The leader of the New Schiano Order was exceptionally fired up during the 30-minute window given to media to watch the beginning of practice today.

Bucs beat reporter Tom Krasniqi, of WDAE-AM 620, Twittered out the news.

@TKras – Greg Schiano gathered the entire team around and delivered a pep talk before #Bucs practice, saying “If you wanna be elite, work elite” … Schiano to his team: “Let’s focus on our job today, nothing else…100% focus” … The first portion of practice was spirited and Schiano was hands-on, going from group to group, barking orders. He’s intense today

Joe’s not surprised Schiano is bringing extra juice. His team’s on a three-game losing streak and just came out slow for the first time this season.

Joe’s really looking to see how the Bucs respond Sunday. They desperately need to avoid a complete December collapse that has plagued the team two of the past four years.

Schiano said after practice he expects his players to be as disgusted as he is and ready to dig in — perhaps harder than ever — to right the subpar play of last Sunday.

“If you’re not sick, then there’s a problem,” Schiano said, referring to what should be the mentality of all Buccaneers.

An astute JoeBucsFan reader has pointed out that Warren Sapp appears to be wearing his Super Bowl ring in this Lakeland Ledger photo from Sunday’s Bucs-Eagles game. The game celebrated the 10-year reunion of the Bucs’ 2002 Super Bowl champs, and a large percentage of players were flashing their coveted bling.

This is only interesting because Sapp reported the ring lost to Florida courts as part of his high-profile bankruptcy filings.

Of course, Sapp could have had a replica ring made. Or perhaps the real one just turned up under a couch cushion.

The Bucs lost on the final play Sunday, on a ball snapped with two seconds remaining. So it’s natural for fans to obsess about specific plays, from the Bucs botching their first handoff of the day, to cornerback Danny Gorrer’s dropped interception with seconds left, to Greg Schiano’s controversial punt plan on 3rd-and-8 with 2:55 to go.

But Joe also is wondering about how the young Bucs may have been shaken by the wild pregame atmosphere surounding the reunion of the 2002 Super Bowl champs, especially after Mike Williams’ comments on his WDAE-AM 620 radio show Monday.

“It was a crazy atmosphere. You wanted to get their autograph, or you was like, ‘Dang, do I get ready for the game, or [laughs], and them guys walking around. But it was like, I don’t know, like Ronde said, ‘a playoff atmosphere,'” Williams said.

Joe finds it hard to believe that it was merely coincidence that the Bucs’ first true slow start under the New Schiano Order, including preseason games, came down Sunday.

There’s no excuse, if Buccaneers players were distracted by Warren Sapp and other icons yucking it up with them that morning. Joe wonders whether this was a detail the planning-obsessed New Schiano Order had prepped to counter.

Consistent, versatile defensive linemen are worth their weight in gold in the NFL. It’s why Bucs rock star general manager Mark Dominik has invested such high draft picks for defensive linemen in recent years.

So with defensive end Michael Bennett’s contract being up in just a few weeks, he’s going to look to hit a payday. And given data the thinktank crowd at ProFootballFocus.com has generated, Bennett will nail the lottery shortly. Those numbers geeks have Bennett ranked among the NFL elite at pressuring the quarterback.

Bennett is ranked in a tie at No. 4, ahead of even J.J. Watt and Elvis Dumervil, in pressuring quarterbacks.

As for all-around productivity, the PFF.com crowd has Bennett ranked No. 8 among NFL defenseive linemen, ahead of John Abraham and Kamerion Wimbley.

Now throw in another fact that the PFF folks didn’t touch: Until this year, Gerald McCoy has been hobbled by injuries. Da’Quan Bowers has been hobbled by injuries. Adrian Clayborn is out for the year with a knee injury.

So three of the top five Bucs defensive linemen are injury prone. Bennett is not.

You know what Joe thinks? For every game Bucs quarterback Josh Freeman has like the past two weeks, three if you include his inaccuracy against the Dixie Chicks, cash that could have gone to Freeman will instead be slotted to Bennett.

That is if the Bucs don’t franchise Bennett. Either way, Bennett will hit the lottery in a few weeks. He’s a good guy, a stand-up guy, a productive guy so Joe has no problem if Dominik makes it rain on Bennett.

The Bucs need Bennett to remain in the fold, in no uncertain terms.

Joe remembers just a couple of months ago how a number of loud Bucs fans were so fed up with the struggles of Josh Freeman, they begged for Bucs rock star general manager Mark Dominik to draft West Virginia quarterback Geno Smith next April.

While Joe thought those wishes were outrageous, since, Freeman’s recent freefall has sort of opened Joe’s eyes to why that group of fans wanted so badly to turn the page.

Given Freeman’s struggles, Joe already wrote this will just give Dominik more leverage when/if he extends Freeman’s contract, which is set to expire after the 2013 season. Joe fully expects that to happen.

It seems eye-RAH! Kaufman of the Tampa Tribune is of the same mind. Appearing on the “Booger and Rich Show” on WHFS-FM 98.7 Tuesday, co-hosted by former Bucs defensive tackle Booger McFarland and Rich Herrera, Kaufman confessed that Freeman was so terrible Sunday, it was the first time Kaufman wondered if Freeman will ever be the franchise quarterback the Bucs boast about.

But Kaufman said Freeman isn’t going anywhere and the Bucs are just going to have to learn to deal with Freeman’s moderate peaks and deep valleys.

“Freeman was so inaccurate — I have been a big, big Freeman supporter. I said if he doesn’t come out big by 2010, I don’t know anything about football. So I am not going to be a hypocrite. That is the first time, even with all his problems last year, that he was so bad in Sunday’s first half, that I looked around and said, ‘What is going on with Josh Freeman?’ And don’t think for a second that Mike Sullivan and Greg Schiano weren’t thinking the same thing.

“You can’t go back to the drawing board. Half the teams in this league wish they had Josh Freeman, and that is a fact. You look at teams like the Cardinals — I mean that is a disaster. The Jets, they have absolutely nothing. Look, Freeman had a bad game. Won’t be the first one, won’t be the last one. This kid is going to play. He is not going to be a 68 percent passer. This is not Drew Brees we are talking about. But the kid throws a very good deep ball. He is much respected in the room. He wants to be a leader. He’s bright and I think we have found a new maturity in him. He wants to be outstanding. Unless I am mistaken, you are not going to go out and get someone with the 20th pick in the draft, I am sorry and if there is someone out there in free agency, someone is going to beat you to it. There is not going to be anybody better than Freeman. I’m not breaking the bank on Freeman but I’m not willing to say [the Bucs] made a mistake in 2009. The repercussion of that sets you back another five years.”

As Joe asked Sunday, is Freeman the long-term answer for the Bucs? After the past three weeks, surrounded by all his flashing toys but failing, Joe must answer that he doesn’t know.

But as Kaufman pointed out, just look around at other teams’ quarterbacks. Arizona, San Diego, Jacksonville, Kansas City and the Jets likely would kill to have Freeman. Perhaps even Carolina, Minnesota, Dallas, Oakland and even Houston (yes, Houston) — to name just a handful–might prefer Freeman as their starting signal-caller.

Freeman has every tangible one could ever want in a quarterback. That is not the issue.

Unless Freeman walks after next year — highly unlikely — Freeman will be your starting Bucs quarterback for the foreseeable future.

Dicey accuracy and skittish throws under pressure included.

One of the most bizarre roster moves made by the Bucs this season was the release of Brandon McDonald six weeks ago. McDonald was a veteran cornerback, the opening day nickel cornerback, and he at least had good flashes and an interception during his eight games with the Bucs.

Two weeks weeks before McDonald was cut, even the leader of the New Schiano Order raved about him.

“I’m impressed,” Greg Schiano said of McDonald. “His work ethic, his attention to detail. This guy’s a pro.”

Well, for some reason Schiano and rockstar general manager Mark Dominik thought Myron Lewis was a better player and sent McDonald packing. But now McDonald has replaced Lewis, who is on injured reserve. The Bucs announced the re-signing of McDonald tonight.

As atrocious as the Bucs secondary has been, Joe’s almost excited by this move.

Joe always gets a laugh out of seeing the various nutrition and post-workout replenishment directives on display in the Bucs’ locker room, courtesy of the team nutritionist. 

Joe’s all-time favorite was a post-practice option of immediately consuming about 24 ounces of chocolate milk along with more healthy feasting.

These guys consume a hell of a lot of chow.

But it surprised Joe to hear skinny Mike Williams last night on his radio show talk about downing 7,000 calories daily during the season — 7,000! Williams said he gets heat from the team nutritionist about eating vegetables — “he sounds like my mom” — and primarily loads up on steak and pasta, and then he’ll often grab another steak on his own after eating “what they give me.”

Damn, Joe should have played in the NFL. What a dream job.

If Williams is inhaling 7,000 calories, what is, say, Roy Miller gobbling up? And what was Miller eating when the heinous Jim Bates Experience ordered him to gain serious weight after being drafted? These thoughts almost made Joe forget about Rachel Watson for a moment.

Almost.

Last week, when Joe noted Bucs quarterback Josh Freeman folded under pressure and vanished for a quarter, which the Broncos took advantage of and rallied for a key win, Joe was largely raked over the coals for pointing out what some fans considered heresy.

But more proof was on video Sunday for all to see — all who cared to see. Freeman was simply off, terribly so, in an embarrassing, playoff-killing loss to the Beagles, a game in which a rookie, third-round pick playing in his fifth NFL game stood tall under constant pressure from the Bucs and delivered a win.

Well, the folks at ProFootballFocus.com have studied the video and are of the mind that Freeman’s performance was far more ghastly Sunday then Joe initially believed.

In short, when Freeman faced pressure from the Beagles, he completed a grand total of zero attempts.

Off Day for Freeman

Buccaneers quarterback, Josh Freeman (-1.8) was a little off for most of the game. He never seemed to settle into a rhythm, finishing the game 14 of 32 on his graded passes. All year Freeman’s struggles have come when he is under pressure, and this game was no different. When under pressure Freeman didn’t complete a pass, going 0 of 9, and many of those nine were way off target. As soon as he feels pressure he rushes his throws and becomes extremely inaccurate. His QB rating with no pressure was a very impressive 106.9, but against pressure just 39.6.

As Joe has pointed out, priority No. 1 for Greg Schiano come January is to brainstorm a way to repair that sieve of a secondary. Whether that means changes to personnel and staff, time will tell.

The No. 2 objective for Schiano and offensive coordinator Mike Sullivan will be to find out why Freeman gets so rattled under pressure. Hell, Joe even kept his composure when he met Rachel Watson this past summer; no small feat.

Given Sullivan’s track record with Eli Manning, Joe’s confident Sullivan can help Freeman. It will be an important task as the near future of the Bucs franchise may very well depend on that outcome.

“Good move, Glazer. Now get the beer to pour at 36.9 degrees.”

Determined to obliterate local blackouts, in part by rewarding serious Bucs fans, Team Glazer has slashed prices for 35 percent of all season tickets, so the Buccaneers announced today.

All kinds of price points and virtual field views can be seen on Buccaneers.com. The lowest price season tickets remains at $30 for adults. The cheapest lower level season ticket has dropped from $75 to $65 next year.

Joe’s not sure this will generate a stampede of new season ticket holders. But it’s a wise and appropriate move.

Greg Schiano said yesterday that Josh Freeman missed a key detail against the Eagles

First, let Joe say that it’s darn cool and admirable that Greg Schiano, a man who much prefers obsessing in the film room versus interacting with media, takes live calls from fans on his weekly radio show on WDAE-AM 620.

Chucky wanted no part of that. His professed over-the-top “luvv” for all things football didn’t extend to Bucs fans. Raheem Morris, well, he was happy to let it all hang out.

Last night on the air was an in-your-face event for Schiano. Fans were respectful but pointed and critical.

One such caller fingered Josh Freeman for costly clock management  late in the Eagles-Bucs game Sunday. Playing with a precious fourth-quarter lead, the caller said, Freeman barked the call for the snap with too much time remaining on the playclock, as much as 10 seconds.

The leader of the New Schiano Order didn’t specifically agree with the caller regarding the amount of times Freeman made that mistake, but Schiano did agree Freeman screwed up by snapping the ball with as many as eight seconds left while the Bucs were trying to eat as much clock as possible.

The Bucs lost on the Eagles’ final snap — with two seconds left.

Details. Details. Details. That’s the New Schiano Order mantra. Yet the Bucs continue to botch details; 12 men on the field comes to mind. Joe can only imagine the teaching that went on at One Buc Palace yesterday.

As just about every sane Bucs fan knows, Sunday was the reunion celebrating the 10-year anniversary of the Bucs winning their (thus far) lone Super Bowl, a treasured, historic moment in not just franchise history, but in the annals of Tampa Bay history.

Just before the 2002 Bucs were to take the field at halftime to be honored by fans, Joe was humbled to have a brief moment with Chucky, the man who brought the Vince Lombardi Trophy to Tampa Bay.

Joe thought it was cool that the current Bucs are very much in the forefront of Chucky’s mind and that Chucky even asked/told the fans, when he spoke at halftime, if locals support the Bucs now like they did 10 years ago, equally good fortunes will follow.

“We are very appreciative of the Glazers for making this happen. This is a great day in Tampa. For all former Buccaneers, all the current Buccaneers and the future Buccaneers, it is really exciting to be together again and give some incentive to this team and teams that follow.

“I am aware of what they are doing and Coach Schiano has a great program. I’m a big fan and supporter of him.

“I see a lot of these guys here from time to time; I stay in touch with a lot of them. To get them all back together and reunite is a great thing. Hopefully we take advantage of modern technology, e-mails and text messages and keep an eye on one another like we did 10 years ago.”

One last thing for Joe to get off his chest: When Chucky was introduced at halftime carrying the same Lombardi Trophy he hoisted aloft in San Diego nearly 10 years ago, Joe heard boos. That was shameful and for those who did boo Chucky, you would have been better off staying at home.

Sure, Chucky’s final days with the Bucs weren’t idyllic, and he had rubbed a lot of people the wrong way. That, to Joe, is now water under the bridge. The man brought home long-awaited hardware for this franchise and this community, for goodness sakes!

For that feat, Joe still believes there should be a street in the Tampa Bay area named for him.

Coughing up leads because of lousy pass defense each week like the Bucs have this year is simply unacceptable for an NFL team.

Bucs fans are still seething — rightly so — over how the Bucs played awful football, unacceptable football, in losing to the hapless Beagles Sunday, all but kissing away any playoff hopes.

The quarterback was bad. Some say his receivers didn’t help him out. Some suggest Schiano gave the game away. Virtually everyone agrees whatever the Bucs are doing in their fourth quarter pass defense needs to stop now and be completely overhauled for next year.

But it seems players and Schiano are on different levels on how to right the wrong(s) in very fundamental differences.

Some of the players say someone needs to “make a play.”

Schiano says, just do your job, writes Woody Cummings of the Tampa Tribune.

“It’s all fixable. It’s nothing major. We just have to make more plays at the end,” Da’Quan Bowers said.

Schiano doesn’t subscribe to that theory. He thinks the player who simply does “his job” best usually wins those battles – and he cannot emphasize that enough.

“I think when you focus on making plays, that’s exactly when you don’t make plays,” he said. “Focus on doing your job and plays come to you, the game comes to you. That’s what we believe around here.”

Here’s the thing: If one is to believe, as Bowers suggests, someone needs to make a play, it’s pretty damned clear nobody is week after week, time and again in the fourth quarter when the game is on the line.

Talk is over with. Action is required.

But if one is to side with Schiano, then that tells Joe either his mindset hasn’t sunk in on the Bucs secondary quite yet, or wholesale changes are needed on the defensive backs roster for next year up to and including defensive backs coach Ron Cooper if not defensive coordinator Bill Sheridan, themselves.

Now Joe isn’t the “fire him” kind of a guy, but simply put, the inability for the Bucs to stop a cool breeze in passing situations in the fourth quarter is absolutely and totally unacceptable for any NFL team. The Bucs pass defense currently is no better than the Bucs rush defense was last year and heads rolled as a result, understandably so. Watching teams knife through the Bucs secondary — worst in the NFL — with ease each week is appalling and it never seems to be righted.

Sure Schiano and the Bucs have done a wonderful, masterful job of shutting down the run (how much of that is Bryan Cox’s coaching?) but what the hell good is it if a third round draft pick of a rookie can hang 381 yards on the secondary and march down the field like Joe Montana in his prime for the winning score?

How many times has this secondary lost the game by getting lit up like a roman candle despite the Bucs stopping the run, both with and without Aqib Talib, both with and without Eric Wright?

Barring a miracle, this pass defense of the Bucs cost this team a playoff berth. There’s no need to sugarcoat it.

These are serious, legitimate questions both players and assistant coaches need to answer to Schiano in the immediate hours after the final gun ends the season.

Look, if the Baltimore Crows, leading their division with three games left, are willing to unload their longtime offensive coordinator two weeks before Christmas for rotten production, why exactly should Sheridan and Cooper be resting peacefully at night?

Former Bucs tight end and current radio analyst Dave Moore believes not all Bucs receivers helped out Josh Freeman Sunday.

Yes, Bucs quarterback Josh Freeman is feeling heat after a third consecutive week in which he missed open receivers and played a lackluster game.

Sure, he played OK against Atlanta, but missed critical throws that eventually doomed the Bucs. Against the Broncos, as Joe pointed out before, Freeman vanished when faced with adversity for at least a quarter, which allowed the Broncos to rally for a win.

Sunday, Freeman may have had one of his worst games of his career, and at the worst time no less, since it all but knocked the Bucs out of playoff contention.

But hold up, said Bucs radio analyst Dave Moore on on “The Ron and Ian Show” yesterday on WDAE-AM 620. The former Bucs tight end, while admitting Freeman wasn’t his best self with accuracy Sunday, believed at least a few times errant throws were on Bucs receivers for not running proper routes, not so much because of Freeman’s wild streak. Moore specifically fingered Tiquan Underwood for missing “sight-adjusts” based on coverage.

This is why, Moore said, Freeman often reacted angrily after an incompletion.

“The receivers weren’t adjusting and [Freeman’s bitter response] looks bad,” Moore said.

Moore also talked about how the Bucs lost more because of a lack of execution than anything the Eagles were doing.

“The Bucs were averaging four yards a carry right off the bat that was good. [Failure to move the ball early was] more about the fact the Bucs were not executing rather than Philadelphia was presenting anything they couldn’t handle. Josh wasn’t accurate with high percentage passes which he normally hits. He was throwing high and hard. It happens. If you watch a pitcher in baseball and basketball players, some days you are on and some days you are not.”

To hear the entire interview with Moore, click on the little arrow below. Audio courtesy of WDAE-AM 620.

Greg Schiano was grilled by a Bucs-fan caller to his radio show tonight about the now infamous 3rd-and-8 run up the middle for no gain yesterday — on the Bucs’ 33 yard line with 2:55 remaining and the Bucs leading the Eagles 21-16.

The fan hated the playcall and wanted to know what Schiano was thinking.

The leader of the New Schiano Order explained that he ran up the middle to lessen the chance of a turnover and he was looking for a subsequent punt from Michael Koenen that would pin the Eagles inside their 20 yard line. Schiano said he had confidence his defense could stop a timeout-free Nick Foles to close out the game and that confidence was the driving force of his decision.

Well, the punt part of the equation didn’t sit well with Joe.

Essentially, Schiano was looking for a net punt from Koenen of 47 yards or better — from the Bucs’ 33 to the Eagles’ 20 or less. But the problem is the Bucs’ net average on punts is only 37 yards this season and, statistically, the Bucs have one of the worst punt-cover units in the NFL.

So given those numbers, Joe finds Schiano’s goal of a booming punt to be unrealistic. (Koenen’s eventual punt was 31 yards with no return.)

And if Schiano expected such a booming punt, then surely he expected it to be returned, which is what happens to long punts. That would have been a far more dangerous scenario than calling a safe pass for Josh Freeman to throw on third down. The Bucs have such safe playcalls in their playbook — Schiano admitted that on the air — perhaps something like sprinting Freeman right and giving him a run or throw-to-the-right-sideline option.

Joe understands Schiano believed more in his league-worst pass defense than in Freeman to win the game for him, but the big-punt fantasy never should have been part of the thought process.

Joe finds it a bit amusing that Bucs fans always, always have to have a player to hate. Each year, this player (or coach) changes.

Two years ago it was, understandably, Sabby the Goat. Last year it was Bucs defensive tackle Gerald McCoy (when people grew hoarse from screaming for Raheem Morris’ head on a platter). This year, despite maybe playing a half-dozen (if that) plays on defense, without question the most loathed Bucs player by fans was Myron Lewis.

Joe uses the past tense “was” because the beleagured Bucs cornerback has been placed on the injured reserve list and his season is over, per the Bucs official Twitter feed.

@TBBuccaneers: Bucs CB Myron Lewis has been placed on injured reserve due to a hamstring injury suffered in Sunday’s game against Philly.

Rarely a day goes by where Bucs fans — in a thread about a completely different subject — cry out loud, “Why is Myron Lewis on the roster?”

It’s a good question, but Joe wasn’t concerned because Lewis rarely (thankfully) played defense. The third-round pick in 2010 never adjusted to the NFL. When he’s healthy — a rare feat for the Vanderbilt product — Lewis always looked completely lost on defense, often spinning around like the Tasmanian Devil in some weird effort to get into position, looking like a youngster in a frantic Easter egg hunt.

It never worked.

Joe has nothing against Lewis, who seems like a good guy. But to date, Lewis has been completely overwhelmed trying to perform at the NFL level.

Lewis has one more year left on his four-year contract.

Nosetackle and soon-to-be free agent Roy Miller sat out yesterday’s game with a head injury, and the Bucs proceeded to be no less than dominant against the run and notched a stunning six sacks of Eagles quarterback Nick Foley.

Hats off to Miller’s main understudy, Gary Gibson, and Michael Bennett, who spent several snaps rushing inside.

So what does this say about Miller’s value? 

Joe’s not taking a shot at Miller, just wondering how rockstar general manager Mark Dominik and Greg Schiano will assess him. Miller surely will have suitors in free agency. He’s a team-first, four-year veteran who is still just 25 years old.

Joe wouldn’t pursue Miller hard, but like Jeremy Zuttah last offseason, Miller could be a guy the Bucs try to lock up quickly after the season.

Ray Didinger of CSNPhilly.com talks about how the Eagles found a quarterback in third-round pick, rookie Nick Foles, who Didinger lauded for finding a way to win under pressure yesterday. Unfortunately, the Bucs’ franchise quarterback couldn’t do the same with a far lesser obstacle.

Joe would love $5 million. But Joe’s going to have to settle for cracking 5 million visits to this here website in 2012.

It’s not quite as big a deal as the fall of the Berlin Wall, but in a matter of moments JoeBucsFan.com will bust the 5 million mark for visits in this calendar year. This is new ground for Joe, and hopefully such an accomplishment will stimulate Rachel Watson to reconsider who is most important in her life.

Joe wants to issue a thank you to his readers, and the loyal companies you see promoted around here that put gas in Joe’s tank, beer in Joe’s belly, meat on Joe’s grill, and afford Joe the time to bring his best self every day.

Joe’s pleased to continue to grind away tirelessly, 24/7, in his role as the premier source of news and commentary for Bucs fans. If you ever encounter an off day here, rest assured Joe is either dead or Rachel finally knocked on his door.

In what was a gross exaggeration about the numbers of Philly fans present and soiling the 2002 Buccaneers Super Bowl reunion yesterday, Eagles head coach Andy Reid raved about the cheers he was hearing after the game.

“The fans were unbelievable. I mean, you gotta giv’em credit. They were out here. At times I wasn’t sure who had more fans, us or them,” Reid said.

Reid went on to say he wasn’t sure whether the final Eagles touchdown to the end the game was reversed by officials because of the loud crowd reaction when the final score was in the books.

Screw, Andy Reid. There was a recognizable, audible Eagles-fan presence yesterday, but there had to be about 90 percent Bucs fans there in the full-house crowd of 64,941.

Joe suspects Reid is simply so used to being booed on his home turf that some cheers surprised him.

Joe hears the sharks circling — the loud voices of sports radio callers today wanting Josh Freeman out of town after this season, the subtle salivating of radio hosts warming to the idea of a future dump-Freeman bandwagon, the wild emails filling Joe’s inbox, the anti-Freeman passion in the comments on these here pages.

Sure, Joe has serious questions about Freeman’s ability to take the Bucs where every fan wants them to go. But Joe’s hardly advocating giving up on Freeman like some are.

The Bucs would be nuts to not have Freeman as this team’s QB in 2013, unless some bizarre QB gift from the heavens falls into One Buc Palace, which is about as likely as Rachel Watson asking Joe to meet her under the mistletoe.

But Joe knows Freeman desperately needs one win in these final three games of 2012, all of them difficult.

It would be nothing but ugly for Freeman in the local media this offseason if he closes 2012 with a six-game losing streak, on the heels of a 10-game losing streak to wrap up 2011. That’s tough to defend.

Today, Tampa Bay Times columnist Gary Shelton, who also co-hosts Gary and The Commish on 98.7 FM, said Freeman is perhaps the most polarizing quarterback he’s ever seen. The Good Josh/Bad Josh in-game act is wearing on Shelton, who says Freeman has reached the point in his career where “it’s time to start getting some of those bad moments erased.”

Count Shelton among the heavyweight circling sharks.

Of course, Joe wants to see Freeman win three games out of the final three, not just one. But he absolutely has to lead the Bucs to at least one more victory. Joe’s not sure Freeman will deal with the immense pressure that would come with losing out.

The slide of Josh Freeman, who’s a combined 32-of-74 in his past two games, is worse than it appears, says former Bucs guard Ian Beckles (1990-1996). 

Co-host of the Ron and Ian Show on WDAE-AM 620, Beckles made the point this morning that Freeman is benefitting from elite talent at the skill positions but is still struggling.

“The weapons are making him look good,” Beckles said. “There are guys going up and beasting for the ball. There wasn’t a whole lot in our passing game yesterday.”

It’s hard to argue the point. Freeman has the luxury of a strong running game and a dangerous back out of the backfield. He’s also got a surehanded tight end and a definite Pro Bowl wide receiver in Vincent Jackson, as well as another go-get-it receiver in Mike Williams, and both are extremely versatile. And Freeman has an offensive line that pass blocks effectively.

Very few quarterbacks have so much to work with. In addition, it’s worth noting that the bulk of the Bucs’ payroll is on the offensive side of the ball. Relatively speaking, there’s not a lot of improvement the Bucs need to make on offense, outside of Freeman finding discovering consistency.

Perhaps the primary reason Greg Schiano gave as to why he set up a punt with a 3rd-and-8 run late in the fourth quarter was that he was confident the Bucs would get pressure on Eagles QB Nick Foles, with the rookie in a scenario with no timeouts and feeling the heat to score a touchdown or lose the game.

Well, the pressure came, but Foles still feasted on the Bucs secondary, the one Ronde Barber said isn’t good enough.

Via Philly.com, an Eagles offensive lineman acknowledged that his linemates couldn’t slow down the Bucs’ rush.

 “The offensive line didn’t help him out early in the game, and throughout the game, with the pressure, but he never got upset, never changed his composure. He stayed focused,” rookie right tackle Dennis Kelly said. “It was kind of one of those things like, if he can do it, we can do it.”

The Bucs finished with six sacks, including two for Gerald McCoy and Michael Bennett. That’s SIX! And they completely stopped the run. But the Bucs still lost the game, even without committing a turnover and despite a punishing performance by Doug Martin. That’s an extremely rare feat in the NFL. Apparently, it only happens when your quarterback is having an ugly day.