A mystery typist for TBO.com believes the Bucs are rethinking their offensive strategy based on their inability to ram the ball down opponents’ throats.

It’s always good for a coach to say, “We are going to do… X.” Whether that’s passing the ball or running the ball, it is good to have an identity.

That’s what Bucs coach Greg Schiano (man, Joe damned near typed “Olson”) is trying to do with the Bucs. From the first day he appeared at his introductory press conference, Schiano has made it clear he wants the Bucs to run the ball.

Problem is, when a team cannot run the ball, what next? This is the current predicament the Bucs find themselves in. An anonymous typist on TBO.com believes the Bucs may be looking at other ways to move the ball down the field, not just on the ground.

Q: Why is the offensive coach not allowing the quarterback to throw the ball? Every play was the same, give the ball to Martin (who is a great player) but everyone knew the play before it was executed, every PLAY!

Then the coach decides to play speed up football the last 3 minutes of the game! Really!!!! The problem is not the players, but the bad coaching. Sorry, I don’t want to be mean, but everyone had the Bucs’ number yesterday. Why are they not mixing it up? Thanks!

— Ilene,

A: The Bucs are clearly trying to establish themselves as a run-oriented team. That’s why they’re not leaning too much on Josh Freeman and the passing game. It’s all part of their ball-control approach, which is what Coach Greg Schiano prefers. He wants to win the time of possession battle, but they’re going to have to come up with a more imaginative way of doing that. They were thinking they could outmuscle teams with their big offensive line and a back like Doug Martin who’s good at hitting holes and breaking tackles, but Martin isn’t breaking tackles and he’s not getting much help from his line or the play-callers.

Yeah, it’s kind of hard to run the ball when the blocking isn’t the greatest — as Schiano has suggested — and your breakaway first round running back can’t break away.

Can Josh Freeman pass the Bucs to a win? So far this season, it’s as if the Bucs are scared to let him throw much less run outside and throw.

No one will truly know the answer that question until the Bucs take the shackles off of Freeman.

Shaun King, one of three quarterbacks to lead the Bucs to the NFC Championship, has put on his Sigmund Freud hat and determined that Josh Freeman needs to spend time on a couch with a sports psychologist.

No, it’s not related to Freeman’s love of guns and snakes, it’s because Freeman, King says, has “never been anywhere where they really won And it just seems like in real stressful, big-time moments in games, like he just seems a little lost. Like it doesn’t seemed like he’s as tuned in and focused as he should be.”

During the interview on the Ron and Ian Show on WDAE-AM 620, King explained that even though Freeman was money late in games in 2010, that doesn’t apply because Freeman didn’t have expectations and pressure on him that season. King says Freeman getting flummoxed in the two-minute offense is evidence of a problem. King also cites that Drew Brees uses the services of shrink to stay focused.

Here’s the entire King interview below, which focuses a lot on various aspects of Freeman’s game.

[UPDATE: The Redskins-Bucs game is officially blacked out.]

The Bucs-Redskins television blackout will be made official at 4:25 p.m. today.

Why is Joe so certain? Well, first and foremost, reams of $30 tickets, including all fees, remain available on TicketMaster.com for Sunday’s game. This was not the case before the blacked out home-opener against Carolina.

That’s a lousy sign, especially with Sunday’s weather forecast calling for a kickoff temperature of 85 degrees, a flimsy chance of rain and tolerable humidity. Yes, the local economy is rough, but there are loads of locals around that can afford a $30 ticket.

Opening day against the Panthers had an official attendance total of 51,533 (aka tickets distributed). Actual attendance was 46,758 (butts in the seats) per the Tampa Sports Authority. On Sunday, expect something approaching those totals — not good enough to meet 85-percent-of-non-premium-seats threshold to get the game on TV.

Greg Schiano talked about failures and evolution on the Bucs offensive line contributing to this season’s running game struggles.

But what about Erik Lorigs’ role in that?

Well, former Bucs defensive end Steve White (1996-2001), who breaks down Bucs games like no other, is confident Lorig isn’t a plus for the Bucs offense. In an in-depth coaches-film look at the Bucs offense against Dallas, (you must click through and check it out) White isolates a mistake of Lorig’s and goes deep into it, among similar studies of Doug Martin, Carl Nicks, Josh Freeman and more.

Now most people know that I have said plenty of times in the past that Bucs need to get a real fullback if they want to get better at running the ball. Nothing against Lorig, and he tries his best, but he just doesn’t have “running back eyes”. What I mean by that is the best fullbacks in the NFL run through the line as if they have the ball in their hands. They pick the route they would go to get the most amount of yardage and then they find a linebacker to tee off on.

Lorig hasn’t shown the ability to do that. Instead he just tries to block the way the play is drawn up on a black board. Thing is the tailback is taught to follow his fullback to daylight so if Lorig takes a bad track that likely means whomever is running the ball will too.

Case in point.

This is a still shot from the endzone of a running play where Lorig is leading up through the hole and Doug Martin is following him. I have two arrows extending from Lorig’s picture because I stopped the film at the point where he had to make the decision of which way to go. If he runs to the left everyone is blocked up and Clark is ready to block the defensive back inside out. If he goes right there is an unblocked Cowboy’s linebacker just waiting for him and an outside linebacker coming down the line to blow up the play.

Now which track do you think Lorig picked?

Again, Joe advises you to score yourself a huge sandwich and a cold beverage and study White’s breakdowns.

An interesting stat as it relates to fullback play, LeGarrette Blount’s four 100+ yard efforts in 2010 were all when Earnest Graham was playing fullback. Blount did not run for 100 yards during any of the six games Graham missed.

Sure, Joe knows Blount ran plenty of times from a single-back set, but the numbers don’t lie.

Despite the crazy skills of Redskins quarterback Robert Griffin III, he has been hammered by opposing defenses for a variety of reasons. Here, Jonathan Forsythe, LaVar Arrington, Jason Reid and Dan Steinberg discuss how much of an easy target RGIII is for NFL defenses in this Washington Post video.

Bucs coach Greg Schiano believes the Bucs haven’t blocked all that well for running back Doug Martin.

The Bucs’ running game, one of the foundations of the New Schiano Order, hasn’t exactly woken opposing defensive coordinators in the dead of the night in a cold sweat.

First round draft pick, running back Doug Martin, has been pounded time and again between the tackles, with just a modicum of success. Yesterday, speaking with the Tampa Bay pen and mic club, Bucs coach Greg Schiano acknowledged the running game hasn’t been moving the chains as much as he would have liked.

In short, Schiano thinks the Bucs have let Martin down.

“I think he is running hard, running well,” Schiano said. “But I don’t think we have done as good of a job of blocking as I felt we were going to be able to do.”

Most of that began when Pro Bowl right guard Davin Joseph went down in the preseason with a season-ending injury. Schiano hinted that the offensive line as a whole hasn’t quite recovered. Having a new right tackle (Demar Dotson) also added to, as Schiano put it, “a state of flux.”

There will be better days ahead, Schiano said, though Sunday’s opponent will present a large challenge.

“I think we will clearly get better as we move forward,’ Schiano said. “These guys, [the Redskins] will try to crowd the box. It is going to be upstream to run the football. We will have to be really perfect to be able to gain yardage running the football.”

One reason the Redskins will crowd the box is that teams have come to expect the Bucs to run, run, run up the middle (and perhaps punt). Joe believes if Josh Freeman is going to be granted more liberty to run and throw, it just may be this game Sunday.

The loss of Adrian Clayborn could be exceptionally glaring Sunday

Outside of the world class speed and monster arm, Redskins rookie quarterback Robert Griffin, III, is unique in another way.

RGIII is a right-handed QB who likes to roll out to the left and throws and runs on the move exceptionally, which is darn rare, Bucs defensive coordinator Bill Sheridan said yesterday.

Unfortunately, a QB moving left means RGIII will be running to where Adrian Clayborn should be, but the problem is the relentless Clayborn is done for the season.

Yesterday, the Bucs signed former Colts and Saints backup DE Jeff Charleston to help fill the void. Presumably, he and Daniel Te’O-Nesheim and George Johnson will fight for playing time.

Joe’s pulling for those guys, but it’ll be a shocker if they can replace Clayborn, a man his teammates have called the inspirational motor for the defensive line because of his relentless play.

Sheridan raved about the defensive line yesterday, though is words made Joe gulp at the thought of how hard it will be to replace Clayborn.

“When you watch them on film, they are really hard-charging, get after it players, and because they have talent they’re able to be productive as well,” Sheridan said of the Bucs’ defensive front. “You know, there are some guys that play really hard, they’re just not that talented. At the end of the game they don’t have much to show for it other than just a lot of great effort.”

Joe fears Clayborn’s replacements will fall into that latter category. Even Greg Schiano himself talked about his team’s suspect defensive line depth during training camp.

It’ll be interesting this week. Joe has no doubt Mike Shanahan and RGIII will go right after the new potential weakness in the Bucs defense.

There are good things thus far in the early season about the 2012 Bucs.

Last year, the ole’ defense was no less than revolting. Lawn chairs could have tackled opposing runners just as easily (and, Joe might add, cheaply).

Bucs coach Greg Schiano has turned that defense around. Now the Bucs have the best run defense in the NFL (the pass defense, well, Joe will skip for this post).

Now if the Bucs only had an offense to go with that run defense, this team could be something special. The offense has been, well, like a stunted Woody Hayes offense, two yards and a cloud of field turf pellets.

Tampa Tribune humorist Martin Fennelly believes, if one is to read between the lines, that Bucs quarterback Josh Freeman is being held hostage by the Bucs offense, and that the tightening of the noose is doing neither the Bucs nor Freeman any favors.

All those extra pieces they picked up this offseason, from free agency and the draft, were supposed to help surround Freeman with what he needed for an accurate answer to the question: Which is the real Freeman, the 2010 Josh who threw all those touchdowns in 2010, at his best with the game on the line, or the 2011 Freeman who threw all those picks?

How can we get any kind of answer out of a game like Sunday in Dallas?

The Bucs have been competitive in all three of their games, but Freeman is going to have to be freed up more if the Bucs want to be the ones kneeling down at the end of games. I don’t see how turning No. 5 into the day watchman for this offense is getting the most out of him.

That’s pretty much accurate. Freeman, for lack of a better phrase, is little more than a traffic cop. And when one needs to make an arrest of an armed criminal, a traffic cop is not usually the first to turn to.

Look, Joe understands that Freeman is learning a new offense and that it takes time (spare Joe the Alex Smith analogies). And Joe also gets that Schiano has irritable bowel syndrome when it comes to turnovers; so does Joe.

Freeman is gifted with both a cannon for an arm and legs. How about having him run controlled rollouts periodically so he doesn’t have such a bulls-eye on his back from defensive ends and blitzing linebackers?

The leader of the New Schiano Order held court before the Tampa Bay pen and mic club today to discuss all things Bucs. The very first question lobbed at Schiano was about the Bucs’ sluggish running game.

Rookie Doug Martin has had the lion’s share of the carries, almost all up the gut, in-between the tackle, not for much yardage.

Against Dallass it seemed the Bucs were bound and determined to break Martin through the interior of the Cowboys’ line, to no avail.

Help may be on the way, Schiano said. While he admitted the Bucs haven’t run the way he wanted — Schiano fingered blocking as a culprit — Schiano hopes to get LeGarrette Blount more touches in the rushing attack.

“I think with LeGarrette, we need to get him more involved,” Schiano said. “But [the Bucs are] not thinking of making any changes [to the lineup] or the way we are doing it. Just give [Blount] a little more action. The whole thing with the injury and we weren’t sure what it was, it threw things into flux a little bit. I think he is practicing well now and is ready to go. So I think we will have a good one-two punch like we envisioned early on. That is what my hope is.”

Schiano quickly explained this is not a swipe at Martin in any way, though Schiano did say the Bucs need to block better for both running backs.

Martin is “running hard, running well, but I don’t think we have done as good of a job of blocking as I felt we were going to be able to,” Schiano said. “You have a vision and then you lose [right guard] Davin [Joseph] and that throws it into a little state of flux and you start a new guy at tackle. I think we will clearly get better as we move forward. These guys, [the Redskins, Sunday’s opponent] will try to crowd the box. It is going to be upstream to run the football. We will have to be really perfect to be able to gain yardage running the football.”

This is good in Joe’s eyes. Schiano wants a two-headed monster to attack opposing defenses and the more he plays, say Blount, the better it will be for Martin, who has taken a pounding so early in the season, when he hits that rookie wall.

New Bucs punt returner Roscoe Parrish has the toughest job in the NFL, says Bucs coach Greg Schiano.

When the Bucs announced yesterday that Jordan Shipley was shipped out, largely because of his fumble of a punt in his first game with the Bucs — a mortal sin in the New Schiano Order — and the team signed Roscoe Parrish to replace him, Joe wondered why heralded rookie Michael Smith, who returns kickoffs, couldn’t also try his hand a punt returns.

So today, Joe asked the leader of the New Schiano Order, Bucs coach Greg Schiano, why it is that some guys can return kicks but struggle with punt returns, or vice-versa.

In short, Schiano said, fielding a punt may be the hardest skill to master in football.

“It’s really very, very different,” Schiano said of the two different skill sets. “In a kickoff, it’s an end over end kick. It is much easier to handle and judge off the tee than the punt. The punt spirals. The good punts spiral. A great punt gets up to the top and turns over and then starts to run from you. A not-so-good punt doesn’t turn over. That is the hardest skill there is in football, punt return. There is no doubt about it.

“Whatever punt (the punt may be; good or bad; spiral or not) you have,  everybody [defenders] is coming at you and it is the hardest ball to catch that there is in the game. In college, you have 85 scholarship players. That’s a lot of guys, yet you may have two or three guys who can competitively field punts.”

This, Schiano said, is one reason why the Bucs are playing musical chairs with punt return men.

“You get here [in the NFL], you talk about a specialist?” Schiano said. “Long-snapper, punter, place kicker and punt returner. There are several guys that can return kicks. There’s not the “now” presence of defenders when you are catching a kick. And it is an easier ball. Punt returning is tough. I don’t envy those guys. It is a special skill set. When you have one that is good, don’t take it for granted.”

Nor is Schiano taking for granted Parrish is free of fumbleitis. One reason Parrish was walking the streets is that he fumbled twice in the preseason.

“That’s always a concern,” Schiano said.

Raheem Morris will be hatching schemes in the Redskins secondary Sunday to confuse Josh Freeman. The ol’ ball coach will tip off his players to Freeman’s weaknesses and tendencies.

Right?

No. That’s ridiculous, says Ronde Barber.

Barber told Joe that kind of talk was silliness before the Giants game and will be this week.

“It’s completely overblown. Raheem knows our personnel, of course. But he doesn’t know our scheme any more,” Barber said. “It is what it is. That’s talk, just fodder for newspaper. It’s what you guys to talk about but it doesn’t apply in a game.”

Joe just hopes Bucs fans aren’t tortured by Raheem arm-barring and chest-bumping his men after picks of Freeman this weekend en route to a Redskins victory. For Joe, the only thing worse that that would be Rachel Watson leaving the country.

With the news yesterday the Bucs cut punt returner/wide receiver Jordan Shipley, largely because he gave up a fumble in his first and only chance returning a punt for the Bucs, and replaced him on the roster with former Cane Roscoe Parrish, it got Joe to thinking:

It seems, for reasons unknown, speedster Michael Smith cannot return punts.

The Bucs drafted the scatback out of Utah State largely because of his crazy yards-per-carry average and that he is lightning fast. A return man he is, Bucs people said with glee.

Now Smith is returning kickoffs for the Bucs. He is listed on the depth chart as first team kick returner and averages just over 18 yards a kickoff return. He has yet to field a punt, however.

If Smith is such a great return guy, and all suggestions are that he is, why not try to field punts?

Oh, and since Smith was brought in as a change-of-pace kinda guy, rather than using the plodding between-the-tackles rushing of Doug Martin 20-plus times a game for little to no gain, how about using Smith’s speed to advantage with some trap plays or — gasp! — plays on the corners?

Something was off with Josh Freeman on Sunday. Every Bucs fan could see it. Outside of his four picks against Carolina his rookie year, Sunday’s effort might have been his worst as a pro.

One thing Freeman was doing was holding on to the ball too long at times, which drew the ire of former Bucs guard Ian Beckles this week on the Ron and Ian Show.  Beckles was perturbed that Freeman seemed blind to the situations on the field.

“Be aware that DeMarcus Ware is out there, being blocked by Luke Stocker sometimes. The ball has to get out of his hand, even overthrow somebody,” Beckles pleaded. “Josh Freeman is holding the ball on three-step drops and getting sacked and fumbling. You can’t do that. Throw the ball!”

In what seems like a past life, Freeman would have done some tucking and running or creating with his feet Sunday, but that didn’t happen. And you also might have seen Freeman of a previous season throw more balls away and then come back all fiery with his receivers, but that wasn’t seen either.

Joe hopes Sunday was just an off day. Joe’s not ready to write off Freeman so fast like many other fans seem to be doing.

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Jordan Shipley’s gaffe was not tolerated

Fumbling punts in the New Schiano Order seems to get one a pink slip.

Preston Parker is looking for work, and now Jordan Shipley joins him. Shipley, after fumbling away a punt in Dallas on Sunday, was cut today in favor of former Buffalo return man Roscoe Parrish, who spent seven seasons with the Bills.

Somewhat ironically, Parrish muffed two punts this preseason for the Raiders, who proceeded to cut him.

Joe’s not surprised by the Bucs kicking Shipley to the curb. At this point, Joe wonders whether Parrish will step right into the punt returner role or whether Michael Smith or Arrelious Benn will get a shot there.

Just seven catches by Bucs tight ends this season makes one wonder how the Bucs plan to use the position as a weapon.

Interestingly, former Bucs tight end Dave Moore, the Buccaneers Radio Network game analyst, is quite fuzzy on this subject.

Dallas Clark has been used sparingly and didn’t look too sharp in getting free against man coverage at Dallas on Sunday.

Moore was asked about Clark during a WDAE-AM 620 interview Monday, and Moore said he was unsure how the Bucs would use Clark and wondered whether the Bucs expect him to be much more than a locker room leader, a Luke Stocker mentor, and an occasional contributor. 

“It’s hard to say with the scheme of offense. You brought in a completely new offense,” Moore said of the Bucs’ use of tight ends. “The West Coast offense under Greg Olson and Jon Gruden really involves the tight end. We haven’t really sen how much this offense stems from New York. [The Giants] have gone through a number of tight ends the last three years.

“I watched the [Giants] play last week. They have that Martellus Bennett they’ve targeted a few times, but it’s not the Jimmy Graham or the [Rob] Gronkowski type guy that you need in this offense.

“Dallas Clark was brought in here to be a leader, a guy to be able to contribute. I don’t think he did extremely well against the man coverage [Sunday]. Maybe not quite his strength is beating the safeties in man. Luke Stocker did catch his first touchdown on a play-action [Sunday]. So he’s really the young guy and the guy-to-be. And I think Dallas has really bought in to be the mentor to teach this guy how to play at this level. You know, I’m not really sure what the expectations are out of him. So I don’t know if I disagree or agree with your statement other than the fact that when they signed him, I’m not sure exactly what their expectations were. Did they expect him to be like Kellen Winslow? Or, did they want to bring him in to be that run/play-action tight end. You’re talking two different styles of tight ends all together.”

Joe finds it interesting that Moore didn’t have a clear picture of Clark’s role given how well versed Moore is in all things Buccaneers Xs and Os and knowledgeable of the tight end position.

Joe suspects that if Moore is still working on figuring out the roles of the Bucs’ tight ends, then Mike Sullivan and company are going through the same process, as well.

There’s a pattern developing here, and if one is to believe what one sees and what one hears, the non-stop pounding of rookie running back Doug Martin between the tackles isn’t getting the job done.

(Now before haters go wilding, let Joe emphasize that he really, really likes Martin. What is there not to like about the Bucs’ Muscle Hamster?)

Martin is averaging 3.4 yards a carry which, in NFL circles, is almost OK. Meanwhile, the running back so many locals love to loathe, doghouse-living LeGarrette Blount, has scant carries this season, despite his 4.6 yards a carry career average.

In one of the few times Blount touched the ball Sunday at Dallass, he broke off an 11-yard run and damned near leap-frogged for much more.

Bucs coach Greg Schiano prior to the season spoke in whimsical terms about having a two-headed monster of a running game with Martin and Blount. That hasn’t been the case.

Bucs roadgrading left guard Carl Nicks wishes it was so. Speaking on “Total Access” yesterday, heard on the Buccaneers Radio Network flagship station WDAE-AM 620, Nicks was asked if he would prefer the Bucs use a two-headed running attack to try to mix things up and hopefully spring the running game.

Nicks, though he initially hesitated to answer the question out of fear of hurting someone’s feelings, agreed. Emphatically so.

Chris in Bradenton: It seemed like very similar plays are being called over and over. I have a question: Would you like to see a two-back system like what Carolina runs, utilizing Blount more often, a more even split in the carries? Do you think that would have helped in the [Dallass] game?

Carl Nicks: I find myself in kind of a predicament answering that question, but, being how I am a little older, I am just going to keep it real with you: I would love to see that, have Blount and Doug share carries, kind of mix it up, thunder and lightning as I like to call it. I would absolutely love to see it. Love to see it.

Joe is starting to wonder if the false rumor about Mark Schlereth doesn’t actually apply to Blount. Sure, Joe knows he can’t block. Understandable, but damnit, when the guy gets warmed up he can break loose; but not if he is given the ball two or three times a game.

Look, again, Joe likes Martin, but as much as he is pounded between the tackles, Joe fears when Martin hits that inevitable rookie wall, he’s going to hit that wall hard.

That is not a good thing. Lightening the load a bit for Martin and allowing a guy who averages over four-plus yards a carry to get warmed up doesn’t seem to Joe to be treasonous.

To hear the entire Nicks interview, click on the little arrow below.

Joe loves the passion and true love of the Bucs that Justin “The Commish” Pawlowski brings to his commentary during the Gary and The Commish Show on 98.7 FM each weekday.

The Commish bleeds pewter and red, and he bled orange going back to his days as an oversized infant in Tampa 30 years ago.

So it’s no surprise that The Commish still has smoke poring from his ears when he thinks about the Bucs’ playcalling against Dallas on Sunday. And that’s the reason why today he was bellowing through the airwaves, “Get it through your thick skulls!”

Commish was absolutely enraged that Mike Sullivan and company didn’t take repeated shots down the field. And not because Dallas was down to playing two backup safeties, but primarily because the replacement officials are calling all kinds of pass interference penalties this season and the Bucs repeatedly were drawing man-to-man coverage on the outside.

Per The Commish, it’s just criminal foolishness that the Bucs didn’t look to capitalize on that opportunity.

Joe finds the angle of the replacement refs intriguing. But even without that, it was mind-boggling that the Bucs didn’t do more downfield. All those first- and second-down runs should have set up at least a few more deep shots.

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Is a lack of discipline and attention to details hurting the Bucs?

Absolutely.

That seems like an impossibility under the New Schiano Order. But the Bucs’ last two losses, where the Bucs came up short and made mistakes and questionable moves in the final two minutes, has Joe thinking.

It was the ol’ ball coach himself, Raheem Morris, who defended his Bucs team as being a disciplined program last month. And the very first defense Raheem offered was the team’s success late in games in 2010.

“We won a bunch of [2010] games in two-minute when you have to be disciplined. You got to do all the right things, things have to be executed exactly the right way in order to win those tight games and those close ones, which we did,” Raheem said. “You know, last year we weren’t able to accomplish those things, so you’re undisciplined.”

It was a fair point by Raheem. Precision execution is required to win late in games. It’s not magic, unless the referees give the you game or snatch it from your clutches (see last night or Bucs-Lions 2010). 

So far, the 2012 Bucs are 1-2, not only in the standings, but also in the late-game details. For Joe, the Bucs lost precious time and timeouts with how they handled their final drive in Dallas. Inexcusable stuff.

Yes, Joe believes Schiano runs a toes-on-the-line program, but details and discipline have killed the Bucs the past two weeks. Joe’s just glad it’s a not a lack of talent or effort that has cost the Bucs. That means the Bucs woes should be fixable quickly with proper coaching.