Bucs fans fishing for bright spots out of last night’s game can surely grab hold of defensive end Tim Crowder’s sack of Tom Brady, who doesn’t hit the turf all that often. Crowder talked to Joe about his game and more.

JoeBucsFan.com:  How did you play against New England?

Tim Crowder: I think I did ok. I’m still polishing all aspects of my game. As far as pash rushing goes, I feel I’m finally starting to figure it all out from my experience and coaching.

Joe: Didn’t see you on special teams? What was the deal there? You’ve been a big contributor there.

Crowder: They were just giving me a break and other guys looks. I’m sure they’ll take advantage of what I can do on special teams. I like to think I’ve exceled there and I look forward to it.

Joe: Your sack was against rookie left tackle Nate Solder and the rest of New England’s starting offensive line. Tell me about it.

Crowder: Let me say [Solder’s] going to really be a good player. He’s going to be a monster. I got up on him fast with a long arm and got through.

Joe: Are you more comfortable on the left side or right side of the line?

Crowder: Most definitely the right side. I’m left-handed. I can put my natural left hand down and go.

Joe: You were the last of the Bucs unrestricted free agents brought back to Tampa. Was that a tough time for you? Were you visiting other clubs? What was that like?

Crowder: To be honest with you, I really don’t know what was going on. I learned we had a deal, and I felt very blessed to be here and be a part of all this team is.

Joe: What kind of advice have you been able to pass on to Adrian Clayborn.

Crowder: I tell him to do what you do best — ‘Don’t ever forget what got you here.’ He ‘s so aggressive and that’s what it takes. Working with the coaches and learning like he is, I feel he can get it real quick. He’s just got to maintain that aggression.

Bucs center Jeff Faine discusses the beat down the Patriots handed the Bucs last night in the first home preseason game of the season in this St. Petersburg Times video.

If someone very close to Bucs guard Brandon Carter didn’t call this to Joe’s attention, Joe might have thought it was some kind of joke. But apparently it’s not.

Following last night’s game, Carter took to Twitter to complain about being mysteriously ejected for playing the game the right way.

@bcarter60 – Ejected from the game for… Get this…. Word for word from the ref “#60 you’re out of here you’re being TOO PHYSICAL” no penalty though???

On the heels of Mason Foster’s BS personal foul, Joe doesn’t know where to begin. What’s happening to the NFL?

Carter was on the practice squad last year before getting promoted late in the season. The kid is supposed to be drilling people and playing through the whistle. If this story is not some unfortunate misunderstanding, Joe hopes this referee is relegated to working girls soccer matches.

Update 10:46 a.m. – An NFL source tells Joe that Carter was not officially ejected but “removed” and not flagged for some sort of skirmish. … Still lame stuff from the referee.

In candid, entertaining and mildly embarrassing comments to a crew of reporters following the Bucs beating at the hands of the Patriots, Gerald McCoy shared a long take about the Patriots and the Bucs’ reaction to them last night.

The Boston Globe uploaded the audio and transcribed some highlights. Here’s a snippet:

“… …Now [Mason Foster] knows when those live bullets start flying when Detroit comes here, now he knows what to expect. And I’m glad he got to experience that. (DE Adrian) Clayborn came to me and was like, ‘Oh my god, it was so fast!’ I said, ‘I know! That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you!’ It was a reality check, we needed that.

“Man, I’m telling you man, they came out, they’d turn around huddle, snap, oh, ‘There’s the Mike, Go!’ I was like, ‘Dang! Um, Mr. Brady, can we line up?’ He didn’t care. He was like, ‘You’re not going to line up.’ When we turned around one time I checked back around and my hand was going to the grass and they were like, ‘Hut!’ And I said, ‘Noooooooooooo!’”

Joe suggests you click through above and listen to the entire raw audio, which might have to come down tonight per NFL rules.

It’s serves as a good look at how far away from the Patriots the young Bucs are. But McCoy says the types of mistakes made on defense tonight are very coachable and fixable.

We’ll find out.

Our biggest obstacle is “to defend against outside sources leaking into our building and telling us how good we were last year and all those types of things. We don’t want to listen to that. We want to remain unwavered … and play the game the way it has to be played.”  — Raheem Morris this week on NFL Network, offering his take on the biggest hurdle facing the Bucs entering the season.

Joe popped the Raheem quote above to make an important point: getting mauled last night by the Patriots was probably a great thing for the Bucs.

It would have been nearly impossible for the young Bucs to not get a little too high on themselves after all the love they’ve been getting from the national media, and after thoroughly thrashing Kansas City last week. And what better way to come back to reality than to endure a complete beating at home.

Bucs players said all kinds of things about Thursday’s game, but it’s pretty darn clear that heads on the first-team offense and defense were somewhere else. … They lost their “youngry” for a half to the wrong team.

Joe suspects those “outside influences,” as Raheem called them, pumping up the Bucs surely willl pipe down considerably over the next week.

The humbling silence has got to be welcomed by the head coach, whose team should be sufficiently embarrassed and re-committed to playing great football.

Raheem Morris weighed in on the Bucs' beating.

After the beating the Bucs took last night at the hands of the Patriots, Raheem Morris said he liked that the Pats played their first team a long time so the Bucs could get “a good barometer” of where the team is.

While Joe can’t get too caught up in the Bucs’ failures Thursday, if there is a team barometer, the pressure is low and a dangerous storm is approaching — if the Bucs can’t right the ship.

“Good thing it was practice,” Raheem said.

Without watching the game tape, Raheem said the Bucs got owned in the trenches.

“They outphysicaled us up front. … Both sides of the ball. They won the up front battle. They definitely won those battles early. They won them often early. We started to have a little bit of fight back there in the second half, and I was very proud of those guys. But by that time it was too late,” Raheem said.”

There’s a reason the Patriots went 14-2 last year, but Joe’s eager to hear the coach’s assessment after watching the game tape.

Larry Asante (22) didn't get the tackle on this play last week but he made New England opponents pay Friday night.

Let’s be honest, the Bucs set of safeties is thin, even Joe can see this.

Ahmad Black has a high ankle sprain and given the fact he has played sparingly and may not be back until next month, his shot at making the final cut is dicey.

Then there is Cody Grimm, who is returning from an ugly broken leg against Baltimore. He didn’t start training camp at a full 100 percent.

So when Larry Asante got to play tonight, though he didn’t make a lot of plays, the plays he made were memorable.

Asante, not exactly a large man, brought pain on the two tackles he made, laying the wood to Patriots players. One hit resulted in a forced fumble the Bucs recovered.

Big plays — like the pick he made on Drew Brees last year — may make for a big decision by Bucs management in keeping the former Cornhusker.

“It’s the mentality that Coach Rah preaches in practice all the time,” Asante said of his big-hit ability. “We take that to heart. If someone tries to catch the ball, we will try to jar it out. We have to make them pay.”

Asante just hopes that the hits he lays on opponents stay fresh in the mind of Bucs rock star general manager Mark Dominik.

“When you get your chance to make the plays you have to capitalize on them,” Asante said.

Joe truly has no clue how NFL hatchetman Roger Goodell imposes fines or discipline. It seems pretty willy nilly to Joe.

But Joe’s hoping the hatchetman doesn’t come down on rookie Mason Foster, whose personal foul for drilling Chad Ochocinco over the middle on the Patriots’ second possession was a worthless call simply on a beautiful football play. Joe might say John Lynch would roll over in his grave about a call like that, but Lynch is alive and well calling Bucs preseason games on WTSP-TV, Ch. 10.

Joe didn’t hear Lynch’s reaction yet, but Foster offered Joe his two cents.

“I can’t worry about it becaue I think you just gotta play. I don’t think I hit him with my helmet,” said Foster, who acknowledged the hit would not be a penalty in college. “[Coaches and Teammates] have been telling me to not let the penalty alter my game. … Hopefully, they don’t fine me. I don’t have any money yet.”

Geno Hayes said he and his teammates will support Foster in every possible way.

“That’s a part of the game now. It wasn’t a bad hit, but that’s the NFL. I don’t know if you get used to it or not. If it is a fine, we’d help him out. … Yeah, with money. That kind of call for a rookie can get to you. We won’t let that happen.”

Foster’s hit, sadly, was one of the highlights for the Bucs’ first-team defense. He got a little lost in pass coverage on the Pats’ first touchdown, but the kid does fly around the field.

Gerald McCoy (93) nearly gets a sack, drilling Tom Brady just as the Patriots quarterback releases the ball.

The new Gerald McCoy debuted tonight.

The better coached GMC, the better fit GMC, the better player GMC.

But no one saw that player, so GMC said himself after the game. Rather, the Bucs third overall pick last year said he was rusty from not playing in a game since last season.

“It felt good, but I had to knock the rust off,” GMC said. “The first few snaps, it was rust.”

It was that rust, GMC noted, that allowed Danny Woodhead to break off a 29-yard run that set up New England’s first score.

GMC, who seemed to get penetration all night, ran to his left as Woodhead ran right. Just when it looked like GMC would have Woodhead for a loss, he scooted out of GMC’s grasp of an armtackle and ran left for nearly 30 yards.

“He cut it up and I missed the tackle,” GMC said. “Those are things I cannot do. I fell into the trap. If I was playing a little bit, I would have had stopped that [run] instead of him flying upfield.”

GMC was also called for an offsides penalty when he jumped the snap. Too much rust, too much excitement GMC suggested.

“I wanted to come in and let it all go and get the rust off,” GMC said. Bucs defensive tackles coach Keith Millard “said as an undertackle I had to play like a wild man. That’s why I got the offsides. Any kind of a flinch, any kind of blinking, I was gone.”

GMC added that Millard told him he had to be pretty much everywhere, and he was.

“He said I will see people subbing in and out and I had to be disruptive on this side and that side,” GMC said. “You have to be everywhere. That’s all I was trying to do tonight.”

Preseason games are almost meaningless. Right?

Well, not when your quarterback is pounded, so Davin Joseph told Joe tonight.

“They say it doesn’t matter, but the things we did today are not good for us in the long run,” Joseph said. “[Preseason] is still important. You can’t allow your quarterback to get hit. “We have to start strong and sustain drives. We’re going to work on it.”

As Joe wrote earlier, the offensive line play was the biggest disappointment. The O-line needs to be at least as good as it was last season.

Last year the Bucs drew 41,000+ in their blacked out preseason home opener against the Chiefs.

Attendance is improving.

Tonight against the Patriots, the official crowd tally was 49,313.

Off these numbers, it’s pretty safe to assume the Bucs’ season ticket base  has increased about 15 percent over last year. Joe’s pleased that a 10-6 season at least had some impact at the gate, though the Bucs are a long way from a Lions-Bucs opening day sellout on Sept. 11. That blackout miracle is not happening.

With an early September 1 o’clock start for the opener, and Games 2 and 3 at home against the Falcons and Colts, Joe’s just not seeing a rush of fans running to play 12th man in less than three weeks.

It’s a team loss, but Joe has to shine a spotlight on the Bucs’ offensive line tonight because it’s a veteran group and possibly the highest-paid unit in the league.

Josh Freeman was hit tonight several times in less than an one half of work — the worst of all possible sins on this team. And it seemed like the O-line was blown off the ball repeatedly.

Freeman was clobbered on one sack by three Patriots. Yes, Earnest Graham missed a blitz pick-up, but what about the other two guys?

LeGarrette Blount had four carries for one yard.

There shouldn’t be any learning curve or readiness issues for this O-line.

Unacceptable.

Patriots 31, Bucs 14

What a horrible game this was. The Patriots manhandled the Bucs when both first teams were on the field. Joe was stone sober but he swore to a higher authority he saw the ghost of Jim Bates lurking at The CITS.

The Patriots played like they just got off Nevin Shaprio’s boat. It was the varsity against the junior varsity and the Pats were the varsity.

Joe will have much more tonight as you watch the first airing of the game on either Joe’s partner WTSP-TV Channel 10 or on the man’s channel, the NFL Network.

Joe didn’t go over the top when the Bucs dominated the Chiefs last week, and Joe’s not about to act like a screaming child who just lost his lunch money after the Bucs’ regulars were annihilated by the Patriots tonight.

It was a clean knockout, as Josh Freeman and his fellow first-teamers couldn’t generate a first down, and Tom Brady and friends racked up 28 first-half points with ease.

The ghost of Jim Bates was back with the Bucs gashed left and right against the run. The Pats averaged a whopping 7 1/2 yards a carry in the first half, 22 carries for 144 yards. For Joe, this was the most glaring statistic. The Bucs have to find away to stop the bleeding.

Alright Bucs fans, feel free to comment and fire away about tonight’s game. No chat tonight but this thread will be open throughout the game so fire away.

Yes, if you must know, that’s Jaime Hanna above.

Preseason Game 2
Patriots at Bucs
Kickoff: 7:30 p.m.
TV: WTSP-TV Channel 10 locally. The game is blacked out in the Tampa Bay TV markets and will be broadcast several times on a tape-delayed basis with the first airing tentatively at 11:30 p.m. tonight in the Tampa Bay region on Channel 10. Other airings will be tonight on the NFL Network at 11 p.m., 4 p.m. on NFL Network Friday, 8 p.m. Friday on WTSP and Saturday, noon on WTSP.
Radio: Buccaneers Radio Network (in Tampa WFUS-FM, 103.5 and WDAE-AM, 620); Sirius Channel 93.
Weather: Per Accuweather.com, temperature at kickoff will be sunny and 84 but rain chances increase quickly with a 51 percent chance of thunderstorms the rest of the game. By the end of the game, temperature should be 81.
Odds: Per Sportsbook.com, Bucs -2.
Outlook: It’s a first look at some players for the year and second looks at many others.
Tonight will be the first look at the new look Gerald McCoy. The third overall pick last year in the draft was just turning the corner when he was lost for the season with an injury. GMC spent all offseason rebuilding his body and undergoing a reprogramming by defensive tackles coach Keith Millard, it will be very interesting to see if GMC is a changed man. If he is it will go a long way to a better Bucs defense. … But what Joe will be interested in is if some of the players who shined against the Chiefs can continue to play well or even improve against a solid ballclub like the Patriots. … Adrian Clayborn looked promising against the Chiefs. Now that there’s a book out on him, will Clayborn be able to adjust to what Bill Belicheat throws at him? … Kyle Moore made a solid appearance last week. Can he show up again? He’s on the bubble and if the Bucs keep seven defensive lineman, Moore might need to have a helluva preseason to lock up a roster spot. … Anthony Gaitor sure seemed like a promising player with his play against the Chiefs. Another game like that and he may have a roster spot. … Joe is also hoping Mason Foster logs more than 10 plays tonight than he did at the Chiefs. The young man needs reps. … Oh, just FYI for readers, Joe will have a live open thread rather than a chat tonight. It launches at kickoff. So have fun and behave.

Kyle Moore before he changed his number, and before he was set free form the clutches of Todd Wash.

Sackless in regular season play, defensive end Kyle Moore had two sacks in Kansas City last week and looked darn sharp, even if he was playing against future furniture movers, beer truck drivers and guys who might be enrolling in grad school next week.

Moore battled some injuries during his first two seasons but still managed to see the field for 16 games. He was gifted the starting left end job entering last season and was never impressive,.

Tuesday night, while speaking on 1010 AM to Derek “Old School” Fournier, former Bucs defensive end Steve White said Moore regressed during his first two seasons but  White danced around calling former Bucs defensive line coach Todd Wash second rate. However, that was the message.

“Now you see a little bit different attitude, a little bit different technique from everybody [on the D-line,] White said of  play under new line coaches Grady Stretz and Keith Millard.

“Nobody questioned [Moore’s] effort or anything like that, the thing with Kyle [Moore] was his technique, plain and simple. He did not get off blocks. He did not come off the ball real fast. He was always kind of a look-and-see move instead of just making them react to him. And, you know, a lot of that can be contributed to coaching. But you know you’ve got do what you gotta do with whatever coach you have.

“Yes, he’s flashing now and that’s great. Unfortunately, now he’s so he’s so far down on the depth chart, how does he get to stay on this team? What I hope to see is him out on kickoff team, on kickoff returns, maybe even on punt return team trying to show how important it is to him to make this team. Because when you’re third team, man, it’s hard. … You gotta get in where you fit it in.”

White also talked about the important changes Michael Bennett has made under the new coaching staff and how he was a clear standout against the Chiefs.

Joe almost feels bad now for Moore. First, the Bucs demanded he fatten up fast as part of the heinous Jim Bates Experience. And perhaps Wash so mangled his development that the guy is going to lose his job because he was set free too late — after the Bucs drafted two ends.

Joe can’t wait to see Gerald McCoy tonight, his first game of the post-Wash era.

There was a lot of national media types out at One Buc Palace this week to do features on the Bucs and as Joe has documented, two of them were Pat Kirwan and Tim Ryan who host “Movin’ the Chains,” heard exclusively on SiriusXM NFL Radio.

The duo spent much of Tuesday interviewing players and coaches and executives learning every little nugget they could about the 2011 Buccaneers. Ryan, the former Bears defensive lineman, came away nearly giddy over the Bucs chances of making a run to the postseason this fall, so Ryan Twittered.

@TimRyan99: Love Raheem Morris. Bucs fans get your buts in the seats and support a quality team. Get on now, there may not be room soon

Joe will have much more from Ryan later as he graciously spent time with Joe Tuesday and gave a six-minute interview that Joe has yet to transcribe (whew). There’s some good stuff in this interview including why Ryan thinks Kellen Winslow will blow up this year, and what Bucs player will be responsible for Winslow having a Pro Bowl season (other than Josh Freeman).

Joe’s been wearing his businessman hat lately and has inked an exciting new partnership with WTSP-TV, Ch. 10, the Tampa Bay CBS affiliate. It’s always exciting to Joe when corporate executives study Joe’s operation and want to be a part of it.

But enough of that.

In this brief video below for JoeBucsFan readers, Ch. 10 sports guru Dave Wirth looks at tonight’s Bucs-Patriots game and shares a take from Josh Freeman and John Lynch. Of course, Ch. 10 has the game broadcast on tape delay starting at 11:30 p.m tonight. The second airing will be Friday at 8pm. The third will be Saturday at noon.

Myopic Bucs fans who refuse to have an open mind and look the other way when clear facts are presented them have been getting out of hand of late.

These “fans” who want Bucs rock star general manager Mark Dominik to go wilding with Team Glazer’s American Express card and sign every warm body allowable by NFL warden Roger Goodell with a name fans recognize from their fantasy football leagues have become delirious if not unruly with their hate.

Why, Joe has even heard otherwise sober fans have the gall to suggest Dominik should have signed Braylon Edwards if you can imagine such a thing.

How crazy are these fans? Virtually each day Joe hears them shout at Joe’s good friend “The Big Dog,” Steve Duemig, calling him unflattering names. Joe has even learned these same ne’er–do–wells heckled Anwar Richardson and Woody Cummings of the Tampa Tribune at Bucs training camp, as if Duemig, Richardson and Cummings can force Dominik to draw up a horribly irresponsible player contract.

Well, the lightbulb turned on in pondering this mob mentality that wants Dominik to channel his inner Danny Snyder. These people actually want the Bucs to lose. Joe figured this while reading a piece from NFC South blogger Pat Yasinskas.

It seems the last time the Bucs breached the salary cap, in 2003, they were losers.

Records from that season show the Bucs actually spent over the salary cap. Their adjusted cap for that year was $75.443 million. They exceeded it by $1,104.58 — a figure that would be shaved from their 2004 cap.

So what did all that spending get the Bucs? An incredibly-disappointing 7-9 record that was good for third place in the NFC South. It also marked the first time since 1998 that Tampa Bay didn’t make the playoffs. And the season was filled with all sorts of controversy.

So it is now clear to Joe: The loud crowd willing to blame Team Glazer for everything including their neighbor’s dog dropping a deposit in their front yard are closet Saints fans or Dixie Chicks fans or Stinkin’ Panthers fans, to steal an NHL line away from the Great GOB, the late great Chris Thomas.

That’s the only logical explanation to Joe. What Bucs fan would actually want their team to remain in third place?