Wednesday afternoon, live from London, Bucs coach Raheem Morris made his weekly appearance on “The Blitz,” heard exclusively on SiriusXM NFL Radio co-hosted by popular sports radio personality Adam Schein and former Super Bowl quarterback Rich Gannon. Naturally, Joe transcribed the interview for his readers. What, you would expect less?

Adam Schein: Here he is, the head coach of our Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the great Raheem Morris. How are you coach?

Raheem Morris: I’m doing great. I’m not sure about being “the great Raheem Morris,” but I will take it.

Rich Gannon: On the trip to London, I know that is not easy to do. The last time you went much lighter. This time you are packing heavy for the week. Why change?

Morris: I wanted to get my guys acclimated to London, get them some rest. I don’t want them to get caught up in the schedule. Today is the first practice we’ve had on the pitch. They had a great time out there. We wanted to take them out of their comfort zone and get the team to deal with changes.

Schein: You like this concept?

Morris: I really do. It’s good for our team. It gives me a nice trial run to do this at some point in the future. It’s the best feeling in the world. It gives us the training camp feeling right before our bye week. It’s good for the team. It’s good to have them in a school environment. When they get to Wembley [Stadium], they’ll get to be like gladiators.

Gannon: Being in London, the fans, they get really excited about the extra points and the field goals, they love it – I’m not kidding.

Morris: You are right. They get fired up over the kicking game. That’s part of their game; their football.

Schein: Raheem, what you said is great. It’s a Super Bowl-like atmosphere, there is team-bonding. I get that. I think though, you lose a home game and that is unfortunate. Is there a downside to playing in London?

Morris: Yeah, our fans lose a home game but they are able to see us on TV. But anytime you get a chance to promote the NFL, it is good in that it is bigger than us. If I am allowed to promote and grow the game, it’s great.

Gannon: Coach, how important was it to get back on track after the San Francisco game, the way you did it, no LeGarrette Blount, no Gerald McCoy? You had to do it with Earnest Graham.

Morris: It’s the next man up mentality. The guys that filled in, Earnest Graham, Frank Okam, Da’Quan Bowers, they played hard and they played bad and they played smart and consistent. I liked it.

Schein: Raheem, I thought your team rallied against the Saints, I thought they persevered. How about Josh Freeman? He did an excellent job all four quarters. He was on point; he was dynamic. It was his best performance of the season.

Morris: It’s funny that he is still 23 and is still getting better. He will continue to get better. He learned from each experience. He puts in the work and puts in the effort and I’m loving how he is getting better and better. I hope it’s not his best game.

Gannon: You never want to see a coach get hurt. Your guy Jimmy Lake got hurt and then in the same game Sean Payton got hurt. It was ugly.

Morris: You don’t ever want to see a coach get hurt but Jimmy Lake is toughing it out over here.

Schein: How were you able to get Drew Brees to turn it over time after time? I thought that was excellent. Your defense was clutch.

Morris: Stats are for losers. You know he will throw for 300 or maybe 400 yards. But you have to cash in your opportunities to get turnovers and that’s what we did, every time. We had a good game against Brees. It was turnovers. Opportunity and technique met.

Gannon: Looking at the Bears, they are physical, like your team. But they are torn on offense. Mike Martz wants to put the ball in Jay Cutler’s hands. Lovie wants the ball in Matt Forte’s hands.

Morris: You can stop right there. Forte is doing everything for them. He’s a tough player. Mike has a great background, you know, Greatest Show on Turf? Mike is able to transform an offense but sometimes they have Forte take over the game. In some situations we don’t know what they will do. They can be hot.

Schein: Raheem, tell me, be honest, you are not going to kick to Devin Hester.

Morris: You never want to do that. We did a good job of keeping the ball away from Darren Sproles. But Hester, he is dynamic, he is hot and he is ready to roll.

Gannon: Your buddy, Rod Marinelli, he’s doing a good job. Why are they so tough to run against?

Morris: It’s their mentality, it’s their core belief. They will use a seven-man box to stop the run. If they do, it’s a long day. It’s their core belief, not so much technique.

Schein: Raheem, did you see any improvement with your wide receivers?

Morris: I did, I challenged them. Whenever they caught the ball they let me know about it and they fed off the energy. They have to play with emotion.

Gannon: Coach, talk about logistics and playing this game so far away from home and setting up shop. This has to be difficult.

Morris: No doubt it’s difficult but my staff has done a great job. They set this up completely. Our offices are here. They have formed a training camp-like atmosphere.

Schein: Will we have a team in London or a Super Bowl in London?

Morris: I don’t know but I hope so because if that is the case, that means the league is growing and there are more jobs. I am always looking for growth of the game and the NFL.

Gannon: Have you seen the sights?

Morris: Not yet. We have been grinding away. Maybe later in the week I will get out and eat and do some touring. You guys are my motivation. I love talking to you.

Always entertaining and high-energy, Warren Sapp took to the local airwaves to talk all things NFL today.

Speaking on The Ron and Ian Show on WDAE-AM 620, Sapp explained that he doesn’t watch pretty quarterbacks drop back to pass when he watches football games, he watches the “trench warfare.” And Sapp is excited by what he sees from Bucs defensive linemen.

Mostly, he said, because the line’s success has been a total-unit effort, inluding the guys rotating in. Sapp gushed over No. 71 (Michael Bennett’s name escaped him) and he had praise for Brian Price and Adrian Clayborn. 

“I told you the kid from Iowa’s a nightmare. … I told you the kid could go,” Sapp said of Clayborn. 

Sapp liked what the beating from San Francisco did for the Bucs, saying it “refocuses a young ball club on the task at hand.”

“I love  this team. They’re so young and mindless that they don’t know what it was in San Francisco,” Sapp said. ‘Ok. It’s something we needed to learned. We learned it.  Now let’s go on.’

“I think that’s the best thing about them. They’re not going to drag anything with them. They’re ready for the next challenge. They’re ready to see that next opponent.”

Pressed to make season predictions, Sapp said the Bucs will make the playoffs and the Steelers won’t.

Nothing like the bonding of Bucs cheerleaders, scared out of their… well, you decide. Joe just suggests you clicking on the mute button unless you enjoy hearing women scream virtually non-stop.

It seems the Bucs will have a massive matchup issue to correct when the Bucs host the Bears in London Sunday, and it has nothing to do with Adrian Clayborn’s choice of British gruel.

Of course the Bears have Matt Forte, whose forte is running the damn ball very well. But where Forte runs the ball is the matter of concern brought up by ESPN’s Pat Yasinskas.

Chicago running back Matt Forte has been particularly effective when running to the right side (the left side of the defensive line). Forte has gained 291 yards when running to his right, according to ESPN Stats & Information. That’s the highest total in the NFL and Forte is 77 yards ahead of the next person in that category.

Couple that with the fact that Tampa Bay’s defense is allowing a league-high 8.2 yards per carry on runs to the left side of its defensive line and the Bucs could have a big problem.

Eight yards a carry? Just who is running the Bucs defense, Jim Bates? Eight yards a carry is hideous and is simply unacceptable for an NFL defense.

Good grief, if teams are rushing for that amount of yardage on the left side, Joe would be inclined to move Mason Foster out there.

Kip Lewis and John Mullen discuss the current status of the Bears and how they are viewing the London game against the Bucs in this CSNChicago video.

Watching the latest Sky Sports video on the Buccaneers, it seems the English network is a bit obsessed with the sheer mass of the NFL player.

Filmed during a tour of One Buc Palace, rockstar general manager Mark Dominik is asked by a cameraman to identify the strongest Buccaneer.

“Pound for pound, the strongest Buccaneer? I’d say Brian Price,” Dominik said. “I heard from our weight room coach he came in here and bench pressed 225 pounds over 50 times. It’s incredble.”

The film crew then added reaction from Price.

“I can bench press close to 500 pounds. As a lineman you can pretty much eat anything, but me, right now I’m on like a fish diet. Eat fish, a lot of vegetables, a lot of green stuff,” Price said.   

What can one say about Price. More than 50 reps on the bench at 225? Price is only 22. He’ll get stronger. If he can play through the season, Joe can’t imagine a better candidate for comeback player of the year. Maybe he’ll even hit Peter King’s radar one of these days.

The Bucs didn’t seem to miss a beat without Gerald McCoy and his injured ankle against the Saints. The defensive line was stout against the run and at least Drew Brees had a little heat on him at times.

But McCoy has returned to the practice field today in London, so reports esteemed beat writer Woody Cummings of The Tampa Tribune via Twitter. But some of McCoy’s teammates aren’t as healthy.

@TBO_Buccaneers: Missing practice for the Bucs today: C Jeff Faine (biceps pull), DE Michael Bennett and RB LeGarrette Blount (knee)

Joe’s not surprised about Blount or Faine. Hopefully whatever ails Bennett is nothing serious. The Bears have allowed 19 sacks, third most in the NFL. It would be shame to be without Bennett on Sunday.

Update: 12:30 p.m. – Per Raheem Morris at his news conference, Bennett is battling a lingering groin issue. Also, Mason Foster skipped practice with a minor problem with his other ankle (as in other than the one that was hurt last week). Sammie Stroughter was back on the field, as well.

A main reason the Bucs offense was solid last year and a key element in Josh Freeman becoming a top-flight NFL quarterback was the play of wide receiver Mike Williams.

The way the rookie out of Syracuse played, it appeared Williams was about to be a superstar.

That hasn’t happened this year as Williams numbers have been sluggish. This, in turn has led to Freeman struggling as well. Even Williams last week described his play as “terrible.”

Joe’s good friend, “The Commish,” Justin Pawlowski of WDAE-AM 620, who no longer has a sometimes Saturday show but has a regular every-Saturday show heard now through the fog of hungover Saturday mornings, wonders aloud on his blog if Williams is indeed regressing.

Williams has just 25 receptions for just under 250 yards and 1 touchdown this season. When you compare those numbers to the first 6 games he ever played in the NFL last season, when he tallied 28 receptions for 365 yards and 3 touchdowns, you do become concerned about a regression. The good news is with as good a year as Williams had last season, he only had more than 100 yards receiving in a game once. He’s just a couple big games off his pace from last season, so maybe it isn’t panic time yet on Williams.

Joe has heard in some circles that the asinine lockout and the lack of OTAs has hurt Williams in his ability to pick up different coverages that he is seeing. This makes sense. Defensive coordinators had little to do during the asinine lockout other than to watch tape. Surely they developed exotic coverages to try to take Williams out of his game, and thus far it has worked.

If lack of OTAs is the reason for Williams’ struggles, the longer the season goes, the better Williams should get. And he did show signs of breaking out in the win over the Saints.

While some fans are giddy about the Bucs playing a” home” game in London on Sunday, therefore avoiding a local TV blackout, others are bitter at the loss of the treasured home game experience. And there are plenty of businesses around Tampa that are hurt by the lost game.

Fans have heard various reasons from Bucs officials why playing in London is a great idea for the team, but one reason wasn’t among the Bucs’ public position. That would be that it’s a good deal financially.

Tampa Tribune beat writer eye-RAH! Kaufman brought that to light today. Kaufman talked to Roger Goodell, who told Kaufman the NFL makes it attractive to take a home game to England. 

Goodell acknowledged the league offers “financial incentives” for clubs willing to switch a home game overseas.

Now maybe the Bucs really don’t care about the “financial incentives” related to a home game in England. Heck, Mark Dominik told Sky Sports yesterday that the London experience is excellent Super Bowl preparation and the Bucs jumped at the chance.

“I think Wembley absolutely epitomises all of those things that you want to get ready for when you go play a Super Bowl,” he said.

“When the opportunity came up that we could go back to Wembley we quickly grabbed it and said yes.

But Joe’s not naive. The NFL is all about money. The league is only in England to make more money, and it’s a safe bet to assume the Bucs are there for the same reason.

The fact the Bucs are playing a second home game in three years in London was enough to make a Bucs fan throw up.

Seems that may have happened to Bucs rookie Adrian Clayborn.

Just six days before the Bucs play the Bears before a collection of mainly curious sightseers, Clayborn decided to rub elbows with the blokes (that’s British slang for kickball-loving pukes) at a pub (that’s British slang for a tavern or a bar) to have some fish and chips (that’s British slang for some nasty cod and greasy fries).

Per Woody Cummings of the Tampa Tribune, Clayborn’s reaction to this gruel was about what Joe’s reaction was the last time he tried to eat Indian food (that’s not American slang not for maize) and his eczema flared up so bad he had to go to his dermatologist to get steroid shots.

Clayborn partook of some traditional fish and chips shortly after arriving here with the Bucs late Monday. All his dip into one of England’s most famous dishes did, though, was ruin his evening.

“It didn’t sit well with me at all,” Clayborn said Tuesday after suffering through a restless Monday night. “It messed up my stomach bad. It won’t keep me from playing, though.”

Well, thank the man upstairs for that. Imagine being forced to play a home game overseas and possibly losing your best defensive lineman because he decided to sample what the locals call food and had to puke his guts out so bad he couldn’t play? And for what? To be a glorified circus show for the hooligans?

Since Clayborn is from St. Louis, Joe suggests someone fly him a crate of belly bombers (White Castle) to settle his stomach down.

Good thing Clayborn didn’t try this p!ss warm beer they sell over there. Ugh!

As the great Norman Chad wrote detailing the history of sports television in his book “Hold on Honey, I’ll Bring You to the Hospital at Halftime:”

1773: Angry colonists disguised as Indians board three ships and throw tea into Boston Harbor, partly to protest the British tea tax and partly to protest bad British cooking. The colonists are helped by some questionable calls from Boston officials.

We Americans love our football and hate for it to be used as some international pawn while trying to eat British cooking. The two are not a good mix, as Clayborn can sadly attest to.

Leave our football alone!

A certain polarizing TV news talking head certainly would call this “the most ridiculous item of the day.”

The geniuses over BSPN.com, guys like “The Professor,” John Clayton, and company, have scrutinized all things NFL and determined that the Bucs (4-2) are the 12th best team in the league and the Saints (4-2) are No. 5 overall.

Enough said. You can read all the weekly BSPN Power Ratings here.

Florida State Senator Mike Fasano, a man who routinely litters the Bay area with unlawfully placed political signs during election season, says he wants to invest time finding a way for government to force all Bucs home games to be televised.

Fasano says taxpayers funded the stadium, therefore the blackout rule shouldn’t exist locally. Joe can’t stand this kind of ridiculous political grandstanding.

The local FOX affiliate put together a report. You can watch it below.