Last year, Greg Schiano set up his Buccaneers for a late-fourth-quarter punt against the Eagles. Why? Because rather than put the game in the hands of Josh Freeman and Vincent Jackson, for example, Schiano preferred to let his porous secondary match up against rookie Nick Foles.

The Bucs lost.

Today, the Bucs got a huge third-down play from Vincent Jackson. With 1:06 remaining against the Jets, the Bucs had momentum and a first down at the Jets’ 26 yard line trailing 15-14.

Did Greg Schiano go for the jugular? Did he go back to one of his elite receivers for a shot in the end zone to put away the game? Did he throw for another first down to get in position to tick the clock down to nothing for a final field goal?

Nope.

Schiano ran three times, played it safe, and Rian Lindell kicked a 37-yard field goal to give the Bucs the lead with :34 seconds remaining.

Jets win.

Joe knows fans can second guess Schiano all day long. There’s no right answer. But Schiano does trend very conservative, and he doesn’t seem to trust his offense. Today it didn’t work. 

Joe just came from the Bucs locker room and will have quotes later, including some from Bucs stud linebacker Lavonte David.

The second-year man out of Nebraska had a memorable game. Too memorable in fact. David had three tackles, five assists and two tackles for a loss. He was all over the field. But it was his pursuit of Jets rookie quarterback Geno Smith that will be remembered for years.

Smith was flushed out of the pocket on a desperation play with the Bucs up by two points and the clock ticking down to zero. Smith just got out of bounds at midfield to kill the clock and give the Jets one last glimmer of hope.

But in pursuing Smith, who stepped out of bounds, David shoved Smith in the back. Given how the NFL and referees are just looking to throw a flag on someone coughing on a quarterback, David’s shove, while harmless, was just enough for a zebra to grab his yellow hankie and toss it in the air.

Personal foul on David. That’s a 15-yard penalty. What would have been fourth down and a forced Hail Mary (or a 60+yard field goal attempt) was now a first down on the Bucs-30 yard line.

And of course, the ensuing 48-yard field goal by Nick Folk was good and the Bucs had victory grabbed from their hands.

Look, Joe loves David. He’s one of Joe’s favorite players. But you just do not, cannot, allow a referee a chance to throw a flag in that situation. Smith was out of bounds. There was no need to even try to tackle him. He had to run out of bounds to kill the clock or the game was lost (or won by the Bucs).

It simply was a brain-dead, stupid penalty. There really is no way to sugarcoat how bad that was.

David is a fantastic player. But each and every Buccaneer must know and understand the circumstances at every given down, especially when the clock is ticking down.

David may have won some games for the Bucs last year as a rookie. He likely will win some games for the Bucs in the future. But today, he blew a game.

Joe really doesn’t get what Mike Sullivan was doing out there today.

Everybody and their brother knew what the Jets were going to bring defensively, and it was as if the Bucs weren’t ready for it.

Huh?

Doug Martin was pounded and pounded in the running game and did nothing, 24 carries for 65 yards. He caught two balls for negative yardage. Rockstar general manager spoke numerous times this preseason about the depth and talent in the Bucs’ running backs corps, yet Martin was the only guy to get a carry.

Was there nothing that Sullivan could dial up with two-back sets to create some uncertainty for the Jets’ defense? There were no carries for Brian Leonard and Peyton Hillis. Tight end Nate Byham started at fullback and it’s obvious he can’t run block well.

The Bucs didn’t set up much play-action, trickery was absent, and shots downfield were limited. The Bucs got nothing from the tight end position, and Kevin Ogletree (no catches) was a Michael Clayton clone again, minus the blocking.

Sullivan was outcoached today. It happens, but it really shouldn’t look like this after an entire offseason to prepare.

Yes, preseason games are just meaningless practice. But today the Bucs’ offense played the way it practiced.

Disgraceful!

Joe doesn’t know how else to describe this sloppy, ugly Bucs loss to the Jets this afternoon.

Jimminy Christmas! Geno Smith outplayed Josh Freeman! Think about that. The Jets won this game, despite their rookie QB making all kinds of mistakes.

Greg Schiano has to shoulder a lot of blame with his staff seemingly unprepared for a helmet microphone malfunction early in the game. Teams are schooled to switch to hand signals and other old school tactics, but Freeman looked lost when those difficulties arose.

The Bucs were outcoached today — badly– and sloppy penalties killed them. Isn’t Schiano a details guy?

Speaking of lost, the Bucs’ offensive line was manhandled. Remember how much cash that unit is being paid? Offensive coordinator Mike Sullivan was not creative at all.

Kevin Ogletree again did his Michael Clayton impression with the game on the line, but was bailed out by the genius of Vincent Jackson, who was a monster with nine receptions and 154 yards.

Yeah, it’s one game, one loss, but a very telling loss. Bucs fans had every reason to expect a better performance against a bad football team. Disgraceful.

So the Bucs begin their 2013 season wearing home red jerseys and pewter pants in the warmth of MetLife Stadium in the New Jersey Swamplands.

Joe is up here in Jersey and some puffy clouds have invaded the otherwise pristine day, the day of Darrelle Revis’ debut with the Bucs.

As Joe touched on before, there are so many questions about the Bucs that have gone unawnswered that should at least in part be answered today.

Feel free to discuss the game here. As always, you may not post a URL of an illegally streamed broadcast of the game, but you may e-mail the link among yourselves. Posting said illegal link will get you run from the premises.

Have fun. Welcome to Week One. Football, glorious football.

No big surprises on today’s inactive list for the Bucs’ 2013 opener against the Jets.

Injuries/illness have sidelined TE Tom Crabtree (ankle),  G Carl Nicks (MRSA/Foot), CB Rashaan Melvin (hamstring), FB Erik Lorig (calf), and rookie defensive linemen William Gholston and Chris Jones will join third quarterback Dan Orlovsky on the sidelines.

For those looking for former captain of the inactive list Michael Smith, he’s out for the year on injured reserve.

Game 1

Bucs at Jets

Kickoff: 1 p.m.

TV: WTVT-TV, Channel 13 locally. Outside the Tampa Bay area, DirecTV Channel 713.

Radio: Buccaneers Radio Network (in Tampa WFUS-FM 103.5, and WDAE-AM 620); SiriusXM Channel 139.

Weather: Per Accuweather.com, the New York-New Jersey metropolitan area has been experiencing weather kissed by the gods recently. Today should be no different. Expect a temperature of 77 degrees at kickoff under crystal clear skies and humidity at 45 percent. Towards the end of the game the temperature should rise to 83.

Odds: Per FootballLocks.com, Bucs -3.5.

Outlook: Joe doesn’t know where to begin. There are so, so many question marks with the Bucs that were not even remotely answered in the preseason. Can Darrelle Revis play? Can the Bucs get heat on the quarterback? Has the Bucs secondary improved? Has Josh Freeman improved? How or will the Bucs get any production from tight end? Can Davin Joseph return to form? This is why many Bucs fans have so much doubt. How can fans wrap their arms around a team with confidence when there are still so many issues unanswered?

But here is what Joe knows: The Jets start a second-round draft pick at quarterback. That alone should be the difference in the game. If Joe were Bucs commander Greg Schiano, he would throw just about every exotic look at Geno Smith that Schiano can concoct while he lies awake in the middle of the night. The more Smith is confused, the more he is likely to run (well hello, Lavonte David) and get confused and panic and throw into a crowd.

To Joe, look no further than this. If the Bucs cannot handle a rookie quarterback making his first start, then there are massive issues on the Bucs roster.

It really doesn’t (shouldn’t?) matter what Doug Martin, Mike Williams, Vincent Jackson and/or Freeman do. It is what the Bucs defense does against Smith. It really isn’t any more complex than that.

UPDATE: Inactives for the Bucs are Dan Orlovsky, QB; Rashaan Melvin, CB; Erik Lorig, FB; Carl Nicks, OG; Tom Crabtree, TE; William Gholston, DE; Chris Jones, DE.

Beat writer eye-RAH! Kaufman has high expectations

Tampa Bay’s “Custodian of Canton,” the outspoken veteran scribe eye-RAH! Kaufman of The Tampa Tribune, is bullish on the Bucs.

Kaufman has studied and studied and studied the NFC and Bucs relentlessly, and he joins Jon Gruden in predicting the Bucs will win the NFC South.

NFC SOUTH: Bucs

No team has repeated as division champion and this year will continue the pattern. The Falcons won a lot of close games last year and have major question marks in the trenches that will undermine all that firepower. The Saints haven’t done much to improve the league’s most porous defense and Carolina needs more weapons around QB Cam Newton. The Bucs have the talent to post double-digit wins and reward a fan base looking for a reason to believe.

Joe, based on chats with Kaufman, knows he sees the Bucs’ eight Pro Bowlers 30 and younger, plus emerging studs like Mike Williams and Lavonte David, and first-round talents like Josh Freeman and Adrian Clayborn, and the second year of the New Schiano Order with a huge, experienced coaching staff. There’s just too much talent for the Bucs to fizzle, Kaufman believes.

The bar is set high for many Bucs fans. Kaufman is hardly shocking the world here with this prediction. (If you missed it, you can read Joe’s season prediction here.)

Let the games begin.

Barring something incredibly unforeseen overnight (Joe is typing this at 1 a.m. Sunday), Joe would be shocked if All-Pro guard Carl Nicks takes the field for the Bucs today against the Jets.

Nicks, as we all know, is dealing with a nasty turf toe that he said he will have to deal with the rest of his life. Then throw in a bout of MRSA, an antibiotic-resistant infection, and Joe just cannot believe Nicks would be in football shape to take any snaps under any circumstances.

Nicks did not take any snaps in practice this week, but Bucs commander Greg Schiano took part in a bit of (futile) gamesmanship Friday discussing who may play left guard when the NFL season kicks off this afternoon.

“[Carimi has] the most reps [at left guard],” Schiano said. “There are others guys that could [start at left guard]. So we’ll kind of play that one by ear, still. I want to meet with the staff today and make a – we said at the beginning of the week that we would make a final decision on Friday. I want to watch the tape from today and have a good discussion about that, because plenty of guys got good reps at that left guard spot, but he got the most so that’s where we’re leaning. We just want to see and make sure.”

Again, Joe just cannot take Schiano seriously when he even attempts to float the notion Nicks may play. That’s virtually impossible, especially since he hasn’t practiced. The thing with Carimi though, in preseason and training camp, he has blocked on running plays pretty well. On pass plays, not so well.

This will be something to monitor today, how well the pass protection is for Bucs franchise quarterback Josh Freeman’s blind side.

The NFL Network Playbook crew took a deep Xs and Os look at today’s Jets-Bucs matchup. Video here. It’s their usual great stuff.

Among other things, they outline how Jets rookie QB Geno Smith struggled mightily against various blitzes in preseason. The consensus is that Greg Schiano will dial up all kinds of blitz looks — more variety than volume — the kind Smith never saw at West Virginia.

Joe can’t disagree. And Joe also expects the Bucs’ run blitzes to come all day long to force passing downs on young Smith.

It’s going to be a very busy day for Jets tight end DJ Toes One The Line Kellen Winslow and whatever cornerback the Bucs put opposite Darrelle Revis.

The Bucs revealed tonight that starting fullback Erik Lorig continues to battle his calf injury and didn’t make the trip to New Jersey for the season-opener against the Jets.

Lorig’s been battling the injury for more than a month. He was limited in practice this week, but apparently didn’t improve enough.

As Joe wrote earlier this week, Lorig’s situation presents a huge opportunity for Peyton Hillis. Brian Leonard and rookie Mike James are not fullbacks. Even though Leonard played there in college, he’s dropped significant weight since then and isn’t expected to do anything more than backup Doug Martin and serve as a third-down back intermittently.

New readers are always coming to Joe’s Bucs-obsessed home on the Internet. So Joe just wants to give a heads-up on what to expect tomorrow and on game days.

First off, Joe will continue churning out all kinds of stuff tonight and tomorrow morning, but look for Joe’s game-chat thread to appear shortly before kickoff of the Bucs-Jets game. That’s a fun place for fans to go back and forth during the game.

After the final whistle, no media outlet in the free world will deliver more Bucs content than Joe.

You’ll get plenty from the Bucs locker room — yes, Joe is in Jersey for the game — along with all kinds of analysis from Joe and other media from various sources, including the Buccaneers Radio Network and more. Go Bucs!

Joe can’t stand BSPN, but Joe knows many Bucs fans love their BSPN. Love it!

In the BSPN stats geek video below, some Bucs-Jets numbers are rolled out while Mike Sando talks about how the Bucs will win tomorrow. Interestingly, Sando lets us know the Bucs have spent the most salary cap dollars on cornerbacks and the third most on safeties. Joe surely hopes that translates into at least an average secondary.

A lot of Bucs fans seemed to try to connect dots that did not exist between the Bucs players not voting franchise quarterback Josh Freeman as a captain and Freeman’s status both with his team and his teammates.

No need to go there, Bucs commander Greg Schiano said yesterday in his daily press conference. There are no dots to connect. Freeman is the team’s leader, he said.

“I know one thing: Josh is going to lead,’ Schiano said. “Josh is a leader, so I’m not concerned about that. If you look the last two years, Davin didn’t play last year, so, when we voted, Davin was out for the year. The year before, Vincent wasn’t on the team. Those two guys are strong leaders and it just so happens that Josh is on a team with other strong leaders. But I wouldn’t read to that that Josh isn’t a leader. I’ll tell you, to a man, I think every offensive player will say ‘we follow No. 5.’ So I think it’s a good thing. I guess it all depends how you look at it, but I’m fine with it.”

Joe thinks captains, at least in the NFL, are terribly overblown. You are dealing with men here, not high school kids or college guys.

Joe thinks Schiano is dead-on. Freeman is the leader of the offense. That simple. He’s the guy that has the ball in his hands each and every snap. He controls the offense and huddle, hence he is a leader.

This Daily News roundtable video dives into spirited debate on what the Jets and rookie QB Geno Smith need to do to beat the Bucs.

Joe finds all the angst in New York comical. What would be fun is if young Smith targets DJ Toes on the Line Kellen Winslow over and over and over again while the Bucs blitz repeatedly. That could make for good Tampa Bay fun.

Despite a woeful final preseason game by Bucs backup quarterback Mike Glennon, the Mike Glennon Mob is alive and well.

Their outcries for Glennon to take over as Bucs quarterback may have quieted, but they’re only pushed back into the shadows, not gone.

Joe knows the don of the Mike Glennon Mob is Dave the Producer at WFLA-TV, Channel 8. So if Dave the Producer is the don, then popular radio and television sports personality Adam Schein is certainly a made man if not a capo.

Schein, once a believer in Bucs franchise quarterback Josh Freeman, has given up on Freeman and in not quite the past year, has made no secret of how he feels about Freeman as a starting quarterback in the NFL. Schein recently has all but claimed Glennon would start before the end of the season and now, in his weekly NFL.com column, Schein has gone all-in on Glennon claiming it will be Glennon — not Freeman — who will save the Bucs season and is one of the nine NFL rookies to watch this year.

9) Mike Glennon, QB, Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Yes, you read that correctly: Mike Glennon. And yes, I know he’s not the Bucs’ starter. However, consider that Greg Schiano and Mark Dominik have built a team that’s ready to dance at every position but one: quarterback. There’s a reason they have yet to give Josh Freeman an extension: They aren’t convinced and need to see more.

If the offensive line is healthy and Freeman struggles, Glennon will play. And he should. He has a rocket for an arm and a ton of confidence. With Doug Martin in the backfield, Tampa’s going to run it 25 times per game anyway. The Bucs need someone to stretch the field and make better decisions.

In his Rutgers coaching days, Schiano liked to say that it’s better to put in the young quarterback “a day late rather than a day early.” But he had no problem reshuffling the depth chart when trouble hit. I just don’t see the coach allowing the season to slip away with Freeman. Plus, I like Glennon in the system put together by Schiano and offensive coordinator Mike Sullivan.

Now let Joe be very much upfront here: If Freeman struggles, the season is done. If Freeman is benched, he must be playing horribly, as in 2011 bad. If Freeman struggles, then it’s time to worry about the draft.

Schein does make a couple of salient points. The Bucs are built to win now (which is why Joe believes Freeman is the man, or Dominik trades for a veteran next winter). The thing Schein points out that bears monitoring is his claim of Schiano being afraid to juggle quarterbacks at Rutgers.

What exactly does Schiano do if Freeman struggles and the Mike Glennon Mob grows angrier and loud?

Are the Bucs making progress? What’s longtime WTST-TV, Ch. 10 sportscaster Dave Wirth talking about when he says, “that’s a bad football team?”

Wirth dives into his Sunday prediction and his 2013 season prediction in this exclusive video for JoeBucsFan.com. Enjoy.

Who did opposing quarterbacks worry about in the Bucs’ secondary last year?

Nobody. The fearsome foursome only tortured the souls of Bucs fans.

But now Darrelle Revis is here and supposedly healthy. And he’s already been injected into the heads of Jets receivers by Jets coaches. Rich Cimini, Jets beat writer for ESPN.com, explains that New York receivers have been advised that sloppy route-running won’t cut it this week.

3. Club Dread, an island adventure: Head coach Rex Ryan says the Jets won’t make a concerted effort to attack Revis even though he’s playing for the first time after major knee surgery. Do we believe him? Revis might not be Revis — not yet, anyway — but you get the impression the Jets still are deathly afraid of their former star. The receivers were told to place an extra emphasis on not tipping routes. If there’s a tell, Revis will jump the route, and then you’re looking at a potential interception. 

What the Jets should do is test Revis against the run. Unlike many cornerbacks, he’s always been aggressive in run support. Will he be tentative because of his surgically repaired knee? Don’t be surprised if they call a power sweep on the first series. 

All the attention on Revis is fun, but Joe doesn’t expect Revis or Bucs cornerbacks to be a huge factor in Sunday’s game.

The Bucs should — key word “should” — have no problem outscoring the Jets and Geno Smith. The Jets will take a ton of chances on defense, and the Bucs have the talent to make them pay.

Bucs Super Bowl winning quarterback Brad Johnson sees the Josh Freeman cup as half full. In fact, Johnson thinks Freeman is a great player, so he told Woody Cummings of The Tampa Tribune.

Johnson’s got a different perspective than most. In addition to 17 years in the NFL, Johnson didn’t become his starter until his fifth season at 28 years old.

“It seems to me like they’re always playing from behind a lot,’’ said Johnson, who watches the Bucs regularly in retirement. “As a quarterback, that can be tough, because no matter who you are, you need help. You need your defense to get you turnovers and you need your kick and punt returners to get you a short field now. And then and it really helps if you can just be able to play with a lead.

 “After a while, if you’re playing even or from behind, the game will catch up to you. And if you’re not surrounded by a great team, you’re just not going to win that much. But I think Josh is a tremendous quarterback.’’

Joe’s pleased to hear the endorsement from Johnson, but it’s moot is Freeman doesn’t win games. Johnson finished his regular-season career 72-53 as a starter.

Is anyone anywhere picking the Jets to beat the Bucs tomorrow? Joe sure isn’t.

In this Yahoo Sports video, former Bucs beat writer Anwar Richardson and Shaun King call the Bucs game and the rest of the NFL slate. King, one of three QBs to lead the Bucs to the NFL title game, says the Bucs are “too talented to lose” Sunday.

Yeah, this is a silly little time-waster as we all drink beer, watch college football, if not high school football, and count the minutes until the Bucs and Jets kick off Sunday.

It seems like craft-beer loving Mike Tanier, of SportsOnEarth.com, has beer in mind as well. Tanier, a good guy Joe chatted with at the combine last winter, decided to compare each NFL team to a beer.

For the Pewter Pirates, Tanier writes the Bucs are Corona.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Corona

Most fans only pay attention to the Buccaneers when they fly down to watch them host a Northeast corridor team when the weather gets cold. (Eagles at Bucs October 14th, visit Uncle Carlo in Clearwater while you’re there! Bills at Bucs December 8th; no one will blame you if you don’t book a return flight!) The half-frozen Baltimore-to-Bostonian emerges from the plane, sees palm trees, hears the words “Gulf of Mexico,” and thinks, “say, what is that flavorless watery nonsense they always serve at silly luau parties and Cinco de Mayo night at Tipsy McStereotypes? The stuff with a edge of lime in it to give it some taste and smell? Corona! Give us a bucket of those!” When the Yankee arrives home sunburnt and hung over, his only memories are of a pirate ship, two or three interceptions, and conch fritter barf.

Joe isn’t quite sure what “conch fritter barf” is like, and to be honest, Joe really doesn’t want to find out.

Joe does know one thing: Fruit and beer do not mix. Not ever. No way, no how. Just the thought of a Bud Light Limarita makes Joe’s stomach turn. Yick!

Maybe that nasty taste of lime juice in a bad beer is what interceptions are supposed to taste like?