From Day 1, Greg Schiano has made it clear that he treats every game as its own season and nothing else matters. It’s the Eagles season this week, and the only goal in the organization is to go 1-0 in that season.

Good luck even trying to get the leader of the New Schiano Order to acknowledge that future games, past games or bigger topics exist.

Tonight, a caller into The Greg Schiano Show on WDAE-AM 620, heaped loads of praise on the leader of the New Schiano Order for his unwavering focused mentality. And Schiano explained that the monstrous media scrutiny in the NFL almost forces him to take a hard line approach to an extreme single-game focus.

“It’s so hard in the National Football League. There’s so much media coverage,” Schiano said. “And the media, you know, has a thousand different angles that they want to portray things, which is great. It’s great for the game. It gives fans something to do all week long since we only play once a week. But it’s not good for the players. And, you know, if you just follow the National Football League, one week they have a team dead for rites, and the next week they’re back in the playoff hunt. And that’s what sells air time, that’s what sells Internet sites, that’s what sells newspapers. But as a football player and a football coach, the only thing you can affect is that one game that week.”

Joe’s not sure he buys into the coach’s philosophy. Joe’s confident players can handle practice responsibilities, film study, and engage media, and keep all the hype in perspective and perform on Sundays. In fact, there have been numerous examples of that through the years from teams under far more scrutiny than the 2012 Bucs in relatively small-market Tampa.

But Joe understands Schiano’s mindset and respects why he keeps a leash on his team’s interaction with the media.

Sadly, Joe expects this means that when the Bucs do make the Super Bowl one day, Donald Penn and Carl Nicks won’t be leading a modern day version of the Super Bowl Shuffle on MTV. That’s a damn shame.

Chicago Bears – Superbowl Shuffle by jpdc11

The Bucs, with the NFL’s worst pass defense and a beleaguered cornerback group, got a little bit of good news today when Bucs coach Greg Schiano announced Anthony Gaitor will return to the active roster.

Gaitor, who was placed on the injured reserve list earlier this year after being nagged by a nasty hamstring injury, has been working out with the club the past few weeks and, per NFL rules, recently was allowed to practice with the team in advance of being reactived.

The earliest Gaitor could have been reactivated would have been after the Bucs’ 12th game, which was Sunday against the Broncos.

Though Gaitor has yet to be named a starter but was a valuable reserve cornerback on a team that has had to turn to backups in the wake of the Adderall-fueled suspensions of Aqib Talib and Eric Wright, and Talib’s subsequent trade.

As Joe stated earlier, the Bucs corners are so thin, any news like this is good news and is as close to a magic bullet as the Bucs are going to find to help the secondary the remainder of the season.

Yesterday, many of Joe’s readers were angered when Joe wrote how Josh Freeman’s vanishing act in the third quarter led to the Bucs losing a lead, and losing a game to the Broncos.

“But he was pressured by the pass rush” was the convenient cry/excuse Joe read from those angry with Joe’s commentary.

Joe believes this is nonsense. Here’s why:

Does a good pass rush help a team? Clearly. This is not debatable. Joe’s only belief is that an elite quarterback — which Freeman very well may still be one day — adapts to problems and overcomes obstacles in order to lead his team.

This did not happen yesterday.

First, yes, there was a pass rush. This is understandable. The Broncos, after yesterday’s games, are third in the NFL in sacks. Did any sane, sober person believe Freeman would have all the time in the world to throw the ball? If there is such a person, said person is awfully naive.

Besides, the Bucs’ offensive line gave up one sack yesterday. One! Does that sound like the Broncos had a complete jailbreak against the Bucs?

Guess which team has one of the best pass blocking offensive lines in the NFL? That would be the Bucs. After yesterday’s games, only the Broncos, Texans and Giants have allowed fewer sacks than the Bucs.

Joe also wrote yesterday that Jay Cutler and Aaron Rodgers, two quarterbacks on teams that, unless they totally collaspe, will be playoff-bound, would pick up a bar tab the rest of the year to have an offensive line like the Bucs’, even with all the injuries to starters.

The Packers have given up the second-most sacks in the NFL this year; the Bears are nearly as bad at No. 5.

(FYI, Matty Ice has been sacked more than Freeman.)

Yet, Rodgers and Cutler, faced with adversity, find ways to adjust and overcome obstacles to lead their teams to critical wins.

Please do not get the wrongheaded notion that Joe is somehow anti-Freeman. Joe spent the better part of the first month of the season dispelling illogical premises from readers that the Bucs should draft Geno Smith — or worse — bench Freeman for Dan Orlovsky, which is simply beyond the pale.

Freeman is not yet an NFL elite quarterback. A good quarterback yes, a young quarterback, yes, a quarterback who can still be among the NFL’s top clutch players, yes.

He’s just not there yet. But the Bucs may need him to be if they are to run the table the rest of the season to have a shot at a postseason game.

The only thing keeping Freeman from being among those elite players in Joe’s eyes is for him to be consistent. Nothing more.

Props to Josh and the Bucs for making a late comeback in Denver. Too bad that didn’t need to happen.

Joe’s at a bit of a crossroads with Josh Freeman. Joe looks at Freeman’s entire body of work, all 52 starts (23-29), and Joe’s not sure if Freeman can lead the Bucs to the promised land of the playoffs.

The jury is still out on Freeman, and for Joe, these next four games will speak very loud volumes as to the kind of quarterback Freeman is. Can he personally lead his team to victory in key December games? Freeman did that in 2010 (Seattle and New Orleans), and he’ll get four more shots this year after yesterday’s ugly performance.

Joe’s less concerned with the numbers, and more concerned with the leadership, clutch throws, consistency, moving the chains and the “W.”

But at BSPN, they love the numbers. And BSPN’s stats gremlins have their own fancy quarterback rankings, which show Freeman ranked 15th in the league. Matt Ryan is third. Drew Brees is 12th, and Cam Newton is 21st.

Sadly, those numbers sound about right. Freeman’s a solid quarterback with great talent, but he hasn’t yet shown he can consistently be the man Bucs fans need.

The “money down” is failing the Bucs.

Whether it’s Josh Freeman falling short of being an upper-tier quarterback, or stunts like running D.J. Ware on 3rd-and-20 in the second half yesterday, the Bucs are statistically worse on third-down conversions than they were in 2011.

This is a key stat because it’s darn difficult to find a good football team among the cellar-dweller offenses in the stat of converting on third-down. Of the 10 lowest ranked teams in 2012, only Cincinnati (35 percent conversion) has a winning record.

Unfortunately, the Bucs are ranked 26th in the NFL at earning a first down when it’s third down. The Bucs get it done 34 percent of the time. During the heinous 2011 season, they were better, at 36.89 percent. In 2010, they were among the cream of the NFL (42.18 percent). Yesterday, the Bucs were 3-of-12 on third down and in their last four games, they’re a combined 17-for-49. 

Consistent offense is about moving the chains. The explosive plays, which the Bucs deliver in a big way, are wonderful, but strong teams, playoff teams, convert on third down.

Searching for something uplifting to help get through this day, Joe’s going to give Lavonte David a virtual pat on the back for putting a big notch on his rookie superhero belt yesterday.

David cleanly picked off Peyton Manning in the second half, the first aerial snatch of his career. That’ll be a nice tale to tell his kids one day when his hopefully Pro Bowl Bucs career is over.

David is Joe’s Bucs rookie of the year to date — even ahead of Doug Martin. David broke 100 tackles yesterday, is fifth in the NFL in tackles and has been the Bucs’ most consistent — and possibly most talented — defensive player.

Throw in that David handles the defensive playcalling duties and is among the league leaders in tackles for loss, and Joe can find a grin on this gloomy Monday.

Joe scribbled down notes from Bucs quarterback Josh Freeman’s postgame news conference in which Freeman was visibly agitated by the outcome of yesterday’s loss to the Broncos.

On his pick-six:
Vincent was running a go-route, I thought I had a window to stick it in there. That’s the type of swing, those pick-sixes, from a momentum standpoint, from a points standpoint, it is tough to overcome.

Bottom line is executing and there was a span there where we were not executing and the guys on the other side, they were rolling. We have to find a way to maintain a level of consistency to go down the field and score points throughout the game. I thought our defense did a great job today. It was tough there for a stretch. We found a way to beat ourselves.

There was no question they were aware of us taking shots down the field. That said, you are going to face that. We have to execute better.

On the rest of the season:
We have a lot of football left to be played. We are just a game out but we are focused on the next game and getting ready for the Eagles. [Monday], everyone can’t wait to get to get back in the building, watch this game, evaluate, try to learn, try to grow from it and focus our attention, everything on beating the Eagles.

On offensive penalties:
Anytime you convert on a big play on third down, or whatever it is, and you have a penalty and it backs you up, it’s tough. At the same time, if that happens, we have to find a way to convert on third down.

Joe was Tiquan Underwood’s biggest cheerleader during training camp; everything stuck to the guy’s hands in practice and in preseason games, yet the Bucs ditched him with the final September roster cuts.

Luckily, the Bucs pulled him back off the street and he’s got 20 receptions, but it’s two games in a row now that Underwood has dropped passes. Joe’s got to go back to today’s game film, but it might have been two drops today in Denver.

Joe knows this can’t continue. The New Schiano Order is obsessive about ball security and won’t tolerate it. For the sake of the team and his career, Underwood needs to solve the dropsies fast over the Bucs’ final four games.

Joe also senses that Underwood’s strength is not as a slot receiver. Obviously, the Bucs can be very creative with him in that role, but he’s hardly the prototype. His production and usage is definitely something to monitor the rest of the way.

Mike Williams believed the Broncos’ ability to shut down the Bucs’ rush attack in the third quarter changed the game.

Bucs wide receiver Mike Williams paused for a few brief moments after the Bucs loss to the Broncos to talk on the Bucs radio network.

In short, Williams stated the suffocating Broncos’ rush defense in the third quarter turned the Bucs into a one-dimensional team, which turned out to be a trap.

“We didn’t run the ball well” in the third quarter, “and we got into a situation where we couldn’t run well but we ran into a good defense,” Williams said. “I’m not making any excuses.”

On Williams’ play to set up his touchdown in the fourth-quarter:

“On the touchdown, it was an under-route,” Williams said. “Vincent was the first read and they doubled him and if they doubled him, I had “to get open.”

On the team’s character:

“That is what it is with this team. We fight, we fight, we fight to the final whistle. That is what Coach Schiano has brought to us.”

As Joe expected, the leader of the New Schiano Order was tight-lipped and non-committal when asked this evening about the ESPN report that has Mike Sullivan expressing interest in the Boston College head coaching job.

Here’s what Greg Schiano had to say when asked about the validity of the report:

“You know that kind of stuff I keep private with my assistant coaches and with our organization, and if there’s anything to that it will come out the appropriate way,” Schiano said. “I don’t think this is the place to talk about that.”

Joe sure would have preferred a denial from Schiano.

It would be potentially devastating for Josh Freeman and the Bucs offense to lose Sullivan. Not that Sullivan is living legend, but Freeman doesn’t need the upset of learning another offense and adjusting to another coordinator.

By next season, the Bucs should be humming as an elite offense, not starting fresh.

Greg Schiano give a congratulatory head slap and kind words to Peyton Manning on the field today after Manning completed a pass to a receiver on the ground. Frankly, Joe didn’t like the head coach’s smiley reaction.

Not that it was so awful, but Joe doesn’t see Schiano as a guy who’s wired like that. Joe prefers to believe Schiano is a guy that would rather invest those precious two seconds on his own team, especially since Schiano preaches maximizing every second of practice time.

Joe just didn’t like it, just as Joe didn’t like it when Raheem Morris was on the field during a break in play in Green Bay last year whooping it up with Aaron Rodgers.

Joe can’t recall such friendly, in-game gestures sent the Bucs way.

Just a few weeks ago when Bucs rookie undrafted free agent cornerback was pressed into duty, Johnson seemed to shine. His pick-six, game-winning touchdown against Philip Rivers being Exhibit-A, and he should have officially had three picks in two games.

But with injuries and Adderall infractions rising among the ranks of the Bucs cornerbacks, Johnson has been asked to play more, and to start, and it appears opponents have decided to target him.

It all began with a bomb he gave up against San Diego. Then, in the words of former Bucs defensive lineman Steve White, Julio Jones “baptized” Johnson last week for Johnson’s second 80-yard touchdown given up in as many games.

Today it was clear that Peyton Manning and Demaryius Thomas were targeting the pride of Largo High School. And it worked. Two egregious plays were a pass interference Johnson gave up against Thomas (Joe would prefer a pass interference as opposed to six points) and then, when Joe thought surely Johnson was in position for an interception, Manning threaded the needle to Thomas for a key touchdown.

Now don’t get Joe wrong. Joe likes Johnson and thinks he has promise and will be around these parts for a while. But he’s a rookie. He’s learning… in some cases the hard way.

And the NFL is a copycat league. Until Johnson begins stopping some of these passes and doesn’t get whistled for interference or holding, teams are going to continue to target him.

Joe sees the burst in Doug Martin, the leg drive, the explosion, the improved vision since early in the season, but his production has fallen off.

Maybe it’s the patchwork offensive line? Joe routinely sees Martin turning rushes that look like sure losses into positive — and almost positive — plays. But more likely it’s the reality of being a running back in the NFL. There are plenty of rough days unless you’re a Hall of Fame back.

Martin has an ugly 39 carries for 106 yards over his past two games. He’s got 82 rushes for 312 yards over his last four games, following his historic effort in Oakland.

The Bucs are mixing up Martin’s runs, but the yardage isn’t coming.

Perhaps using multiple running backs would help. Joe’s not getting on a LeGarrette Blount soapbox tonight, but it shouldn’t be such a foreign concept to use two backs for an NFL offense.

And no, running D.J. Ware on 3rd-and-20 today doesn’t count. Joe hated that call.

Let’s be honest: The Bucs traveled to hostile territory and played one of the best teams in the NFL, didn’t play well offensively, and still were within one score.

Not being able to overcome adversity by Josh Freeman (in the third quarter, specifically) may be the difference between a good team and an average team. The Bucs now hold a 6-6 record. In the immortal words of Tuna Parcells, you are what your record says you are.”

After the game speaking on the Bucs radio network, Bucs coach Greg Schiano pointed to Freeman’s pick-six to Von Miller as the turning point in the game.

“I think we gave up a touchdown, a pick-six, which kind of changes the complexion of the game,” Schiano said. “You have to be realistic and understand Peyton Manning is going to [make plays]. He doesn’t need any help. We almost had to go to a two-minute offense because we were down three scores. That took us out of the tempo of what we were wanting to do which was a run-pass mix.

“But this team, these players, they keep fighting, which is what I love about this team. I make it clear how the vision changes [in a game]. We didn’t envision being down 18 points. It was no different than Carolina, just didn’t get it done this week.

“You never want to put [a loss] behind you. You need to learn from it and let the hurt hurt. You need to use the hurt as fuel and don’t waste away time. Go to work this week and the Eagles game will be here.”

It’s time for Josh Freeman to adapt and overcome obstacles like a pass rush and win a “big game” for a change, like an elite NFL quarterback will do when faced with adversity.

For a minute there today, Joe thought he was watching the 2011 Bucs.

No, it wasn’t the defense which gave Joe a flashback, it was the play of Bucs quarterback Josh Freeman. The Bucs’ signal-caller was off target way too many times in the third quarter, and then there was an incompletion he threw where Freeman tried to force a pass into triple coverage.

If Joe didn’t know any better, Joe would have sworn the intended receiver was Kellen Winslow, Jr.

Oh, and then there’s Von Miller’s pick-six.

Freeman had a bad day. And no matter how many toys Freeman has, if he has a bad day, the Bucs offense has a bad day.

Was Freeman pressured? Sure, but he was only sacked once. Elite NFL quarterbacks find a way to adapt and overcome obstacles. Aaron Rodgers and bratty Jay Cutler would give their firstborn to have an offensive line like the Bucs have, depleted though it may be.

Those two quarterbacks not only find a way to win with inferior (or no) blocking, both quarterbacks’ teams have better records than the Bucs.

Now the Bucs need to run the table and hope Seattle drops a game somewhere. Can the Bucs win the next four? Sure. They have a downtrodden Iggles squad next followed by a mortal Saints team, a very beatable Rams group and finish the season with the Dixie Chicks, who will likely be resting key players.

But Freeman must be more consistent. He cannot have any more games where he goes all milk carton on the team for a long stretch of time.

The next time this season Freeman goes into a witness protection program like he did in the third quarter, you can kiss playoffs goodbye.

It’s high time for Freeman to step up and win a truly big game for a change.

The Bucs got a huge gift of a momentum swing late in the first half and proceeded to implode and the offense took another two quarters to recover.

The mysterious nosedive came at the worst time.

Joe’s going back here to the Bucs leading 10-7 with about 5:13 left in the first half. The zebras missed a clear pass-interference yank of Dallas Clark’s jersey, and on the next play Josh Freeman made an ugly throw that was intercepted, but a roughing the passer call saved the drive and put the Bucs on the Denver 49 yard line.

The Bucs had momentum and the ball with 5:00 left in the half. But then the playcalling and execution fell apart and didn’t return until late in the game. Erik Lorig dropped an easy pass. Freeman was hit and threw an incompletion. And then Freeman threw incomplete to D.J. Ware, who wasn’t going to do much with that pass anyway. That whole sequence came at a terrible time, when the Broncos were vulnerable.

One more first down there and the Bucs are in field goal range and chewing up precious clock. Success there doesn’t win the game, but the Bucs never recovered.

Mike Sullivan, if he’s not busy emailing resumes, should start right there when examining what went wrong with his unit.

The Bucs offense stalled mysteriously in the second half. And combined with the predictable roasting and toasting of Leonard Johnson and the Bucs secondary, the Bucs lost decisively but still haven’t lost by more than one score under the New Schiano Order.

Peyton Manning stayed upright and completed 71 percent of his passes. At least that was better than the 80+ percent clip of Matt Ryan last week.

Joe was numb after the painful yet tolerable one-point loss to Atlanta last week, and this week Joe’s again numb after this thumping by one of the NFL’s best in their house. What the hell happened to the offense and Freeman? It was a near complete shutdown for far too long of a stretch.

Joe figured the Bucs would start the game strong, and play damn hard as they’ve done all season. And they did. But it was a confidence freefall after a 10-7 halftime lead, as the Bucs dug an inescapable hole.

Now the Bucs are in a tight corner. Seattle upset Chicago and sits at 7-5, one game ahead of Tampa Bay (6-6)  for the final NFC Wild Card spot, and Seattle has a better record in the conference, the critical tiebreaker between the two teams.

The Bucs absolutely have to win out to make the postseason — home for Philly, then at New Orleans, and home for St. Louis before the season finale in Atlanta.

Yeah, the Bucs are good enough to win four straight. But the the odds are darn long.

Perhaps fresh news from ESPN that Bucs offensive coordinator Mike Sullivan is interested in the Boston College head coaching job is merely a negotiating ploy by Sullivan and his agent to squeeze more money out of the Bucs.

That’s about the best the Bucs could hope for.

More likely, Sullivan genuinely is interested in parlaying his success with the Bucs this season, and his solid resume, into a head coaching job — in college or the pros.

Joe wrote weeks ago that this was coming down the line, in regards to Sullivan becoming a head coach candidate. However, Joe never would have imagined Sullivan would have thrown his hat in the ring, as ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported earlier today.

Joe expects Greg Schiano will be asked about this development after the game today, but Joe doesn’t expect Schiano to say much. Sullivan is not made available to media on game days.

OK Bucs fans, this was weird wasn’t it? Watching football at noon only to have a late afternoon Bucs kickoff?

Today the Bucs travel to Denver to face perhaps their toughest test of the season, the Broncos. Yes, Joe has made much of the fact the Bucs have the worst pass defense in the NFL, and Peyton Manning is on fire for the Broncos.

Joe’s a borderline mathematical illiterate but Joe can sure add two-plus-two and he doesn’t like the sum of this addition.

Feel free to discuss the game in this thread. As always, thanks for visiting Joe today and you know he will plenty of commentary about the game moments after the final gun.

Week 13

Bucs at Broncos

Kickoff: 4:05 p.m.

TV: WTVT-TV Channel 13. DirecTV Channel 713.

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

Weather: Per AccuWeather.com, the Bucs absolutely lucked out. Normally in the weeks leading up to Christmas, Colorado can easily be the site of a blizzard and bone-chilling weather. Not today. How about a game played under mostly sunny skies with a kickoff temperature of 66? The skies should remain clear throughout the game with the temperature only dipping slightly by game’s end to 63. That’s just about perfect football weather.

Odds: Per Sportsbook.com, Bucs +7.5

Outlook: On paper, this simply looks nightmarish. The Bucs have the worst pass defense in the NFL. Every time the Bucs play a decent quarterback, said signal-caller goes through the Bucs secondary like Bill Sherman did Georgia. Peyton Manning’s little brother Eli deep fried the Bucs secondary — which included the immortal Aqib Talib at the time — for over 500 yards! With Peyton Manning playing nearly as well as he has ever played, Joe just cannot fathom how the Bucs don’t get torched today. well, the more Joe thinks about it, there’s a way to handle this and it is simply fundamental football: Run the ball. Sure, Denver has a strong defense, but if the Bucs can get Muscle Hamster Doug Martin running on his wheel, it will keep Manning on the sidelines listening to Outlaw Country on SiriusXM. Time of possession will simply be critical for the Bucs today.

Know the enemy: Here are some quotes from Denver coach John Fox and Manning on the Bucs. Fox (on Bucs now using backups as starters in the secondary): It’s next man up. We all go through it. We have nine guys on IR as well, six were starters to start the season. The next guy has to step up and learn with the opportunity. That’s what you do. (On the Bucs poor pass defense): Sometimes people on the outside make too much of statistics. I think the only important statistic is in the “W” and “L” column. I know Greg’s team is 6-5 and whooped up on everybody in our division. I think they are a good football team. (On Doug Martin): He’s a guy we definitely liked as far as our evaluation. He has had a tremendous season thus far. That is attributed to a lot of people. The Bucs lost two good linemen and the fact they have been able to replace them is impressive. Each game as its own personality and a lot of that is matchups and [the Bucs] running game is definitely on our radar. (On Josh Freeman:) I thought he was as bright of a young talent as there was in the league. I didn’t get a chance to see [the Bucs] a year ago but across the board there were struggles. What I see on tape this year I remember very well from two years ago. I know I have great respect for him and I think everyone in our building watching him on tape feels the same way. (On Freeman’s weapons:) It starts at quarterback and I have great respect for him. You then plug in a rookie running back like Doug Martin and a physical guy like Vincent Jackson who we know very well and Mike Williams on the other side, those are pretty good ingredients to cook up a nice meal. They are doing a good job in mixing the run and the pass and are plus-one in the turnover margin. So those turnovers, usually results in points one way or the other and you combine that… we are third in the league in points scored and they are fourth in the league in ports scored so it should be a good matchup. And we are pretty familiar with Dallas [Clark] as well.

Peyton Manning (on Ronde Barber): Ronde, talk about a true — he’s a battler, he’s a grinder he’s playing well and pretty impressive to see a guy playing that well in his 16th year out there — I like seeing guys out there older than me. It’s good to see. What Ronde is doing is pretty impressive as well. (On the Bucs defense:) I think it is important to look at tape. Statistics can be misleading. I tell you what I see: I see a defense that has been dominant in the run and a lot of turnovers. You can also see how their offense takes those turnovers into touchdowns. Giving up yards is one thing but [forcing] turnovers and holding teams to field goals in the red zone, I don’t give a whole lot of credit to statistics. I go by what I see on film. They are playing fast and playing hard and forcing turnovers. (On the Bucs defensive line:) The Bucs do a good job of getting up the field, penetrate, it will be a good challenge for our offensive line.

Broncos manbeast Von Miller.

The Bucs have their collective hands full today and it isn’t just a porous secondary trying to find a way to defend perhaps the game’s greatest quarterback playing at an elite level.

Easy to overlook in the hand-wringing over trying to stop Payton Manning is the Broncos defense, led by freak outside linebacker Von Miller.

The second-year stud out of Texas A&M is an absolute terror for opposing offenses as he can line up at outside linebacker in a three-man front or as a defensive end in a four-man front.

Trust Joe, Miller was a big topic in the Bucs locker room earlier this week as was Manning.

“He can do everything, man,” said offensive tackle Donald Penn. “He can play linebacker, he can [play] d-end, he could probably play safety and maybe score a touchdown at running back if he wanted to. He is a good athlete, he’s a specimen man, he’s a special player.”

“He’s just a great pass rusher,” fellow offensive tackle Demar Dotson concurred. “He’s one of the best in the league if not the best. He’s a very good speed guy. We have to get up on them and come up with a game plan to stop these guys and we’ve got to get the job done.”

So how do the Bucs stop this one-man gang? Run the ball, so says fullback D.J. Ware?

[The run game is] “very important. We try to win in all aspects of the game but time of possession is important,” Ware said. “If we get the ground game going, it will help us establish third-and-shorts and we can convert those much easier than third-and-longs and the longer we control the ball, the longer we keep Peyton Manning on the sidelines with his hat on.

“That’s a big thing for us right now. Peyton is no doubt one of the greatest to ever play this game. He can shred the defense. Keep him off the field.”

Dotson also is looking forward to getting Doug Martin into gear, because he believes it will help keep Von Miller and Company off of Josh Freeman.

“It’s going to be big time getting the run game going,” Dotson said. “They have some dynamic pass rushers so we have to slow them down. if we get the running game going, that will be big time.”

Penn, too, would love to see Martin go nuts on the Broncos just like he did against the Vikings and Raiders.

“The running game is very important when you look at it from the aspect of we took a step back last week and we want to take two steps forward this week,” Penn said. “But it is going to be tough, They have a great run a great run defense there. This is going to be a tough match-up, something we have to focus on and get back on track.”

But, like any game, breaking Martin loose means taking care of business up front.

“They are an extremely talented group,” Ware said. “They can get after you whether it is a three-down lineman or a two-down lineman. Those guys fly to the ball, including the corners and the safeties. we have to make sure we are on top of our gameplan and if show us a certain look, make sure we go to another play and make sure it is the right play and I think josh will do a good job in doing that. Coach Sullivan has a nice gameplan for these guys and we need to stay focused.”

The timid pass rush of late by the Bucs demonstrates just how much the team misses injured right defensive end Adrian Clayborn.

Earlier this week, Woody Cummings of the Tampa Tribune dropped a phone call to talk all things Bucs with “The Fabulous Sports Babe,” heard on WHFS-FM 98.7. During part of the interview, “The Fabulous Sports Babe” acted like any Bucs fan, fearing the worst for Sunday, with one of the greatest quarterbacks to every take a snap lining up opposite one of the worst Bucs cornerbacks crew in memory, maybe in franchise history.

It doesn’t take a wizard to figure out Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning will try to light up the scoreboard by roasting the Bucs through the air.

“The Fabulous Sports Babe:” What about the defense, [Peyton Manning] is used to throwing and throwing and [the Bucs] have defensive backs that sound like me. They are not very good. So what does that say? He will be throwing it and they will be trying to defend it.

Woody Cummings: Yeah, you are right. It’s a horrible situation for the Bucs. You are going against a Hall of Fame quarterback who is clearly on top of his game and he is going up against a bunch of kids and I think it will be an issue for them. But here’s what they have to do: They have to rush the passer better they have to find a way to make Peyton Manning uncomfortable which is not easy to do became he gets rid of the ball so early. But if you are going to help that secondary, you have to get some pass rush and we haven’t seen enough of that really. I think we are starting to recognize how important Adrian Clayborn was to this team. I think Gerald McCoy is doing his part and he is facing two blockers every time. It’s hard to beat those guys. Michael Bennett has done is part but on the other side, Daniel Te’o-Nesheim has had some splash plays here and there but not enough, certainly not what Adrian Clayborn would have done. They are waiting for Da’Quan Bowers to get the feel back, get healthy. He is getting there, he is getting healthier every week but it will probably be the end of the season before he is fully in football shape. It is a tough deal for them, no doubt about it. They have to rush the passer better and cover better and maybe hope that Peyton Manning has an off day and if that all comes together, they have a chance. If not, they will be in some trouble.

Joe thinks Cummings hit on several points. Joe remembers asking GMC two weeks after Clayborn went down if he had noticed different blocking schemes by opponents to double- if not triple-team him in Clayborn’s absence. GMC didn’t want to answer the question, as admitting to this all but makes him look like he is searching for an excuse, but after beating around the bush for a while, GMC nodded “yes” to Joe that teams were going after him more, sans Clayborn to worry about.

If the Bucs are going to put heat on Manning, Bennett has to show up like he has most of the season. He was virtually invisible last week against the Dixie Chicks.

Going after Manning is virtually impossible unless the Bucs bring blitzes on just about every play because Manning will be in a three-step drop. Combined with his quick release, that’s nearly an impossible task to get Manning on the ground, regardless of how slow he is.

Joe’s of the mind that Manning can’t hurt you if he is standing on the sidelines wearing a cap and sipping Gatorade. So this should be a big day tomorrow for Doug Martin.

More Martin = less Manning, which means better chance to win.

The Bucs are in a pinch. They can realistically afford to lose one more game if they plan on playing after New Year’s Day. An upset would be a glorious step.