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

So we begin today with changes. Oh, yes, there will be changes with the Bucs. Exactly what and how many will soon be determined, maybe as early as this afternoon.

We know one likely change: Unless turnover-prone quarterback Josh McCown has a miraculous recovery, it is Mike Glennon’s job to get the Bucs their first win of the season Sunday in Pittsburgh. No matter who the quarterback is, good luck with that. [read more]

Former Lovie Smith Bucs coaching colleague Herm Edwards said watching the Bucs-Dixie Chicks game was like watching a traveling basketball circus.

As much football as Joe watched over the weekend (and beers guzzled), Joe just cannot get out of his head what a complete and utter debacle it was Thursday when the Bucs began the weekend by giving fans not just acid reflux but pause to wonder about the future.

Neither the loathed defensive mind of former Bucs commander Greg Schiano nor the widely mocked defensive background of Raheem Morris had teams that coughed up 50 points. [read more]

Has the NFL gone soft?

Aside from all the wacky new flag football rules, teams frown on any kind of rookie hazing and have hired vegan nutritionists, and players practice about 20 percent of what they used to 10 years ago. [read more]

Yes, Da’Quan Bowers was in Atlanta for the beating of the century Thursday night.

Bowers played more than half the Bucs’ defensive snaps by Joe’s count, but the fourth-year defensive end didn’t show up on the stat sheet.  [read more]

Joe is now a sanctioned General in the Mike Glennon Mob

Joe repeatedly cautioned fans all offseason that it is virtually impossible to win the NFC South title, let alone a Super Bowl, with the worst quarterback in the division.

Therefore, Joe painfully and loudly ached and trumpeted for the Bucs to draft a quarterback with “franchise” potential because every other viable QB option was a waste of time.

In the spring, Josh McCown and Mike Glennon represented hoping for a football miracle at the position. So the smart move was to recognize the need at quarterback and attack it in the draft. That didn’t happen.

Now, in McCown, the Bucs have the fifth best quarterback in the NFC South. Yes, Joe would take Panthers backup and Bucs killer Derek Anderson over McCown.

Joe is finished hoping for the McCown miracle that Lovie Smith banked on. Once again, it’s time for the Bucs to make a decisive, smart move at quarterback. It’s time to relegate McCown to the bench permanently. [read more]

Bucs fans often will hear Lovie Smith talk about his desire to simply improve each week.

As a new regime with an overturned roster and new schemes on both sides of the ball, Lovie has been clear that all he can ask for is getting better every game, and the wins will come. [read more]

Stay tuned.

Joe’s pulling for offensive coordinator Jeff Tedford to get healthy. Seeing him coach again soon would be nice, too.

Lovie Smith, in a new video on Buccaneers.com. offered hope for Tedford’s speedy return. [read more]

A former glory days Buccaneer joins a longtime NFL personnel man in being completely stunned by the ineptitude and poor technical play of the Buccaneers defense. [read more]

Outside of Danny Lansanah’s pick-six, Joe can’t think of a damned thing that went right Thursday night. Trailing 56-0 at one point — the worst deficit in Buccaneers history — the alley-beating was the nastiest Joe had ever seen delivered.

Something must change. You can’t just do the exact same things and expect a different result. That was appalling. [read more]

The Buccaneers’ defensive performance on Thursday night was so dreadful that only marginal credit is due the Falcons.

That’s the assessment of longtime NFL personnel man Chris Landry, who has worked as an assistant coach and scout for Bill Belichick, coordinator of the Titans scouting department, among other positions in pro and college football.

You don’t want to miss this breakdown. [read more]

Pat Yasinskas of ESPN suggests Thursday night’s debacle in Atlanta shows Lovie Smith’s defensive coaching acumen to be “a myth.”

Greg Schiano was supposed to be a defensive guy, having been a defensive coach all his adult life. He never trailed a team by 56 points in a game, at least not in the NFL.

Raheem Morris, long considered by many Bucs fans as simply nothing more than a baffoon, had his share of beatdowns as a Bucs head coach, especially in his final season. Raheem, who learned the hard way it is hard to control a team when you are at the bars, never trailed in a game by 56 points. [read more]

When an NFL team trails its division rival by 56 points, it doesn’t matter how much confidence a coach has in his system; it doesn’t matter how smart he may think he is at talent evaluation; doesn’t matter if he believes winning ways are just around the corner.

Changes must take place. [read more]

Yesterday, Lovie Smith talked about how Thursday’s massacre at the Georgia Dome was one of those rare humiliations that will leave “a scar” on every Buccaneer.

Joe’s concerned about how that scar may or may not heal on Gerald McCoy. [read more]

The way Josh McCown was playing in the first three games of the season, with his reckless disregard for ball security while the losses mounted, it seemed inevitable that Mike Glennon was going to be called in from the bullpen.

It appears that scenario has been pushed up considerably. [read more]

Lovie Smith had an interesting comment this afternoon at One Buc Palace.

The subject of Josh McCown’s future came up and Lovie offered a unique defense of his hand-picked turnover machine quarterback. [read more]

Dixie Chicks RB Antone Smith runs past Dashon Goldson for a score Thursday.

Like the rest of America, Joe saw the shameful Bucs performance in Atlanta. That’s the best way Joe could put it. One of the absolute worst defensive performances since the Bucs were born, and that encompasses some very dark, awful football.

That was the most points allowed by Tampa Bay in 25 years. Pathetic.

Like America, Andrew Astleford was shocked and appalled. He typed for Fox Sports Florida that there is nothing Bucs officials can say that will exonerate last night’s performance. [read more]

Former Bucs defensive lineman Ellis Wyms doesn’t believe the defense gave 100 percent for Lovie last night.

You think Bucs fans were hacked off last night? Well, they were not the only ones.

Former Bucs players took to Twitter last night as they watched the alley-beating the Dixie Chicks dished out, for all the world to see, in prime time no less on the Tiffany Network.

Joe is pretty confident CBS head honcho Les Moonves cursed out NFL warden commissioner Roger Goodell last night over the phone, demanding a rebate. [read more]

Once upon a time, Vincent Jackson signed a five-year, $55,555,555 contract as a tribute to his new quarterback, Josh Freeman, good ol’ No. 5.

How cute.

Freeman rewarded V-Jax by throwing him the ball deep and often. And V-Jax was near flawless en route to the 2012 Pro Bowl. [read more]