As one can imagine, not too many Bucs were in the mood for chatting after a gut-punching loss on a Billy Cundiff field goal in the final seconds for a 24-22 Redskins win.

The Bucs were simply awful in the first half and flipped the switch in the second half, briefly taking a lead late in the game.

The Redskins had a too easy final drive in order to get in field goal range for the shaky Cundiff. Bucs defensive tackle Roy Miller, soft spoken when happy, struggled to find words after the loss.

“We should have held them,” Miller said. “We fought hard to come back. We wanted to keep them back up [on the final drive] but it didn’t happen.”

Miller was insistent that the defense did not change in the final minute when RGIII sliced through the Bucs defense like warm butter, handing the Bucs their third straight loss and 13th out of the last 14 games.

“We just have to figure out a way to play four quarters,” Miller said. “We have a good team. We have to remain confident. It is on us and we have to go back and figure out why.”

Miller was not about looking for excuses. The loss stopped at the foot of the Bucs players.

“There really is only one explanation and that is to win,” Miller said when asked if it is expected that a young team would play inconsistently. “If you fight like we did today and shoot yourself in the foot too many times, you don’t give yourself a chance. There is really only one expectation, that is to win.

“We fought and they fought and at the end of the day, they had a few more plays than we did.”

Mark Barron flattens Robert Griffin III on a sack early in the second quarter, a beautiful, textbook tackle which offended the zebras.

Why is the NFL the most popular sport in America? The speed, the power, and yes, the violence.

In an effort to avoid lawsuits, the NFL under the watchful gaze of warden commissioner Roger Goodell had done it’s best to make football flag football. Today was a nauseating example of the highest order of how the NFL has dumbed itself down.

Washington was leading Tampa Bay 7-3 early in the second quarter when the Redskins started a drive back up to their own eight-yard line. On first down, from a shotgun formation, Bucs stud rookie safety Mark Barron, on a blitz, caught RHIII behind the line of scrimmage and bodyslammed him to the ground.

It was a beautiful tackle. Barron hit RGIII hard, shoulders squared and as defenders are taught, tackled through the ballcarrier.

Was it Barron’s fault that RGIII hit the ground hard? Hell no!

It was about as technically perfect as a tackle can be. And the referees, re-educated under the boot of Goodell and his cronies, determined that Barron’s tackle was too good, was too physical, and flagged Barron for a personal foul deemed “unnecessary roughness,” apparently forgetting for a brief moment that quarterbacks don’t wear flags.

A former Bucs defensive tackle sitting near Joe in the press box of the stadium on Dale Mabry Highway exclaimed, “That’s AWFUL!”

A little old lady who has something to do with a local magazine was even repulsed by the call, yelping, “That’s not a penalty!”

“Where’s the replacements when you need them?” asked disgustedFOX game analyst Tim Ryan on the network broadcast.

No, not even Barron thought it was a penalty. Though careful not to say too much to avoid having salt rubbed in the wound by getting fined for speaking the truth, as if he lived in a Soviet state, the only thing Barron told Joe about the play was “I didn’t know that was a flag, but it’s not my job to make that call. It was their job and they thought it was a penalty.”

Fortunately for the Bucs, the Redskins drive ended with a Billy Cundiff missed field goal.

Now Joe gets that the NFL wants to keep players safe. Joe’s not a neanderthal who wants players body parts shoveled off of the field. But damn, this is a physical game. The popularity of the NFL was built on plays like Barron’s.

If Goodell and his henchmen are concerned about the popularity if not the credibility of the NFL beginning to crumble, it is calls like that on Barron, sanctioned by the NFL suits, which will chase people away from the NFL a whole lot more than scab referees.

Alfred Morris wasn’t the only one embarrassing Bucs defenders today

Despite the intricate Greg Schiano tackling plan, the Bucs tackling was dreadful in the first half of the heinous home loss to the Redskins.

Aqib Talib, Eric Wright and Ronde Barber were all guilty. And there were others.

“So many missed tackles,” Michael Bennett said after the game on the Buccaneers Radio Network.

Bennett said the Bucs were ugly in the first half and on the final drive. And he even dredged up the horror of 2011, “We can’t revert back to last year.”

Fans should be able to see the Bucs are a “good team” and just have to learn how to finish “and not be suprsied when we’re up” on the scoreboard.

The leader of the New Schiano Order also was on the radio explaining that the first half was not the way they draw it up on the tackling plan.

And what was different in the second half Coach Schiano, when the Bucs outscored the Skins 16-3?

“We tackled better on defense and hit some shots to open things up,” Schiano said.

Unfortunately, it was too little too late.

The optimist in Joe says Josh Freeman took a much-needed step forward in the second half today, looking much more confident in the pocket and making some great throws and racking up big yardage.

Then there’s the pessimist in Joe wondering what Freeman was doing in the first half, making bad throws repeatedly and getting verbally pummelled by FOX analyst Tim Ryan.

And then Freeman, with a chance to march the Bucs to a game-icing touchdown drive — not a field goal — with less than two minutes remaining made a bad decision and was rather anemic.

Now at the bye week, Bucs fans still don’t know who Freeman is, except that he hasn’t put the Bucs on his back and led them to a victory in a long while.

As Freeman said on the Buccaneers Radio Network after the game, “Losing is never acceptable.”

Sloppy tackling, a manhandling by the Skins’ running game, and plenty of stupid penalties were enough to sink the Bucs today.

Josh Freeman came alive in the second half, letting it fly to Vincent Jackson (100 yards), Mike Williams (115 yards) and Tiquan Underwood (39 yards), and Connor Barth continued to be the best damn field goal kicker in football.

But it wasn’t enough.

While there are positives for Bucs fans out of this one, Joe’s not taking a load of them to bed

This is not a great Redskins football team. And the Bucs couldn’t finish — again!

The Skins were 1-for-10 on third down. How often does a team do that and still win?

Make no mistake. This was a gargantuan loss for the Bucs, who now head to the bye week at 1-3. The New Schiano Order took a step backwards today.

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A beautiful day it is at the stadium on Dale Mabry Highway for the Redskins-Bucs game. Go ahead and sound off about the game in this thread and as always boys and girls, no links to pirated video feeds of the game but you are welcome to post your e-mail so others can share a copy.

Have fun!

Week 4

Redskins at Bucs

Kickoff: 4:25 p.m.

TV: Blacked out locally. Outside the Tampa Bay area, the broadcast can be found on DirecTV Channel 715. Game will be available on Game Rewind on NFL.com at midnight as well as Game Short Cuts on NFL Sunday Ticket, also at midnight tonight.

Radio: Buccaneers Radio Network (in Tampa WFUS-FM, 103.5 and WDAE-AM, 620); SiriusXM Channel 91.

Weather: Per AccuWeather.com, fantastic day for tailgating under sunny skies and mid-80s temperatures. At kickoff, thunderstorms are expected briefly but should dissipate within an hour. Once the sun returns the temperature will remain at 85 through the end of the game.

Odds: Per Sportsbook.com, Bucs -2.

Outlook: OK, so this is simple: Don’t turn the ball over on offense and defensively, stop RGIII.

Yeah, easier said than done.

Redskins quarterback Robert Griffin III is a crazy-skilled quarterback. Dude has a gun for an arm and is lightning-quick. He’s sort of an upgraded version of a young Michael Vick.

Now, how the Bucs corral Griffin is another matter. The Bucs pass defense, in case you haven’t noticed, is not good bordering on awful. Throw in the fact that the Bucs lost stud right defensive end Adrian Clayborn for the season, it means getting heat on Griffin will be that much more difficult.

If Joe had to guess, Bucs coach Greg Schiano will come up with every obscure blitz he can think of to rattle Griffin and throw the proverbial kitchen sink at the kid. Let Joe be real: This is only Griffin’s fourth NFL game. The dude is still a rookie, still learning.

On offense, this may be the day the Bucs run game and Doug Martin finally break loose. The Redskins defense is not that great, certainly not on the level of the Giants or even the stinking Panthers.

If the Bucs don’t play dumb football and Griffin is somehow marginalized, the Bucs should have win No. 2 heading into the bye week.

Stop Robert Griffin III and the Bucs will stop the Redskins. Easier said than done.

He may only be a rookie, but Robert Griffin III, better known as “RG3,” is taking the NFL by storm.

With only a handful of games under his belt, the Redskins quarterback looks to be the next big thing. Lighting fast, cannon for an arm, he has all the tools to be a very, very, very special player.

When Griffin walks to the Redskins huddle, “he is easily one of top-five fastest guys on the field,” Bucs coach Greg Schiano said earlier in the week.

“If that’s what Schiano says, you can believe it,” Bucs linebacker Quincy Black joked.

It is likely the Bucs linebackers who will have the major task of running down RGIII, and stopping his short passes, and on occasion, bringing heat with a blitz. So Joe decided to talk to the Bucs linebackers to get their read into RGIII.

“You always look forward to challenges and he is a very gifted athlete,” linebacker Mason Foster said, himself a rising NFL star. “He’s a great quarterback making a lot of plays for his team. This is the NFL, you love going up against guys like that. It’s a challenge. We are excited.”

The greatest challenge with RGIII is that he cannot be pigeonholed. Bottle him up in a pocket and he rocket a pass 40 yards downfield, or more. Flush him out of a pocket and he can run for 20 yards.

“He’s the Heisman Trophy winner!” Black said of RGIII’s talents.

“Just watching film, you can tell he makes a lot of plays,” Foster said. “He is very explosive. You can see him on film how fast he can run, whether it be in college or at the combine, everything.

“It will be tough but this is what you play in the NFL for.”

Bucs linebacker Lavonte David just missed facing RGIII in college. David, who played at Nebraska, which was a member of the Big XII his sophomore year, the same conference Baylor plays in, the school RGIII played for.

But Nebraska and Baylor were in two different divisions and the two teams never met David’s sophomore year. The next year, Nebraska moved to the Big Ten.

“It’s going to be a challenge,” David said of stopping RGIII. “There’s no doubt about it, we will have to be disciplined to be able to contain him, be responsible.”

Few areas outside of the mid-Atlantic states will get to watch the Redskins-Bucs game live on their local FOX affiliates, as Joe can see from the map.

The Fox affiliates in the areas of blue will show the Redskins-Bucs game. The red-shaded area will see the New Orleans at Green Bay game.

Photo courtesy of the506.com.

The Bucs’ rush defense is a mirror image of its horrific showing of its matador-like play last season. This season, the Bucs lead the NFL in rush defense, and it’s not even close.

Through three games, the Bucs are holding opponents to an average of 47.3 yards a game. The second-best rush defense is Seattle’s at 58.7 yards a game allowed on the ground.

Roy Miller, who has been little more than a backup in his first three years in the NFL, is now starting. And despite his meager seven tackles, Bucs defensive end Michael Bennett insists numbers are misleading and tells Woody Cummings of the Tampa Tribune that Miller has been the key to the defense being strong.

“The job we’ve done against the run so far has a lot to do with Roy,” LDE Michael Bennett said. “He’s one of the key components in our defense. Without Roy, a lot of the stuff we’re doing wouldn’t be happening. Roy is doing a good job of controlling the middle of the line (and drawing double teams), and that’s allowing me and (DT) Gerald (McCoy) to make plays, so we owe a lot of our success to Roy.”

Controlling the middle of the line and drawing double teams are priorities for the nose tackle.

It’s not just controlling the middle. It’s taking on double-teams, which allows GMC to go mano y mano against an opposing offensive lineman, simply a mismatch in GMC’s favor.

In addition, Mason Foster has emerged as a force at middle linebacker when the defensive line can keep bodies off of Foster to enable him to roam free.

NFL guru Pat Kirwan gives his breakdown on Sunday’s Redskins-Bucs game in this CBS Sports video.

Can the Bucs make more plays at safety?

Absolutely, says Bucs icon Ronde Barber. 

Barber explained that he’s still in a learning curve at his new position and his reactions aren’t there yet, so he explained on the Buccaneers Radio Network this week.

“When you’re playing that hole safety, you really see sideline to sideline, or you have to be able to. You gotta be aware of the routes coming at you. And I’ve had instances this year where I felt like I could have made a better break, you know, if my vision would have been better,” Barber said.

“I’m still trying to work on it. It’s definitley an adjustment period. The good thing is I know my responsibility. And I still have a pretty good idea of what teams are trying to do to us, so that’s helping me, helping me with this learning curve.

Joe sees this as great news. As Barber’s vision improves, not only will he make more plays, but he’ll be able to impart more of what he sees from opposing offenses to his young teammates.

Barber explains Greg Schiano’s attention to tackling and interestingly says the offense might improve when there’s more buy-in to a tougher practice work ethic.

Months ago eyebrows were raised when Gerald McCoy talked about how he was learning how to tackle under the New Schiano Order.

Many wondered how one could become a professional football player and not yet know how to tackle properly? Well, it seems Bucs icon Ronde Barber is even benefitting from the tackling education under Greg Schiano.

Speaking on Total Access on WDAE-AM 620 this week, Barber explained that the details of Schiano’s tackling drilling are pounded into everyone’s head and helped the Bucs icon make a tackle Sunday.

“We have a tackling plan. Coach Schiano is very big on his tackling plan; we do it every single day,” Barber said. “It’s bite the ball, and if you can’t bite the ball wrap and roll, roll him to the ground, and if you can’t do that you sweep the ankle. I think on [a challenging takedown Jason Witten on Sunday] I did all three of them while I was holding on to him. (Laughs) He’s a big cat. You know, there’s some benefit though of having a plan when you’re dealing with not just him, but anybody. You have to find a way.”

In the world of the New Schiano Order, the tackling plan is known as systemizing. During Schiano’s interview with Melissa Stark of NFL Network last Sunday, Schiano explained how he likes to systemize everything, per a transcript published in the New York Times.

[Schiano] On what is the most controlling thing he does:

“I like to systemize things. I believe people make a mistake that reinvent the wheel every week. Systemize the way we travel, systemize the way we gameplan, systemize the way we practice and then guys get more and more comfortable. Athletes and coaches are creatures of habit, so if we can systemize things, then we get better at it.”

Barber went on to explain that everything in the New Schiano Order is about practicing daily with intensity and attention to every detail. Interestingly, Barber says that more “buy-in” is needed to the demanding Schiano work ethic and speculates the Bucs offense will improve when that happens.

“It’s been implored upon us numerous times,” Barber said. “And it’s gotta continue to be so, as we get ready for Washington and the games following, that you gotta do it on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday so it shows up on Sunday. And that’s always hard to do. So you know feel bad, you’re sore on Wednesday, obviously you know it’s your job. But you fight with it, to want to go out there and run around and go as hard as you can in preparation, but that’s gotta be our edge. And we’ll continue to try and get better at that. I think when everybody buys into that as a team, then we’ll start seeing results, especially on [the offensive] side of the ball.”

It’s interesting to Joe that Barber is still calling for the Bucs to display more devotion and drive in practice. Either Barber has extraordinarily high standards — very likely — or there’s still more indoctrination needed as to how things must be done in the New Schiano Order.

Joe loves to enjoy Tilted Kilt – Clearwater for great food, ice cold beer, the world famous Kilt girls, and superior indoor and outdoor game-watching. But there’s all kinds of great stuff going on at Titled Kilt, not just football games. If you’re among the tens of thousands heading to Clearwater Beach this weekend for the Super Boat championships, you definitely need to go to Tilted Kilt before and after.

Click below to check out their website. or just head over to Tilted Kilt today at the corner of US Hwy. 19 and Drew Street in Clearwater.

Veteran Ch. 10 sportscaster Dave Wirth checks in with his weekly exclusive pregame take for JoeBucsFan.com. Among many thoughts, Wirth believes the Redskins realizing they must do better limiting hits to Robert Griffin, III, will work in the Bucs’ favor.

It’s pretty simple this Sunday for the Bucs. Well, simple in that the way to beat the Redskins is simple. Getting the job done isn’t quite as simple as the plan.

The plan is to stop Robert Griffin III. Very much like Michael Vick was with the Dixie Chicks years ago, if you stop RGII, you will stop the Redskins.

Part of that plan will be centered on Gerald McCoy. If GMC, who has been a beast so far the first three weeks of the season, can rush RGIII out of pockets before he is ready and create havoc inside, it will go along way to stopping the Redskins.

The Redskins, of course, know this. So just as much as RGIII is the key to shutting down Washington, the Redskins brass believes containing GMC is the way to control the Bucs defense, writes Mike Jones of the Washington Post.

How he beats you: The third overall pick of the 2010 draft, McCoy is off to the best start of his career. After battling injuries his first two seasons (playing a combined 19 games), McCoy finally is healthy and has three sacks in three games for Tampa Bay. The 6-foot-4, 300-pound Oklahoma product is disruptive in both the run and passing games. McCoy also has recorded a pass breakup, a forced fumble and eight tackles.

“Any time you’re that high of a draft pick, I think everybody knows how talented he is,” Redskins offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan said. “I think he’s finally healthy. He’s playing hard, he comes off the ball, he’s quick, he’s big, he’s a handful.”

How to stop him: The Redskins’ interior linemen can’t get beat off the line. They have to try to keep McCoy out of the backfield so Robert Griffin III can effectively run the offense without taking the pounding he absorbed last week, when he was sacked six times against Cincinnati. If the Redskins can keep Tampa Bay’s defensive front off balance with a variety of running schemes and quick passes, they could have some success. But rushing yards could be hard to come by. The Bucs rank first in the league against the run, yielding only 47.3 yards per game.

Of course, GMC will need help. It’s not just him, but he is certainly a key. Joe believes it will take pressure from the corners and outside as well, which is where Michael Bennett and Lavonte David come into play.

Redskins players discuss what they have learned about the Bucs from their secondary coach Raheem Morris, he of the architect of the heinous Bucs 10-game losing streak last year, in this CSNWashington.com video.

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When thinking of the top “what-ifs” in Bucs history, Joe quickly thinks of the following:

What if Ricky Bell stayed healthy?
What if Hugh Culverhouse didn’t drive Doug Williams to the USFL?
What if the Bucs kept Steve Young?
What if George Steinbrenner outbid Malcolm Glazer?
What if Chucky realized what he had in Thomas Jones?
What if officials didn’t steal Kellen Winslow’s TD against Detroit in 2010?

But one thing Joe never would have considered is what would have happened if the Bucs’ first-round pick in 1990, Keith McCants, was allowed to play linebacker instead of defensive end?

Well, McCants told Justin “The Commish” Pawlowski and Gary Shelton on 98.7 FM this week that he would have certainly had the impact of a Ray Lewis or Junior Seau.

McCants, a legendary member of the Crimson Tide whose sad story of descending into poverty, severe depression and drugs and has been well documented, makes an interesting Xs and Os case. Listen to the entire interview below.

If you’re into Buccaneers cheerleaders dancing, slithering and bending with Captain Fear to Korean pop music, then you must watch this video.

Joe is told this is really cool, some sort of extraordinary Gangnam style that has won critical acclaim over the past handful of days. Sadly, the cheerleaders couldn’t recruit Greg Schiano into the choreography. Enjoy!

Joe’s not naive to believe a string of Bucs wins would quickly fill the roughly 20,000 empty seats on Dale Mabry Highway. But Joe does want to see the Bucs hurry up and establish a true home field advantage under the New Schiano Order.

Every quality franchise is a winner at home, and that must become part of the new regime. There’s no excuse to not have an edge in Tampa, but since late November 2008, the Bucs have won exactly eight home games and they’ve dropped twice as many, plus two “home-game” losses in England.

Aside from being a fantastic way to crush the spirit of a fan base, that’s completely unacceptable.

The Bucs are aching for a win against the Redskins on Sunday, but just as much, they need the game to claim the once-proud home turf in a meaningful way.