Many tens of thousands of JoeBucsFan.com readers only come here once a week or so. They’re people with meaningful lives, unlike Joe and some Bucs-obsessed lunatics that live on these pages 24/7. So with no Bucs football until tomorrow, Joe thought he’d re-visit a handful of headlines from last week — for non-regular readers that might want to catch up. Enjoy!

Schiano resuscitated
https://www.joebucsfan.com/?p=100674

Death threats routine for Revis
https://www.joebucsfan.com/?p=100706

Bucs knew Dolphins’ snap count
https://www.joebucsfan.com/?p=100774

Why is Akeem Spence ditching donuts and video games?
https://www.joebucsfan.com/?p=100717

Goldson says he won’t stop his Hawk ways
https://www.joebucsfan.com/?p=100784

Confidence in Clayborn waning
https://www.joebucsfan.com/?p=100810

Gholston and Spence share ugly secret
https://www.joebucsfan.com/?p=100848

Latest on the Freeman leaks
https://www.joebucsfan.com/?p=100863

Earnest Byner succeeding over and over
https://www.joebucsfan.com/?p=100954

Greg Schiano’s crystal ball
https://www.joebucsfan.com/?p=100929

No Gatorade = Schiano hate?
https://www.joebucsfan.com/?p=100969

Joe’s weekly podcast
https://www.joebucsfan.com/?p=100945

McCoy references a new gameplan
https://www.joebucsfan.com/?p=100958

The Bucs may not show Johnny Football any love if they decide Mike Glennon is the future face of the franchise.

Joe has nothing against Mike Glennon. He looks right now to be a serviceable if not capable backup.

Glennon has shown Joe little that he could put a team on his back and lead them to a playoff berth, much less a Super Bowl run. Maybe Joe isn’t watching the same games as the one and only Chris “Mad Dog” Russo and the Custodian of Canton, eye-RAH! Kaufman of the Tampa Tribune. Both think Glennon has played well enough thus far that it is debatable whether the Bucs draft a quarterback next spring.

The topic of GLennon was discussed when Kaufman made his weekly appearance with Russo on the show that bears his name, “Mad Dog Unleashed” heard exclusively on SiriusXM Radio.

Chris “Mad Dog” Russo: I will tell you right now! If Glennon turns out to be a pretty good quarterback – Freeman has been a bust – now if Glennon turns out to be a pretty good quarterback, in these next seven or eight games, you have to give [Bucs commander Greg Schiano] credit for having the guts to make that move. I like what I see out of Glennon. He’s not bad, you know that Ira? He’s big and he’s got a good arm. He [views] the field, he’s sure, he can move a little bit. He is serviceable as far as his movement is concerned. He’s done a nice job for [the Bucs] in these last four or five games, you know?

eye-RAH! Kaufman: There’s no question, there’s no question. He’s been better than advertised, better than I anticipated. I think the biggest question going forward along with Schiano’s status is if you are a Bucs fan, Chris, is has Glennon shown enough or will he over the next seven games that they don’t have to use that top-three pick on a quarterback? That’s a big, big point and issue going forward with this franchise.

If the Bucs land a top-three pick it’s almost criminal to not draft a franchise quarterback. Hell, if Joe is sitting in Bucs rock star general manager Mark Dominik’s seat next spring, he’d trade down a little (just a little), stock up on some draft picks, land Texas A&M tackle Jake Matthews or Michigan tackle Taylor Lewan, then trade back up into the late first round and land Johnny Football.

Then go out and enjoy a cognac and fire up a cigar from Ybor City and admire the work.

Joe is willing to lay cash if Bucs commander Greg Schiano is granted a mulligan by Team Glazer, survives and returns next year, then the Bucs will not draft a quarterback. Glennon is Schiano’s guy. Plain and simple.

What would you rather do? Get stuck in a virtual parking lot on I-275 or drink beer at a tailgate? Joe thought so.

To avoid the ugly traffic, “The Road Warrior” is your source to have a smooth ride to your tailgate tomorrow. Holley Sinn will help you navigate your way to the Stadium on Dale Mabry Highway. The award-winning traffic reporter for Joe’s friends at WTSP-TV Channel 10 has vital information about shortcuts and construction zones both before and after the game. Holley has special news for those driving to the game from Pinellas County or points west. Catch Holley and her traffic updates weekday mornings on WTSP, and via her Twitter handle @10NewsTraffic.

Some would suggest that stud Pro Bowl receiver Vincent Jackson has slipped this year. Sure, he has dropped too many balls. Joe is sure Jackson would admit that (if anyone has a [free] link that charts dropped balls, Joe would be indebted to you. Joe has searched far and wide for such a site and he strikes out each time).

Now Jackson hasn’t been flashing much of late and Joe attributes that to being double- if not triple-teamed. You think opponents lay awake at night worrying about Skye Dawson? So with only one legitimate threat at wide receiver, opponents are going to lock down Jackson and Joe expects the Dixie Chicks to do the same tomorrow.

Jackson, however, believes he and Bucs receivers are getting help from cornerback Darrelle Revis, who has both tested lesser receivers, and pushed Jackson to be better.

“Absolutely. We knew that coming into training camp. It’s a lot of fun for us to work together. I’ve played him a few times in my career. You like that, you like the challenge, you like playing guys that are considered some of the best at their position and it brings the best out of you,” Jackson said. “All we’re going to do is continue to elevate each other’s game.”

Granted, Revis isn’t quite yet 100 percent from offseason knee surgery, but he’s about there he admits. Revis also is a part-time coach with the secondary. The Bucs’ young cornerbacks just rave about how much they have learned from him.

Maybe Revis is why quarterback Mike Glennon is allergic to throwing deep balls? Revis has him so spooked in practice that it carries over to games?

Fans in the green-shaded areas below can watch the Dixie Chicks-Bucs game free from their local over-the-air FOX affilate. Coverage map courtesy of the506.com.

While we all cheer for the Bucs to win, at the same time there’s still only one big end-of-season prize left to be had: a first-round draft pick. With that in mind, there are key matchups this weekend.

Falcons (2-7) at Bucs (1-8) – This one is gigantic for draft position. If the Bucs lose this winnable home game and fall two games behind Atlanta, does anyone really think they can make up that ground by season’s end? On the flip side, if the Bucs win, then Joe would put his money on the Bucs passing Atlanta and finishing third in the NFC South. (Imagine a healthy Atlanta with a fourth-place schedule next season. Ouch!)

Raiders (3-6) at Texans (2-7) – Now here’s a couple of teams surely in the market for a franchise quarterback.

Arizona (5-4) at Jacksonville (1-8) – The Cardinals are probably too nasty on defense for the Jags, but Joe surely wouldn’t bet on the Cards on the road. But don’t worry, Bucs fans, Jacksonville has a pretty soft schedule the rest of the way, twice against Houston, home for Buffalo and Tennessee, and at Indianapolis and Cleveland. There should be a couple of Ws in there for the Jags.  

Vikings (2-7) at Seattle (9-1)  – No chance the Vikings play like the Bucs did in Seattle.

*Redskins & Giants (both 3-6) – Joe will pay more attention to these two talented teams when they face each other in the first of two December meetings.

Think you know what Greg Schiano’s fate will be in January? Well, now you can bet on it.

In the gambling capital of the east, New Jersey, the betting odds of Schiano’s Bucs coaching life are news, as reported by the Star-Ledger.

Online wagering site Bovada has set lines on various NFL coaches.

In case you’ve been following the nightmarish season former Rutgers head coach Greg Schiano is dealing with in Tampa Bay, it shouldn’t be that shocking to see Bovada put his chances at returning at +300 and put up a line of -500 that he won’t be at the helm for the Bucs in 2014.

Of interest to Giants and Jets fans: Bovada favors Jason Garrett not to return to the Cowboys next season; the same goes for Dolphins head coach Joe Philbin. The company’s odds are on Mike Shanahan returning to the Redskins.

For the innocent and pure who do not understand betting lines, the above means you’d have to bet $500 on Schiano’s demise to win $100. If you bet 100 on his survival, you’d win $300.

Joe ain’t touchin’ that action. Though Joe would bet on the Bucs to beat the Falcons tomorrow.

Much to the angst of many Bucs fans, who want Bucs commander Greg Schiano gone by midnight tonight, Joe isn’t so sure Schiano is a goner, despite the damning 1-8 start to the season and winning but 14 of his last 16 games.

Joe really believes there is a chance Team Glazer gives Schiano a mulligan over the mess that Josh Freeman started, doing his best to Pearl Harbor the team right out of the chute, and the MRSA chaos that only the most delirious of Schiano hates would blame him for.

It seems longtime Tampa Tribune scribe eye-RAH! Kaufman isn’t so sure. The subject of Schiano’s job security came up when Kaufman made his weekly appearance with the one and only Chris “Mad Dog” Russo on the show that bears his name, “Mad Dog Unleashed,” heard exclusively on SiriusXM Radio.

Chris “Mad Dog” Russo: I watched the game Monday night and there may be evidence that Schiano should stay. [Mike] Glennon looked better, No. 1. No. 1 the veterans played hard; they fell behind and recovered. The crowd was into it. There were some positives about Schiano I thought on Monday night. What’s your take about that?

eye-RAH! Kaufman: Chris, it’s a start but it’s only a start. Chris, he has to win another four or five games. I don’t know if he can pull it off. You’ve got to remember, Chris, you’ve got to remember the expectations of this team. This is the telling point: The Glazers, in their history, they spend on free agents when they think they have a competitive football team. They did it in ’01 when they brought in Simeon Rice and Brad Johnson. That team was ready to win. They’ve done it the last two years; they traded for [Darrelle] Revis. That tells you what was in the mind of ownership here, Chris. Rebuilding was over here in Tampa; that started in ’09. It was time to win. When you have a year like this, you are 0-8 and out of it early, the fans have turned on Schiano with a vengeance though a little bit less now, I agree. But the MRSA, the Josh Freeman saga, there is a lot to answer for, Chris. It’s a start, but he has a long way to go.

Now that is an interesting thought Joe hadn’t pondered. Team Glazer, in the past, has hinted that if the Bucs built through the draft, they would be liable to be very patient with their football operations staff. But if they went all Danny Snyder/Jerry Jones and went shopping for their team, the patience would be much thinner.

In the past two years, Team Glazer has inked a quarter of a billion (that’s billion with a “B”) in free agent contracts the past two years. Team Glazer could have purchased an NHL team for that kind of cash, so fans who still poke their fingers at Team Glazer for not spending cash need to be backhanded.

So that is the predicament Schiano finds himself in: How to convince Team Glazer to give him a mulligan when they spent a king’s ransom on the team.

A 3-1 record in December would go a long way to help Schiano. But there goes a top-five draft pick.

The Bucs-Falcons injury report came out earlier this afternoon and there were only two Buccaneers listed as “questionable” for Sunday’s game against the Dixie Chicks: (Carl Nicks is ruled out — why isn’t he on the injured reserve list?) defensive end Da’Quan Bowers and receiver Chris Owusu.

While Owusu isn’t much of a loss, he’s been dinged up all season, the loss of Bowers, who is suffering from concussion-like symptoms sinceMonday night’s win over the Dolphins, might be significant.

If you listen to the words of defensive tackle Gerald McCoy, the success of the Bucs’ front line when they finally were allowed to rush the quarterback in the last defensive stand of the game — finally [!] because it is damned near Thanksgiving and the friggin’ season started 11 weeks ago! — it seems Bucs coaches may finally swallow their pride and grant linemen their season-long wish of not being collared with worrying about stunts and other nonsense.

Bowers showed Monday night in one of his rare appearances on the field that when allowed to rush the quarterback, he can do well as his half-sack can attest.

So if the Bucs truly are going to let their defensive line go after Matty Ice, the loss of Bowers will be felt if he cannot make a go of it Sunday.

Two in a row? Veteran WTSP-TV sportscaster Dave Wirth checks in with his preview of the Bucs-Falcons game on Sunday. Enjoy!

So what do the Bucs have in Mike Glennon? Is it enough to not draft Johnny Manziel a quarterback in the first round of the 2014 draft?

Outside of the future of the New Schiano Order, that’s the biggest question that will be answered before the end of 2013.

Glennon has exceeded expectations as a third-round pick dropped into a mess of a situation as a starter. Glennon still has much to prove, but he keeps impressing respected analysts. Speaking on Fan Interference on WHFS-FM 98.7 this week, NFL Films senior producer/noted guru Greg Cosell compared Glennon to one of the game’s best quarterbacks.

“I think he has similar attributes to Matt Ryan,” Cosell said. “Whether they fully develop within the context of a team, don’t forget someone like Matt Ryan for the first four years of his career played in an offense that was run based, that ran very, very effectively. People lose sight of why players are effective. And I like Matt Ryan a lot, but he was in an offense in the first four years of his career that was a run-first offense.

“So you have to see what else [the Bucs] will bring to the table offensively. If [Glennon] is in a situation where in order to score points he’s going to have to throw it 40 times a game, you’re going to put him under duress that he probably can’t handle at this point in his career.”

Glennon’s got seven games to prove himself. If he can’t win a chunk of games, his coach will be fired and Glennon will become a backup. That’s very clear to Joe.

However, the bigger question is what happens if Glennon and Schiano survive in 2014. Would the Bucs draft a quarterback anyway, if the right one was in their lap?

Get to know Bucs running back Bobby Rainey as Olivia Stacey of “Trib TV” chats with him in this TBO.com video.

Could the reason why Adrian Clayborn and the Bucs haven’t terrorized quarterbacks be because the Bucs place too much emphasis on rush defense?

Aside from the race for the first pick in next spring’s draft, the biggest item that has Bucs fans rolling around in bed at night, unable to sleep, is the simple lack of pressure on opposing quarterbacks.

Joe has thought long about this subject as well, and Joe thinks he is on to something. Since the day Bucs commander Greg Schiano was first hired, he pledged to stop the run. That’s virtually all he talked about when breaking down defenses: Stop the run first.

This mentality — Joe is not being dismissive here — has permeated Schiano’s players, which often happens no matter who the coach is. As the Bucs ready for their 10th game of the season, here are a couple of quotes from Bucs players:

“I think it’s very important for us to [stop the run],” Bucs defensive end Adrian Clayborn said. “First of all, stop the run, because that was the thing the last two weeks, was keep running the ball and pounding the ball and we kept them to zero yards on first and second down, so that was very good for us and it allowed us to pass rush and put pressure on the quarterback.”

“That’s big for us, that’s one of our goals – stopping the run, of course, and no explosive plays,” Bucs safety Dashon Goldson said. “We did both of those; they [had] two yards rushing and no [passes] over 25 yards. That’s big, especially against a good football team. Whenever you do stuff like that, the sky’s the limit and your chances of winning are very high.”

Now this really isn’t a novel concept, but could it be that maybe, perhaps Schiano’s strong over-the-top emphasis on stopping the run, and using all of these silly stunts, which may help on the run but implode rushing the quarterback may be what ills the pass rush?

Yes, it is important to stop the run. Joe doesn’t think anyone who isn’t on a bender would argue. But in this goal to shut down the run, maybe Schiano and his staff are subconsciously neglecting the pass rush?

The Falcons have the lowest ranked running game in the NFL. They even had a rare padded practice Wednesday devoted to running the football, per the Atlanta Journal Constitution.

Add to that mess injuries to Roddy White, now No. 2 receiver Harry Douglas, and Tony Gonzalez, who missed the last two practices with a toe injury suffered Sunday. Douglas as a bad knee and missed practice yesterday.

Atlanta is winless on the road. They’ve been blown out in their last three games. They have an awful run defense. Matt Ryan has thrown seven interceptions in his last three games.

So how can the Bucs lose this game?

Sadly, Bucs fans know there’s a lot of ways the Bucs can lose. But Joe sees this game coming down to Ryan’s play.

If he can play the role of elite franchise quarterback, like he did against the Bucs four weeks ago, completing 77 percent of his passes and three touchdowns, then the Bucs will be in a world of trouble. The Bucs’ true superstars on defense really need to make plays like they all did Monday night.

Joe’s weekly segment on the Ron and Ian show on WDAE-AM 620 bounced between all the Bucs topics of the day, Greg Schiano, deep balls, the running game, Falcons issues & more.

Drafted in the second round by the Rams to take a load off/complement Steven Jackson, Bucs running back Brian Leonard has built a career as a backup.

He got some starts in that 2007 rookie season with Jackson hurt, and Leonard had a 100-yard game (18 carries for 102 yards), but there haven’t been many big opportunities since. Leonard spent each of the past four seasons as a third-down back playing behind a 1,000-yard rusher in Cincinnati.

Then he joined old friend Greg Schiano this year as a backup to Doug Martin, and recently as a complement to surprising rookie Mike James.

Now, with those two injured, Leonard will get a clear shot to carry the load. Leonard’s 20 carries against the Dolphins were a career high, and the 57-yard total wasn’t as bad as it seems. Leonard’s final two carries for -4 yards were simply to run out the clock.

Bucs newcomer RB Bobby Rainey grabbed headlines Monday night with his breakaway run and game-winning touchdown, but Joe has not doubt it will be Leonard that will get as much work as he can handle Sunday. Schiano believes Leonard’s “a winner,” and Joe is sure Schiano want the ball in the hands of a guy he trusts, considering his head coaching job is on the line.

Leonard’s a guy that has made big plays on special teams this season, and he’s done will with his opportunities in the backfield. (You can also see here Leonard making what probably was a touchdown-saving, win-saving tackle on the return of Mike Glennon’s interception Monday.)

Joe’s pulling for Leonard, a real team-first guy in the Bucs locker room.

Joe talked to Leonard this week about how fired up he must be to get another shot to be a No. 1 back. It took Leonard a good while to stop giving the team-first, I-know-my-role answers and admit he’s relishing this opportunity.

Prickly Pete Prisco and Pat Kirwan, the former Bucs scout, Jets defensive coach and Jets personnel man, gang up on Greg Schiano in this Bucs-Falcons preview for CBSSports.com.

Prisco says the Bucs don’t have momentum because they don’t like their head coach. Kirwan offered what he considers evidence.

“Let me back up Pete on the concept of [players] not liking Schiano,” Kirwan added. “They won their first game the other night and he didn’t get a Gatorade bath. That told me all I needed to know. When players don’t pour that Gatorade over the coach on a first win, pretty much you know how they feel about him.”

Kirwan goes on to break down the game and insists the Falcons will throw, throw, throw their way to victory again.

Joe gets the whole Gatorade theory, but Joe can’t put a lot of stock in that. Do players have to like their head coach? If the Bucs crank out a lousy effort that evokes the “Q” word, then Joe will know Bucs players are burying Schiano. Enjoy the video below.

Like any good Bucs fan, Joe despises trash-talking, perennial-Bucs-spanking Roddy White. The great Falcons wide receiver didn’t play against Tampa Bay in the Falcons’ 31-23 win four weeks ago, but he’s back on the field now.

In this AJC.com locker room video, White is asked about Darrelle Revis and why he’s better than a certain Seahawks cornerback. White had no problem explaining what sets Revis apart. White almost seemed humbled by Revis. “He’s got a whole different deal.”