As the Bucs’ league-leading run defense (3.1 yards per carry) hits the national stage tonight against beastly Adrian Peterson and the run-first Vikings, more and more is Roy Miller getting front-line credit for the defensive turnaround.

Woody Cummings, Tampa Tribune beat writer, penned a feature today explaining the change in Miller’s positioning and responsibilities this season with reaction from players and  coaches.

Many Buccaneers defenders said the move of Miller sparked the improvement.

“That’s been the whole key to it,” defensive tackle Gerald McCoy said. “When Roy gets his hands on the center and basically chokes him out (of the play) it just allows everyone else to run through more freely and make plays.”

(Definitely click on through above to read the whole thing.) Miller has had extraordinary revival, from a guy who just couldn’t get much done and was repeatedly in the heart of the Bucs defense when it was getting gutted and gashed the past three seasons.

Miller’s contract is up after this season, and who could have guessed in July that Miller might be in line for a giant paycheck come February.

If he continues to produce and stay healthy, the Bucs will have to pay handsomely for No. 90 to return.

The returns are quite early thus far, but it’s hard to argue with the top three players Bucs rock star general manager Mark Dominik hand-picked in April’s draft.

Running back Doug Martin may have finally turned the corner, safety Mark Barron seems to be the next coming of Ed Reed, and how can anyone be chagrin with the play of linebacker Lavonte David?

The outside linebacker has been a terror and the numbers crunchers at ProFootballFocus.com have proof, so types Nathan Jahnke.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Lavonte David (2-58) is leading all 4-3 outside linebackers in Run Stop Percentage at 14.7.

Whoa, now. That’s pretty strong stuff. Outside of coaching, David may be the biggest reason the Bucs defense has improved.

(Joe still stands by his conviction that the most improved Bucs player is Mason Foster, and Joe believes he may have some pineapple in his belly in February.)

Just think of last year (provided you are sitting down). Once running backs got around the edge on the weakside, it was like an on-ramp to I-275 for running backs. The way the defense scrambled, it must have been what it looked like with the Union army retreating in the first Battle of Bull Run.

David has simply put a stop to all of that nonsense and is a major cog in the NFL’s top rush defense.

It’s time to get a little loud and bond with your fellow Bucs fans while watching the New Schiano Order Bucs in Minnesota tonight at Tilted Kilt in Clearwater.

This is going to be the place to be for this game. The Bucs on Thursday Night Football!!

Tilted Kilt has it all, indoor and outdoor seating, great food, the sizzling Kilt girls, a classy layout, and great viewing. The game audio will be heard everywhere, and Joe’s got lots of jerseys and hats to giveaway. There’s nothing better than the energy of a great sports bar scene rocking for the home team. Be there!

Joe knew it was just a matter of time that the Bucs would miss electric right defensive end Adrian Clayborn — who Joe saw limping around in the Bucs locker room this week.

Clayborn brought heat off the edge and could punish quarterbacks, like the time he nearly tore Matty Ice in half last year.

So when Clayborn went down with an ugly knee injury, Joe feared it would really hurt the Bucs.

Already, the Bucs can feel his void. That’s what Gerald McCoy told Joe yesterday when discussing all things defensive line. Joe asked him if he can tell opponents have changed their blocking schemes knowing they don’t have to worry about Clayborn racing around their left side.

“Yeah, yeah, the doubles are coming,” GMC said. Though he was almost embarrassed to admit it, he said he and fellow defensive tackle Roy Miller are seeing more double-teamed coverage as offenses don’t have to worry about Clayborn. “I’m not the first person to get doubled on this team. I’m just working hard to be able to get some one-on-ones and utilize my talents. One one-on-ones, I haven’t gotten that many [of late] but I have to work my best.”

That’s the task of Bucs defensive coaches now: They have to devise schemes up front in order to help GMC and Michael Bennett from getting double-teamed and lost in the wash.

That happened less with Clayborn giving left tackles fits.

In the NFL Network video linked here, former head coaches Denny Green and Brian Billick break down the Bucs’ failures on 1st-and-49-inches against the Saints on Sunday.

Green wags a finger at the Bucs offensive line, “They did not get the line of scrimmage at all.” And in a write-up of the sequences, Billick explains why he agreed with Schiano’s calls.

What troubles Joe most in the video linked above is watching LeGarrette Blount give up on the fourth-down play.

Josh Freeman rolls right and is scrambling for his life, and before Freeman hits the 10-yard-line number, Blount clearly plays spectator after getting off his block on the play-action fake. There’s no excuse for Blount not darting into the end zone to try and help his quarterback. Make yourself a target, draw a defender. Do something.

Eric Wright cannot have another upside-down game tomorrow like he had Sunday.

For the Bucs to win against the Vikings tomorrow night, the Bucs defense has to turn the Vikings into a one-dimensional team.

In short, that would be to have Samantha Steele-bedding Christian Ponder beat you.

Ponder, a former Florida State star, is a promising quarterback for the Vikings. But he is not as likely to beat a team as running back Adrian Peterson is.

But for the Bucs to dare Ponder to beat them, there must be a clean-up done in the Bucs pass defense, demands Alan Dell of the Bradenton Herald. He points out that last week, in particular, cornerback Eric Wright, had a long afternoon.

As for Dominik, he has a bigger problem justifying why he poured all that money into acquiring cornerback Eric Wright, who has never had good coverage skills.

He was abused Sunday by Brees, who targeted Wright nine times and completed seven passes for 147 yards, including a 47-yard TD to Joe Morgan on a play in which Wright missed a tackle.

Wright looked like a lost shepherd trying to find his flock, falling victim to Brees’ pump fakes on numerous occasions.

While Dell has a valid point about Wright, Joe has to stick up a little but here for Bucs rock star general manager Mark Dominik.

Dell, a good guy and a helluva columnist, is outraged Dominik would sign Wright for the price he shelled out. Dell believes Dominik woefully overpaid for Wright, and frankly, Joe doesn’t have a problem with that.

Last year the 4-12 Bucs were no less than wretched on defense and there was a void at cornerback the size of a Hernando County sinkhole after Ronde Barber was moved to safety. Something had to be done.

About the only way Dominik was going to plug that hole was to overpay to get a cornerback here. Just what cornerback wanted to come to the Bucs, then a low-rung team with a new coach? The only way Dominik — or any general manager — was going to upgrade a position through free agency on a team like the Bucs was to overpay.

Cornerbacks are so valuable, their pay scale is overpriced to begin with, thanks to the seven-on-seven style football the NFL has morphed into under the watch of NFL warden commissioner Roger Goodell.

As Joe has asked Dell, he asks his readers: Would Myron Lewis have been an upgrade at cornerback after Barber flipped to safety rather than coughing up big bucks for Wright?

Yes, Wright — and everyone in the Bucs secondary — had a rough day last week. That cannot continue tomorrow night if Mr. Steele Ponder is to be shut down.

Bucs defensive coordinator Bill Sheridan explained what went wrong

Within 10 minutes of the final whistle Sunday, Joe had already deatailed the struggles and bang-your-head-against-a-wall use of the three-man rush against the Saints.

It didn’t work, and the Bucs were burned repeatedly. In a candid moment yesterday at One Buc Palace, Bucs defensive coordinator Bill Sheridan laid out what was going wrong.

“They blocked us up,” Sheridan said of the Saints offensive line.

“We weren’t able to pressure [Brees] well enough on three where he was going to throw on timing. In my mind, and it’s easy to say this after the fact watching the film, when he felt it was a three-man rush, he held on to the ball and waited for the down-the-field routes to get open. And even though we had eight guys back there and the windows were very, very small, he still fired it in there and hit, you know, 10-to-15 yard hits on those. And, so yeah, shoulda, woulda, coulda, throw the house at him and at least the ball’s going to come out sooner and the issue will be declared early in the down. You know what I mean? So, yeah, some of those definitely backfired on us.”

Joe appreciates Sheridan’s detailed breakdown. Jimminy Christmas! That three-man rush must have smelled like fresh-baked doughnuts to Brees, and it wasn’t just “10-to-15 yard hits” Brees was nailing down field.

To be fair, Brees is Brees, and there’s no great way to stop him if you can’t generate a pass rush. The Bucs didn’t do that with four men on Sunday.

Oh, how Joe longs for Jenny Dell to return to ESPN and break down all the statistical nonsense associated with Bucs games every week. She’s been gone for almost two years and Joe still hasn’t gotten over it.

Dell would have had a field day with the sad odds for the Bucs tomorrow night in Minnesota, per the Star-Tribune. Home teams on Thursday Night Football are winning at better than a three-out-of-four clip historically.

Thursday night home-field dominance is nothing new. Going back to last season, home teams are 13-4 on Thursday nights. That’s a .760 winning percentage compared to a .615 winning percentage (64-40) enjoyed by home teams overall this season. 

In a league of parity, a seemingly small thing such as a condensed schedule favors the home team.

It’s time to get a little loud and bond with your fellow Bucs fans while watching the New Schiano Order Bucs in Minnesota tomorrow night at Tilted Kilt in Clearwater.

This is going to be the place to be for this game. The Bucs on Thursday Night Football!!

Tilted Kilt has it all, indoor and outdoor seating, great food, the sizzling Kilt girls, a classy layout, and great viewing. The game audio will be heard everywhere, and Joe’s got lots of jerseys and hats to giveaway. There’s nothing better than the energy of a great sports bar scene rocking for the home team. Be there!

If anyone thought stud Vikings running back Adrian Peterson was washed up after an ugly knee injury last year, well, Peterson put all of that to rest by racking up 153 yards last week against Arizona.

Vikings coach Leslie Frazier had a hunch before the game that Peterson had overcome the hump of rehabilitation, writes Brian Murphy of the St. Paul Pioneer-Press.

Frazier looked him in the eyes and realized his superstar was not just physically ready to shoulder the offensive burden against a tough defense but confident he would get the job done.

The resulting 153 yards on 23 carries in Minnesota’s 21-14 victory Sunday, Oct. 21, validated the run-heavy strategy and signaled Peterson has graduated from recovery to the next phase of his career following Dec. 30 reconstructive knee surgery.

“I really believed that we were going to need him to have a big game for us and he said, ‘Coach, I’m ready. If that’s what you feel like we need to do, give me more carries, whatever, I’ll be ready,’ ” Frazier recounted Tuesday. “Then he had a great practice on Friday. The way he moved I knew what he said was not telling me something I wanted to here. And then he went out and played that way, and we needed to have that type of game.”

This is the daunting task the Bucs face tomorrow night at the big baggie in the northlands, the Minneapolis Metrodome (Joe knows it’s called something else these days; some non-descript,forgettable corporate name).

The Bucs are stingy against the run. Peterson makes defenses look like fools. Something has to give.

This just might be an old-fashioned cat-and-mouse game: Keep the ball out of Josh Freeman’s hands by pounding the ball with Peterson.

But if the Bucs can contain him, the ball will be in Freeman’s hands much more often.

This type of drama is why a higher authority invented beer.

Even Vikings quarterback Christian Ponder’s girlfriend, cutie ESPN sideline princess Samantha Steele, is stunned to learn Adam Schein would prefer her beau to quarterback his team over Bucs signal-caller Josh Freeman.

Joe has heard some wild tales in his life, but the following is right up there with the best.

As regular readerd here know, Joe loves — loves! — SiriusXM NFL Radio. Joe may listen to that station more than he watches the NFL Network, which is saying something.

Monday when discussing the previous day’s games, the subject of Vikings quarterback Christian Ponder came up (and no, it had nothing to do with the tryst he is currently involved in with ESPN hottie college football reporter Samantha Steele).

Ponder had a rare day Sunday in which he threw for a grand total of 58 yards, and won. This provoked popular sports radio personality Adam Schein, who co-hosts “The Blitz” with Rich Gannon, to invoke Bucs quarterback Josh Freeman’s name in the discussion.

(And no, Steele’s name still didn’t come up.)

“Rich, yesterday, Josh Freeman throws for 420 yards and three touchdowns,” Schein said. “If I had to pick right now who was quarterbacking my team, Christian Ponder or Josh Freeman, I’d have to pick Christian Ponder.”

Gannon, a big Freeman fan, seemed to be at a loss for words right away, but admitted it’s an interesting choice, though he is still a Freeman guy and he also thought Ponder will continue to grow as a starting NFL quarterback.

The key with Ponder, Schein pointed out, is he wins, despite pedestrian statistics.

Ponder and the Vikings are currently 5-2 and have their eyes set on a sprint for a postseason berth. The Bucs are 2-4 and staring at 2-5 with an always difficult Thursday road game in a stadium the Vikings have yet to lose in this season. If those trends continue, next spring’s draft will become a popular subject around the greater Tampa Bay area.

Joe brought Schein’s thoughts up for discussion with Ponder during a conference call Tuesday with the pen and mic club.

Adam Schein

“That’s one guy’s opinion,” Ponder said, sort of dismissing Schein’s thoughts. “I think Josh Freeman is a very good player. He was a first round pick a couple of years ago. I know him. He’s extremely talented and a good guy and works hard. To throw for over 400 yards and three touchdowns, yeah, it was a loss, but that’s playing at a high level. He’s going to be a quarterback in this league for a long time.”

Now Joe knows where Schein is coming from, sort of the Chris “Mad Dog” Russo of sports philosophy. Wins trump stats. Sort of like the banter of comparing Brad Johnson to Jeff George. Johnson won and has a ring to prove it; George had mind-boggling stats but few wins.

Still, despite Ponder’s eye for talent, Joe would take Freeman, who has much more of a body of work than Ponder.

If Joe’s readers would like to share their thoughts on Schein’s choice in quarterbacks, feel free to call “The Blitz” at 1-877-NFL-KICK between 11 a.m.-3 p.m.

With controversy swirling over the head of Bucs coach Greg Schiano in certain NFL cirlces, first over his kneel-down defense and now his field goal defense, Schiano is receiving public support from an unlikely source: Joe Theismann.

The Super Bowl-winning quarterback for the Redskins and popular NFL analyst had Schiano’s back when he appeared on the “Ron and Ian Show” today on WDAE-AM 620.

“I don’t have a problem,” Theismann said. “Our league continues to evolve from coaches and situations and to try to do something different. If you look at the victory formation, Herm Edwards’ play looms in everyone’s mind. You never know what is going to happen and it put everyone on alert: That when you play the Tampa Bay Buccaneers you will play to the last snap.

“Greg is going to find there are certain things that will be accepted and not be penalized for and some things you are going to want to do and realize, ‘I can’t do that.’ He’s not alien to professional football. “

Theismann then went on to say many of the plays and formations that are common in the NFL today were hatched plans as experiments by NFL coaches not that long ago, and what Schiano is doing is no different. As for his dust-up with Giants headmaster Tom Coughlin, Theismann said, “Coaches are always going after each other and that is not going to change.”

To hear the full interview, click on the little arrow below.

“No. he doesn’t [look a step slower], just as violent as he was before he got hurt, as far as the type of runner he is. He looks like he would prefer to run through guys, not necessarily over ’em, but run through tackles. He can make you miss, as you know, and run away from you as well. But, yeah, he looks as good as I’ve seen him.” — Bucs defensive coordinator Bill Sheridan on Vikings RB Adrian Peterson today.

The Bucs allow 3.1 yards per carry, best in the NFL.

Peterson is averaging 4.8 yards per carry and has 652 rushing yards and 22 receptions in seven games.

This should be a hell of a lot of fun to watch.

On a tight, shortened preparation schedule this week with a Thursday night game, it seems the Bucs defense will rely more than ever before on the watchful eyes of Butch Davis.

The former Cowboys defensive line coach, and former Cleveland Browns, Miami Hurricanes and University of North Carolina head coach, is a major force in the defensive planning each week and surely came to the table with all the ins and outs on how to stop the Vikings’ Christian Ponder.

Defensive coordinator Bill Sheridan explained today at One Buc Palace.

“He’s around all the time,” Sheridan said of Davis. “He watches a ton of film of our upcoming opponent. He’s almost from a film study standpoint, he’s almost like an advance scout. Even before we’re ready to move on to the next game, he’s already looked at three or four games of the upcoming opponent. He does a great job of really analyzing the upcoming quarterbacks we’re playing, and how they move in the pocket, how they scramble, where they like to throw the ball to, what kind of playactions. He does a great job of that. And these are all things he’s done in the past at other places and he shares them with us.

“He’s in a majority of our defensive meetings in the early part of the week when we’re digesting the film and putting together the plan. Yes, so he’s a tremendous resource and has been very helpful.” 

Joe’s not sure what this all means, especially considering the Bucs have been poor against the pass and have struggled to get to and stop quarterbacks. Davis. of course, might be doing a lot more than just what Sheridan identified and Davis doesn’t have a final say.

Regardless, Joe found it interesting to hear some details shed on Davis’ role.

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Check out the strong interview accessible below with Bucs icon John Lynch on 98.7 FM, where Lynch joined Gary and The Commish this afternoon.

Among many other subjects, Lynch said he was disappointed that his FOX producers cut the TV broadcast off so fast after the final play before he could explain the push-out rule, in regards to defensive backs going after receivers when a quarterback leaves the pocket. Lynch said Herm Edwards “used to preach that all the time” back in the early glory years of Bucs football.

On the alleged shenanigans regarding the disupted field goal defense, Lynch said it’s very much a NFL maneuver and shared that Brad Culpepper was a master at barking out distracting signals.

Lynch weighs in on plenty more. Enjoy.

It’s time to get a little loud and bond with your fellow Bucs fans while watching the New Schiano Order Bucs in Minnesota on Thursday night at Tilted Kilt in Clearwater.

This is going to be the place to be for this game. The Bucs on Thursday Night Football!!

Tilted Kilt has it all, indoor and outdoor seating, great food, the sizzling Kilt girls, a classy layout, and great viewing. The game audio will be heard everywhere, and Joe’s got lots of jerseys and hats to giveaway. There’s nothing better than the energy of a great sports bar scene rocking for the home team. Be there!

Joe had hoped to turn the page on the stinging loss to the Saints and concentrate on the Vikings game Thursday night. But Bucs rock star general manager Mark Dominik walked into the press room at One Buc Palace to give the pen and mic club an update this afternoon, and a clarification on the unsportsmanlike penalty called on Mason Foster. The flag game on a field goal defensive shift that gave New Orleans a first down, which led to a touchdown.

The Bucs, of course, lost by a touchdown.

“Just to update, I have been in touch with the league office on “that play,” [the unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on the field goal defensive unit]. Everything from a defensive line [standpoint] is legal, the shifting. Mason Foster, everything he did in terms of movement, is legal. Everything,” Dominik said.

“The only thing that is up for discussion on why the flag was thrown was the disconcerting sound of which the league office said they [the umpire] heard was ‘Huh… huh.’ That’s what the umpire said he heard.

“Now we have run the play with success before. In Washington. It is clear that we ran that play in Washington. There is no audio transcript of the New Orleans play. At that point it was a judgment, that’s what [the umpire] thought he heard. That’s why the flag was thrown.

“It is a legal play. Up to the point of what is it that the player actually say. We coach the players to say the same thing as they did in Washington. This is not a play that Greg took from Rutgers or college. It’s a play we have already seen at the NFL level and already had success with it. That’s why we did it again. I will let the coaching staff decide if we see it again or use it again. At the end of the day, legally, it is a legal play up to when the linebacker says what he said on the move call. At that point it is up to the umpire as to what he heard.

“As long as you are not simulating the sound of the count it is permitted. Not specifically the word.

“There are a lot of different elements to it (including messing up blocking assignments). Could you block it, could you get a false start? All of those are part of the reason to help us find a way to win.”

Dominik also spoke about the last play of the game, where the officials ruled that Mike Williams had been pushed out of bounds, which the officials ruled was legal because Josh Freeman had moved out of the pocket.

Dominik said the team had no issue about that call because the team believed the call was correct.

“It is standard; it was a good play by them,’ Dominik said. “When the quarterback gets out of the pocket you are allowed to push a player out of bounds. It’s a legal play.”

It was a galling loss to the Saints Sunday at the stadium on Dale Mabry. The Bucs defense allowed Saints receivers to run wild like antelope on the Alaskan tundra, making Saints receiver Lance Moore look like a Canton first-ballot inductee.

Bucs defensive lineman George Johnson said the slip in the Bucs defense was simple: People weren’t doing their jobs.

In the second half, the Bucs somewhat buckled down, sans the touchdown gifted by the Bucs after some illegal hollering by the field goal defense.

“The first half we got out of doing what we were supposed to do,” Johnson said. “The second half we did what we talked to do the whole week and that is to play them, just try to get our hand up and get in their face and disrupt them the whole time,” Johnson said.

E.J. cornerback E.J. Biggers agreed with Johnson but was much less specific. Biggers said over and over that the Bucs just needed to do their jobs. When Joe pressed what exactly that was, Biggers smiled sheepishly and said, “We just needed to do our jobs, that’s all I can tell you.”

“You just know in these division games it is always going to be a dogfight,” Johnson said. Drew Brees is “a great player, a Hall of Fame caliber quarterback. It’s hard to contain anyone in this league and he is one of the best.”

That will be different Thursday night. Samantha Steele-bedding Christian Ponder is not quite yet mentioned in the same breath as Brees, and is coming off a very pedestrian outing with a grand total of 58 yards passing.

Maybe Arrelious Benn got antsy after a touchback Sunday? Maybe his coaches encouraged him to try and make something happen out of the endzone? Maybe the lead blocker in front of him gave him the go signal?

But with the Bucs leading 21-14 Sunday, Benn fielded a kickoff eight yards deep in the end zone and returned it to the Bucs’ 8 yard line.

Huh? Not a good idea with a lead, plus there was no apparent opening anywhere, and Benn didn’t try anything out of the ordinary.

Damn that south end zone wasn’t kind to the Bucs against the Saints.

Last week Greg Schiano candidly said he was displeased with his kick return game but Benn’s role in it would not be affected.

The Bucs only got to return one kickoff Sunday. And it was that mess to the 8 yard line.

There’s little time this week to work on the details of kickoff return, but somehow the Bucs need to find a way to straighten it out.