Joe hates to quash the dreams of the Mike Glennon Mob, but here’s a bunch of reasons why the New Schiano Order won’t turn to the rookie anytime soon.

1) Playoffs: Joe and many fans might think the Bucs’ playoff hopes are gone. However, the coaching staff absolutely can’t think that way, definitely not at 0-3. That’s a great way to get fired. Right now, the Bucs can still get back into the mix with two consecutive home wins against teams with losing records. Josh Freeman plays great against teams with a losing record. 

2) Readiness: Glennon may not be ready. The guy didn’t exactly look great in the preseason. That’s no slight on Glennon. He’s got a very traditional skillset. And in a quarterback driven league, Glennon wouldn’t have lasted until the third round if he was considered NFL-ready.

3) Josh Freeman’s trade value: Freeman can be traded before Week 8. Before you laugh, you don’t know what injury might befall a starter in the league. Also, there still may be teams that consider up-and-down, 25-year-old Josh worthy of a shot, especially if he has another couple of “up” games in him. All it takes is one team. If Freeman were on the market in 2006, don’t you think Chucky would have made a move for him when Chris Simms went down? Once Freeman is out of the lineup, his trade value plummets.

4) Job Security: A permanent change at QB means Team Glazer gets involved in the decision-making process. Team Glazer might not react kindly to Greg Schiano telling them he just can’t win with Josh — in September. Team Glazer might harken back to when Freeman led the Bucs to a 14-8 stretch under Raheem Morris and wonder why Schiano can’t succeed with more talent.

5) Fan Outrage: Right now, Bucs fans are on the verge of insanity. A move to Glennon, and Glennon struggling, could have boos hurled at him by his first halftime. The fan base is that much on edge. Joe suspects the reaction to Glennon would be far more peaceful in, say, early November.

6) Mutiny: Only Bucs players collectively know how much they may or may not respect Freeman. And it’s unknown how much confidence Schiano has openly expressed in Freeman to his team. Yanking Freeman too soon, in the minds of the players, might not go over well. Players ultimately need to perceive the change is fair and in the best interest of the club. Nobody can argue a move to Glennon when the team is officially eliminated from the playoffs.

Yes, you can point at Josh Freeman’s ugly, ugly numbers. You can stomp your feet about Vincent Jackson dropping passes. You can kvetch about Doug Martin not getting enough blocking.

That’s fine. That’s accurate. That’s OK. But Joe is starting to believe the problems run much deeper that what we see on Sunday afternoons.

And no, it’s not Bucs commander Greg Schiano. It is deeper than that.

NFL Network’s Albert Breer was flown down to Tampa on Friday, before a travel day no less, to find out what the hell was going on with all of these rumors and stories floated about the Bucs in recent days. Because he works for Big Brother, Breer got access that few others get and unearthed the reason the Bucs had a players-only meeting before the season started.

The reason, according to Breer, was that Schiano, the Bucs felt, was working them too hard.

Players had been upset about the nature of Schiano’s second training camp with the Bucs, which some viewed as unrelenting, and that prompted Goldson to solicit feedback.

Even after that, some players didn’t feel like enough changed, with one saying that, “He came into the team meeting, said you guys gotta trust me, we’re in half-pads that day, then the next day, it’s back to the same thing.”

Right there is your reason for the Bucs’ problems. It springs to mind a phrase Matt Millen coined for a long-ago forgotten player. In Millen’s words, the player was “a devout coward.” Joe nearly hit the floor when he read Breer’s passage. Buccaneers were being worked too hard in training camp? Joe hasn’t heard that good of a one-liner on Howard Stern’s show in a few weeks.

Just who exactly said this? It couldn’t have been a veteran. Four years ago, NFL players were undergoing two-a-days, which are now banned. Current practices are picnics compared to those.

And it wasn’t long ago that Don Shula was forcing players through three-a-days.

This just really annoys Joe to no end. Here’s the thing: A team earns the right to easier practices by winning. The Bucs have not earned that right since 2010, and even then they may have taken way too many liberties as the team collapsed.

If Bucs fans want to know the problem with the Bucs, then right there it is. Of course, the Bucs have put a happy face on this, saying all is good within the team’s walls. Joe isn’t buying that. This team apparently has too many malcontents and clubhouse lawyers on the roster to whine about practices being too hard.

You want to know why Schiano had a team photo taken at 7 a.m. on Labor Day? To weed out malingerers.

Joe remembers a line from famous JoeBucsFan.com commenter Thomas 2.2 when players balked at the New Schiano Order during the regime’s first minicamp. “They haven’t worked the Rah out of them yet.”

That line still resonates today.

Props to guys like Dashon Goldson and Darrelle Revis for being team leaders and trying to keep order within what appears to be, nearly two years after Morris was ousted, still a dysfunctional unit.

Benching Freeman: Joe thought it was very telling when good-guy Earnest Graham, a former teammate of Bucs franchise quarterback Josh Freeman when the Bucs were last winners, wondered aloud on Twitter yesterday how much longer Greg Schiano would insert Freeman into the starting lineup?

Joe thinks it will be until the rest of the season.

At this point, barring a major turnaround that Joe simply does not envision, Freeman will not be part of the Bucs next season. Try to come up with a quarterback who, in his first five years as a starter, was playoff-less? The list is unimpressive and small. Vinny Testeverde, and the immortal Bill Kenney of the Chiefs in the early 1980s (who also once threw for 4,000 yards in a season), come to mind.

If Freeman returns to the Bucs next season, it will be his fifth season as the team’s opening-day starter. Joe would be shocked if he was brought back, again, barring a major and unforeseen turnaround.

Magic pill: Greg Schiano says there is no magic pill to revive the Bucs. Joe thinks there is, and it is not magic.

How about catching passes? How about making field goals? How about not making stupid penalties (which were cut down this week)? How about blocking?

Nothing magic about those, but they would go a long way to helping the offense, you know, score points?

Family emergency: For a possessed, driven guy like Greg Schiano to take any time off in the middle of a season, with the season if not his job in crisis, there has to be something major going on. Joe just hopes everything turns out OK. No matter what you think of Schiano as a coach, he’s a helluva good guy. Believe it or not, there are some things more important than football.

Sticking together: Schiano expects his team to remain tightknit. Of course he is going to say that. You would expect him to say his team is at each other’s throats? Just the actions of his players a few weeks ago suggest otherwise.

Winning cures all ills. Winning is the best deodorant. Start winning games and the bickering will subside.

Depth, or lack thereof: Joe makes no secret he likes Bucs rock star general manager Mark Dominik. Is Dominik perfect? No, but neither is Bill Belicheat. Somewhere last summer, either Dominik or Schiano or their underlings, or all of them, made some major, major gaffes on player evaluation and those mistakes reared their ugly head yesterday. Though the Bucs have high hopes for Tom Crabtree at tight end, guessing he can handle the rigors of being a full-time starter was just that. Guessing. Given that information, it was borderline inexcusable to rely on Luke Stocker as the backup tight end.

Now the Bucs are playing with a glorified wide receivers trying to play tight end (from Rutgers, no less), Tim Wright (who dropped a touchdown pass). That shouldn’t and didn’t need to be.

Then there are the wide receivers. The Bucs couldn’t have landed someone other than Kevin Ogletree as a potential No. 3 receiver?

These areas have been a major mistake in scouting and evaluation. While it could have been Schiano or Shelton Quarles or Dennis Hickey or all of the aforementioned, at the end of the day, those errors in judgment fall in the lap of Dominik.

Again, Joe likes the job Dominik has done overall. But there is no denying the Bucs could have used better talent and more depth at tight end and wide receiver. To suggest otherwise is simply being dishonest.

So much for Schiano hating Freeman: Yeah, since the combine, pretty much all fans have heard — through notorious unnamed sources — was that Greg Schiano so loathed Josh Freeman, that he was doing all he could possible to Pearl Harbor his career.

Funny thing happened yesterday. With every opportunity to pull the plug on Freeman, who was struggling, and with the game decided early in the fourth quarter, Schiano stuck with Freeman.

Schiano easily could have put Mike Glennon in the game to get some valuable snaps, but Schiano claims that move never crossed his mind.

Does that sound like a guy who wants to run Freeman out of town on the next bus?

Hey, CBSSports.com, about those “multiple” unnamed sources…

The maturing of Mark Barron: Yesterday was the first time Bucs safety Mark Barron played like the position he was drafted. The second-year man from Alabama was all over the field, putting Tom Brady on the ground, picking him off in the end zone, breaking up passes. Wow. It was easily the best game Barron has had in his short NFL career.

If there was something to build on yesterday, it was the play of Barron.

Cellar Dwellers: In case you don’t know by now, the Bucs are the sole owners of last place in the NFC South.

Too bad the NFL nixed the Bucs on wearing throwback creamsicles Sunday against the Desert Rats. It would have been so fitting.

Worse than Rah: This may be the worst season the Bucs have had in many, many years. Culverhouse awful. Even when the Bucs completely imploded in 2011, they started the season 4-2 and people were actually talking playoffs.

No one can tell Joe this year’s roster is not significantly better than in 2011 (remember the immortal Great Lumpkin?).

This also reinforces Joe’s notion that there is poison in the Bucs locker room (see first few paragraphs).

Hey, at least when Raheem Morris went 0-3 in 2009, he had an excuse. He had broken down Byron Leftwich as his quarterback.

Virus: Former Bucs tight end and current NBC and Buccaneers Radio Network analyst Anthony Becht said this losing streak is like a virus. And it can continue to spread.

Joe is going to guess in the coming weeks, Schiano will easily find out who is with him and who isn’t. If Schiano is back next year (Joe expects him to be as of today), then it will be very interesting to see what players do not return.

Josh Freeman’s ugly numbers: In case you forgot, Josh Freeman is now a depressing 6-17 when facing teams with a winning record for his career and an embarrassing 4-13 in his last 17 road games.

Help Joe out. When was the last time a team re-upped a quarterback in his contract year with those kind of numbers?

Around the NFL…

Kansas City: The Chiefs are for real. How about that clock-eating drive engineered by Alex Smith for a touchdown that effectively put the game out of reach last Thursday?

If only Smith had been available a year later.

(Oh, still mad that Vince Lombardi Chip Kelly didn’t come to the Bucs?)

Baltimore: The Crows blew out Houston yesterday in a matchup of two playoff teams from 2012. And people mock Joe Flacco, one of the most clutch quarterbacks there is.

Carolina: The Stinking Panthers blew out the Giants yesterday. If they can do this to the Giants, they can do this to the Bucs. A Mike Shula offense no less.

Wow, what has happened to the Giants? They are in the same pickle as the Bucs. Winless. That is one of the early surprises of the 2013 season.

Cincinnati: Joe has this game DVR’ed and will watch it tonight (Joe’s not wasting his time watching the pitiful Raiders play anyone). People like to mock Andy Dalton’s win-loss record against teams with a winning record (the percentage is a little better than Josh Freeman’s). But who would you take, a guy who has guided his team to the playoffs in each of his two seasons in the NFL, or a guy who has yet to accomplish such a feat in four years as a starter?

Dallass: This is why Joe doesn’t gamble. He would have dropped cash on the Lambs based on how awful Jerry Jones’ teams have been in recent years against the spread at home, and how good Jeff Fisher’s teams are against the spread.

The Cowgirls proceeded to hit the Lambs in the jaw with a horseshoe. The St. Louis crowd — included the normally sedate media — is already trying to run Brian Schottenheimer out of town, with a warm case of Budweiser as a parting gift.

Cleveland: So just after the Brownies decided to blow up their team in the quest for Teddy Bridewater, they go ahead and beat a playoff team on the road, with the immortal Brian Hoyer at quarterback. This is not the way to get your franchise quarterback locked up, Clevelandites.

New Orleans: Yeah, the Saints didn’t miss Sean Payton last year, huh. Right now they lead the NFC South, and Drew Brees isn’t having a Drew Brees kind of year, either. Scary.

Tennessee: The Titans aren’t likely going anywhere, but it will be interesting to see what happens in San Diego. How much longer before the Chargers decided they may want to blow up their team and make a run for, say, Johnny Football? Which may mean Philip Rivers could be on the trading block come February (or sooner).

Detroit: Joe isn’t sure how much the Lions should get props, beating the now hapless Redskins without Reggie Bush. Pretty solid day by Matt Stafford tossing for 386 yards.

Miami: The Dolphins are starting to look like a fun team to watch. They are 3-0 for the first time in 11 years, behind their young franchise quarterback Ryan Tannehill, who seems to be developing quite nicely.

New York Jets: It appears the Jets are a pretty damned good team. They are hanging in games, even with a rookie quarterback, and more often than not, finding a way to get the job done. Damn, that Lavonte David late hit still rankles Joe.

Seattle: Sure, the Seahawks are good. But Joe doesn’t put much stock into beating the Jags, who are basically a middling ACC team. Hope Teddy Bridgewater likes Northeast Florida/Southeast Georgia.

Indianapolis: Damn, the Colts lose their offensive coordinator from last year and their second-year quarterback is still playing damned good ball. Colts just may be a sleeper team to come out of the AFC the way they punked San Francisco in their own crib.

Chicago: Who says a first-year coach can’t win big? The Bears may be one of the best teams in the early weeks of the 2013 season. What a defense. And that offense has even calmed down bratty Jay Cutler.

Since the Steelers are an unheard of 0-3, you don’t think the penny-pinching Rooney family may want to trade… nah!

Non-NFL thoughts:

1. Joe can’t remember the last time there was such a dreadful slate of college football games for a weekend? Though some games turned out to be close (Georgia and Michigan for example), if Joe wasn’t such a college footballholic, he never would have watched.

2. LSU looks to be a runaway train. Alabama showed that they are vulnerable defensively (at least facing Johnny Football) and LSU is a different cat defensively that Texas A&M. If LSU freight-trains Georgia like Joe expects this weekend, Joe cannot wait for the Alabama-LSU game in November.

3. What the hell is going on with Michigan? First they damned near coughed up a game to Akron — Akron! Then, they had to fight for their lives to beat UConn, truly a miserable team.

Has the Big Ten sunk this low that mighty Michigan has to bust their balls to beat two glorified Division I-AA teams?

4. Clemson once again impressed. Yeah, beating North Carolina State on the road on a Thursday night game is tougher than one thinks (ask Florida State). The fact Clemson pulled away impressed Joe. The Tigers have but two more tests left before they can argue for a BCS title shot: hosting Florida State next month and then traveling to South Carolina in December.

5. Watch out for UCLA. Joe has a hunch that is going to be a dangerous team.

6. This Bo Pelini nonsense in Nebraska. First, the guy is doing an awful job for being a defensive guru. Second, Joe found it all too interesting so many people waved off the unearthed recording (after a win over Ohio State) where he completely freaks out about Cornhuskers fans and two local columnists, dropping F-bombs right and left. So many people dismissed it as saying he was just venting. Well, if instead of dropping F-bombs about fans and writers he was dropping racial or sexual orientation bombs, would these same sophists still be so dismissive of Pelini? Joe thinks not.

7. So Urbie Meyer was up 50 on FAMU and was still going for it on fourth downs? What a charming citizen for the youth of our nation to look up to.

8. So the Rays are clinging to their wild card lead by a nose hair and have to travel to the Yankees and Blue Jays this week to close the season? Yikes.

9. Damnit, you Cardinals. Of all the times to have your closer getting lit up on a nightly basis it’s the end of September ,when you are trying to stave off two contenders to win the division. Good thing that team is loaded with young arms.

10. Why is it that Junebugs are a scourge of Hernando County, and it’s September?

It is only a few hours after the Bucs’ ugly loss at New England. Ugly if one is to believe the Bucs were somehow New England’s equal.

In the final moments of watching Bucs franchise quarterback Josh Freeman huff puff and struggle to get a first down in the first half, much less a touchdown, one of his former teammates all but suggested it’s time for the Bucs to turn the page on their starting quarterback.

And that would be all-around good guy Earnest Graham. The former Bucs all-everything kind of running back felt the frustration of many Bucs fans and Twittered the end is near for the Josh Freeman Era in Tampa Bay.

@EarnestGraham: Josh surely has been a good player at times, and still can be but I don’t know how he starts after bye week, just knowing how this biz is.

Graham clarified his statements to say he likes Freeman but the NFL is a win-now league and Freeman’s win-loss record clearly shows a quarterback who is circling the drain.

It doesn’t do much for a quarterback’s job security when he is 4-13 in his last 17 road starts, which is embarrassing, and is currently the worst quarterback in the league in completion percentage.

Joe, however, is convinced that Freeman won’t be benched. The season is over as far as playoffs. That’s done. Period. It’s all about the draft position and people’s jobs right now. Schiano certainly must be feeling the heat, at least a little; he is not a naive man.

Today, with the Bucs clearly out of the game, Schiano chose to stick with Freeman even though he could have gotten Mike Glennon valuable snaps. Schiano later said replacing Freeman never crossed his mind.

That tells Joe Schiano will ride Freeman to the bitter end of the 2013 season.

Seemingly not referring to the Adderrall-popping ways of Aqib Talib, who today shut down Vincent Jackson and picked off Josh Freeman, the leader of the New Schiano Order talked after the game about how “there’s no magic pill” when it comes to fixing the Bucs.

Greg Schiano took responsibility for the loss. Hear the full Schiano postgame news conference below, courtesy of the Buccaneers Radio Network and WDAE-AM 620.

Bad news comes via BSPN NFL writer Adam Schefter.

Moments ago, Schefter Twittered that Bucs coach Greg Schiano stayed in New England because of a “family medical emergency” and is not traveling home with the team.

First, Joe’s well wishes go out to the Schiano family. Joe assumes this was a close relative in order to keep Schiano away from work.

NFL coaches don’t waste hours and typically break down film together for countless hours immediately following every game. So Schiano’s absence is significant; the New Schiano Order will evaluate the loss to the Pats without their leader. … Joe will bring you more news as it develops.

Before today’s game on the Buccaneers Radio Network, rockstar general manager Mark Dominik said he kept a watchful eye on the Bucs while media sharks are circling and Dominik said the “locker room” is “a good tight group.”

Commander Greg Schiano, after the heinous loss to the Patriots, said he knows his team can and will block out the media noise as they work to bust out from an 0-3 record.

“I have great confidence this team will stick together,” Schiano said.

Joe’s got a watchful eye on what the Bucs look like on the field.

What was the best run defense in the NFL was gashed late in the game by LeGarrette Blount and Brandan Bolden. For Joe, that was a red flag, it was as if the Bucs lost their will. Just like Schiano, Joe will have to go to the tape.

To paraphrase popular sports radio and television personality Adam Schein, if Luke Stocker is the answer, Joe would like to know the question.

Bucs coach Greg Schiano loves competition. So much so it has gotten him into trouble in the public eye over Josh Freeman, when Schiano said he wanted competition at all positions.

Schiano is still trying to backtrack from that statement nearly a year later.

Even for a coach who craves competition, there isn’t depth at receiver or tight end. As Joe pointed out earlier, this falls squarely on the front office. And it cost the Bucs dearly today.

Yes, Joe knows there were high hopes for Tom Crabtree (18 career receptions) at tight end. He’s a vicious blocker who showed good hands in training camp and preseason. But he is hurt and it is unknown when he will return (Joe saw him in the locker room last week and he was limping).

Joe also understands that tight end is not a prime targeted position in Mike Sullivan’s offense, but does that mean you have to count on a backup like Luke Stocker? This guy has shown little to nothing in his NFL career, other than he can get hurt. Joe understands football is a nasty game, but you simply cannot help any team out if you are in street clothes.

It is baffling that the Bucs couldn’t find depth/competition better than Stocker, who is just a step above camp meat.

Same with wide receivers. So Kevin Ogletree was the big pick-up? Mr. Michael Clayton II? There weren’t other receivers out there to be had? The Patriots had rookie wide receivers today that shamed the Bucs starting receivers. Geez.

Today, that oversight or indifference to the depth of the passing game came back to haunt the Bucs big time, and likely will for the rest of the season.

Joe has heard this time and again about how Bucs coach Greg Schiano doesn’t like Josh Freeman.

Naturally, these rumors were hatched by out-of-town reporters with the proverbial “sources,” yet for some reason, these grizzled, veteran, sage scribes can’t get these sources on the record. Not one of them.

Joe always thought they were bulls(p)it but with all the drama around the Bucs recently, Joe was having second thoughts. Well, Bucs commander Greg Schiano all but put those rumors to rest today in the collective Bucs fart in Foxborough.

The offense, again, struggled, especially in the second half. The game got out of hand in the third quarter and in the fourth quarter, Schiano had ample opportunities to insert Mike Glennon onto the field to get a few regular season snaps under his belt.

Schiano stuck with Freeman, instead.

Albert Breer, of NFL Network, Twittered during the game how Glennon was warming up. But Schiano — again — dismissed any quarterback controversy when, per Tampa Bay Times Bucs beat writer Rick Stroud, Schiano stated that pulling Freeman for Glennon didn’t cross his mind, and that Freeman gives the Bucs the best chance to win.

Does that sound like a coach who wants to Pearl Harbor his starting quarterback and is looking for the first chance to bench him?

Joe has a hunch Schiano is going to use Freeman to the bitter end because now the focus of the team has gone from a playoff hunt, to people trying to save their own arses.

And Schiano isn’t going to walk the plank for a rookie third-round pick of a quarterback.

Mark Barron isn’t perfect, but you can see he’s evolving into the high-impact safety the Bucs craved when they drafted him with the seventh overall pick last year.

Yes, Joe is taking pause to find a happy thought out of today’s embarrassing loss to the Patriots.

Barron picked off Tom Brady in the end zone and was the Bucs’ best safety on the field. He led the Bucs with eight tackles — along with Lavonte David — and had half a sack.

This happy thought won’t help Joe sleep tonight, but it’s something.

To make matter worse today, especially for the optimists that still cling to a Buccaneers turnaround, the Carolina Panthers steamrolled the Giants 38-0 this afternoon. That puts the Bucs alone in last place in the NFC South.

Joe finds it hard to believe a Mike Shula offense could be so prolific, but that’s what transpired.

The Saints also won easily against the Cardinals, who head to the Stadium on Dale Mabry Highway next week.

As bad as the Cardinals looked, there is at least legitimate hope for the Bucs to rebound and head to the bye week at 1-3.

“At least when I started 0-3 I had broken down Byron Leftwich for a quarterback.”

Joe vividly remembers the 2011 season, the season that ultimately ended in a gruesome 10-game losing streak, costing Raheem Morris his job.

You know? Roughly a quarter into that season, the Bucs were talking playoffs. This season? It has started 0-3 and counting.

In 2011, the Bucs beat the New Orleans Saints in a close game at home to raise their record to 4-2… and would not win again. The team left for London — to friggin’ London! — to play the Bears and the Bucs lost their spirit, lost the game, and ultimately lost their season and coaching staff.

Right now the Bucs, one could argue, could start this season 0-7. Then what?

Surely, the Bucs will have a new quarterback next year, but here is the thing. If you look at this roster, the Bucs are better than they were in 2011. On paper. The Bucs have Doug Martin, Vincent Jackson, Dashon Goldson, Lavonte David, Darrelle Revis, etc. Yet the Bucs appear to be giving that 2011 season a run for futility. This could be one of the worst seasons in Bucs history, certainly since Father Dungy arrived in Tampa Bay.

Just know this: Team Glazer has never made a coaching change until a head coach had at least three years under his belt at the helm of the franchise.

As Derrick Brooks famously says, “It is what it is.”

To which Joe always asks, “What is it?”

The answer: A miserable team.

The Bucs are 0-3. The playoffs are a pipedream. The difference in the Bucs being a good team and what a good team is, the Patriots, was on full display today.

Joe knows he will hear countless times about dropped passes the Bucs had today. Yes, there were. The sad thing is, the Bucs just need a reason to crumble, and they do. It’s as if Joe can picture Bucs players sitting in front of their lockers, faces in towels, sobbing, “We had dropped passes.”

Well, so too did the Patriots. Know what? They corrected their mistakes. NFL analyst and member of the Buccaneeers Radio Network, Anthony Becht, called out the Bucs on this notion afternoon after the game.

“We should win that game. Well, you cannot say that anymore,” Becht said. “We don’t have the consistency. Those [Patriots receivers] rookies caught the ball. They made plays.

“We are not a very good team. We are not a playoff team. We do not deserve the playoffs the way we have played. It’s not warranted. Is the defense better? Yes. Is is top notch? No.

“If you don’t execute, you will not win, and you will not be a playoff team. This team is not executing. This team is talented. They should be making plays. They are not. They are not executing and this is why they are 0-3 and the rumors will keep swirling. This is what happens to losing football teams. It’s a virus.”

The Bucs are painfully thin at tight end, and today they relied on undrafted rookie tight end project Tim Wright from (all together now) Rutgers to catch his first NFL pass in the end zone at a key moment.

It was a well thrown ball from Freeman and it went through Wright’s hands. Tough Catch? Yes. But Joe’s more concerned by what the hell Wright is doing on the field to begin with? Sure, you can say Wright has to make plays just like the Patriots’ rookies did today, but the Bucs had — and still have — room under the salary cap for more help and competition at tight end. They passed on that. Who evaluated Wright as NFL-worthy? He showed nothing through preseason and training camp and through the first two weeks that Joe could notice.

On the Buccaneers Radio Network postgame show, former Bucs tight end Anthony Becht referred to Wright as “a guy that probably shouldn’t be out there.”

One can say the Bucs don’t emphasize the tight end position much, but still, Dallas Clark caught 47 balls and four touchdowns last season. That production has to be made up.

Joe also looks at Bucs No. 3 receiver Kevin Ogletree, a guy who has shown worse hands than Michael Clayton’s, and Joe wonders who the hell evaluated this guy to be worthy of his job. And he’s our third best receiver?

As for the offensive playcalling? It’s not working. It’s as if NFL defenses caught up to Mike Sullivan late last season and never looked back.

“What were the second-half adjustments?” Becht asked rhetorically.

Joe has to point a finger at rockstar general manager Mark Dominik and the coaching staff for a chunk of the troubles on offense. Yes, No. 5 hasn’t been good. But it hasn’t been pretty around him, either.

After today’s meltdown in New England, Joe just doesn’t know how much longer the Bucs can stick with a struggling quarterback like Josh Freeman. Joe is going to guess that Bucs commander Greg Schiano will ride him to the bitter end of the season.

For years, it has been excuses for Freeman. First he didn’t have enough toys. Now he has too many drops.

Then, there is the ever-popular “game-planning” crutch.

Joe has never, ever heard of a quarterback coddled by so many well-placed friends. It’s one thing for the team to spin for him. It’s another to hear each and every Monday how the Bucs offense is everyone’s fault but the guy who touches the ball on each and every play.

As Super Bowl-winning quarterback Phil Simms said earlier this week, the quarterback is the second-most important person on the team aside from the head coach. Thing is, you can have the most beautifully concocted gameplan and if the guy(s) on the field cannot execute it, it doesn’t matter.

Joe seemed to have noticed Patriots quarterback Tom Brady had some drops today, too. You didn’t see him roll up in a fetal position and suck his thumb while enablers patted him on the back and said, “You are playing good, Tom. Shame on those receivers for dropping your golden passes.”

The Freemanites are now, themselves, running out of excuses. At some point, when does the quarterback share responsiblity for an offense so impotent, Connie Chung would be offended?

Joe will leave you with these numbers: Josh Freeman is now a dreadful 6-17 against teams with a winning record for his career and an embarrassing 4-13 in road games dating back two full seasons.

This season of futility — does anyone with a sober mind really believe the Bucs are a playoff team this season? — now brings Freeman’s playoff-free career to four years. Few, if any, starting quarterbacks with losing numbers like Freeman’s get a fifth time at bat for a playoff push.

Like any Bucs fan, Team Glazer no doubt has concerns about the future.

Team Glazer is not prone to reactionary decisions. They just don’t do that.

However, Team Glazer is known for detailed analysis. And Joe can safely speculate that Team Glazer is squirming on their fancy couches right now.

What do they have in their beloved Bucs? Joe can answer that — a football team that’s getting progressively worse, a team that’s lost eight of nine games and keeps getting outcoached. The leader of that team is Greg Schiano.

Joe’s not calling for Schiano’s head, but the conversation is warranted. That’s what’s deserved after an 0-3 start with a talent-laden team.

Joe’s unsure what Team Glazer’s 2013 win threshold for the guillotine is, but Joe’s confident there is one. In the win-now NFL, what the Bucs are producing now is completely unacceptable.

Outcoached and outplayed, the Bucs fell to 0-3 and proved — again — they’re not sharp enough offensively to win NFL games.

Josh Freeman played like a lower tier NFL quarterback for the third consecutive week. Mike Sullivan didn’t adjust, Davin Joseph had some heinous pass blocking moments, and Doug Martin didn’t dominate the way the Bucs’ hoped.

Please don’t assign major blame to dropped passes. The Bucs dropped three, one by Vincent Jackson, one by Doug Martin and one by (who else?) Kevin Ogletree. A deep, first-half throw seemingly dropped by Jackson was a great pass breakup by Aqib Talib.

Pressure on Tom Brady forced him to miss two touchdown throws to open receivers, and the Tampa Bay defense sacked Brady twice, plus Mark Barron picked him off in the end zone. But when was the last time the Bucs gave up 159 yards on the ground for 5.3 yards a carry.

The Bucs have just three touchdowns through three games, and now Vincent Jackson is hurt and Mike Williams and Gerald McCoy are ailing.

The New Schiano Order is circling the drain. The Bucs have lost eight of their last nine games. There’s no way to spin that.

OK Bucs fans, feel free to vent right here. The Bucs are pretty much at a crossroads of their season and perhaps the next couple of seasons.

If the Bucs get wiped out today, Joe can see personnel moves in the near future (the Mike Glennon Watch will be in full force).

The Bucs defense is playing lights out. The offense is struggling. Does anyone believe the Bucs can hold Tom Brady to a single touchdown at home? If so, the Bucs defense will be a wonderful throwback.

As always, you are welcome to e-mail links to illegal streaming broadcasts of the game among yourselves, but posting said links can and will get you banned.

Go Bucs! Have fun.

Great news for the Bucs, Pats stud pass catchers Rob Gronkowski and Danny Amendola are officially out today.

The Bucs have Luke Stocker and Tom Crabtree sidelined. That leaves the dynamic trio of recently promoted Danny Noble from the practice squad, rookie Tim Wright and Nate Byham as the Bucs’ tight ends.

BUCCANEERS INACTIVES
CB Michael Adams
T Gabe Carimi
TE Tom Crabtree
DT Derek Landri
DE Steven Means
QB Dan Orlovsky
TE Luke Stocker

PATRIOTS INACTIVES

WR Danny Amendola
LB Steve Beauharnais
TE Rob Gronkowski
DL Chris Jones
WR Matt Slater
T Will Svitek
RB Leon Washington

Game 3

Bucs at Patriots

Kickoff: 1 p.m.

TV: WTVT-TV, Channel 13 locally. Outside the Tampa Bay area, DirecTV Channel 710.

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

Weather: Per AccuWeather.com, expect the game to start off in the rain, but only briefly. Possibly by the second quarter the rain will give way to sunshine for the rest of the afternoon. Temperatures still are somewhat warm for the Northeast in late September; kickoff is expected to be 69 degrees and will climb gradually slightly from there into the low 70s.

Odds: Per FootballLocks.com, Patriots -7.

Outlook: There is no way to be polite about this. If the Bucs lose today, forget about the playoffs. There is no way the Bucs, in the stacked NFC, will be able to recover from starting 0-3. If the Bucs lose today, just to get to 8-8, they would have to finish the season with an 8-5 run. It is very doubtful that an 8-8 team will make a Wild Card in the NFC.

If the Bucs lose today, depending how the Bucs lose, there could be upheaval afoot. If franchise quarterback Josh Freeman has a bad day, say two or three picks and is generally off target, the Mike Glennon Watch will be in full force. Remember, in his last 16 road games, Freeman is a miserable 4-12.

Joe believes the only way to win this game is to put Patriots All-World quarterback Tom Brady on the ground. Before the season, Joe would have thought that was a preposterous thought. But no one, including Joe, expected the Bucs to be tied for the NFL lead in sacks.

Last week, the Bucs literally beat up Drew Brees, who is much more mobile than Brady. Granted, the Patriots’ offensive line is better than the Saints’ but Brees is a much more mobile target.

Just like in the old days of the Bucs, the glory days, the defense will have to carry the day.