With the second half of the season here and Lovie Smith returning to his handpicked quarterback with loads of optimism and talking about being “still in it,” one thing is crystal clear: Lovie wants Josh McCown to be his starting quarterback in 2015. [read more]

You asked for it, you got it. It’s the TV map for tomorrow’s game between the Dixie Chicks and the Bucs live from the Den of Depression.

If you are a resident of Florida or Georgia, there is a better than average chance you won’t have to run to a local bar or find someone with NFL Sunday Ticket to watch the game. [read more]

No more rope for Lovie Smith special teams coach and guru Kevin O’Dea

A realist would say the Bucs lost in Cleveland last week because their special teams imploded.

Sabby medals would go to Mike James, Will Gholston and Logan Mankins for their incompetence. Typically, when there’s a special teams goat, there’s only one, but the Bucs had three on three different plays. Nice! [read more]

Joe gets a chuckle out of the revisionist historians that whine about how former Bucs rock star general manager Mark Dominik passed on middle linebacker Luke Kuechly and, instead, drafted safety Mark Barron. Yeah, Barron was/is a bust.

However, in the next round, Dominik traded up to get his linebacker. That man’s name is Lavonte David, who Joe pimped the Bucs to draft in December prior to his selection. [read more]

Joe knows some haters like to pick the Bucs apart. We are talking about a 1-7 team here, people. But stop with the nonsense that Lavonte David is not playing well. David is the least of Lovie Smith’s concerns.

Another player who Joe hopes Lovie has stopped worrying about is Johnthan Banks. The second-year man from Mississippi State is arguably the best cornerback on the roster. [read more]

Before someone tries to brand Joe a hater, there may not be a nicer guy in the Bucs locker room than Da’Quan Bowers.

The defensive end has come nowhere near the player folks thought he would be coming out of Clemson. Unlike others, however, who are shadows of their college hype, Bowers never hides from reporters (coughmarkbarroncough) as if the fourth estate is responsible for their suckiness on the field. [read more]

Crab-legs-stealing, BB-gun-shooting, obscenity-hollering, Heisman-Trophy-winning, national champion James Winston, the pride of Florida State University, continues to look like a much better quarterback prospect than Mike Glennon and Josh McCown.

It’s Joe’s regular nugget on the Jameis Watch, celebrating the best quarterback to wear No. 5 ever in the state of Florida. [read more]

Lovie Smith demands the Bucs take advantage of the Falcons’ rookie left tackle

It’s the battle of ankle excuses questions on Sunday at the Stadium on Dale Mabry Highway.

Rookie left tackle Jake Matthews lines up for the Falcons against the apparition known as Bucs defensive end Michael Johnson. [read more]

The most chill hour of radio in Bucs history was back on the WDAE-AM 620 airwaves last night, Total Access with Bucs safety Dashon Goldson and Ronnie Lane, aka Hawk Radio.

Again, the show felt like a couple of cats kickin’ it with some top-shelf brandy and talking football as they awaited a knock from classy ladies on their door. [read more]

The offense under Marcus Arroyo is very basic, said NFL Films analyst Greg Cosell.

Joe knows what a hand grenade in a china store it was when Tampa Bay offensive coordinator Jeff Tedford had to step aside due to his health issues. All the work done from the moment he was hired, through OTAs and minicamps and training camp. and then preseason, and poof, all gone.

For folks who think it is no big deal, it is a major deal.

In stepped Tedford’s lieutenant, Marcus Arroyo, who has scant experience as an offensive coordinator, all at second-rung college programs. [read more]

TampaBay.com Bucs beat writer was Twittering non-sightings from Bucs practice this morning and revealed unsettling but expected news. [read more]

Stop blubbering that the Tampa-2 defense is a relic and Lovie Smith needs to ditch what’s not working.

That’s the message from the guy who coached linebackers under Monte Kiffin years ago, the former Bucs scout and Jets personnel chief Pat Kirwan, now a media hound for CBS and SiriusXM NFL Radio. [read more]

After Sunday’s nut-kick loss to the Browns, Gerald McCoy spoke out and said he didn’t think anybody on his team is upset enough about losing.

Dashon “Hawk” Goldson was not on board with that call. [read more]

Though Lovie Smith may argue to the contrary, for Joe, the benching of the quarterback of the future Mike Glennon for turnover-prone journeyman Josh McCown is a move reminiscent of the French army in 1940.

Surrender! [read more]

Bucs defensive tackle Gerald McCoy had interesting things to say Thursday at One Buc Palace and implied players may be scared of Lovie Smith and, thus, are not playing his way.

GMC spoke a lot about how Lovie is laying the law down. [read more]

Dungy speaks out against the Bucs’ quarterback change

So many Bucs fans celebrated as if they won the lottery when Team Glazer announced Lovie Smith would be the next head coach.

Why? Because so many Bucs fans never got over their fetish for Father Dungy and believed the hiring of Lovie was the closest thing to Dungy’s return.

It seems, however, the patriarch is not in line with his right-hand man. [read more]

Lovie Smith’s $24 million (guaranteed) man, defensive end Michael Johnson, is having a scary season in his first year in pewter and red. Scary in a very, very bad way.

Johnson, brought in to be the edge rusher necessary for defensive tackle Gerald McCoy to roam unabated, has been anything but a rusher. Or a tackler. Or anything, frankly. [read more]

Joe’s downright scared of the Falcons’ passing game right now.

Alterraun Verner missed his second consecutive practice with a bad hamstring. You can just about write him off for Sunday. [read more]

Cornerback Johnthan Banks seems to embody what the Bucs defense is supposed to be all about on November 6, 2014.

Banks started slowly in a new defense but has progressed to where he’s regularly in position to make plays. [read more]

It’s time for Joe’s weekly podcast with Joe and silky-toned Ronnie Lane of the Buccaneers Radio Network and WDAE-AM 620.

Joe got a little emotional and dove into a variety of subjects. [read more]