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It has been so long, Joe can’t remember a more exciting finish to a Bucs game then the overtime thriller Sunday when Dallas Clark caught a game-winning pass from Josh Freeman to beat the Panthers.

Clark appeared on “The Sunday Drive” following the win, heard exclusively on SiriusXM NFL Radio to recount how the Bucs came back on the Stinkin’ Panthers.

“It was a fun one, I just lulled them to sleep,” Clark said of his part in the game-winning drive. “I ran four or five arrow routes and caught them sleeping a bit and got a step past the Sam linebacker. It was weird. Never ended a game before like that. Fun feeling.

“It was getting late. We were down 11 with like six minutes left and I started to wonder, ‘Are we going to do something or are we going to pack it in and get prepared for next week?’ We kept doing our job even though we were playing horrible but we were able to rally last six minutes.”

Joe wonders if this is a harbinger of things to come or not. No, the Bucs should not have been losing to a garbage team like the Panthers.

But consider, Josh Freeman had a bad day. The offensive line sure looked like the injury-riddled unit it is. Doug Martin couldn’t get on track. Mark Barron looked like the Rookie Wall hit him.

But that was the beauty of this game. Players who were not playing well for most of the day but found a way to find their stride and, voila, a win happened!

Hey, it’s midnight, and Joe wants to share one of the better pick-6 returns you’ll see, courtesy of helmet-wielding, cabbie-slugging, Adderrall-popping, coach-cussing, referee-charging, pistol-friendly, granny-hassling Aqib Talib yesterday in the Patriots’ romp over Indianapolis.

Here’s the video. It’s pretty rare to see a guy zig-zag the field like Talib did and not run out of gas.

Joe’s confident the Bucs made the right move in ditching Talib, but it will, as always, be interesting to see what direction his career and life goes.

Maybe the Bucs beating a division foe in dramatic fashion in overtime has moved some Bucs fans to buy tickets. Per a missive from the Bucs official Twitter feed, the game with the Dixie Chicks is some 7,400 tickets short of the 85 percent non-premium plateau for lifting the NFL-imposed local TV blackout shroud.

@TBBuccaneers: About 11,000 non-premium tickets left to sell out Sunday’s game against Atlanta and about 7,400 short of reaching the 85% to lift blackout

Joe will be interested to see if these tickets move on a holiday week. That might be a tough sell with so many fans out of town or already with a full docket of weekend plans.

Now before anyone uses the weak sauce, knee-jerk cry of “Why don’t the Glazers buy the tickets?” How about asking a better question:

Often in other markets when a team needs to sell tickets, the local business community steps up and buys the remaining tickets left just before the deadline (Thursday, 1 p.m.) to ensure a local broadcast. Why hasn’t the local Tampa Bay business community stepped forward to not just help fans, but countless bars and restaurants which will be otherwise packed with fans watching the game?

To date, that has never happened to Joe’s knowledge in the past three years.

Or an even better question:

In other markets when a blackout looms, the local FOX/CBS affiliate will buy up the tickets. Since WTVT-TV Channel 13 is a FOX owned-and-operated station, that means Rupert Murdoch, the head honcho of FOX who makes Teams Glazer look like Joe he has so much cash, wouldn’t even miss the paltry thousands it would cost to broadcast the game locally.

Again, neither the local FOX nor CBS affiliate does this. Joe has an idea why: if either station thought it could make some cash doing this, they would have pulled the trigger to lift a blackout already.

So instead of being lame and whining about the Bucs owners, why not direct your ire at those in the community that, unlike in other NFL markets, haven’t/won’t step up to the plate to help out local Bucs fans.

Sometimes, it’s just too easy blaming the local pinata, Team Glazer.

Peter King’s back-handed compliment of Bucs quarterback Josh Freeman notwithstanding, Joe knows many Bucs fans want national media types to give the Bucs a big ol’ bear hug as much if not more so than a win.

This has always puzzled Joe, but he just shrugs his shoulders. This is too nice of a day to ponder such heavy subjects.

So Joe brings this little nugget from Maoist Michael Silver for your dancing and reading enjoyment. Unlike King, Silver is starting to drink the Freeman Kool-Aid, so he wrote on Yahoo! Sports this morning.

4. The Bucs, who fought back from a 21-10 deficit with six minutes remaining in regulation, have won five of six to join the Indianapolis Colts as the 2012 season’s most pleasant surprises. Even better, Josh Freeman is starting to resemble the cool, consistently clutch and dripping-with-potential passer we saw in 2010.

Yes, as we saw yesterday, the Bucs will go as far as Freeman can take them. When he is hot (last few minutes of the game and in overtime), the Bucs offense is lethal.

When Freeman struggled, it was shades of 2010 and the offense was impotent.

Vocal Bucs critic Ian Beckles, who manned the guard position for Tampa Bay from 1990 to 1996, was a little unhappy this morning on the WDAE-AM 620 airwaves because he felt the Bucs didn’t stick with the running game enough when it was clearly working in the first half and Carolina was on the ropes.

The funny thing is Greg Schiano agreed with Beckles. Speaking before media this afternoon, the leader of the New Schiano Order was asked to identify what ailed his offense much of the day.

“We probably could have ran the ball better in the first half, or just more, you know, more opportunities,” Schiano said.

That was an interesting public critique of Mike Sullivan. But Joe can only speculate as to what/when Schiano was referring.

Perhaps Schiano would have preferred a run on 2-and-8 from the Carolina 30 yard line with the Bucs leading 10-0 with 58 seconds left in the first quarter? A positive run there puts the Bucs in better field-goal range and gives Josh Freeman a more manageable third down. Freeman threw his ugly pick-6 on the next play.

Or perhaps Schiano, after Doug Martin popped a 20-yard scamper to close the first quarter, would have preferred not to see three straight incompletions to open the Bucs’ next series?

Regardless of the specifics, it’s interesting to see the head coach and Beckles unknowingly bonding.

A couple of lovely lasses show off their wares. These customers won Josh Freeman throwback jerseys at Joe’s game-watching event at Tilted Kilt yesterday. There were four jersey-winners in all, but these were the most visually soothing.

Joe had a blast yesterday and it just wasn’t because the Bucs won. Joe had a blast because he watched the Bucs’ thrilling win while dining and having an adult beverage or two gawking at the lovely employees of Tilted Kilt in Clearwater.

Joe loves the bonding that goes on at these Joe-sponsored, game-watching events. Joe enjoyed mingling with loyal readers and giving away gear and exploring new angles to view the famous Kilt girls.

Tilted Kilt is a great place to watch all NFL and college games, with indoor and outdoor seating and superior food.

Joe hopes you can make it out to the next game-watching event.

Demar Dotson detailed to Joe what was going on in the Bucs huddle during the winning drive in overtime to beat the Panthers.

The one thing that geeked Joe with the Bucs win over the Stinkin’ Panthers was how the Bucs celebrated when Dallas Clark hauled in a pass from Josh Freeman in overtime to seal the win.

As Bucs coach Greg Schiano said today, “You saw a lot of kid come out of these men.” Even Schiano was raised in the air in the midst of a bear hug by receivers coach P.J. Fleck.

Bucs offensive tackle Demar Dotson was no different. He explained to Joe today about the mood of the Bucs huddle in the winning drive in overtime, and how he celebrated.

“Guys were calm and relaxed,” Dotson said. “We just had a big momentum swing [by tying the game in regulation]. We felt good about going down the field. Guys felt real good.”

Of course, the good feelings were stoked when Doug Martin tore off a couple key, monster runs in the march downfield.

“Once [Martin] had had those two big runs, man, it was like, ‘OK, we’ve got to get this done. It’s meant for us today,'” Dotson said.

Then, the Freeman-to-Clark touchdown happened and bedlam on the Bucs sideline and on the field ensued.

“Different guys did different things,” Dotson said. “But I fell to the ground and lifted my arms up. It was one of the best feelings. You put in so much work and you fought and scratched and came back from adversity throughout the game and to win it, it felt so good.”

The status of backup right tackle turned starting right guard Javon Meredith was very much in doubt for Sunday, as Meredith was on crutches during the week.

News flash: crutches + four days of rehab rarely equals a starting guard.

Today, Greg Schiano called Meredith’s return yesterday “miraclous” and said video of his ankle injury in practice last week was heinous and not encouraging at all.

As for Donald Penn, who was injured during the game but retunred, Schiano said Penn’s “a tough guy” and should not be slowed down.

Joe definitely had a moment of angst when Penn was on the ground in pain yesterday. That’s one of the rarest sights in Bucs history. Penn’s consecutive starts streak stands at 86 games.

In the world of Greg Schiano’s common baseball analogies, it seems Vincent Jackson is the overpowering fastball, Mike Williams is the nasty cut fastball, and Dallas Clark is the back-breaking slow curve. 

This afternoon the leader of the New Schiano Order explained to media that in working to build the Bucs with rockstar general manager Mark Dominik that the GM was dialed on what the coach was trying to accomplish on the field in order to snatch players that could produce in those parameters.

One of those was Dallas Clark, Schiano said, a bit of an X-factor among the Bucs’ weaponry.

“That one curveball that’s hard to defend,” Schiano said of Clark. “It’s that extra component.”

Schiano was enamored by the wheel route and catch by Clark to win the game in overtime. Hell, every Bucs fan was jacked up by it, and the catch highlighted Clark’s biggest day as a Buccaneer.

How exactly does a defense prepare to stop the Bucs? Joe’s glad that’s not his job.

Panthers defensive end Charles Johnson lashed out at teammates after the Bucs overtime win Sunday.

As giddy as the Bucs were with the come-from-behind overtime lighting bolt of a win in Charlotte yesterday, the Panthers seem to be coming apart at the seams.

So unnerved was Panthers defensive end Charles Johnson, he took to Twitter and lashed out at unnamed teammates in a revealing, blunt statement.

@randywattson: Embarrassed to be apart of that last drive! Some people study and work harder than others and they get exposé in the game #saynomore

Joe is of two minds with this. First, Joe gets a kick out of how the Stinkin’ Panthers are melting down, in part, to the Bucs playing Lazarus, rising from the dead to beat them in their own crib before untold dozens of Panthers fans (did you notice the empty seats?).

Then, Joe thinks the Panthers are in meltdown mode. If the locker room is this fractured where guys call out teammates in Twitter, how many days does good-guy Ron Rivera have with the team?

Vincent Jackson’s production is rivaling the stunning campaigns turned in my Mark Carrier and Kevin House in the 1980s

Rockstar Bucs general manager Mark Dominik offered historical perspective on Vincent Jackson during a recent Peter King podcast. Dominik said he was targeting Jackson for a long time because it appeared he could be the first elite No. 1 receiver in his prime to available in free agency in many, many years, if not ever.

That was an interesting take on the Jackson signing, and one that’s delivering sweet music for the Bucs.

Not since Antonio Bryant’s eye-popping 2008 season has a Bucs wide receiver struck fear into opponents like Jackson has done in 2012. Bryant was one of Joe’s favorites, but it became clear he was off the couch and playing for a contract in ’08, while Jackson is collecting an eight-figure check and being an ultimate team player.

Jackson’s got 42 catches this season for a stunning 863 yards and seven touchdowns. He’s on pace to turn out arguably the best receiving season in Bucs history. Not since Mark Carrier’s Pro Bowl 1989 campaign (84 catches for 1422 yards and nine touchdowns), or the 1981 edition of Kevin House (56 catches for 1176 yards and nine TDs) have Bucs fans seen such explosiveness.

Jackson’s late touchdown grab yesterday in traffic was extraordinary yet Josh Freeman seems to be getting more of the credit for the throw. Yeah, it’s splitting hairs to argue who deserves more credit, but Joe wants to heap a bigger share of the love on Jackson. It was a brilliant catch.

If only Jackson could have managed another 45 inches on his 95-yard catch and run against New Orleans, this would practically be a perfect season for him.

Panthers tight end Greg Olsen hauls in a pass in front of Bucs safety Mark Barron Sunday.

Joe had flashbacks yesterday as the Bucs rallied to beat the Stinkin’ Panthers, flashbacks to when he was a baseball writer.

When Joe was a beat writer covering the Kansas City Royals — seems like another lifetime ago — Joe almost always worked on deadline, meaning for night games Joe had a short window to write and file a story so it made the next day’s paper.

Periodically, a team would make a comeback from a large deficit late in the game. This proved troublesome, as Joe often had his story(ies) all but written and would have to start from scratch with sometimes 20 minutes until deadline.

Joe had a mental list of stories he was going to write about from what appeared to be an uglier than ugly Bucs upset loss at Carolina yesterday. Josh Freeman struggling, the team had a rash of turnovers, a mortal sin in the New Schiano Order, and how awful of a day Bucs rookie safety Mark Barron had.

Of course, thanks to quite a few Bucs players, those stories were set aside. Except for Barron’s.

Joe changed his mind about writing of Barron’s struggles when he read Wolf Heard’s piece on Buccaneers101, where Heard basically asks out loud, “Has Mark Barron hit the rookie wall?”

Barron, who was drafted No. 7 overall by the Bucs in April, has struggled in the passing game as of late. He seems to be out of position way too much and has had trouble covering tight ends, which is something a fast, young player like himself should be able to do.

Barron also hasn’t learn a very simple principle that all defensive backs need to do – get your head around when the ball is coming. Last week, Barron got flagged for pass interference after he didn’t turn his head toward the ball while knocking down a pass. The flag was picked up so no harm was done.

But he got called for the same thing on Sunday against the Panthers while trying to cover Greg Olsen in the end zone, and this time it cost him. Running back Jonathan Stewart punched it in from 1-yard out to give the Panthers a 14-10 lead after Barron’s penalty.

Now Joe knows Barron hasn’t been the greatest defender of the pass, though he didn’t stink up the joint. Yesterday, Barron played pass defense badly. This has been a recurring problem that may or may not be worsening.

After all, it could be that teams are targeting Barron more on the pass, thus it appears on face value he is getting beat more only because he is being targeted more.

This doesn’t explain Barron’s sudden whiffing of tackles. Prior, Barron was an absolute rock on the run game and an effective blitzer (remember how he buried RGIII into the turf of the Stadium on Dale Mabry Highway). Barron wasn’t as lethal against the run Sunday and in one play, Cam Newton juked Barron in the open field so bad, Barron’s jock was left behind. Joe thought sure it was Myron Lewis at first, and not Barron, but the eye in the sky of replays doesn’t lie.

Two weeks ago, Bucs coach Greg Schiano noted he was concerned about the “The Rookie Wall,” and said that right about now rookies have played essentially what amounts to a full season of college football, when one factors in training camp, preseason games and the NFL’s regular season.

Schiano said he was hoping to limit Doug Martin’s carries as a result and was keeping an eye on Lavonte David, who rarely comes off the field on defense.

Maybe Schiano ought to be paying attention to Barron as well? Perhaps he could use a little less work in practice, or maybe a half-day off or so to help rest his bones?

The Bucs are going to need Barron these next six weeks.

Giants fans were ready to run Eli Manning out of town when he was a young quarterback — his head coach along with him — and it was often for performing a lot like Josh Freeman did yesterday minus the near-miracle victory.

Popcorn-munching, coffee-slurping, fried-chicken-eating, oatmeal-loving, circle-jerking, beer-chugging Peter King of Sports Illustrated and NBC Sports fame takes note of this in his must-read Monday Morning Quarterback column on SI.com, though King seems to not realize that Freeman was just fine for the first 10 minutes against the Panthers yesterday.  

King spoke to Freeman after the win in Carolina and tries to put the QB’s performance into perspective.

6. This Josh Freeman’s pretty good. The game Josh Freeman played in Carolina Sunday reminded me of a few Eli Manning games we’ve seen over the years. Stink it up for the first 50 minutes, dig a hole, then find a way to coolly get out of it. “We were way too sloppy for a long time,” Freeman said from the team bus to the airport after the game. “I was way too sloppy.” The Bucs made up 11 points?a field goal, a touchdown, a two-point conversion pass?in the last five minutes of regulation, then won it on a beautiful Freeman-to-Dallas Clark pass in overtime. The play of the day, though, was the 24-yard dart from Freeman to Vincent Jackson with 12 seconds left in the fourth quarter?with 280-pound defensive end Greg Hardy steaming in on a stunt in Freeman’s face, with two defenders buzzing around Jackson. “You don’t really have many options,” said Freeman, considering the pass rush and the clock and the need for a touchdown and not a field goal and the physicality of Jackson to fight off defenders to make the catch if he needs to. “You just gotta go. It was remarkable.” We forget Freeman is 24 years old. He’s six months younger than Ryan Tannehill. He’s with a new head coach, Greg Schiano; a new quarterback coach, Ron Turner; a new offensive coordinator, Mike Sullivan; with a new franchise receiver in Jackson and a new tight end in the rejuvenated Clark and a new franchise running back in Doug Martin. And here comes Freeman off a terrible 2011, playing the best football of his pro life. “What we’ve learned so far this year,” said Freeman, “is all that matters is battling. Games are 60 minutes, longer sometimes, and we knew we’ve got the players to make sure we can win in the end.” 

King goes on to look at some statistical babble on Freeman, and elightens the nation of Freeman’s greatness throwing deep and struggles throwing short.

Regardless, the Eli Manning analogy is interesting, given that Mike Sullivan was credited for helping Manning mature into the guy who won a Super Bowl last season. It’s comforting to Joe that Freeman’s wild day yesterday won’t faze the offensive coordinator.

Dallas Clark and Vincent Jackson celebrate Clark’s game-winning catch yesterday over the Stinkin’ Panthers.

To hear Bucs coach Greg Schiano on the Bucs radio network Sunday afternoon, the Bucs may not have won in overtime against the Stinkin’ Panthers had it not been for Dallas Clark.

Sure, Schiano waxed poetic about the catches from Vincent Jackson, the throws later from Josh Freeman and the running of Doug Martin. But Schiano seemed to go out of his way to knighting Clark with the win.

“It was a great throw, and a great catch,” Schiano said of Freeman’s toss to Clark for the win. “Dallas is a cagey vet and he knew where he was and to get his feet in bounds, maybe a younger player wouldn’t have that but a guy like Dallas Clark does. he’s a leader on this football team.”

The catch sure looked difficult on TV. Clark was wide, wide open and had to stop and come back to the ball, all the while keeping his feet inbounds, which he did deftly, channeling his inner Mike Williams.

It’s one thing to be able to catch the ball but yet something else to tap dance like Paula Abdul for the touchdown.

Throw in the fact that Freeman claims he threw the ball much sooner than he wanted to, which caused the ball to be thrown a bit behind Clark which forced him to come back to the ball.

What an incredible win by the Bucs and it would never have happened without big-time plays made late by big-time players.

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Veteran sports columnist Gary Shelton suggests the Bucs win over the Panthers Sunday may have been the greatest comeback in team history. And, in this Tampa Bay Times video, Shelton explains it was because of the play of one player.

Today’s heinous two interceptions tossed by Josh Freeman, one a pick-6, definitely stunned Joe, as Joe swilled beer and bonded with fellow Bucs fans and staff at Tilted Kilt in Clearwater.

All Joe could think about was doom and gloom. Freeman had gotten so out of sync in between the early and late minutes of the comeback win against Carolina, Joe began to wonder whether the 2011 Freeman had returned from the dead.

While no elite quarterback throws a senseless pick-6 like Freeman’s was, the most comforting part of this game for Joe was Freeman’s ability to bounce back and play with elite confidence and precision to force overtime and win.

Ironically, Freeman had company today from Matt Ryan, who tossed five interceptions in the Falcons victory.

The Falcons and Bucs, who square off in Tampa next Sunday, both looked very beatable for much of today. Yes, good teams overcome shaky performances, but Freeman (and/or Ryan) likely will have to do so much better next week to score a W.

Joe did have issues today with the Bucs’ conservative playcalling at times and the Bucs’ continued obsession with using D.J. Ware so much on third down.

(Last Joe checked Doug Martin was heralded by Bucs brass before and after the draft as “a versatile, three-down back.”)

But that written, today’s game definitely was yet another big positive for offensive coordinator Mike Sullivan. You can’t hang Josh Freeman’s ugly interceptions and Doug Martin’s costly goal-line cough-up on Sullivan. And “Sully,” as he’s called, had his offense and playcalling raring and ready to open the game, ready when the game was on the line, and ready for the kill in overtime.

The man knows how to make adjustments, and clearly the Bucs are very well prepared on offense.

As Joe’s written previously, Joe’s not sure how Sullivan won’t be in consideration for a head coaching gig after this season, assuming the Bucs offense keeps rolling. He’s got rings. He’s coached under disciplinarians. He’s got a military-officer background. He’s molded quarterbacks. And he’ll have playcalling prowess on his resume.