, and McCown was going to surprise with his elite athleticism at 35 years old. [read more]

It’s Jeff Tedford time in this important “dress rehearsal” in Buffalo. No, Tedford is not pictured with these lovely Buffalo lasses.

Preseason Game 3

Buccaneers at Bills

Kickoff: 4:30 p.m.

TV: Live on WFLA-TV, Channel 8, locally, and nationally broadcast on NFL Network.

Radio: Buccaneers Radio Network (in Tampa WFUS-FM 103.5, and WDAE-AM 620); SiriusXM Channel 136.

[read more]

Gerald McCoy talks about the difference between Lovie Smith and former commander Greg Schiano.

Joe can’t claim he knows Bucs coach Lovie Smith. Oh, sure, he knows who he is (and Lovie knows who Joe is, too). That doesn’t mean Joe knows him.

But in Joe’s perhaps, half-dozen times he’s had a chance to talk one-on-one with Lovie, the word “gentleman” springs to mind. Because Lovie really is a gentle man. [read more]

Training camp wasn’t even over yet when Joe was getting messages from loads of fans, “Why aren’t you writing about Michael Johnson?” Of course, there were other players Joe was asked about, but none more so than Johnson.

(As most readers know, Joe is about topics and happenings. Joe won’t write about a player just because he is on the roster. A guy has to do something — bad or good — in order for Joe to care.) [read more]

“Matter closed,” says Bucs coach Lovie Smith.

Yesterday, TMZ.com unearthed a video of Bucs rookie wide receiver Mike Evans getting into a hassle outside a Miami night club. The site incorrectly reported the date of the incident to be last Saturday.

In fact, the Bucs hosted Miami in a preseaosn game Saturday, a game in which Evans played in (remember the near-touchdown?). Then, Greg Auman of the Tampa Bay Times confirmed with Evans’ agent that the incident took place in March, some six weeks before Evans was drafted by the Bucs. [read more]

Bucs MLB Mason Foster talks about the main trait of the 2014 Bucs.

Consider Mason Foster a survivor. The Bucs’ middle linebacker was overwhelmed as a rookie, thrown into the fire with no help on either side of him and playing a new position. It showed.

Foster survived the Raheem Morris mess and improve greatly under then-commander Greg Schiano. With his third coach in four years, Lovie Smith, the new Bucs leader thought so much of him he handed him the playcalling duties. [read more]

Video surfaces of Bucs WR Mike Evans in a hassle outside a nightclub.

[UPDATE: Per Greg Auman ot the Tampa Bay Times, this incident happened in March. The TMZ story incorrectly dates the incident Saturday night in Miami. The Bucs played the Dolphins Saturday night in Tampa.]

Video has surfaced of Bucs wide receiver Mike Evans getting into a throwdown outside a Miami nightclub in March. The incident happened before he was drafted.

Evans is seen arguing with a group of people outside a nightclub when chaos erupts. The video, obtained by TMZ.com, shows Evans jumping over a car and swinging. It looked more like a baseball “brawl” than anything else. There is more shoving and yelling than punches landed.

[read more]

Former NFL scout and NFL Network analyst Daniel Jeremiah has crafted his list of NFL offensive rookie of the year candidates.

It’s a good list for Bucs fans because Mike Evans made the cut, but it’s also bad for two reasons. [read more]

Boom or bust for Doug Martin in 2014?

Right now the Bucs are starting to look like a waiting room at a hospital emergency room with all their injuries. And the team hasn’t even played its third preseason game.

Just in the backfield is scary enough. Charles Sims is out at least 12 weeks after ankle surgery. Mike James has a bum shoulder and won’t play tomorrow night. That’s two key players the Bucs had high hopes for in the running game (and passing game for Sims). [read more]