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 of the handful of 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!

Anthony Becht believes O-Line was disrespected
https://www.joebucsfan.com/?p=100136

Surprising Tim Wright
https://www.joebucsfan.com/?p=100150

Earnest Graham joins fire Schiano chorus
https://www.joebucsfan.com/?p=100208

Graham breaks down Mike James love
https://www.joebucsfan.com/?p=100227

The Sapp-Schiano Sitdown
https://www.joebucsfan.com/?p=100392

Shaun King seeking someone smarter than him
https://www.joebucsfan.com/?p=100379

Glennon treasures Chucky time
https://www.joebucsfan.com/?p=100347

Kenyatta Walker’s Pink Panties
https://www.joebucsfan.com/?p=100277

Sackless in Seattle
https://www.joebucsfan.com/?p=100065

Misdirected Dominik rage
https://www.joebucsfan.com/?p=100177

Lavonte David’s $4,000 dinner bill
https://www.joebucsfan.com/?p=100240

Beware the Ghosts of ’76
https://www.joebucsfan.com/?p=100497

Bill Sheridan silly talk about Bowers
https://www.joebucsfan.com/?p=100432

Revis is “fighting against boredom”
https://www.joebucsfan.com/?p=100525

It’s Joe’s weekly podcast with Ronnie Lane of WDAE-AM 620, who’s also one of the smooth tones of the Buccaneers Radio Network. Joe touches on a variety of topics, from the meaning of Jamon Meredith, Schiano decisions, Mike James, and more.

The Dolphins don’t move around defensive stud Cameron Wake for him to be effective. The winless Bucs think they need to use defensive linemen otherwise.

If there is one player the Bucs should fear entering Monday night’s game against the Dolphins, it is defensive lineman/manbeast Cameron Wake.

In the Dolphins’ previous game, a Thursday night game against likely playoff-bound Cincinnati, Wake was a monster and jostled, mocked and robbed Bengals quarterback Andy Dalton.

So Joe found a quote from Bucs commander Greg Schiano very interesting today in his daily presser in preparation for the Dolphins. Schiano was about how Miami may or may not move Wake around.

“No, they don’t move him around very much at all,” Schiano said. “You’re going to know where he is for the most part, unless they decide that’s the game plan this week. You’re going to have a good idea where he is. That makes him even more impressive because he still makes his plays and you know where he is.”

Now the reason why Joe brings this up is, former Bucs like Booger McFarland and Steve White just go crazy with all the moving around of the Bucs defensive linemen with cute stunts where more often then not they outsmart themselves and take themselves out of plays.

But the loudest voice against moving around Bucs linemen is none other than Warren Sapp, the Bucs icon who will have his number retired Monday evening. This week when Sapp dropped by One Buc Palace, he was outraged how the Bucs move around stud defensive tackle Gerald McCoy.

As Sapp is known to be, he was not bashful with his thoughts.

“I watched Gerald against the [guard] from Arizona and [in one series] he beat him with an outside move,” Sapp recounted. “Then he beat him with an inside rush. Now it’s third down, the back is offset and [GMC] is over on the [other] side [of the line].

“I was screaming at the television set – ‘Get back over there.’ You just beat this guy twice and almost had a sack both times, so now come back for the third down and get us off the field.”

You would think with the hours upon hours of tape Bucs coaches watch, they might be able to learn something from the Dolphins? If Wake doesn’t need to be moved around, why does GMC?

When you are 0-8 and having lost 13 of your last 14 games, maybe, just possibly, what you may have been doing previously isn’t getting the job done, you know?

It’s lonely being Darrelle Revis — and it’s getting lonelier.

Bucs opponents aren’t throwing Revis’ way lately, especially as his body inches closer to 100 percent. That tests Revis’ focus.

“That’s the biggest thing, fighting against boredom sometimes,” Revis said when asked if it’s getting “lonely” on the field. “But I still gotta prepare that teams are going to throw the ball at me, especially being lined up on their best receiver. So, I mean, even looking at Miami, they throw Mike Wallace the ball a lot. I gotta be ready.”

Hopefully, the Bucs will be able to get more plays out of their cornerbacks opposite Revis. Michael Adams and Danny Gorrer only recently returned from knee and groin surgeries, respectively. Leonard Johnson has been disappointing, and who knows what Johnthan Banks is dealing with playing through what was reported to be a MRSA infection? A trusted source told Joe Banks had dizziness issues at times related to MRSA drugs.

You can hear the full Revis interview via 620wdae.com audio below. Revis talks about covering crafty receivers vs. speed receivers, and more.

BSPN stats guru Mike Sando talks about all kinds of numbers in this look at the Dolphins-Bucs matchup on Monday night.

Sando is confused by the Bucs’ futility when they’ve led in six games and Mike Glennon’s data looks so promising.

Except for a close win against the Bengals, Joe Philbin’s Dolphins have been on a downward spiral, and that was before the locker room was blown up recently.

Despite squeaking out a win over Cincinnati on Thursday Night Football last week, the Dolphins have been on a downward trend, losing four of their last five games.

Then, of course, there is the current mess in South Florida that not just cost the Dolphins their entire starting left side of their offensive line, but could cost popular general manager Jeff Ireland and coach Joe Philbin their jobs.

Joe was doing some research last night about the Dolphins and stumbled across a Twitter from Josh Katzowitz of CBS Sports, where he documents just how mediocre if not poor the Dolphins truly are.

@joshkatzowitz: Here’s how the Dolphins rank in NFL categories.
Pass defense: 22nd
Rush defense: 21st
Pass offense: 21st
Rush offense: 22nd
Consistency!

As Joe has written before, the Dolphins have been coughing up 4.5 sacks a game. And this is when meathead Richie Incognito and Jonathan Martin were starting at left guard and left tackle. That no longer is the case.

If Joe were Bucs defensive coordinator Bill Sheridan, the first thing he would do is knock off these cute stunts that actually often take players out of position to make plays, and load up your defense on the right side of the ball and flood that area with linemen, with linebackers, with blitzing corners.

Beat on Dolphins quarterback Ryan Tannehill so much his wife will scream for Joe’s warm embrace.

The video linked here only offers a little on the Bucs, but it gives fantastic insight on the state of the Dolphins’ mess.

Sun-Sentinel columnist/Dolphins writer Omar Kelly is always great and interestingly explains how “the brink of unraveling” — “worse than MRSA” — going on in Miami has its roots in Bill Parcell’s reign of “bullying and intimidation” that “acted like the Mob” on a weekly basis. Parcells-era executives are still in place in Miami.

In the Bucs’ favor, Kelly references suspended thug Richie Incognito as the “best player on the worst offensive line” in the NFL. As Joe’s noted previously, the Dolphins allow the most sacks in the league and Incognito was a major factor in Miami’s revived running game over their last two games.

Veteran sports chief Dave Wirth, of WTSP-TV, Ch. 10, serves up his exclusive game preview for JoeBucsFan.com. Wirth seems to think the tide is turning for the New Schiano Order. Enjoy!

The Bucs are more than halfway home to tying a putrid record many Bucs fans have tried to purge from their memory banks with untold bottles of beer and gallons of liquor: the 1976 winless season.

It really is hard to fathom the Bucs have stooped to this level. The Bucs are not an expansion franchise. They have quite a few big-moneyed free agents. They’ve had strong draft picks. They have Pro Bowlers on the roster.

If the Bucs lose to the scandal-ridden Dolphins Monday night, the Pewter Pirates are a mere five consecutive losses from trying a franchise-worst record of starting a season 0-14.

In ’76, the Bucs were an expansion franchise. They did not have years of draft picks to stock the roster. There was no free agency. Basically, the Bucs were playing with other teams’ castoffs. That’s certainly is not the case now.

Andrew Astleford of Fox Sports Florida spoke with Bucs survivors of the 1976 team to find out how they would handle avoiding a repeat.

Dan Ryczek says avoid losing faith. That’s one thing the former center makes clear about 1976: The Bucs kept working, kept their noses to the turf, even as scoreboards stayed gruesome from September through December.

Little about pressing forward was easy, though. Head coach John McKay, who led USC to four national titles in 16 years, thought he could turn any group into a contender with steep expectations and more than a little sweat. Ryczek recalls grueling two-a-day practices starting before the Fourth of July and lasting through September.

“It was very hard on the guys — more mentally than physically,” Ryczek told FOX Sports Florida. “The thing the current Bucs have to do, they don’t have to deal with that type of situation. They just have to continue to work hard. Things will break.”

That seems to be what the current-day Bucs are doing. They have yet to tank. They are playing hard and hanging in there, though not quite long enough as was evidenced last week in Seattle.

Joe isn’t sure where the Bucs could get another chance for a win, short of in St. Louis just before Christmas against the wayward Lambs, perhaps the Falcons at home, or maybe in New Orleans to close the season as the Saints could have their playoff slot locked in and may be resting players (that happened three years ago).

Joe never dreamed he would see the Bucs go winless again. It’s closer than fans may realize.

Bucs rock star general manager Mark Dominik did the right thing today, putting Bucs injured star running back Doug Martin on the injured reserve list, ending the season for the Muscle Hamster.

Various media outlets are reporting this wise transaction.

Martin blew up his shoulder Oct. 20, when he reached for a pass along the left sideline at Atlanta and hasn’t taken a snap since.

Bucs commander Greg Schiano held out hope Martin could return (partially because Schiano is in job-saving mode and his rationale there is understandable) but the organization did the wise thing and shelved Martin until 2014.

Running backs like Martin have only so much tread on the tires. There is no reason to go all Cadillac Williams with Martin and fry him physically for a lost season. Better for Martin to have his surgery and have maximum time to recuperate so he is totally fresh and ready to rock and roll for 2014.

Darrelle Revis has played elite football over the past two games. Lavonte David is an undisputed beast. Gerald McCoy is a manbeast. Mark Barron is starting to look like a first-round pick.

And now, All-Pro safety Dashon Goldson was an excited “full-go” at practice, exclaimed Greg Schiano today. Goldson is expected to return Monday from his minor knee injury.

This Bucs defense has big-time talent at every level. The New Schiano Order has got to get the guys complementing the starts to produce. It’s mind-blowing that the D-line has seven total sacks in eight games with a disruptive force like McCoy in the mix.

The losing by the Bucs this season — well, it began well into last season — has so rankled Bucs fans that in desperation, they cling to any positive element as a sign of better things to come.

Things have to get better, right?

Last week, Bucs safety Mark Barron — along with tackling machine Lavonte David — recorded double-digit tackles. Oh, he also had a pick and now leads the Bucs with a grand total of two interceptions (Joe isn’t knocking Barron here, but halfway through a season if your team leader in interceptions has but two, something is very wrong).

It was one of the better games Barron had as a pro and, the numbers, regurgitated by Woody Cummings of the Tampa Tribune, point to Barron emerging as an NFL stud.

Statistically speaking, second-year Mark Barron is having one of the best years of any Buccaneers defender. His two interceptions lead the team and his 55 tackles rank second.

Those numbers have also put Barron among the most effective defenders in the league. Barron is one of only six players in the NFL to have at least 50 tackles, four pass breakups, two interceptions and a sack this year.

Joe can sense some Bucs fans muttering under their breath, “About damned time.” Barron was the seventh pick in the 2012 draft and, though at times flashing superior skill, he hasn’t really put it all together like many thought he would coming out of Alabama. Cummings’ number cited are encouraging.

Now if Barron can just lock down the elite tight ends the way Bucs rock star general manager Mark Dominik projected him to do when he called Barron’s number two springs ago, then the Bucs will have one helluva safety tandem with Barron and Dashon Goldson.

Now Joe is trying to temper his enthusiasm for Mike James. The Bucs’ rookie running back had a wonderful game against the Seahawks in Seattle. But peel the onion skins back, and Seattle is soft on the run.

Still, James showed promising signs. And by listening to chipper Bucs coach Greg Schiano yesterday (he was in such a good mood he didn’t wait for a question before he started talking about his team), the fact James had such a good game was not a shock.

“Just the signs,” Schiano said of his confidence in James. “He came in here and he just tried to do everything we asked him to do, not only schematically and technique-wise, but taking care of his body and rest and all the things that [we asked of him]. And he just got better and better and better, and you could see it, and we started to play him more and more.”

Time will soon tell (we should know by the end of the season) if James’ game against Seattle was just a fluke or one of many strong games. But if James is this solid, the Bucs have a chance to have a dominant running attack, a one-two punch with Doug Martin and James.

There is more to like about the development of James: The more James gets the ball, the more the Bucs can save the tread on Martin’s tires.

A win-win for the Bucs.

The Mike Glennon Mob is growing. Former Bucs scout, Jets linebackers coach and Jets personnel man Pat Kirwan seems to be coming around on No. 8, calling him “a poor man’s Drew Bledsoe” and praising his decision-making.

In this Bucs-Dolphins preview for CBS Sports, Kirwan shares that Pete Carroll (Kirwan’s former co-worker with the Jets) told him how impressed he is with Glennon. … Careful, Prickly Pete Prisco and Kirwan both call a Buccaneers victory on Monday night.

It’s the sack-challenged Bucs against the sad Dolphins pass blocking.

Fins quarterback Ryan Tannehill has taken 35 sacks this season, which leads the NFL. The Bucs, well, they rank 26th in the league with 17 sacks and a heinous total of seven from their defensive linemen. It’s a somewhat ironic matchup on the night honoring the man known as the “QB Killa.”

Will the Bucs unleash their front four and see what they can do without stunting? Do the Bucs even remember how to play that way?

Joe’s confident the Bucs will “stay the course” and blitz and blitz and look for big plays. Yes, Tannehill can move, but the Bucs should be able to break their streak of failing to contain a quarterback in the pocket.

There should be plenty of big plays on the table for the Bucs’ defense Monday. For Joe, the bigger question is whether the Bucs can find ways to score points in the second half. It’s almost impossible to win when you can’t — the painful lesson of 2013.

In his regular “Coaching Hot Seat” feature for NBC Sports, ProFootballTalk.com creator Mike Florio reveals that the Bucs are not yet mathematically eliminated from the playoffs. Hope lives!

More serious playoff talk, however, came from Darrelle Revis last night on WDAE-AM 620. Revis said Monday Night Football is very much like playoff football because of the intensity players bring to the game and the unmatched regular-season electricity in the stands. Considering the Bucs are playing a solid Miami team, it should be another strong test for the New Schiano Order. 

Speaking of Greg Schiano, in the hot-seat feature, Florio downgraded (upgraded?) Schiano to the second hottest seat in the NFL.

Unless the Bucs pull off a wild miracle that will stun the NFL world, which, frankly, Joe cannot fathom, the Bucs will post a losing record. They could challenge for the worst record in NFL history, much less worst record for 2013.

There are all sorts of mysteries as to what went wrong, but one big puzzles has been the virtual disappearance of defensive end Da’Quan Bowers.

If you listened to the Bucs, they let last year’s sack leader and run-stuffer Michael Bennett walk away for a very cheap price, in part, because they felt Bowers was ready to stip in for Bennett, if not pick up where he left off.

Instead, Bowers cannot crack the starting lineup. He’s a situational player and even then, it’s as if he’s not on the field. Bucs defensive coordinator Bill Sheridan talked about where Bowers stands with the Bucs defensive plans yesterday.

“We always talk about trying to get him in more,” Sheridan said. “I know he plays a lot of third down for us and unless you get some long drives, unless you’re pre-scripted when guys are going to play certain series, unless you’re having a six, eight, or 10 play drive – and hopefully you don’t have a lot of those – you’re not really thinking about subbing within the drives. Sometimes unless you script, ‘Hey we’re going to play this guy every third series or fourth series,’ you may think about doing it but you get to halftime and the guy hasn’t played other than maybe his sub third down pass rush. We wouldn’t make any decisions – and I’m not putting words in your mouth – with kind of the mentality ‘What the heck, we’ve got nothing to lose, let’s just put him out there.’ 

“We treat every game as the most important game of the year and it is, and this one coming up is for us. We talk all the time about getting him in more because he is a talented guy and he’s actually improved for us.”

Frankly, this is simply empty rhetoric to Joe. So the Bucs’ coaches want “to get him in more?” Then do it!

What, you have to get written permission from Bryan Glazer, notarized, in the middle of the game in order to put him in? You are the defensive coordinator, Mr. Sheridan! If you want to get him in more, you put him in, it’s real simple, unless you are trying to hide the fact that either you cannot get the most out of him, or he has regressed so terribly that you are covering for him.

Which is it?

Bucs commander Greg Schiano has remarked in recent weeks how much Bowers has progressed since training camp, yet Bowers still languishes on the bench.

There are a lot of reasons why the Bucs have played terribly this season. Easily, one of the black marks on the season is why the coaching staff either colossally misjudged Bowers’ ability to take over for Bennett, or they simply cannot coach him up.

Maybe, both.