“Get these guys to loosen up, Lovie.”

Mr. Derrick Brooks, Double-Nickel, No. 55, Hall of Famer, Buccaneers Ring of Honor member, didn’t love what he saw Sunday from his beloved Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Brooks knows how a winning football team carries itself. [read more]

The new Bucs bellcow?

It is just weird to Joe what is happening to Doug Martin and Joe cannot put his finger on it. The man Bucs fans affectionately refer to as “Muscle Hamster” exploded onto the scene his rookie year in 2012 and made the Pro Bowl.

He hasn’t been the same since.

Last year, he never got on track for reasons not exactly known. Martin was lost for the season injuring his left shoulder on a pass play. Martin returned healthy, but in the season opener, he looked far more like the Martin of 2013. To be fair, Martin also injured his knee in the second half. [read more]

The offensive line has really solidified with the addition of guard Logan Mankins.

It is one of the oldest axioms of football: The game is won in the trenches. It was true 50 years ago and true Sunday.

With the exception of Gerald McCoy, the Tampa Bay defensive line is getting owned on passing downs. In Lovie’s defense, the foundation is quarterback pressure up front. No pressure, and it crumbles. This is why slugs like journeyman Derek Anderson and neverbeen Austin Davis were free to carve up the Bucs. [read more]

Senior NFL writer for CBSSports.com, prickly Pete Prisco, is a man with access and contacts, and he just shared not only his thoughts about the Bucs’ quarterback situation but his confrontation with Lovie Smith this summer. [read more]

Much needed help last week from Bucs DE Will Gholston.

Two things that irk Bucs coach Lovie Smith these days: virtually no pass rush and no takeaways. He discusses one of the two subjects with the Tampa Bay pen and mic club just about daily; often both.

Takeaways can be waved off as luck. A ballcarrier has to be careless with the football. A quarterback has to throw a bad pass. A receiver had to run a rotten route. Rushing the quarterback, though, is a matter of skill and ability. [read more]

Ex-players sense pressure on Lovie

“Take some chances,” Lovie Smith.

Boomer Esiason and the CBS crew, which now carries Thursday Night Football, was busy talking about tomorrow night’s big Bucs-Falcons game in Atlanta. [read more]

The Tampa Bay Times rumor of Brian Urlacher to the Bucs was misguided

Joe read yesterday’s wacky afternoon report by Rick Stroud of the Tampa Bay Times that implied retired Brian Urlacher is on the Buccaneers’ radar.

Stroud claimed fans should keep an eye on Urlacher maybe landing in Tampa, especially if Mason Foster can’t get healthy and/or Dane Fletcher doesn’t impress. But it seems Stroud wasn’t listening to Urlacher on Chicago Sports Radio yesterday morning. [read more]

When the Lovie Smith regime took over One Buc Palace, it made no secret of its love for all things geekery, that is, analytics.

You know, like if the sun in shining at just the right 48-degree angle, Doug Martin has five carries for 18 yards, but when the sun is directly overhead, his yards-per-carry plummets to 1.8 yards a touch. [read more]

There should be plenty of time to target Vincent Jackson and Mike Evans deep tomorrow night

The sackless Atlanta defensive line is so miserable, Josh McCown absolutely has to be successful on Thursday night, when he won’t be under pressure.

That’s the word from NFL Network analyst and former Texans and Redskins general manager Charley Casserly. [read more]

“Keep grinding, my son.”

Former NFL head coach and quarterbacks coach Steve Mariucci, a former college quarterback himself, offered no defense for Josh McCown’s boneheaded plays yesterday.

In fact, Mariucci was confident Lovie Smith is thinking about making a QB change. [read more]

Thursday may be too early.

When Bucs fans learned that arguably the biggest piece of the Bucs defense, tackle Gerald McCoy, left the game with a broken hand Sunday, it made a gloomy day all that much darker.

If the Bucs struggled containing a journeyman backup and neverbeen slug third-teamer quarterback with GMC, just what kind of a nightmare would it be without him? [read more]

Joe’s proud to continue his partnership with LandryFootball.com, run by former NFL personnel man Chris Landry, who has worked as an assistant coach and scout for Bill Belichick, coordinator of the Titans scouting department, among other positions in pro and college football.

Landry will be providing an exclusive podcast for JoeBucsFan.com readers, which you can enjoy here every Tuesday evening. [read more]

The Bucs had — and still have — plenty of money under the 2014 salary cap available.

But one of Lovie Smith’s favorite NFL players, a guy he doesn’t want to face Thursday in Atlanta, plays for the Falcons. [read more]

Joe’s fiery “JoeBucsFan Hour” in the top-rated Steve Duemig show on WDAE-AM 620 was its usual fun time tonight.

Joe hit on all kinds of topics on both sides of the ball. [read more]

Despite starting Thursday, MLB Dane Fletcher will get about the same amount of practice reps as he usually does because of the short week.

A backup’s life in the NFL means you better know your s(p)it if you are called on in the middle of a game. That is where reserve middle linebacker Dane Fletcher found himself in when Mason Foster dislocated his shoulder Sunday.

Bucs defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier noted today that despite Fletcher being set to start Thursday night in Atlanta, Fletcher is getting about the same amount of reps this week. [read more]

Lavonte David might be the most peaceful mellow guy Joe has met who is not smoking pot or popping downers.

David is a calm, reasoned, level-headed, polite but intense guy. [read more]

For those who believe Jeff Tedford is secretly in the ear of quarterbacks coach Marcus Arroyo calling plays, that’s just not the case.

In fact, today Arroyo said he doesn’t know what Jeff Tedford would call. [read more]

Bucs CB Alterraun Verner is expecting a battle Thursday night.

Joe wrote Sunday night how outraged left tackle Anthony Collins was with the nutkick of a loss to a slug third-string neverbeen Lambs quarterback.

It seemed there are a good many Bucs fans out there that don’t think Bucs employees are as upset as they are. Not true. They just don’t show their emotions.

Take cornerback Alterraun Verner. He had all sorts of teams he could have signed with this past offseason. He chose the Bucs partly because of Lovie Smith, partly because he bought in to what Lovie was selling. [read more]