ESPN NFC South blogger Pat Yasinskas cranked out a column yesterday firmly explaining his take on the worst team in the division; this came as part of a preview of Sunday’s division-dungeon bowl, also known as the Panthers-Bucs game.

Joe started reading this piece but barely finished. Yasinskas was bashing and misrepresenting LeGarrette Blount, and for Joe that means Yasinskas either isn’t watching Bucs games, is sniffing common household cleaners, or has it out for the Bucs.

Here’s a small sample (not of the cleaners, but of Yasinskas’ head-shaking content.)

Freeman, who threw 25 touchdowns and just six interceptions last season, hasn’t been able to hit targets. Mike Williams, who looked like a No. 1 receiver as a rookie, has turned into the second coming of Michael Clayton. LeGarrette Blount, who ran for 1,000 yards in half a season in 2010, might need a season and a half to hit that mark again, which might coincide with the moment he finally learns to pass block.

People talked about Freeman, Williams and Blount as “The Triplets” last year. I still think Freeman has a world of potential, but it’s looking like he might end up being an only child. On defense, the Bucs have a lot of draft picks and money invested in their defensive line.

Joe truly apologizes for putting you through that passage.

First, if Yasinskas had bothered to use a calculator, he’d have seen that Blount already is on pace for a 1,000 yard season in 2011, assuming the Bucs hand him the ball an average of 15 times a game. Hitting that amount of carries wouldn’t satisfy Joe, but it’s a safe bet Blount will get that many carries. 

With so many available ways to hammer the Bucs for their performance, why would Yasinskas recklessly come after their most explosive weapon, Blount, who is having a good year? Frankly, Joe’s embarrassed for his profession.

As for calling Mike Williams the second coming of Michael Clayton, that’s quite a reach. Nobody’s nearly as bad as Clayton. In Clayton’s sophomore season he caught 32 balls and zero touchdowns. Williams has been playing better lately and already has 53 catches and three touchdowns in his second year.

The Bucs have serious issues, but Blount and Williams surely aren’t part of the problem.

You’ve all read THE PESSIMIST, who spews his Bucs-related anger like no other. But Joe also brings you THE OPTIMIST. 

THE OPTIMIST is Nick Houllis, a Bucs fan and an accomplished writer whose steadfast allegiance to the Buccaneers goes back to the 1970s. Houllis is the founder, creator and guru of BucStop.com, a place Joe goes to get lost in time via Houllis’ stunning video collection.

THE OPTIMIST will shine that positive light in your eyes. Some will love it. Some won’t.

The Bucs have gone from 4-2 to an unbelievable 4-7 record, and while the playoffs are not completely out of reach due to the losses of the Bears and Giants in Week 12, the Bucs are three games out of a Wild Card spot.

With only five games remaining, it’s unlikely that’s within reach, but it’s important not to give the team the message “We’re giving up!”

As far as what Bucs take the field, we already know what E.J. Biggers can do (or rather cannot do, as in tackle). We already know about Myron Lewis, though maybe we need to see a little more. But what about the young guys that the future of this secondary depends on? Larry Asante was picked up last year, and we’re to guess that he’s not playing because he is not as good as the rest, but maybe Asante is one of those players who come on when the lights do?

How about Anthony Gaitor, the rookie from Florida International the  Bucs drafted this season? Number 24 has only been seen a few short  times, against New Orleans at home and against the 49ers, where he  recorded one solo tackle in each.

Mossis Madu should be given some time at tailback if he’s capable of  blocking for Josh Freeman on thrid downs, otherwise Blount should be given  more time and Freeman should be told to be alert, so he doesn’t turn into a splat on the ground like Tony Romo last year.

As we saw in typical fashion Sunday, Kregg Lumpkin cannot be counted on as a running back. His failure to pick up a solid foot on 3rd down in the  fourth quarter was just one example of his poor ability to run the ball. We just don’t want to see Freeman get hurt.

Speaking of Freeman, if he keeps locking in to No. 82., then take Kellen Winslow Jr. out and put in Luke Stocker so we can see what he offers. He seems to have good hands, and he’s the future at tight  end, Lets see if this ends up being an improvement or not. Stocker  was taken high in this year’s draft, he is a premium pick, play him,  start him, use Pianalta for two TE sets for blocking, because we all  know K2 cannot block, and when he tries, yellow ensues.

The Bucs don’t have to do all of these things at once. Maybe  implement one or two players each game along the way.

Next season is going to require at least a few free agent acquisitions, and Bucs fans are NOT going to cheer another speech by Mark Dominik on how the Bucs are going to entirely with the draft.

Otherwise the stadium will be empty and frankly, Raheem Morris wouldn’t survive another underachieving season.

As Joe has professed many times, the calculator crowd has nearly chased Joe away from baseball. Why, if you don’t subscribe to some convoluted, made-up forumla like a player’s OBGYN, born out of fantasy baseball, you are some moron, so the spreadsheeters will sneer.

It’s boring as hell, sorry.

That’s not to say numbers, to a degree, are not revealing, just not to the obscene level that has hijacked America’s pastime.

Fortunately, the numbers crowd hasn’t infested football like baseball. Again, like to some degree in baseball, numbers can illuminate areas of football.It is with this mindset that Scott Fowler of the Charlotte Observer looks into this weekend’s Panthers-Bucs games. Here are a few:

3-0: Carolina’s record when Cam Newton doesn’t commit a single turnover (the Panthers are 0-8 when he does, which really isn’t all Newton’s fault. A good team should be able to survive a miscue or two by its starter).

10 — Out of 11, number of games in which the Panthers (3-8) have held a lead this season. The only exception: their 30-3 loss to Tennessee.

8269 — Carolina’s total rushing yardage since the beginning of the 2008 season (when Jonathan Stewart joined DeAngelo Williams in the backfield). That ranks No.1 in the NFL in that span, with the New York Jets just 31 yards behind.

What does this boil down to? For the Bucs, it’s a simple three-word phrase “Run the football.” Newton is dangerous. The Panthers have a bruising running attack. In case you haven’t noticed of late, the Bucs are struggling stopping the run.

Combine this with the fact that only until recently have the Bucs been able to move the ball through the air, it’s a no-brainer that you use one of the best running backs in the game early and often.

Three-and-out drives that fry your defense by halftime is a recipe for disaster. The Bucs’ 31st-ranked, nearly-worn-down defense needs all the help it can get right now. That help is Blount.

Make the Panthers stop Blount. The numbers suggest that won’t happen.

Joe’s not worried about Josh Freeman starting on Sunday.

Speaking last night to host Steve Duemig on The Josh Freeman Show on WDAE-AM 620, Freeman said team doctors ordered an MRI on his injured shoulder on Tuesday and the results were good. Freeman said the MRI revealed “no tear” and just bruising, and he’s been “rehabbing profusely.”

Asked by Duemig if he could have played a game if there had been one scheduled Wedneday, Freeman said he could have played.

Again, Joe’s not sweating Freeman’s status. If nothing else, if he does play, perhaps the Bucs will be more inclined to pound the ball on the ground. You know, the thing that seems to work real well.

Wednesday afternoon, Joe heard Bucs beat writer eye-RAH! Kaufman of the Tampa Tribune decided to drop a phone call to his good friend “The Fabulous Sports Babe” of WHBO-AM 1040 to talk all things Bucs. In short, the way the Bucs are playing, Kaufman suggested every person in the football operations of the Bucs should come under some degree of scrutiny due to how the season has unfolded.

eye-RAH! Kaufman: Nothing is working Babe, nothing is working for this team and you know what? After a season like this, I think everybody and I mean everybody from the top on down has to be looked at, has to be examined. I don’t care if its the GM, the coach, Greg Olson the coordinator down to the secondary coach. I don’t think anyone is safe if they don’t get out of this funk.

Fabulous Sports Babe: They are boring, which to me is the biggest crime a team can be, whether it is a Little League team or the Green Bay Packers. Being boring is the worst sin you can commit.

Kaufman: You know what Babe, it’s a great point. I hate to give you a compliment but I have to, you just forced me to. You can be 4-7 and be the Panthers, but they are exciting, they score a lot of points. They run up a lot of yards, I believe they are the No. 5 team in total offense in this league. They give fans a reason to come to Charlote Stadium. This game, there’s no great secret will be blacked out with 15,000-20,000 empty seats. There are a lot of reasons for it but the point you just made is one of them: they don’t have any flair, any pizazz, no speed. … It’s an offensive league and the Bucs are behind the times.

Sports Babe: When you want to see emptiness this Sunday, I hope you can project that to next year.

Kaufman: I think the key for Raheem down the stretch Babe — and I don’t think the Glazers want to make a change, they are not impulsive owners by nature. Dungy got six years and Gruden got seven. But I tell you what: If they finish 4-12 with a 10-game losing streak, I mean all bets are off the table. I think the key is how about some improvement from some of these young players? Right now that’s a huge question mark.

Before this season, the stat geeks at ESPN churned up numbers on how poorly NFL teams fare during a stretch of three consecutive road games.

Over the past 21 seasons, teams have had winning records during those three-game trips only 35 percent of the time, per ESPN.

Joe’s seen other stats from gambling outfits that show Game 3 of the three-game journey offers the worst chance of winning. The Bucs’ last victory, which feels like a century ago, was against the Saints. New Orleans was playing its third straight on the road.

The Bucs get another blessing from the schedule makers on Sunday, as Carolina heads to Tampa for its third of three straight as the away club.

Joe actually watched the first game of the Panthers’ trip in Detroit. It actually soothed Joe somewhat because Joe was finally watching a 2011 defense more porous than the Bucs’. Detroit rolled up 49 points with ease against the Panthers’ banged up D.

If the Bucs can’t pull off a victory Sunday, it surely will be a sad state of affairs. 

When the Bucs host the lowly Panthers Sunday, the Bucs will have a shot to take advantage of Cam Newton.

The rookie Panthers signal-caller has surprised just about everyone this side of his family. Dude is lighting up the scoreboard and appears to be a very scary quarterback.

But it doesn’t seem that Newton’s early success in the NFL has gone to his head. In speaking recently about the Bucs, he lauded ageless Bucs cornerback Ronde Barber for being perhaps the smartest opponent he has yet to face, so reports Joseph Person of the Charlotte Observer.

“But the one thing I see about Barber is he might be old, but my man is playing with the best of them and he’s smart. He’s going to outsmart you. He watches film. It’s evident watching him play. If he gets beat, he’s going to beat you to the point to where you want to go.”

Of course, Joe will have more about what he believes will happen with this game come Sunday, but Joe’s got a bad feeling. That written, it’s cool that Newton, an NFL newbie is giving respectful props to his league elders like Barber.

Hey Coach, you worried about your job after this season if things don’t turn around?

That was part of the final question posed to Raheem Morris at his news conference today. You can watch it here at the end of the video on Buccaneers.com.

Raheem’s initial response was, “I am not an insurance salesman. We coach football.”

Joe’s not 100 percent sure of exactly what Raheem said after that, so Joe’s not going to transcribe the coach’s entire comment. When it comes to a man talking about his livelihood, Joe treads carefully.

However, Raheem’s overall message was clear. The head coach isn’t worried about his job because he’s paid to worry about winning at least five more football games and developing his team. And when the season ends in 32 days, he’ll press on unless he gets a dreaded phone call from Team Glazer.

It’ll be interesting to see if/when a vote of 2012 confidence for Raheem comes from his bosses.

Bucs icon Derrick Brooks is very disappointed in one aspect of Josh Freeman’s gun injury at a local shooting range a few weeks ago.

Most peeving Brooks, so he told Justin Pawlowski on WDAE-AM 620 today, was that what happened to Freeman leaked from the locker room. For Brooks, that was an unsettling red flag.

Brooks also said Freeman shouldn’t necessarily have been playing at the gun range as a guy trying to be the big man on campus.

“You don’t necessarily put yourself in that position as a leader,” Brooks said. “Because in that position you affect more than yourself.”

“You know you hurt your thumb, your thumb is not well, don’t put yourself in that position.”

Brooks went on to say the “leader of an entire football team is different than being the leader of part of a football team.” Counseling Freeman earlier this year, Brooks said he wanted Freeman to go slowly when approaching the daunting responsibility of leading the ballclub.

“My two-cent advice was don’t take too much on,” Brooks said.

Joe has to agree with Brooks. If Freeman wants to be the franchise, then he has to exercise extraordinary discretion and judgement, the kind of maturity he probably hasn’t acquired yet at 23 years old.

Today at his news conference, Freeman said he learned his lesson and wouldn’t use guns in season. Joe can only hope he learned a little greater lesson on leadership.

With gungate/thumbgate now in Josh Freeman’s rearview mirror and on the list of stupid things he’ll do in his early 20s, now comes word that Freeman injured his shoulder in Tennessee.

Per the Bucs’ official Twitter feed, his practice activities were limited today.

Will linebackers coach Joe Baker have to pay the price for poor outside linebacker play this season?

Before Joe gets rolling here, Raheem Morris is safe.

Joe has heard that from many sources and Joe himself is of the opinion barring the major collapse continuing, Morris will be your Bucs head coach for the 2012 season.

But “The Professor,” John Clayton of BSPN, speaking this afternoon on The Fabulous Sports Babe Show heard on WHBO-AM 1040, has a hunch that the movers and shakers at One Buc Palace will make “staff changes” amid the assistant coaches.

Clayton was harsh on the Bucs coaching staff and Joe quickly transcribed Clayton’s thoughts.

John Clayton: I think when you look at the whole Tampa Bay team, you can see a regression on this team that is very, very concerning. I was at the Bucs-Saints game in New Orleans and guys didn’t know how to line up, it was a cluster, guys yelling at one another, [Josh] Freeman, [Kellen] Winslow… [the coaching staff has] to take more control of the offense, the coaching staff has to eliminate the mistakes and there are way too many for this team. The team is pretty sloppy. They can’t even shoot a gun straight.

Fabulous Sports Babe: Why is that, are they just goofing off, are they not practicing properly, are they stupid?

Clayton: You have to take it back to practice. If you practice the things you should do then you shouldn’t look lost and right now they look lost and it is continuing. How many mistakes do these guys make? How many false starts do they have? Raheem says they are practicing well, but it’s not carrying over to the field. That has to be cleaned up.

Sports Babe: Is Raheem on the hot seat?

Clayton: It’s lukewarm but it’s warming up because of the season. You have a feeling there will be staff changes made, but Raheem stays.

Joe’s good friend Justin Pawlowski, host of the critically acclaimed “Blitz” now aired on Saturday mornings is pinch-hitting for the dean of Tampa Bay sports radio, “The Big Dog,” Steve Duemig, this afternoon from 3-6 p.m. on WDAE-AM 620.

Justin was at One Buc Palace this morning for Josh Freeman’s press conference addressing Thumbgate, and you can bet Justin has ample reactions from all circles on Freeman, the Bucs and everything NFL.

You can listen to Justin via streaming audio from the station’s website.

Jeff Faine should find a seat on the bench, suggests former Bucs DE Steve White, who also proposes four other Bucs have changed roles.

As fans ponder how the Bucs should approach the rest of this season and dole out playing time, former Bucs DE Steve White offered up six options that he would enact immediately.

(Warning: at least one of these could send you into shock.)

Speaking on Two-Hand Touch on WQYK-AM 1010 last night, White started with sitting down captain Jeff Faine. Here’s why:

“I’m going to bench Jeff Faine and move Zuttah over to center and find me a left guard. Somebody’s going to be a left guard or we’re going to draft one,” White said. “Jeff Faine, he’s serviceable, but I see centers get up on our middle linebacker every single play; I don’t know if I’ve seen Jeff Faine do it once this year.

“We need an upgrade. If we’re going to be a running team, we need a center who can run block. We don’t pull our center, which is probably what he’s better suited to doing. So there’s really not a lot of use for him here.”

Cut Albert Haynesworth was White’s next call (“this guy can’t find the B-gap”), along with benching Quincy Black (“you gotta go”). Wave good-bye to Kregg Lumpkin, says White, who has been very critical of Lumpkin’s blocking, and sit-down Kellen Winslow on first and second down because of his heinous run-blocking.

Lastly, White says it’s time to truly look for Ronde Barber’s replacement.

“We’re going to have to find somebody to split time with Ronde [Barber]. We gotta find the next guy. He’s a liability against the run 90 percent of the time,” White said. “Those are changes I would make right away.”

Joe would disagree only in the timing of some of these moves. In Joe’s mind, the Bucs need to remember/learn how to win games, and Joe thinks that for at least another two games it behooves the Bucs to keep their best players on the field.

Da'Quan Bowers speaks Tuesday at a function for the Under Armour All American Bowl in St. Petersburg.

Yesterday Joe caught up with Bucs rookie defensive end Da’Quan Bowers in St. Petersburg making an appearance promoting the Under Armour All American Bowl Jan. 5 at the Fruitdome.

Sunday against the Titans, Bowers logged his first start of his career. He didn’t do too bad, showing flashes of why he was considered one of the top draft prospects in 2011, until scares about his knee dropped him to the second round where the Bucs picked him up.

“I did pretty good,” Bowers said of his start. :”I just have to build on it and get better. If you are not getting better, you are not doing something right. Each and every day you should be learning soemthing and getting better.”

And while Bowers claimed he learned a lot starting last Sunday — he wouldn’t go into details what he learned — but he has learned equally from defensive tackle Albert Haynesworth in his short stint with the Bucs.

“I knew playing with Albert and Adrian Clayborn, there would be opportunties because it will take more than one blocker to hold those guys back,” Bowers said. “Albert has not been here very long but he is doing the types of things that we needed on the defensive line. We needed a vocal leader, especially with Gerald [McCoy] being down. With his absence, there has been a void and Albert is doing a great job of that.”

Joe knows fans love to get inside Raheem Morris’ head.

This is why Joe brings you the interesting nuggets from The Raheem Morris Show on WDAE-AM 620. On Monday night, Raheem talked about motivating his club. Raheem explained that he’s not a rah-rah overly animated guy because players want/need everything real and straight.

“As far as motivation, man, it comes in different forms. It’s like being a teacher,” Raheem said. “When you go into a classroom, and you’re a teacher you motivate people through film study. You gotta motivate them through tape. You gotta motivate them through themselves. You gotta motivate them to look at themselves. You gotta motivate them through going out on the practice field and practicing hard. You gotta motivate them as far as pads. You gotta motivate guys all different ways. You know, people are moved differently. Some guys are retention learners. Some guys learned through, you know, going out and getting a walk-through. Some guys learn different ways. It’s the same thing with motivation. Every one of these guys are different. They’re all motivated differently.”

As an example, Raheem went on to say Da’Quan Bowers is a guy motivated by playing time, and Raheem said Bowers responded in his first start last week following a week of more repetitions in practice.

Host T.J. Rives then asked Raheem what’s the one thing he’s learned about motivation that he didn’t know when he started three years ago as head coach. 

“The worst part about it for my guys is they really respond to live action,” Morris said. “You know, get these guys out there and go in pads and let them guys respond. That’s what they want. You know, kind of our Green Bay week when we went to [two] padded days and those guys went out and hit each other and they went and played and they went out there. A lot of teams that would tear down. Not our team. It kind of fired them up a litle bit. The problem is, those [new labor agreement] rules don’t allow you to do that anymore. We gotta figure out a way to get around that as well. [Through] competition, I should say.”

Joe found it interesting that Raheem didn’t single out fear as a motivator, fear in general or fear of losing one’s job. That doesn’t mean he doesn’t use that tactic, but it wasn’t on the tip of his tongue. Joe sure hopes Raheem can find an effective alternative to having multiple physical practices during game weeks, which the new labor agreement nearly prohibits.

One suggestion for motivation, perhaps the offensive coaching staff should be forced to wear pewter skirts around One Buc Palace on Mondays until the Bucs score an offensive touchdown in a first quarter. Just a thought.

There’s analysis of the Bucs defense, and then there’s the intelligent, passionate breakdowns offered by former Bucs defensive end Steve White (1996-2001).

Loyal readers of JoeBucsFan.com know that White regularly graced these pages with his written word in 2009 and 2010, treating Bucs fans with Xs and Os for the common man. Now, White brings his game to the local radio airwaves on a variety of shows, but it’s on Two-Hand Touch with Derek “Old School” Fournier, Tuesdays on WQYK-AM 1010, where he goes deep into the Bucs’ defense.

Here’s part of White’s take on what he says was an historically brutal performance by the defensive line in Tennessee:

“You got a situation where, literally, I can’t recall a situation where a defensive line was so uninterested in staying in their gap ever, not in a 4-3 defense,” White said. “Almost nobody cared that they were getting reached or zoned out of their gap, from top to bottom. The only guy I really could see that was fighting to stay in a gap was Roy Miller. And he actually made some pretty decent plays. Nobody probably noticed. But he was actually trying stay in his gap even though he was getting high-lowed and cutback side and stuff like that.

“… Even when we made plays, you know Haynesworth makes a tackle for a loss, when he’s reached. Tim Crowder makes a couple tackles for a loss, when he’s reached. You can’t do that in this style of defense because it’s a hit-or-miss, feast-or-famine type sitatuation. And what’s going to happen is, yeah, you might get them for a two-yard loss once, and then they’re going to hit you for a 10-yard gain three times — 10 yards or more.  So you’re losing when you keep doing that feast-or-famine crap. Get in your gap and let’s play football. I’ve never seen anything like it.

“We knew it about Albert Haynesworth, obviously. But he’s taking it to a whole nother level now. Like I don’t know that he was in the B-gap at all on Sunday. I really don’t. And that’s where you’re supposed to be as the 3-technique most plays.

“Da’Quan Bowers, not in his gap. Even Adrian Clayborn, who I kind of got on early in the season about spinning out of the C-gap trying to make too many plays. He’s doing this kind of stuff and then now it’s like I don’t know what he’s doing when he’s got a tight end. He’s so big and strong and we know he’s a powerful guy with his bull rushes and stuff, but he’s getting knocked five yards off the ball by the tight end. Just bad technique, you know, getting knocked inside all the way to the B-gap from the C-gap. You can’t win football games that way. We were lucky. Basically, we had some really, really big plays bail us out to give us the opportunity to maybe win the game on the end of the game. But we should have been blown out by all rights.”

Only the Titans inexplicably getting away from the running game at times kept the Bucs in the game,” White said.

White also told a story of how he got called up  from the Bucs’ practice squad in 1996 shortly after a backup Bucs defensive end was caught out of his gap several times in a blowout loss to Detroit. White said “Monte Kiffin lost his mind” after seeing the film and the DE was cut.

White said one might expect to see that kind of reponse from the Bucs this week.

“Somebody’s gotta go, man. You can’t have possibly that many defensive linemen, different guys, out of their gap and just seem like they’re cool with it and something not happen,” White said. “I can’t imagine. I can’t imagine sitting in that film room to be quite honest with you. And it’s Tuesday [night] and nobody got cut.”

Joe’s simply can’t figure out why the Bucs seem to be getting more undisciplined as the season progresses. An established coaching staff and system should have a young team going in the other direction.

Though Joe is either at Bucs home games, or chained to his 40-inch HDTV at home for road games, he hears about the mood of Bucs fans in recent weeks at local watering holes, and it’s not pretty.

Seems as though if Bucs fans aren’t cursing out loud and slamming their drinks on the table, they are trying to drink themselves under a table to numb themselves of the memory of yet another Bucs loss.

This is largely due to the Bucs’ lack of defense, currently ranked 31st in the NFL (shockingly, only the Patriots have a worse defense).

One reason the Bucs are struggling on defense is their inability to stuff the run. Chris Johnson running for 190 yards in the rain last week was Exhibit-A.

A quick glance at tackle numbers may shed some light. The leading tackler on the Bucs is safety Sean Jones with 66 tackles. Ageless cornerback Ronde Barber is next at 59 and rookie middle linebacker Mason Foster has 43.

Given the fact that Jones and Foster are two of the top three tacklers pretty much suggests teams are getting around the corner on the Bucs and abusing the Bucs outside linebackers.

To further flush out this theory, the numbers crunchers of Advanced NFL Stats have each linebacker in the NFL rated. It’s not pretty for Bucs fans. Geno Hayes is the Bucs’ highest-rated linebacker by these guys, rated at No. 74. Mind you, Bucs coach Raheem Morris has benched Hayes a couple of times this season for lack of production.

Other linebackers ranked by Advanced NFL Stats are Foster at No. 84, Dekoda Watson at No. 121 and Quincy Black at No. 123.

If the numbers are a window into the Bucs’ ills, it screams that Bucs rock star general manager Mark Dominik needs to load up on linebackers both in the draft, and dare Joe suggest dabbling in free agency? The linebacker corps with the Bucs is in that deep of a hole.

Bucs defensive end Da'Quan Bowers speaks during a ceremony to award All American jerseys to three local prep stars who will play in the Jan. 5 Under Armour All American Game at Tropicana Field.

When Under Armour held its first All-American high school all star game back in 2008, Da’Quan Bowers became the inaugural MVP.

Today, Bowers stepped back in time, sort of. The second round pick of the Bucs, who made his first NFL start last week, came to Tropicana Field to present three local high school players with their Under Armour jerseys in advance of the Jan. 5 game to be held in the Tampa Bay Rays home stadium.

Berkeley Prep’s Nelson Agholor, Lakewood’s Dante Fowler Jr. and Southeast’s Brian Poole were the honorees of Bowers handed the jerseys to the three future college football stars.

But of the three it seemed Bowers already had a bond with Fowler. Like Bowers, Fowler, who has verbally committed to Florida State, is a defensive end.

He sees a lot of himself in Bowers and the two seemed to have struck up a friendship.

“I feel like at one time, he was in the same shoes as I am in now,” Fowler said of the Bucs rookie.

Fowler, a Bucs fan, knows all about how Bowers had a knee injury during his playing days at Clemson that not only hurt his draft stock, but some believed he wouldn’t play football again.

The fact Bowers is now starting in the NFL motivates Fowler.

“I look at it as confidence,” Fowler said of Bowers’ battle. “If he can do it, I can as well. It means a lot. To go through the hard road, you can’t let things get to you. You do what you have to do and be the best you can be. Keep fighting. That’s what he has done.”

“This definitely brings back memories,” Bowers said. “This game lets you do something that you love one last time at the high school level. From then on, you’re going to be representing your family, your high school, your town and most of all, yourself. The name on the back and the logo on the side of the helmet is always going to be your identity, and I think these guys are going to do a good job at the next level.

“The game has helped me bond with guys I am grateful to have met and developed friendships that will last beyond a lifetime, guys I met like A.J. Green and Julio Jones, who is a freak of nature trying to track him down. That will happen for Dante and the rest of those guys too.”

But Bowers seemed almost sheepish talking about himself, instead wanting the three high school players to enjoy their day under the klieg lights of TV.

“It’s not easy to be a student-athlete,” Bowlers said. “To be one of 90 to be named All American, that’s unbelievable. I’m happy to help these guys get some publicity. Being a student-athlete is not easy.”

Some information provided by Intersport.

Last night Joe got tipped with a link from former Bucs beat writer Wolf Heard, who once penned articles for PewterReport.com and is now writing for Buccaneers101.com, of Josh Freeman injuring the thumb of his right hand at a fully licensed local gun range, under a tightly controlled atmosphere.

This issue was also discussed earlier today on the dean of Tampa Bay sports radio, “The Big Dog,” Steve Duemig’s show on WDAE-AM 620.

Joe began working his sources and here is what he knows from friends at One Buc Palace:

Freeman did injure his thumb at a gun range, but it was eight days after originally injuring his thumb against the Bears in London.

The injury at the gun range was a minor cut that required five cosmetic stitches. Freeman did not lose any practice time (short of not taking snaps in Wildcat formations — which he doesn’t participate in any way) and did not miss any playing time as a result of the cut.

Freeman’s cut did not aggravate his already sprained thumb, which the Bucs insist was so minor that despite wearing a thumb bandage on the flight home from London, he was able to carry his own carry-on bag with his right hand and was shaking hands with well-wishers.

Since the mishap resulting in a cut, Freeman had a sit down with Bucs rock star general manager Mark Dominik who cautioned Freeman about activities that may harm his livelihood, i.e. his throwing hand.

Now Joe knows people will get bent out of shape using this information in some anti-Second Amendment crusade. The mishap happened at a fully licensed, fully controlled, safe, legal environment.

In Joe’s eyes, this is no different than if Freeman cut himself fishing or broke a thumb blocking someone’s shot playing a pickup game of hoops.

The thumb, Joe has learned, is fully healed and the way Freeman has been throwing the ball the past two games, the best he has tossed the ball all season perhaps, that may be all the evidence one needs as to the healing process.

As Joe wrote immediately following the Bucs’ loss in Tennessee, the Bucs’ secondary played a standout game Sunday.

Head of the class, per Raheem Morris, was Aqib Talib, so the head coach said on The Raheem Morris Show last night on WDAE-AM 620.

“I said Aqib Talib played his best game last week versus the Packers. He one-upped it this week,” Raheem said. “He came out this week and really played fine football. He caused a fumble, forced a fumble, got it back. He caught an interception. He scored. I believe he had five or so tackles, two knockdown passes. He’s playing lights-out right now.”

Raheem went on to note that Talib was covering Nate Washington, the Titans’ top receiver, who was held to one catch for 12 yards. In Green Bay, Talib clamped down on Greg Jennings.

On Talib’s strip of Chris Johnson, Raheem said, “I thought I was looking at Charles Woodson” and praised Talib for his “form-fit” hit “like a safety” to cause the fumble.

Joe’s happy to see Talib playing well, and Joe has to believe that Talib is finally healthy from a knee injury that slowed him earlier in the season. It was after the debacle in San Francicsco that Raheem said of Talib, “I don’t know how he played, but he did for his team.”

This final stretch of the season is huge for Talib. He’s got to stay healthy. Late-season injuries have knocked him out the last two years. It still pains Joe to remember cornerback Derrick Roberson replacing Talib in Atlanta back in 2009 and make a key penalty for Atlanta’s winning score.

If Talib can finish this season playing like he is now, then it’s fair to say he’s finally reached his potential. Next up for Talib is Steve Smith, who already has over 1,000 yards this season.

Bucs pre- and post-game radio host Ryan Nece is not the lone ex-Bucs player to suggest the Bucs defensively are an undisciplined lot. So too does Steve White.

The former Bucs defensive end breaks down each Bucs game as if he were a coach (and he was a coach, once serving time as a South Florida assistant).

The results aren’t as bad as one may guess on face value, as White Twittered this morning.

sgw94: On 13 plays where a D lineman was out of his gap AND the Titans backs decided to run through that gap they gained over 130 yds by my count

Damn, that’s damning. So it stands to reason that if the Bucs’ front line did what they were supposed to do, the Titans would have been neutered on the ground?

Seems like someone needs to bring the hammer down on some players.

Veteran Tampa Tribune scribe Martin Fennelly brings his brand of sarcasm to analyzing the Bucs’ latest loss in this TBO.com video.