The man wearing the olive 1970s-throwback-looking suit patrolling the Bucs locker room after the game, complete with a matching beret, had a giant unlit cigar in his mouth and was pointing and various Bucs defensive linemen and giving them props.

That would be Bucs defensive front-7 coach Bryan Cox.

It wasn’t your typical NFL assistant coach look, but it worked. Of course, Joe had to ask Cox if it was an authentic Cuban in his mouth. And Cox said it most definitely was.

There’s a lot of respect for Cox in the Bucs locker room. And Joe had much respect for that cigar. Joe suspects Cox is enjoying it right now.

Last year Joe was no less than sickened by what was referred to as football the Bucs played during their heinous 10-game losing streak.

Stunning lack of preparation. No emotion. Pathetic fundamentals. Dismal execution. An offensive gameplan seemingly devised by someone who had been at Hooters all afternoon. An ole’ defense.

This is all history now, thanks in large part to the Bucs handing the stinking Panthers their collective hats with a smelly deposit inside.

Jeremy Trueblood is one who battled through the horror of last season and, while he couldn’t shut down the smile on his face, he’s trying to put Sunday’s win in perspective.

“Winning feels a lot to better than losing but we have a long way to go,” Trueblood told Joe. “Each is a one-game season and we have 15 to go.”

The was a game that got offenslive linemen geeked. Carl Nicks was once seen jumping up and down like he cashed a winning lottery ticket on a physical YAC by Vincent Jackson.

“It’s a fun way to close out a game,” Trueblood said. “I’m sure the left side of the line takes pride in that. It was pretty awesome.”

Joe is confident Bucs fans took a lot of pride with that type of win as well.

A dominant day for Gerald McCoy, who gave some credit to his wise new sidekick.

Even a novice football fan watching the Bucs-Panthers game today could tell that Gerald McCoy was a major force on the football field.

McCoy was disruptive. He had his hands on Cam Newton. He sacked Cam Newton. He was a force in the run defense. He didn’t get hurt.

What’s the difference in McCoy? Well, one of them is Gary Gibson in the Bucs locker room and playing alongside McCoy. After the game, McCoy took a moment to credit the veteran newcomer for McCoy’s performance.

“Gary, he’s a vet. He’s very smart. He teaches me little things, little things I need to focus on, little things I need to see, little things he sees that I can do that he knows I can do and need to go execute. And it helped me out a lot today,” McCoy said.

Gibson wasn’t seen much this preseason but got plenty of snaps today and was disruptive himself. Gibson told Joe he’s healthy now and always eager to teach young guys like McCoy.

“Just being an older guy in the league, you know, as you’re playing, you get like little vet moves and little things you see before they happen to make you play faster,” Gibson said. “You know we got a lot of young guys. I’m more than happy to help Gerald; he’s a great player. I’m just being the old vet in the D-line room. Just being knowledgable and sharing.”

Joe’s still speechless at the D-line play today. Somebody give Gibson a raise.

The human armoire, Carl Nicks, the manbeast manning left guard for the Bucs, looked pretty good today.

And he had a good time.

It’s been a while since Nicks has played on a team that pounded the rock like the Bucs did. The Saints didn’t roll like that.

“I love it, man,” Nicks said. “I love running the ball and falling on top of guys and guys falling on me, and just seeing their faces just tired and just wearing them out. I love it.”

Nicks even got to mash in the passing game. On the drive that eventually gave the Bucs a 13-0 lead, Vincent Jackson made a catch in traffic in Panthers territory, then the Panthers swarmed and Jackson was driving his legs to nowhere. Nicks took care of that and moved the pile at least a few yards.

“Oh, man. I seen the whites in Jackson’s eyes as he was straining, so I was like, ‘I can’t let him go out like that’ and there was like eight of those guys over there.”

So was this the All-Pro Carl Nicks Bucs fans saw today? Joe asked Nicks to grade himself.

Nicks said, “B-“.

Joe’s looking forward to Nicks’ A-game.

Joe’s not much of a gambling guy, but Joe thought he had a sure winner before the game.

Regular readers of Joe’s site know said curator was outraged over how former Bucs offensive coordinator Greg Olson couldn’t figure out how to use then-starting running back LeGarrette Blount, or for that matter, any of his weapons on the staff.

Shoot, playing the pass-happy Lions to open the season, Blount, coming off a five-yard per carry average, was handed the ball five times in last season’s opener — FIVE!!! Joe thought then, and still thinks now, that was criminally negligent.

So Joe “made a bet,” that Blount — as a backup no less — would get at least five carries because he now had coaches that had a clue how to use talent.

Alas, Blount had but three carries and one pass reception (GASP!) before he left the game with what appeared to be a cramp and never returned.

(Curiously, Blount was the first Bucs player off the field, and was the first Bucs player to leave the stadium, sprinting out of the locker room, exiting the stadium before the Tampa Bay pen and mic were allowed access.)

Joe would have lost said bet. Happily because it appears the team has a coaching staff that actually prepares for games.

Can you imagine?

If any Bucs fans would have run into Joe at a local watering hole and bragged the Bucs would hold any NFL team to 10 yards rushing, Joe would have responded by asking them to share their beers with him.

If a Bucs fan would have bragged the Bucs defense would hold Cam Newton, DeAngelo Williams and the Carolina Panthers to 10 yards rushing for the game, Joe is sure a cop would have Baker Act’ed said fan.

But it’s true! The Bucs held the Panthers to right at double digits, and Newton himself had but four yards rushing. Even more startling was that Ronde Barber confessed after the game that rookie Lavonte David was making the play calls.

This is as incredible a win as Joe can remember in a while. It was old school Bucs. The offense sputtered and needed the defense to hold on, and the Bucs defense did just that.

An impressive win indeed.

That’s five in a row now if you count the preseason. The Bucs came out and played good football and jumped out to a lead.

Whaddya know, a play in the backfield by Mason Foster to get the defense out of the game followed by forcing a Carolina punt and a 13-play Bucs scoring drive with no penalties.

It wasn’t a coincidence that Raheem Morris could accomplish no such feat. And it’s not luck that the New Schiano Order has its team firing out of the opening whistle. That doesn’t mean the Bucs will win a pile of games, but it’s a damn good start.

The streak is over!!!

The heinous 10-game losing streak, the stain of the Raheem Morris era, is forever in the past.

The Bucs came out and slugged the Panthers in the mouth. That Rutgers defense looks pretty damn stout in the NFL. The Bucs’ run defense was historic — only SIX yards rushing allowed —  a pass rush emerged, and the Bucs registered two interceptions. Mark Barron looked like the real deal. The Bucs swarmed to the football.

Josh Freeman made no mistakes and did just enough. Vincent Jackson and Doug Martin were there when the Bucs needed them most. The Bucs protected the football, and the special teams were tight. There were a few questionable playcalls on offense, but nobody cares when you get the victory.

A win feels damn good.

Stick with Joe through the night for all kinds of analysis, locker room quotes and more.

OK guys, welcome to Week One of the 2012 NFL season. Have fun. As always, no links of pirated Bucs video feeds but you may e-mail links among yourselves. Happy football season, everyone!

Joe highly recommends you head to Tilted Kilt Clearwater for all your football watching this weekend. The Kilt girls are fantastic, and the food and atmosphere — inside and out — is one of Joe’s favorites. Their “Big Arse Burgers” are amazing!

Tilted Kilt is easy to get to at the corner of U.S. 19 and Drew Street, and they’ve also got super specials and a great layout. Click through above or below to check out their website. Tilted Kilt is open late!!

Week 1
Panthers at Bucs
Kickoff: 4:25 p.m.
TV: Blacked out locally. Outside the Tampa/Orlando TV markets, the game will be broadcast on DirecTV Channel 715. The game will be available in its entirely on NFL.com at midnight tonight, and on NFL Sunday Ticket’s “Short Cut” format where the game is condensed to an hour.
Radio: Buccaneers Radio Network (in Tampa WFUS-FM, 103.5 and WDAE-AM, 620); SiriusXM Channel 94.
Weather: Per Weather.com, this should be a messy one. It’s been raining all morning and the forecast is for 100 percent chance of rain at kickoff, with rain chances tailing off to 50 percent at 5 p.m. and through the game. Temperatures hover around 82 degrees.
Odds: Per Sportsbook.com, Bucs +2.5
Outlook: Finally, football. Real football. NFL football. Yes, it is proof of a higher authority.

Joe really doesn’t know what to think about this game. As Carolina coach Ron Rivera noted this week, he really doesn’t know what to plan against because this is Bucs coach Greg Schiano’s first as an NFL head coach.  By preparing for everything, hopefully, Carolina will be ill-prepared for what Schiano brings.

The key, clearly is to contain Panthers quarterback Cam Newton. If the Bucs can do that, perhaps it will make the Panthers one-dimensional.

Joe can pretty much bet that running back Doug Martin will be used almost exclusively on the left side of the line. The right side of the line for the Bucs is dicey as Ted Larsen will try to lock down the right guard position in absence of Davin Joseph.

If the Bucs can control the football on the less-than ideal Panthers defense, and harass Newton, the Bucs have a puncher’s chance of a win.

Dubbed the “wild child,” by Raheem Morris way back in 2008, Bucs fans have been patiently waiting for Aqib Talib to get his act together on and off the field since he joined Chucky’s Bucs that season.

Talib has never met his Pro Bowl potential.  He’s been plagued by hamstring woes and an ugly hip injury, plus he’s clubbed teammates and slugged cabbies, lashed out at media and been dragged down by felony criminal allegations and civil suits.

But a new Talib is on the scene now. He’s got no dark cloud of trouble over his head. He’s thoroughly committed, say coaches and Ronde Barber. He’s healthy. And he’s in a contract year.

It’s showtime for Talib. There are no more excuses. If there are, Joe doesn’t want to hear them. He’s 26 years old in the prime of his career. A great season from Talib will make the Bucs a dangerous defense, assuming they’re no longer a sieve against the run. Talib has to step up or else the Bucs surely will be drafting another cornerback in April.

Priority No. 1 for the leader of the New Schiano Order is ball security. Greg Schiano likes to say the whole game is about “the ball,” and he’s said that penalties and all ball-security issues fall in his executive lap immeidately following games and practices.

The Bucs worked tirelessly on protecting the football during practices and training camp. Those with the ball have to “bite” it. And there is no slacking allowed at any time. Returners must catch with proper form, high and tight.

Today, this all comes into the spotlight, with what will be a sloppy home-0pener under rainy skies on Dale Mabry Highway.

Players rave about their preparation under the New Schiano Order. Joe will believe that if the Panthers out-fumble the Bucs.

Veteran sports anchor Dave Wirth gives his take on the Bucs preparations for the Panthers in this exclusive breakdown for JoeBucsFan.com readers from Joe’s proud media partner WTSP-TV Channel 10.

Just what kind of defense will the Bucs come out with tomorrow? Will the Bucs blitz a lot, will they play it safe? No one knows for sure but there is one thing for sure, it seems ESPN’s Pat Yasinskas is certain about one thing:

Tomorrow’s battle between the Panthers and the Bucs will be won by how the victor’s defense plays. That’s what he explained in an ESPN NFC South chat.

Eric (Chapel Hill, NC)

How do you think the Tampa V. Carolina game play will be oriented? A battle of defenses or offense or mix of both. What is going to be the deciding factor in your opinion on who comes out on top?

Pat Yasinskas

Think the key is Tampa Bay’s defense. Lot of unknowns on that side of the ball. Can they slow Carolina’s offense?

Well, for the Bucs, it is all about how to stop — or contain — Panthers quarterback Cam Newton. Many Bucs players told Joe that stopping Newton is the key to stopping the Panthers rushing attack.

The Panthers have many offensive weapons. It will be interesting to see just what Greg Schiano concocts to shut the stinking Panthers down.

“We just had bad luck, Olie. A mental midget could see that.”

Those who analyzed Bucs’ preseason games couldn’t come up with much. Why? Because the Bucs didn’t reveal much. No team does.

But one thing appared to be clarified.

In three starts by the first-team Bucs, there were no slow starts. None. The heinous preparation and motivation of the Raheem Morris era that led to an endless stream of first-half failures vanished.

Somehow, the New Schiano Order found a way to have the team ready from the opening whistle. Imagine.

Frankly, Joe is extremely eager to see the Bucs make it four in a row tomorrow in the home-opener against Carolina. There’s absolutely no reason the Bucs should come out flat and lifeless.

Joe will be furious if they can’t play come out playing physical football after sitting on a 10-game losing streak for eight months, and with a new taskmaster coach up their ass.

Got tickets for Sunday’s Bucs-Panthers game? Joe’s friends at Tilted Kilt in Clearwater are going to get you there — in style.

Bucs fans can start their opening-day tailgate at Tilted Kilt and then get on a chauffeured luxury bus at 3 p.m. to Raymond James Stadium for the 4:25 p.m kickoff against Carolina. Then the luxury bus will return you right after the game to Tilted Kilt, where you can keep the party going into the night.

And best of all, a seat on the luxury bus costs only $3.95 roundtrip per person!!

That’s a huge savings! Crap, parking at the stadium would cost you $15 to $25.

Parking is safe, easy and convenient at Tilted Kilt. And you can bring Tilted Kilt food on the bus, and your own adult beverages. … Joe’s friends at Paradise Worldwide Transportation are doing the driving, which means it will be top-shelf service.

Buy your seat now below. After purchase, you’ll get an instant receipt and parking/pickup specifics emailed to you.

For what it’s worth, various local media types have gone on the record with their 2012 predctions for the men in pewter and red.

Wily Tampa Tribune veteran eye-RAH Kaufman hit the 98.7 FM airwaves today and told Rock Riley he sees this edition of the Bucs as a 6-10 team. Kaufman is down on the Bucs defense but believes there are “no excuses” for the Tampa Bay offense. Kaufman believes Josh Freeman is under pressure given the weapons around him and the 40 starts under his belt.

Stephen Holder, of the Tampa Bay Times, dropped an 8-8 vibe on the Bucs, also during an interview yesterday on 98.7 FM. And the ruler of the PewterReport.com universe, Scott Reynolds, went through the exercise of projecting a result of every 2012 Bucs game and came up with a 7-9 record.

What might be soothing to Bucs fans is that the so-called experts are rarely accurate. That includes Joe, who laid out his 6-10 take yesterday.

You know Joe can’t wait for some real freakin’ Bucs football when he starts the day off with a couple of posts about payroll. Let’s see some football already!!

When the Bucs plucked Dezmon Briscoe from the Bengals practice squad a couple of years ago, Marvin Lewis cried like a baby because he thought the Bucs over paid Briscoe and broke unwritten NFL rules. Then last year we learned the Bucs were paying a practice-squad ransom to keep George Johnson, now a key member of the defense.

And it seems the Bucs are it again, making it rain on practice squad DE/LB Markus White, per NFL.com.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers defensive end Markus White  is currently the NFL’s highest-paid player on a practice squad, earning $17,647 per week, or $300,000 over the season. White, a seventh-round draft pick in 2011 by the Washington Redskins, appeared in two games last season and each of the Redskins’ four preseason games this season.

Well, the Redskins sure had better depth than the Bucs, as evidenced by the final preseason game.

Now securing White, a former Florida State DE, won’t take the Bucs to the playoffs this season. But it’s interesting that the Bucs’ free-spending ways this season haven’t stopped the flow of cash to the practice squad.

Joe’s not big on payroll accounting. It’s boring. But it is somewhat interesting when it comes to the Bucs and the team’s return to becoming one of the big spenders in the NFL, as they were in the early part of the last decade.

The dust has settled on team rosters, and CBS Sports NFL writer Jason La Canfora has compiled the latest league salary data. He reports the Bucs have “committed” more than $130 million in payroll for 2012, which ranks them among the top-8 spenders in the league.

The Buccaneers and Cardinals also top $130 million in committed cash for this season, with owners in the Glazers and the Bidwills who have been viewed by many as chronic under-spenders most years (and, to their point, had the Bidwills been willing to spend near these levels a few years back, and done the right thing to keep Kurt Warner and give him a contract he couldn’t walk away from, the Cardinals would be in much better shape and wouldn’t have had to throw money at Kevin Kolb). Arizona’s situation was just like Detroit’s; one player, in this case, Larry Fitzgerald, held the key to their offseason with a cap-killer contract for 2012 that forced a renegotiation. Fitzgerald became the highest-paid receiver in league history, and Arizona’s payroll was on the rise a few years after the team was criticized for losing a host of key players in free agency.

Tampa Bay went on a Dan Snyder-esque binge that included Vincent Jackson, Carl Nicks and Eric Wright early in free agency, and cash was king with those contracts as well, with the Bucs putting up big money now in the deals but having protections against bloated cap hits down the road and without inflated salaries deep in the contracts.

You can’t buy a great team in the NFL, so this is all somewhat meaningless. But it’s good to hear the Bucs haven’t saddled themselves with long term contract burdens. Hopefully, the Bucs’ young players will perform and Tampa Bay will need every last nickel to re-sign them.

Joe gets asked all the time what he thinks about the Bucs’ prospects for the 2012 season. And Joe now has an answer to share. Preseason “calls” are almost obligitory for every fan, an annual tradition. They’re fun. They’re annoying. Here’s what Joe’s thinking:

Every Bucs fan wants to imagine Greg Schiano is the next Jim Harbaugh, but that can’t be expected.

Schiano is a first-year head coach, with a first-time offensive coordinator, and the Bucs have new systems on both sides of the ball.

Schiano also has to overcome a team whose core is stuck in a 10-game losing streak. That’s not always so easy to stomp out of a team’s collective mindset. The head coach also is hoping for huge seasons from two starting rookies on defense and he’s banking on guys defensively that are injury-prone and unproven. Also out of the gate, Davin Joseph is toast for the season.

Those are some damn difficult hurdles to overcome immediately in order to become a winning football team in 2012. Also working against the Bucs is the fact that Schiano isn’t walking into a heinous NFC West, like Harbaugh did last year. Schiano is jumping into a division that’s loaded with talent and successful teams in the Saints and Falcons, and one in Carolina that had an elite offense in 2011.

Joe would love to see Josh Freeman prove otherwise, but right now he’s the fourth best quarterback in the NFC South and he likely doesn’t have a defense that can win him games.

Yes, Joe does believe in the New Schiano Order. Joe’s toes are on the line. Joe looks at the schedule and the task at hand and sees the Bucs winning two games in the first half and evolving into a more dangerous team that goes 4-4 in the second half. Add that up and Joe predicts a 6-10 season.

That written, Joe truly won’t be stunned if the Bucs surprise and do a little better. The Bucs have playmakers, assuming they stay healthy. Guys like Aqib Talib, Vincent Jackson, Josh Freeman and LeGarrette Blount have proven they can put a team on their backs for a game.

Joe’s rooting for the Bucs to go 16-0 like every other fan, but Joe’s expectations sit at 6-10.