Joe’s not sure it is fair to judge a running back by just four games. Thus far, Bucs fans are waiting for the Doug Martin, he of the running back the Bucs traded up for in the draft, to arrive.

Martin has been the proverbial bellcow for Greg Schiano’s run-first, run-second offense, but only a scant few times has Martin been able to break runs of double-digits.

Sure, a lot of it is because the right side of the Bucs’ offensive line is a mess with the loss of injured Davin Joseph and the benching of incumbent starter Jeremy Trueblood.

This is raising concerns with Alan Dell. The Bradenton Herald columnist is of the mind Schiano may want to change his run-first objectives if he wants to have a longer shelf life than his predecessor.

As stubborn as they come, the new Bucs head coach insists he wants a run-first, physical team. He is learning that might not be possible, and if he wants to be around longer than the man he replaced, he might have to change.

The decision to move up in the draft and select running back Doug Martin in the first round has raised legitimate questions.

When Martin was selected, he received rave reviews from those within the organization who wanted him. Now we are hearing stuff like, “have patience” and “he is a hard worker.”

Those who described him as the second coming of Ray Rice have lost their voice.

Well, maybe part of the reason Martin hasn’t yet become a stud NFL runner is the Bucs have relied on him too much. There is nothing wrong changing things up with a guy who has a career average of 4.6 yards a carry. And the more Blount gets carries, the more dangerous he becomes; not just two or three carries a game.

Lastly, Joe’s wondering about the disappearance of Michael Smith.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

Subscribe: RSS

Sports Illustrated scribe Jim Trotter talked all things NFL today on the Gary and The Commish show on 98.7 FM and went out of his way to back up the recent Yahoo! hit piece on Greg Schiano by Michael Silver.

Trotter said he knew that general managers and coaches were talking about Schiano’s heavy-handed ways long before he was in the mix for the Bucs job.  

And Trotter suggested Schiano might get help next season by possibly hiring new NFL assistants “who can help him better understand the NFL game.” Trotter said Cardinals QB coach John McNulty could be an example. (It was reported early this year that Schiano wanted to pursue McNulty to be his offensive coordinator but was denied by Arizona.)

Overall, it was worthwhile interview. You can check it out below.

Discipline is important.

Does extreme discipline win games? Well, the talented Bucs will find out this season under the New Schiano Order.

Jarrett Bell of USA Today caught up with Bucs icon Ronde Barber recently and asked him to describe his various leaders. The “D” word came up when No. 20 got to Schiano.

Tony Dungy was the humble leader. “You wanted to succeed for him more because you didn’t want to disappoint him,” Barber said.

On Gruden: “The most fiery guy I’ve ever been around. He wanted everyone to be in his image on the football field.”

On Morris: “The most passionate players’ coach I’ve ever been around. He loved his guys. He treated them like they were part of his family.”

Schiano? “Disciplinarian. That’s the best word for him. He’s got rules for rules.”

As Joe’s written many times, Joe’s fine with Schiano’s approach. In fact, Joe’s pretty much good with any approach as long as it translates into victories.

A middle school geography teacher in Idaho is no fan of the New Schiano Order.

Zebra Jim Core wasn’t moving up the college football officiating ranks, so he applied to be a replacement referee in the NFL.

In this Showtime interview below, Core is grilled by James Brown and Chris Collinsworth about his experiences. Core is asked who the toughest coach was he had to work with. His answer? “Coach Schiano.”

“He’s college,’’ Core said. “I mean the rest of them acted at a different level. You could just tell working with them, they were at a different level than what I felt like he was.’’

Joe’s not sure what to make of this. Who cares if Schiano wasn’t liked by this scab referee? Is it a shock that an Idaho guy didn’t like a Jersey guy’s delivery? And it’s no surprise that Schiano gave the impression of a college style. Schiano still refers to his actions at Rutgers as “we” on first reference.

Core’s comments come in the six-minute mark in the video.

In this CBS Sports video below, Bucs fans get a look inside Arrelious Benn’s personal life. Among other topics, Benn talks about how he is obsessed with fashion.

The 2012 Bucs defense has played 16 quarters. And in only two of those the Bucs defense was poor, so said Bucs icon Ronde Barber speaking on WDAE-AM 620 this week.

One might find that to be great news except the Bucs are 1-3 and have two top-10 ranked offenses in the NFL coming at them in their next two games: Kansas City and New Orleans.

“In retrospect, we’ve really had two bad quarters of football on defense,” Barber said. “You know, we’ve given up some yards, but we’ve played great red zone defense throughout this entire year. I think that’ll be a strength for us; it’s gotta be a strength for us throughout the rest of season.

“But we’ve played two bad quarters, and one was the fourth quarter against the Giants and the other was the second quarter against Washingon. And there’s really no excusing it. I could give plenty of excuses and explanations, but those don’t suit me or you and just kind of adds fuel to the fire. We have to play better. We have to tackle better. I think the sense of urgency coming out of halftime has always been good for us and it was especially good on Sunday. And that was the biggest difference. Guys doing their job.”

Obviously, there have been significant improvements on all three levels of the Bucs’ defense, but tackling breakdowns and unsuccessful blitzes have killed them.

Joe’s hopeful, but things won’t get any easier with Adrian Clayborn gone, depth concerns and more and more film on Greg Schiano’s new-to-the-NFL defense.

One of three men to lead the Bucs to the NFC Championship game, Shaun King, doesn’t have good grades for the New Schiano Order.

King is down on the on-field results, says Schiano is making rookie mistakes, and King is surprised by the team’s penalities and related lack of discipline.

“If [discipline] is not going to be a positive attribute for this team, then I really don’t think he has any value,” King said of Schiano, during the Ron and Ian Show on WDAE-AM 620 today.

King went on to say the Bucs have yet to establish a positive identity and the playcalling has been poor and the defense has been suspect. King said if Raheem Morris and Greg Olson were coaching the Bucs and got these results with the 2012 roster, then they’d be getting clobbered repeatedly by fans and media.

Joe thinks King is being a bit harsh overall, but Joe respects King’s results-driven line of thinking.

Ultimately, Schiano must get his team to finish and lead the Bucs to wins. There are no third-tier Bowl games or moral victories in the NFL.

In case you haven’t noticed, the Bucs launched a fancy new “Captain’s Blog” on their official website, much of it written by  team video maestro Scott Smith. Like most NFL clubs, the Bucs are growing their in-house media operation.

Some consider official team media nothing more than Soviet-style propaganda and mind control, but Joe doesn’t fall into that camp. The more the merrier when it comes to coverage of the Bucs.  And Joe believes it won’t be long before  teams in all professional sports wise up and realize they could dominate coverage and perception of their teams if they invested  more in making that happen.

In a recent entry yesterday, Smith wrote about E.J. Biggers’ return to the lineup against the Redskins. Biggers’ foot was all messed up after colliding with Arrelious Benn very early in training camp and he was working his way back in practice before Sunday.

Biggers had a shot at a key late interception against Washington but didn’t snatch it, though he drew strong reviews from secondary coach Ron Cooper.

“It’s really good that he’s healthy,” said Cooper [of Biggers].  “He played well Sunday, did everything we asked.  He went in and played 30, 35 plays, maybe a little bit more than that.  We looked at the film from last year but I’m not judging anything on what they did last year.  It’s a whole different time and we started over.  I expect him to get better.  His first game out there after he missed a couple, he got his feet wet and hopefully he’ll play better in the next one.”

Joe’s glad to see Biggers return. First and foremost, it knocked Myron Lewis to the inactive list, plus Biggers remains a sound talent who was simply asked to do too much as a frontline cornerback last season.

Joe knows many Bucs fans are still stinging from the Redskins loss. The Bucs battled back from the brink and took a (brief) lead late in the game only to see Robert Griffin III go through the Bucs defense the way Joe takes care of a cold beer on a hot summer day.

Could it be the Bucs are not playing zone pass defense well? That’s the suggestion from beat writer eye-RAH! Kaufman of the Tampa Tribune in a TBO.com question-and-answer segment.

Q: Why is it that every time I watch this team play it seems as though the secondary leaves the other team’s receivers wide open for the big play? This happens every game, it’s not like it’s an occassional thing. I watch several games a week and it seems we are the only ones who do this on just about every play. Do we not have a scheme where we actually cover people?

– Sam, Saginaw, Mich.

A: Opposing QBs are completing passes at a 66.5 percent clip against the Bucs, averaging 8.98 yards per attempt. That figure is quite high and the Redskins had open receivers most of the day Sunday. Tampa Bay’s coverage was considerably better against the Cowboys. The Bucs need to tighten up when they play zone because QBs have too big a window to throw into right now.

– eye-RAH!Kaufman

It wasn’t just against the Redskins where the Bucs gave up chunks of yards on a pass play late in the game. While Joe wants to forget the collapse at the Meadowlands, Eli Manning and the Giants carved the Bucs apart to rally for a win. It is a disturbing pattern.

With Matty Ice and Drew Brees (both, twice) yet to face the Bucs, not to mention Michael Vick, Philip Rivers, Peyton Manning and a suddenly hot Christian Ponder, it would behoove the defense to learn to put the clamp down on pass coverage late in games.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

Subscribe: RSS

Manning the 98.7 FM airwaves last night, Joe checked in with his friend and former Bucs fan favorite Earnest Graham.

Graham weighed in on all things Josh Freeman, Erik Lorig, LeGarrette Blount and more.

Any Bucs fan should enjoy this interview.

Among the highlights, Graham talks about Freeman needing to loosen up, and remember what Warrick Dunn used to advise his teammates, “You’re just playing a kids game,” meaning Freeman must relax, be himself, make plays and enjoy gameday again.

Also, Graham explains how he used to coach Blount entering and exiting the huddle, and how Blount was respected by opponents and struck fear in defenses, “I’ve looked in the eyes of those defensive backs when LeGarrette Blount is coming downhill,” Graham said. Click below for the entire audio.

The leader of the New Schiano Order doesn’t like to detail injuries more than NFL rules mandate. Joe gets that.

However, Joe thinks the head coach is taking things a little far when it comes to what he calls the “the dreaded C Word.”

No, Joe doubts Greg Schiano is referring to the gutter slang further popularized in Porky’s 30 years ago. Schiano is talking about “concussion.” Previously, Schiano has shied away from talking about concussions and saying the word. He did it again Monday. 

Why? Joe has no idea.

The NFL has gone wild in recent months to openly talk about concussions, aka traumatic brain injuries. The league has tried to limit head injuries via rule changes, established concussion diagnosis protocols, and protected players from returning to play too fast, and the NFL has worked with the military and other groups to study concussions and promoted their efforts.

Even Ray Rice, Schiano’s ol’ Rutgers bell cow, is doing every national interview he can talking about concussions and touting some fancy, allegedly more protective helmet he uses.

But Schiano doesn’t like to say the “C Word.” Eric Wright was drilled in the head Sunday and was very slow coming off the field and apparently suffered a concussion, but on Monday the head coach updated Wright’s status like this.

“It’s a head. We’ll find out if it’s the dreaded C-Word or not, I’m not sure,” Schiano said of Wright.

Again, Joe doesn’t get why the coach is uncomfortable talking about concussions when league honchos all around him are working hard to make the injury transparent to fans and players.

Today, Schiano said he’s very confident Eric Wright will return against the Chiefs. As for Wright’s injury, it remains unclear.

LaVar Arrington, Dan Steinberg, Barry Svrluga and Jonathan Forsythe discuss the Bucs loss to the Redskins. Arrington sums up how the Redskins won with two players. Steinberg is puzzled by the Bucs offense and quarterback Josh Freeman. Catch the details in this Washington Post video.

Joe’s doesn’t think there’s an expiration date on information provided to a reporter off the record, but Tampa Bay Times columnist Gary Shelton had different ideas when he shared an intriguing story yesterday that he said was off-the-record information he’d been sitting on for years.

Speaking on his 98.7 FM show, Shelton said he was told in confidence that there were loud voices in the Bucs’ 2008 draft war room screaming for Tampa Bay to take running back Jamaal Charles with their second-round pick, No. 58 overall.

Of course, in one of the worst draft-day moves in Bucs history, the Bucs instead chose wide receiver scaredy cat Dexter Jackson, the guy who never caught a regular-season pass and looked terrified returning punts and kicks.

Charles was taken 73rd overall that season by the Chiefs and has racked up superstar numbers. He leads the AFC in rushing this season and the Bucs will see him in Tampa after the bye week. Bucs personnel man Shelton Quarles called Charles the fastest running back he’s scouted this season during a radio interview yesterday.

Imagine if the Bucs had drafted Charles?

Assuming he stayed healthy, that would have changed the course of the franchise. Derrick Ward never would have been signed and that money could have gone elsewhere, plus LeGarrette Blount likely would be on another team along with Doug Martin.

Hell, Chucky might still be coaching for Team Glazer if Charles could have helped the Bucs win one more game in 2008.

There are few better sources to tap into than former Bucs defensive lineman Steve White. The dude really knows how to explain Xs and Os so Joe Six Pack can absorb the information. And he’s been doing it this season with the new “All-22” coaches film available to fans on NFL.com.

White also brings to light what is good — and bad — about about the All-22 film. The bad thing? The film doesn’t tell the whole story.

For those who do not know about “All-22” is, it is game film with angles — end zone and overhead — that include all 22 players on the screen (hence, All-22, get it?) and you can see how plays develop and/or fall apart. It’s a great feature that gets fans about as close to a coach’s room this side of One Buc Palace.

Now there were two massive breakdowns with the Bucs defense on Washington’s final drive, and White, using many screencaps from the All-22, tries to explain what went wrong for the Bucs.

Here’s the thing, no matter who is at fault on either of these plays this just can’t happen during the two minute drill. It CAN’T!

I don’t know how much the Bucs practice two minute drill during the week but the only blitzes you run during such a critical time of the game are the ones the players have shown you they know in their sleep. There is no excuse for this happening not once, but twice, at the end of the game.

What White essentially outlines with images and commentary is that unless a viewer knows exactly what play was called — and no one outside of One Buc Palace likely will ever know — a finger can’t be pointed at a specific player for blowing coverage or blowing an assignment.

While All-22 is great, it often will mislead an untrained eye and not answer many assignment questions. One can see a failed play for the defense but many times no one off the field will ever know the full story.

Who knew the leader of the New Schiano Order, a man of details and discipline, was a guy who would pin poor tackling on the emotional state of his players?

It surprised Joe went defensive coordinator Bill Sheridan went there yesterday while explaining the Bucs’ poor first-half tackling.  

“It was really unlike we had played in previous games. And I think Greg did a great job. He pointed out to the players afterwards that sometimes that can be like a reflection of where they’re at emotionally going into the game,” Sheridan said. “Because I thought we had tackled well going in the previous games and it was kind of uncanny, especially in the first half.”

So why were the Bucs in such a funk “emotionally” that they couldn’t tackle? 

Were they subconsciously avoiding feeling guilty about actually tackling with Raheem Morris watching on the sidelines? Something that didn’t happen last season?

Joe can’t think of another reason. This is all very bizarre.

It’s freakin’ professional football. Have some pride. Eleven missed first-half tackles like the Bucs had Sunday is shameful, especially on the home turf before fans that have been abused enough by losses in 13 of 14 games.

A defense’s emotional state should be all about ripping the offensive players’ guts out,  especially in the first half before fatigue is an issue. That’s what fans are paying hard-earned cash to see.

Joe’s not sure how Schiano prevents the Bucs from having another pregame emotional breakdown, but Joe suspects the head coach will find a way.

There’s not a lot to be warm and fuzzy over with the Bucs these days, now dropping their 13th game in their last 14 outings.

The Redskins loss was a gut-puncher but Daniel Jeremiah believes Bucs fans have something to look forward to on football Sundays.

Jeremiah, a must-follow on Twitter who goes by the handle of “@MoveTheSticks,” is a former scout for the Ravens, Browns and Eagles and currently works for NFL.com and the NFL Network. His Twitter feed offers some of the most intelligent football analysis you will find.

Browsing through NFL rookies, Jeremiah likes no defensive rookie better than the Bucs Mark Barron.

@MoveTheSticks: TB safety Mark Barron has been the most impressive rookie defender that I’ve watched so far this season. Love how physical he plays!!

Jeremiah is right, Barron is already a beast. Joe still thinks it was appalling he got flagged for unnecessary roughness for a perfect form-fitting tackle Sunday, and let us not forget how he popped Robert Griffin III so hard once he sprung the ball loose.

The way Barron is playing, he may very well be Bucs rock star general manager Mark Dominik’s best draft pick in four years.

When Jeremy Trueblood got hurt, and then was benched in favor of Demar Dotson, Joe pretty much sensed Trueblood’s countdown clock to end his Bucs days was ticking.

Now, the ticks are louder.

Last week against the Redskins, Trueblood was inactive. Bucs coach Greg Schiano said, in so many words, that Trueblood not being flexible in playing multiple positions on the front line was why he didn’t dress for the game.

Trueblood, Stephen Holder of the Tampa Bay Times reports, can see the handwriting on the wall.

But after being replaced at right tackle two weeks ago by upstart Demar Dotson, Trueblood is starting to come to terms with the fact his predicament might be permanent. Asked whether he felt he could regain the starting role through strong practices, Trueblood wasn’t so sure there’s a chance.

“I feel like their decision’s made,” Trueblood said of the coaching staff. “So I’m just going to continue to do what I have to do. It’s the NFL and people get hurt all the time. I don’t wish anything upon anyone, but you just have to be ready. Someone could get sick. Anything can happen. Preparation is important.”

The seventh-year player and former second-round draft pick has been in Tampa Bay for the duration of his career but could spend the rest of his current contract year on the bench. That would strongly suggest he could be looking elsewhere for work next season, another fact Trueblood said he is beginning to digest.

Trueblood’s fate was pretty much sealed when Bucs rock star general manager Mark Dominik all but gave Trueblood an ultimatum in preseason: restructure your contract or you will be walking the streets looking for work.

And while Trueblood is under a guaranteed contract through the end of this season, if he is inactive, that means Schiano believes he is on the bottom rung of the roster, therefore, it would not surprise Joe the way Dominik and Schiano play musical chairs with the roster each week, that Trueblood may be jettisoned to make room for some other free agent to be signed later.

Joe’s not saying it will happen, just that it wouldn’t surprise Joe.

The Bucs cranked out rather interesting roster moves this afternoon. Joe’s usually not into the ongoing bottom-of-the-roster shuffle, but this one is intriguing.

The Bucs cut veteran defensive end Jeff Charleston, who spent several seasons with the Saints and was signed last week. Rockstar general manager Mark Dominik said Sunday on the Bucs’ radio broadcast that Charleston was a high-effort guy, strong against the run and good on special teams, and a man of good character.

But now Charleston is walking the streets, despite Greg Schaino just today referencing questionable along the Bucs’ D-line.

Replacing Charleston is tight end Nate Byham, known for his blocking. He was drafted by San Francisco and spent the last two seasons with the Niners.

Now the Bucs are not using their tight ends much in the passing game (11 catches over four games), and they’re not getting great blocking from the position. Former Bucs tight end even talked about that blocking performance during a recent interview on WDAE-AM 620.

The other tight end, Danny Noble, was not much of a blocker in college, while Byham was.

Joe knows that the New Schiano Order wants to pound the rock relentlessly and effectively. And Joe sees this move as the Bucs looking for an edge in that area.

If they’re not going to rarely use the tight ends as weapons, then the Bucs might as well get some better blocking out of the position and look more to their versatile receivers.

The head coach revealed a bit of his frustration about the running game today. Considering Doug Martin has 5 1/2 times the carries of LeGarrette Blount, Joe thinks it’s easy to determine where the coach’s feelings were directed.

Greg Schiano is often seen with his bullhorn during practice. Today before media at One Buc Palace, Schiano might have just has well been using that bullhorn considering the loud message he sent regarding the state of the Bucs’ running game.

The leader of the New Schiano Order was very clear that he wants to see more from his running backs. And considering Doug Martin has 71 carries to 13 for LeGarrette Blount, Joe’s taking Schiano’s words as a bonfire under the buttocks of Martin.

“I can run through a hole,” Schiano said. “You know, what do you do after the initial play? Can I make someone miss? Can I run someone over? If it’s all blocked up, an average back can make yardage. What are you making on your own? What are you creating as a running back? And that’s where I’d like to see us continue to grow. The front part, let’s make sure we do have the guys we have people for, let’s cover’em up. Let’s mov’em, create some daylight. People we don’t have [blockers] for, that’s where the back’s got to do his job.”

As Joe wrote earlier today, Schiano had strong praise last night for LeGarrette Blount’s manly touchdown run Sunday.

Putting this all together, Joe suspects Blount will get a lot more carries when the Bucs next take the field against Kansas City.

Many Bucs fans are still numb at how the Bucs came back from the dead Sunday, even took a lead late in the game only to see Robert Griffin III march the Redskins down the field as if the Bucs employed 11 lawn chairs for a defense.

It was way too easy, especially for a rookie in his fourth game who claimed his headset wasn’t working therefore he had to call his own plays (they weren’t runs on third-and-long down either).

Stephen Holder of the Tampa Bay Times decided to go back to the tape and break down what went wrong.

Essenstially, Holder concluded Greg Schiano decided to bring the house on blitzes, which never got any heat on RGIII.

Now, there’s no guarantee either of these plays would have produced different results with less aggressive defensive approaches. And what we can’t comment on is whether there was perfect execution. But it’s hard to imagine either play could have been as effortless for the Redskins, either.

We’ve known since Greg Schiano took over that the Bucs were going to be aggressive on defense. But we’ve also seen instances where doing so worked in the other team’s favor (the Giants loss, for example).

There’s a strong case to be made that Sunday’s game provided another one of those instances.

Look, Joe is like every other sane football fan who is unnerved at the thought of a prevent defense, and Schiano wasn’t playing prevent, which Joe applauds.

Perhaps, as Holder suggests, if Schiano plays it straight, meaning no blitzes, it may have been smarter.

Already we have terrible evidence that late in a game when the opponent needs to throw the ball (Giants, Redskins), whatever Schiano is dialing up has proved disastrous.