Damn, the Bucs took a punch in the gut this weekend — and with the Redskins’ Monday night victory — as it relates to their playoff hopes and dreams.

At 6-6, the Bucs are a game back of Seattle in the hunt for the final NFC Wild Card spot, except now the Bucs are tied with the Vikings, Redskins and Cowboys. Sadly, the Bucs lose the usually critical head-to-head tiebreaker with Washington and Dallas.

Also, the Bucs now have one more loss in NFC conference play than Seattle and Washington. Conference record is one of the secondary tiebreakers after head-to-head results.

It’s safe to assume the Bucs will need to win their final four and go 10-6 to get into the postseason. Except for Minnesota, their competition doesn’t exactly have brutal schedules, and Seattle has three of its final four at home, where the Seahawks are always tough to beat.

SEAHAWKS (7-5) SCHEDULE
ARIZONA
@Buffalo
49ers
RAMS

VIKINGS (6-6) SCHEDULE
BEARS
@ Rams
@ Houston
PACKERS

DALLAS (6-6) SCHEDULE
@Cincy
PITTSBURGH
NEW ORLEANS
@Washington

REDSKINS (6-6) SCHEDULE
BALTIMORE
@Browns
@Eagles
DALLAS

It’s one week at a time, and it’s a good thing that the Skins and Dallas still must face each other. But the odds are flimsy that the Bucs land in the postseason with a 9-7 record.

From Day 1, Greg Schiano has made it clear that he treats every game as its own season and nothing else matters. It’s the Eagles season this week, and the only goal in the organization is to go 1-0 in that season.

Good luck even trying to get the leader of the New Schiano Order to acknowledge that future games, past games or bigger topics exist.

Tonight, a caller into The Greg Schiano Show on WDAE-AM 620, heaped loads of praise on the leader of the New Schiano Order for his unwavering focused mentality. And Schiano explained that the monstrous media scrutiny in the NFL almost forces him to take a hard line approach to an extreme single-game focus.

“It’s so hard in the National Football League. There’s so much media coverage,” Schiano said. “And the media, you know, has a thousand different angles that they want to portray things, which is great. It’s great for the game. It gives fans something to do all week long since we only play once a week. But it’s not good for the players. And, you know, if you just follow the National Football League, one week they have a team dead for rites, and the next week they’re back in the playoff hunt. And that’s what sells air time, that’s what sells Internet sites, that’s what sells newspapers. But as a football player and a football coach, the only thing you can affect is that one game that week.”

Joe’s not sure he buys into the coach’s philosophy. Joe’s confident players can handle practice responsibilities, film study, and engage media, and keep all the hype in perspective and perform on Sundays. In fact, there have been numerous examples of that through the years from teams under far more scrutiny than the 2012 Bucs in relatively small-market Tampa.

But Joe understands Schiano’s mindset and respects why he keeps a leash on his team’s interaction with the media.

Sadly, Joe expects this means that when the Bucs do make the Super Bowl one day, Donald Penn and Carl Nicks won’t be leading a modern day version of the Super Bowl Shuffle on MTV. That’s a damn shame.

Chicago Bears – Superbowl Shuffle by jpdc11

The Bucs, with the NFL’s worst pass defense and a beleaguered cornerback group, got a little bit of good news today when Bucs coach Greg Schiano announced Anthony Gaitor will return to the active roster.

Gaitor, who was placed on the injured reserve list earlier this year after being nagged by a nasty hamstring injury, has been working out with the club the past few weeks and, per NFL rules, recently was allowed to practice with the team in advance of being reactived.

The earliest Gaitor could have been reactivated would have been after the Bucs’ 12th game, which was Sunday against the Broncos.

Though Gaitor has yet to be named a starter but was a valuable reserve cornerback on a team that has had to turn to backups in the wake of the Adderall-fueled suspensions of Aqib Talib and Eric Wright, and Talib’s subsequent trade.

As Joe stated earlier, the Bucs corners are so thin, any news like this is good news and is as close to a magic bullet as the Bucs are going to find to help the secondary the remainder of the season.

Yesterday, many of Joe’s readers were angered when Joe wrote how Josh Freeman’s vanishing act in the third quarter led to the Bucs losing a lead, and losing a game to the Broncos.

“But he was pressured by the pass rush” was the convenient cry/excuse Joe read from those angry with Joe’s commentary.

Joe believes this is nonsense. Here’s why:

Does a good pass rush help a team? Clearly. This is not debatable. Joe’s only belief is that an elite quarterback — which Freeman very well may still be one day — adapts to problems and overcomes obstacles in order to lead his team.

This did not happen yesterday.

First, yes, there was a pass rush. This is understandable. The Broncos, after yesterday’s games, are third in the NFL in sacks. Did any sane, sober person believe Freeman would have all the time in the world to throw the ball? If there is such a person, said person is awfully naive.

Besides, the Bucs’ offensive line gave up one sack yesterday. One! Does that sound like the Broncos had a complete jailbreak against the Bucs?

Guess which team has one of the best pass blocking offensive lines in the NFL? That would be the Bucs. After yesterday’s games, only the Broncos, Texans and Giants have allowed fewer sacks than the Bucs.

Joe also wrote yesterday that Jay Cutler and Aaron Rodgers, two quarterbacks on teams that, unless they totally collaspe, will be playoff-bound, would pick up a bar tab the rest of the year to have an offensive line like the Bucs’, even with all the injuries to starters.

The Packers have given up the second-most sacks in the NFL this year; the Bears are nearly as bad at No. 5.

(FYI, Matty Ice has been sacked more than Freeman.)

Yet, Rodgers and Cutler, faced with adversity, find ways to adjust and overcome obstacles to lead their teams to critical wins.

Please do not get the wrongheaded notion that Joe is somehow anti-Freeman. Joe spent the better part of the first month of the season dispelling illogical premises from readers that the Bucs should draft Geno Smith — or worse — bench Freeman for Dan Orlovsky, which is simply beyond the pale.

Freeman is not yet an NFL elite quarterback. A good quarterback yes, a young quarterback, yes, a quarterback who can still be among the NFL’s top clutch players, yes.

He’s just not there yet. But the Bucs may need him to be if they are to run the table the rest of the season to have a shot at a postseason game.

The only thing keeping Freeman from being among those elite players in Joe’s eyes is for him to be consistent. Nothing more.

Props to Josh and the Bucs for making a late comeback in Denver. Too bad that didn’t need to happen.

Joe’s at a bit of a crossroads with Josh Freeman. Joe looks at Freeman’s entire body of work, all 52 starts (23-29), and Joe’s not sure if Freeman can lead the Bucs to the promised land of the playoffs.

The jury is still out on Freeman, and for Joe, these next four games will speak very loud volumes as to the kind of quarterback Freeman is. Can he personally lead his team to victory in key December games? Freeman did that in 2010 (Seattle and New Orleans), and he’ll get four more shots this year after yesterday’s ugly performance.

Joe’s less concerned with the numbers, and more concerned with the leadership, clutch throws, consistency, moving the chains and the “W.”

But at BSPN, they love the numbers. And BSPN’s stats gremlins have their own fancy quarterback rankings, which show Freeman ranked 15th in the league. Matt Ryan is third. Drew Brees is 12th, and Cam Newton is 21st.

Sadly, those numbers sound about right. Freeman’s a solid quarterback with great talent, but he hasn’t yet shown he can consistently be the man Bucs fans need.

The “money down” is failing the Bucs.

Whether it’s Josh Freeman falling short of being an upper-tier quarterback, or stunts like running D.J. Ware on 3rd-and-20 in the second half yesterday, the Bucs are statistically worse on third-down conversions than they were in 2011.

This is a key stat because it’s darn difficult to find a good football team among the cellar-dweller offenses in the stat of converting on third-down. Of the 10 lowest ranked teams in 2012, only Cincinnati (35 percent conversion) has a winning record.

Unfortunately, the Bucs are ranked 26th in the NFL at earning a first down when it’s third down. The Bucs get it done 34 percent of the time. During the heinous 2011 season, they were better, at 36.89 percent. In 2010, they were among the cream of the NFL (42.18 percent). Yesterday, the Bucs were 3-of-12 on third down and in their last four games, they’re a combined 17-for-49. 

Consistent offense is about moving the chains. The explosive plays, which the Bucs deliver in a big way, are wonderful, but strong teams, playoff teams, convert on third down.

Searching for something uplifting to help get through this day, Joe’s going to give Lavonte David a virtual pat on the back for putting a big notch on his rookie superhero belt yesterday.

David cleanly picked off Peyton Manning in the second half, the first aerial snatch of his career. That’ll be a nice tale to tell his kids one day when his hopefully Pro Bowl Bucs career is over.

David is Joe’s Bucs rookie of the year to date — even ahead of Doug Martin. David broke 100 tackles yesterday, is fifth in the NFL in tackles and has been the Bucs’ most consistent — and possibly most talented — defensive player.

Throw in that David handles the defensive playcalling duties and is among the league leaders in tackles for loss, and Joe can find a grin on this gloomy Monday.

Joe scribbled down notes from Bucs quarterback Josh Freeman’s postgame news conference in which Freeman was visibly agitated by the outcome of yesterday’s loss to the Broncos.

On his pick-six:
Vincent was running a go-route, I thought I had a window to stick it in there. That’s the type of swing, those pick-sixes, from a momentum standpoint, from a points standpoint, it is tough to overcome.

Bottom line is executing and there was a span there where we were not executing and the guys on the other side, they were rolling. We have to find a way to maintain a level of consistency to go down the field and score points throughout the game. I thought our defense did a great job today. It was tough there for a stretch. We found a way to beat ourselves.

There was no question they were aware of us taking shots down the field. That said, you are going to face that. We have to execute better.

On the rest of the season:
We have a lot of football left to be played. We are just a game out but we are focused on the next game and getting ready for the Eagles. [Monday], everyone can’t wait to get to get back in the building, watch this game, evaluate, try to learn, try to grow from it and focus our attention, everything on beating the Eagles.

On offensive penalties:
Anytime you convert on a big play on third down, or whatever it is, and you have a penalty and it backs you up, it’s tough. At the same time, if that happens, we have to find a way to convert on third down.

Joe was Tiquan Underwood’s biggest cheerleader during training camp; everything stuck to the guy’s hands in practice and in preseason games, yet the Bucs ditched him with the final September roster cuts.

Luckily, the Bucs pulled him back off the street and he’s got 20 receptions, but it’s two games in a row now that Underwood has dropped passes. Joe’s got to go back to today’s game film, but it might have been two drops today in Denver.

Joe knows this can’t continue. The New Schiano Order is obsessive about ball security and won’t tolerate it. For the sake of the team and his career, Underwood needs to solve the dropsies fast over the Bucs’ final four games.

Joe also senses that Underwood’s strength is not as a slot receiver. Obviously, the Bucs can be very creative with him in that role, but he’s hardly the prototype. His production and usage is definitely something to monitor the rest of the way.

Mike Williams believed the Broncos’ ability to shut down the Bucs’ rush attack in the third quarter changed the game.

Bucs wide receiver Mike Williams paused for a few brief moments after the Bucs loss to the Broncos to talk on the Bucs radio network.

In short, Williams stated the suffocating Broncos’ rush defense in the third quarter turned the Bucs into a one-dimensional team, which turned out to be a trap.

“We didn’t run the ball well” in the third quarter, “and we got into a situation where we couldn’t run well but we ran into a good defense,” Williams said. “I’m not making any excuses.”

On Williams’ play to set up his touchdown in the fourth-quarter:

“On the touchdown, it was an under-route,” Williams said. “Vincent was the first read and they doubled him and if they doubled him, I had “to get open.”

On the team’s character:

“That is what it is with this team. We fight, we fight, we fight to the final whistle. That is what Coach Schiano has brought to us.”

As Joe expected, the leader of the New Schiano Order was tight-lipped and non-committal when asked this evening about the ESPN report that has Mike Sullivan expressing interest in the Boston College head coaching job.

Here’s what Greg Schiano had to say when asked about the validity of the report:

“You know that kind of stuff I keep private with my assistant coaches and with our organization, and if there’s anything to that it will come out the appropriate way,” Schiano said. “I don’t think this is the place to talk about that.”

Joe sure would have preferred a denial from Schiano.

It would be potentially devastating for Josh Freeman and the Bucs offense to lose Sullivan. Not that Sullivan is living legend, but Freeman doesn’t need the upset of learning another offense and adjusting to another coordinator.

By next season, the Bucs should be humming as an elite offense, not starting fresh.

Greg Schiano give a congratulatory head slap and kind words to Peyton Manning on the field today after Manning completed a pass to a receiver on the ground. Frankly, Joe didn’t like the head coach’s smiley reaction.

Not that it was so awful, but Joe doesn’t see Schiano as a guy who’s wired like that. Joe prefers to believe Schiano is a guy that would rather invest those precious two seconds on his own team, especially since Schiano preaches maximizing every second of practice time.

Joe just didn’t like it, just as Joe didn’t like it when Raheem Morris was on the field during a break in play in Green Bay last year whooping it up with Aaron Rodgers.

Joe can’t recall such friendly, in-game gestures sent the Bucs way.

Just a few weeks ago when Bucs rookie undrafted free agent cornerback was pressed into duty, Johnson seemed to shine. His pick-six, game-winning touchdown against Philip Rivers being Exhibit-A, and he should have officially had three picks in two games.

But with injuries and Adderall infractions rising among the ranks of the Bucs cornerbacks, Johnson has been asked to play more, and to start, and it appears opponents have decided to target him.

It all began with a bomb he gave up against San Diego. Then, in the words of former Bucs defensive lineman Steve White, Julio Jones “baptized” Johnson last week for Johnson’s second 80-yard touchdown given up in as many games.

Today it was clear that Peyton Manning and Demaryius Thomas were targeting the pride of Largo High School. And it worked. Two egregious plays were a pass interference Johnson gave up against Thomas (Joe would prefer a pass interference as opposed to six points) and then, when Joe thought surely Johnson was in position for an interception, Manning threaded the needle to Thomas for a key touchdown.

Now don’t get Joe wrong. Joe likes Johnson and thinks he has promise and will be around these parts for a while. But he’s a rookie. He’s learning… in some cases the hard way.

And the NFL is a copycat league. Until Johnson begins stopping some of these passes and doesn’t get whistled for interference or holding, teams are going to continue to target him.

Joe sees the burst in Doug Martin, the leg drive, the explosion, the improved vision since early in the season, but his production has fallen off.

Maybe it’s the patchwork offensive line? Joe routinely sees Martin turning rushes that look like sure losses into positive — and almost positive — plays. But more likely it’s the reality of being a running back in the NFL. There are plenty of rough days unless you’re a Hall of Fame back.

Martin has an ugly 39 carries for 106 yards over his past two games. He’s got 82 rushes for 312 yards over his last four games, following his historic effort in Oakland.

The Bucs are mixing up Martin’s runs, but the yardage isn’t coming.

Perhaps using multiple running backs would help. Joe’s not getting on a LeGarrette Blount soapbox tonight, but it shouldn’t be such a foreign concept to use two backs for an NFL offense.

And no, running D.J. Ware on 3rd-and-20 today doesn’t count. Joe hated that call.

Let’s be honest: The Bucs traveled to hostile territory and played one of the best teams in the NFL, didn’t play well offensively, and still were within one score.

Not being able to overcome adversity by Josh Freeman (in the third quarter, specifically) may be the difference between a good team and an average team. The Bucs now hold a 6-6 record. In the immortal words of Tuna Parcells, you are what your record says you are.”

After the game speaking on the Bucs radio network, Bucs coach Greg Schiano pointed to Freeman’s pick-six to Von Miller as the turning point in the game.

“I think we gave up a touchdown, a pick-six, which kind of changes the complexion of the game,” Schiano said. “You have to be realistic and understand Peyton Manning is going to [make plays]. He doesn’t need any help. We almost had to go to a two-minute offense because we were down three scores. That took us out of the tempo of what we were wanting to do which was a run-pass mix.

“But this team, these players, they keep fighting, which is what I love about this team. I make it clear how the vision changes [in a game]. We didn’t envision being down 18 points. It was no different than Carolina, just didn’t get it done this week.

“You never want to put [a loss] behind you. You need to learn from it and let the hurt hurt. You need to use the hurt as fuel and don’t waste away time. Go to work this week and the Eagles game will be here.”

It’s time for Josh Freeman to adapt and overcome obstacles like a pass rush and win a “big game” for a change, like an elite NFL quarterback will do when faced with adversity.

For a minute there today, Joe thought he was watching the 2011 Bucs.

No, it wasn’t the defense which gave Joe a flashback, it was the play of Bucs quarterback Josh Freeman. The Bucs’ signal-caller was off target way too many times in the third quarter, and then there was an incompletion he threw where Freeman tried to force a pass into triple coverage.

If Joe didn’t know any better, Joe would have sworn the intended receiver was Kellen Winslow, Jr.

Oh, and then there’s Von Miller’s pick-six.

Freeman had a bad day. And no matter how many toys Freeman has, if he has a bad day, the Bucs offense has a bad day.

Was Freeman pressured? Sure, but he was only sacked once. Elite NFL quarterbacks find a way to adapt and overcome obstacles. Aaron Rodgers and bratty Jay Cutler would give their firstborn to have an offensive line like the Bucs have, depleted though it may be.

Those two quarterbacks not only find a way to win with inferior (or no) blocking, both quarterbacks’ teams have better records than the Bucs.

Now the Bucs need to run the table and hope Seattle drops a game somewhere. Can the Bucs win the next four? Sure. They have a downtrodden Iggles squad next followed by a mortal Saints team, a very beatable Rams group and finish the season with the Dixie Chicks, who will likely be resting key players.

But Freeman must be more consistent. He cannot have any more games where he goes all milk carton on the team for a long stretch of time.

The next time this season Freeman goes into a witness protection program like he did in the third quarter, you can kiss playoffs goodbye.

It’s high time for Freeman to step up and win a truly big game for a change.

The Bucs got a huge gift of a momentum swing late in the first half and proceeded to implode and the offense took another two quarters to recover.

The mysterious nosedive came at the worst time.

Joe’s going back here to the Bucs leading 10-7 with about 5:13 left in the first half. The zebras missed a clear pass-interference yank of Dallas Clark’s jersey, and on the next play Josh Freeman made an ugly throw that was intercepted, but a roughing the passer call saved the drive and put the Bucs on the Denver 49 yard line.

The Bucs had momentum and the ball with 5:00 left in the half. But then the playcalling and execution fell apart and didn’t return until late in the game. Erik Lorig dropped an easy pass. Freeman was hit and threw an incompletion. And then Freeman threw incomplete to D.J. Ware, who wasn’t going to do much with that pass anyway. That whole sequence came at a terrible time, when the Broncos were vulnerable.

One more first down there and the Bucs are in field goal range and chewing up precious clock. Success there doesn’t win the game, but the Bucs never recovered.

Mike Sullivan, if he’s not busy emailing resumes, should start right there when examining what went wrong with his unit.

The Bucs offense stalled mysteriously in the second half. And combined with the predictable roasting and toasting of Leonard Johnson and the Bucs secondary, the Bucs lost decisively but still haven’t lost by more than one score under the New Schiano Order.

Peyton Manning stayed upright and completed 71 percent of his passes. At least that was better than the 80+ percent clip of Matt Ryan last week.

Joe was numb after the painful yet tolerable one-point loss to Atlanta last week, and this week Joe’s again numb after this thumping by one of the NFL’s best in their house. What the hell happened to the offense and Freeman? It was a near complete shutdown for far too long of a stretch.

Joe figured the Bucs would start the game strong, and play damn hard as they’ve done all season. And they did. But it was a confidence freefall after a 10-7 halftime lead, as the Bucs dug an inescapable hole.

Now the Bucs are in a tight corner. Seattle upset Chicago and sits at 7-5, one game ahead of Tampa Bay (6-6)  for the final NFC Wild Card spot, and Seattle has a better record in the conference, the critical tiebreaker between the two teams.

The Bucs absolutely have to win out to make the postseason — home for Philly, then at New Orleans, and home for St. Louis before the season finale in Atlanta.

Yeah, the Bucs are good enough to win four straight. But the the odds are darn long.

Perhaps fresh news from ESPN that Bucs offensive coordinator Mike Sullivan is interested in the Boston College head coaching job is merely a negotiating ploy by Sullivan and his agent to squeeze more money out of the Bucs.

That’s about the best the Bucs could hope for.

More likely, Sullivan genuinely is interested in parlaying his success with the Bucs this season, and his solid resume, into a head coaching job — in college or the pros.

Joe wrote weeks ago that this was coming down the line, in regards to Sullivan becoming a head coach candidate. However, Joe never would have imagined Sullivan would have thrown his hat in the ring, as ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported earlier today.

Joe expects Greg Schiano will be asked about this development after the game today, but Joe doesn’t expect Schiano to say much. Sullivan is not made available to media on game days.

OK Bucs fans, this was weird wasn’t it? Watching football at noon only to have a late afternoon Bucs kickoff?

Today the Bucs travel to Denver to face perhaps their toughest test of the season, the Broncos. Yes, Joe has made much of the fact the Bucs have the worst pass defense in the NFL, and Peyton Manning is on fire for the Broncos.

Joe’s a borderline mathematical illiterate but Joe can sure add two-plus-two and he doesn’t like the sum of this addition.

Feel free to discuss the game in this thread. As always, thanks for visiting Joe today and you know he will plenty of commentary about the game moments after the final gun.