Derek “Old School” Fournier of WhatTheBuc.net seems to have the life sucked out of him by the Bucs’ alley-beating at the hands of the Saints. He summed the game up, saying the only silver lining was “the game is over.”

Joe stumbled across an interesting feature thanks to the dogged research of Jimmy Traina of SI.com.

In his fantastic, twice-daily feature on Hot Clicks, he featured a link from Esquire magazine that has a cheerleader discuss her team’s previous game.

This week, one of Joe’s favorites, Tiffany Jimenez, picked apart the Bucs loss to the Saints.

ESQ: What was the biggest issue for the team yesterday?

TIF: It just felt like every time I turned around, a yellow flag was in the air. There was so much fighting, I asked one of the other girls, “Are we at a UFC match right now?” Also, the Saints had 212 yards rushing, and we only had 42. Our team is so young. I’ve watched them grow tremendously. I’ve cheered when we were pretty bad, and it’s impressive how we’re rebuilding.

Tiffany went on to suggest that she thinks the cheerleaders should do more radio spots, which Joe is confident would go over swimmingly for both radio people, and the listeners. Smart girl!

Problem is, radio is not a visual medium.

Then, there is this little nugget that got Joe’s attention:

ESQ: We hear you’ve never seen snow, but you’ve obviously seen plenty of sand. If a guy were to surprise you with a vacation, what sort of destination would make you cheer?

TIF: I love the beaches, tropical islands, rocking a bathing suit.

Indeed!

In all seriousness, this is Tiffany’s last year as a Bucs cheerleader, as there is a new mandate that Bucs cheerleaders cannot serve longer than four years and Tiffany has been a Bucs cheerleader for five years now.

Her next vocation should be working TV. Last year the Bucs tried out a few cheerleaders as video hosts. None were bad, but Tiffany’s spots were tremendous. She’s a natural in front of the camera. Her bubbling personality just jumped off the computer monitor.

Joe has told this to Bucs multimedia guru Scott Smith before: that Tiffany is perfect for video. And Smith agreed, telling Joe he also received quite a bit of positive feedback about her video spots. Some people just have “it,” and Tiffany does.

Some of Joe’s friends in the fourth estate also remarked to him about what an impression Tiffany made upon them.

If there was a smart local TV producer or station manager — and there are — they would contact Tiffany to do some of these off-the-wall, fun features, or perhaps a producer could have her host some syndicated cable series.

Just about every Bucs fan worth his red battle flag has seen by now how Division-II running back Chris Ivory, now the Saints’ top running back, freight-trained the Bucs defense.

It was enough to make Joe throw up ,and it had nothing to do with the quality adult beverages Joe consumed the previous evening. Joe suspects many Bucs fans were equally ill.

It was uglier than an image of Rosie O’Donnell in a private adult film.

Former Bucs defense end Steve White decided to put erasable marker to whiteboard and diagrammed why Ivory ran through the Bucs defense as if it was Missouri Western State University on his blog.

So what do we make of all this? Well first of all aside from Roy Miller getting tossed around on several plays which is unacceptable, we mostly gave up the big yardage because guys weren’t on the details or missed tackles rather than having been physically manhandled. Second of all there are some problems that we are having that are recurring. Our defensive ends aren’t getting underneath kick out blocks like they should and that’s all about technique and using your eyes. That’s something that can definitely be fixed but you have to wonder why it hasn’t been to this point. Thirdly you will notice that aside from the one line stunt, these were plays where the Bucs just lined up in front of the Saints like it was drawn up on a chalkboard. I don’t know that movement or blitzes would have solved all of our problems but I have to wonder when we will at least TRY to start helping ourselves on early downs with a few zone blitzes to give offenses a different look to block.

It was a terrible day for our defense, make no mistake about it, but in watching the replay online I didn’t get the sense that we were physically dominated anywhere but our nosetackle position. The Bucs tried to play a lot of G with Miller which is something I thought might be useful, but with his outside hand down and outside foot back I think he was going to have a hard day regardless. Still you can’t make any excuses, he HAS to play better. Otherwise I’m pretty sure that it won’t be long before Price is out there with the starters. After all if we are going to suck on defense against the run we might as well suck with our rookie 2nd round pick in there getting some good experience.

Something has to be done by the Bucs’ defensive braintrust and has to be done quick. If Bucs fans — and it appears so too does White — think Sunday’s defensive performance was unacceptable, imagine what Steven Jackson could do to this defense in a few days?

Joe assumes Rams coach Steve Spagnuolo is drooling over Sunday’s Saints-Bucs gametape as if someone placed a plate of toasted ravioli and cold Budweiser before him.

How thorough was the chainwhipping the Saints gave the Bucs? Joe, being the history geek, was somewhat reminded of Bill Sherman’s march to the sea through Georgia in the Civil War.

The only difference was, the Saints didn’t jump in the stands at the CITS, to rob people of their beers and concessions and accost the women.

After Kareem Huggins went down with a season-ending knee surgery, there was no running game. None.

As a result, Charles Robinson, of Yahoo! Sports, believes the Bucs have the solution on their own roster: Earnest Graham.

The early deficit to the Saints took the running game away, but Tampa Bay’s backfield is totally uninspiring. Regardless, Earnest Graham is the best running back on the roster. He’s being wasted.

Well, yes and no. Part of the reason Graham was moved to fullback is, at his age (NFL nursing home age), he’s getting susceptible to injuries, which happened again Sunday when he pulled a hamstring.

Graham may very well be a good short-term option at tailback but doing risks losing Graham for the season, again, to injury.

Then the Bucs are down a fullback. And another tailback.

The growing pains of the Bucs’ young defensive line have been felt by Bucs fans and coaches. But few thought the pain would be as agonizing as it’s been the past three games, with the Steelers, Bengals and Saints having their way with the D-line and running at will.

On today’s Raheem Morris Show, on WDAE-AM 620, the Bucs’ head coach, who has been markedly protective of his young players and enthusiastic about his youthful roster, showed a hint of frustration with the learning curve of his defense.

Callers pressed Morris to talk about the struggles of the run defense on multiple occasions and, after some prodding by host TJ Rives, Morris gave a candid take that included singling out Gerald McCoy. 

“The other reason, which we always talk about time around here is we’re being a little too much yield signs, you know. And what I mean by that is we’re in our gaps, we’re in the right spot, and now we’re looking to see who’s supposed to be in that gap, rather than shedding the block and making the tackle. We got to go out and be better shed tacklers up front, at linebacker and in the secondary.

“Right now, I’ve got a bunch of young guys, and they are really concerned about being wrong. And I got to tell those guys, you know, ‘Don’t be afraid to achieve and go out there be your best self.’ You know, Gerald McCoy, he can take some of the reigns of him[self] a little bit. ‘Yeah I know what to do.’ That’s great. Now go out there and shed this guard and make this tackle in somebody else’s gap. Because you can do that, too. It’s not illegal.”

Morris hardly threw McCoy under the bus, but the frustration was evident. McCoy has eight tackles and no sacks in five games.

Joe gets that D-line is probably thinking way too much to be successful consistently. But if that’s really a major problem, than it should be fixable very quickly.

If the Bucs have drafted good players, their raw football instincts should take over in a hurry.

There’s all the Bucs analysis on the Internet, and then there’s what former Bucs defensive end Steve White churns out on his blog.

It’s sort of like the difference between eating off the dollar menu Checkers and feasting on the awesome food at Mugs Grill & Bar in Clearwater.

White’s posted his usual intense look at the Bucs’ defensive line and other takes on the Bucs-Saints game. For now, Joe’s going to only post here what White wrote about the ineffective 3-3-5 alignment Raheem Morris has shown a commitment to.

The 3-3-5 may be a useful tool but we are using it too damn much. And Coach Morris can’t keep using the excuse that Quincy Black is a good rusher because he isn’t. As I have said time and again he is a good BLITZER not a good rusher and there is a helluva difference. I went back and looked at my notes and aside from that sack against Carolina, Black has only had two pressures by my count. And those were on plays where he ran a pass rush game with Gerald McCoy. I don’t believe that I have seen him win a single one on one pass rush against an offensive lineman this year. And I doubt I WILL see him win one because he for as strong and as fast as he is, he doesn’t have any moves. Every time he is out there as a rush end that is a play where a true pass rushing defensive end is on the bench, our two rookie defensive tackles aren’t pass rushing from their normal alignments, and there is zero chance to run a pass rush game unless its on his side.

We are cutting off all of that potential pressure just to get Black on the field. Hey, I have a novel idea. Why not just sub him in for Ruud or Hayes? If he is really THAT indispensable then why not allow him to play what he is best at? Hell you can blitz him from those positions too! You can even call Bark and have a FIVE man rush!

But here’s what you CAN’T do. You can’t say you want more pressure on the quarterback if you continue to refuse to use four defensive lineman for a four man rush. You can’t say you want more pressure when you refuse to call overload blitzes to either side. You can’t complain about not getting pressure when you aren’t allowing guys to pass rush from their more natural positions.

You can’t, you simply CAN NOT. Oh you can tell a few beat writers here in Tampa but its not going to fly with me. I SEE what’s happening on the field and what isn’t. McCoy didn’t have a great day but he did make one helluva move when he was rushing from his undertackle spot and got a pressure. I can only wonder how many more times that happens if he gets more opportunities to rush from that position. Or hell maybe he gets to run a true TEX game with a defensive end instead of being a crash test dummy trying to free everything up for Black. Or maybe he can run a TOM game inside with Price where they create pressure up the middle on the quarterback who now can’t step up and gets sacked by our defensive ends coming around the horn.

Or…..maybe we keep running that bullshit 3-3-5 and then complaining after the games about how much time the quarterback had.

Fun stuff.

Personally, Joe was getting ill watching the Bucs continually fake a blitz and drop back into the 3-3-5. It’s not working.

The Bucs got outcoached Sunday, as Cadillac Williams said. And Raheem Morris himself shouldered his share of blame. 

Joe expects to see a lot more blitzing on Sunday with rookie Sam Bradford quarterbacking the Rams,and the lack of respect he’ll get versus what the Bucs gave Drew Brees.

Plus, Raheem has to know his treasured secondary is ineffective without the threat of a pass rush. And there’s none of that going on with the status quo.

Asked today whether his loyalty to Cadillac Williams is shaping his judgment of Caddy’s on-field performance, Raheem Morris gave a roundabout answer.

In short, Morris explained that his loyalty is to what Cadillac does outside of running the ball very well — namely keeping pressure off Josh Freeman.

“It’s more about protecting No. 5 than anything else,” Morris said, when explaining why Williams is getting the large majority of playing time.

None of this surprises Joe, who wrote several times previously that Cadillac is the man because the Bucs have little faith in LeGarrette Blount and Kareem Huggins’ ability to pick up blitzes.

That’s not going to change for a while, Joe believes. Freeman is the franchise, and teams will keep bringing the heat on him.

The Bucs once had a blocking icon who couldn’t catch too well at wide receiver, and now it seems they might have a new blocking icon in place at running back, if only until the end of the season.

Pressured for answers to the Bucs’ ineffective running game during his news conference today, Raheem Morris wouldn’t cast a finger of blame and, in fact, he said the Bucs’ rushing attack looks improved on film than it did in 2009.

“It’s a lot better than it was from last year,”  Morris said of the running game. “The chances you do have to make plays, you’re not making them. There are some positives with our team happening with the running game.”

Morris went on to say the Bucs’ running failures fall equally on the line and running backs.

Morris was very pleased with the Bucs’ pass blocking and had specific praise for Jeremy Zuttah, Donald Penn and Davin Joseph. “At the end of the day, we didn’t get our quarterback touched,” Morris said.

Joe  has to wonder, if the running game looks better than it did last year, as Raheem said, then why did the Bucs bring back Cadillac Williams for 2010?

The bad news was made official: Kareem Huggins is lost for the season with injuries to his knee ligaments, so said Raheem Morris during his news conference today.

Huggins injured his knee during the 2009 preseason, then had more problems this year. After one strong run from scrimmage against New Orleans, Huggins was hurt getting hit while catching a pass.

Joe hopes Huggins, a great young man, gets another shot.

So there was Cadillac Williams, fresh off the brutal loss to the Saints, being asked on the Buccaneers Radio Network about the defeat Sunday.

And the first comment about the Saints performance that moved from his mind to his lips was that New Orleans “outcoached us.”

Joe transcribed Caddy’s words verbatim:

“Oh, man, tough loss man. First of all, you have to tip your hat off to the New Orleans Saints, man. They came in here, you know, outcoached us, um, outplayed us with their players, outphysicaled us. They controlled the line of scrimmage. They just beat us in all three phases of the game,” Williams said on WDAE-AM 620.

Joe wonders why a running back who can’t run the ball (2.5 yards per carry) is referencing coaching off the top of his head immediately following a humiliating loss.

From experience, Joe can say that Cadillac is not one to run his mouth, which makes this comment troubling.

Joe’s not going to say the locker room is falling apart and the Bucs have lost confidence in their coaches. But Cadillac pointing a finger at the coaching staff isn’t cool. At least Derrick Ward waited to point fingers until after he was gone.

Joe wonders whether Cadillac has now earned a place in Raheem Morris’ doghouse.

Now Joe knows there’s a reason former Bucs defensive tackle Chris Hovan was released by the Bucs. General manager Mark Dominik wanted to go young and let the kids sink or swim their rookie season.

In short, be baptized by fire.

By that premise, the burn unit at Tampa General Hospital was quite busy yesterday afternoon because the young Bucs got third degree burns from having Division-II running back Chris Ivory torch them time after time.

It was so bad veteran St. Petersburg Times columnist Gary Shelton was wondering if there was a way the Bucs could reacquire Hovan.

For goodness’ sake, I miss Chris Hovan.

That’s how badly the Saints beat up the Bucs on Sunday. They battered them, they bullied them, and they left them looking so bewildered that any possible answer at all, even last year’s incorrect ones, like Hovan, seemed like a fine idea at the time. Anything, just so it might help stop the stampede.

Here we go again.

Shelton went on to write how the Bucs rush defense couldn’t stop a parked car.

Folks, yesterday — and the Steelers pounding — was why Peter King expected the Bucs to only win two games this year. The Bucs were (and are) determined to win or lose with young players, players who are still learning how to play in the NFL.

The cavalry is not coming. There is no one Dominik will sign off the street to help because, frankly, who currently unemployed would be any better?

The Bucs are building with youth. Games like this, especially against the defending champs, isn’t really shocking. Disappointing, yes. Shocking, no.

Jon Anik and Cris Carter break down the Bucs loss to the Saints.

Joe could smell this coming, and it’s not a good thing.

Fairly or unfairly, Bucs first round draft pick Gerald McCoy will always be compared to manbeast Ndamukong Suh. Both played in the Big XII Conference. Both were the jewels of the defensive tackle position. It seemed evenly split, depending on who one spoke with, who would be the better defensive tackle.

Suh is off to a hot start in his rookie season, which for a defensive tackle is about as rare as snowfall in Miami. GMC has not had as much success. Yet.

Joe has heard rumblings from various local sports radio hosts that GMC will never be Suh’s equal. Now that is beginning to creep into the local papers.

Joe Henderson, the local sports voice of reason, has penned a column in the Tampa Tribune about the problems GMC has had in racking up tackles much less sacks. GMC has had few of the former and none of the latter.

This Joe could just smell this column coming after the awful loss to the Saints Sunday.

“I am so worried about playing the thing the right way instead of just making the play, it’s slowing me down,” he said. “I’ve just got to get out of it.”

None of this is what the Bucs had in mind when they made the defensive tackle from Oklahoma their top selection in April. “When the defense isn’t playing well, it’s my fault. That’s just how I feel,” he said.

“I’ve been in the film room early, I’ve stayed late. I don’t know what it is but I’m going to keep working. I just have to fix it.”

Joe can only suggest people be patient. Suh may just be  freak of nature that comes along once every 20 years. Rarely do defensive tackles have an impact as rookies. Warren Sapp didn’t. And last year one of the best rookie defensive tackles was Roy Miller of the Bucs, and his impact was minimal at best.

Let GMC breathe. Let him learn. Please, stay off his back.

Veteran sports columnist Gary Shelton talks about what kind of team the Bucs really are after the drubbing today by the Saints in this St. Petersburg Times video.

Cadillac Williams has horribly horrific rushing numbers. Kareem Huggins is hurt yet again. Injuries, as usual, have found their way to Earnest Graham. And the guy Raheem Morris was so excited about two games ago, LeGarrette Blount, can’t get a helmet on.

From an on-the-field standpoint only, Joe was not jumping for joy when Derrick Ward was released, simply because Ward showed a couple of strong runs against Jacksonville in Game 3 of the preseason and the Bucs were painfully thin at running back, in addition to not having a true No. 1 running backs. The subpar running backs corps was something Joe harped on through the offseason.

Then, Bucs insider/radio guy TJ Rives wrote that Ward’s release had a lot to do with money. And then Bucs beat writer Rick Stroud called cutting Ward a business decision.

Now Ward is running wild again in Houston. Click here to watch Ward truly create today and bust a run outside for a 38-yard touchdown. The Bucs probably don’t have a guy on the roster who can make this play.

Joe brings this all up because Ward is such a polarizing figure among fans and the Bucs’ running game is putrid. The Bucs probably made the right call on Ward, but it doesn’t feel that way right now.

Sarasota Herald-Tribune beat writer Tom Balog has penned a postgame story exploring whether formerly notorious hothead, kill-for-my-teammates Jeremy Trueblood has lost his angry edge.

Balog zeroes in on the situation surrounding today’s ugly late hit on Josh Freeman’s knee out of bounds by Saints safety Malcolm Jenkins and Trueblood’s tame reaction to his quarterback getting popped.

The proper course of action would have been for Trueblood to start an MMA war against the Saints.

 Because for how the Buccaneers played Sunday, that’s the only way the sprinkling of Bucs fans who stayed to the bitter end would have got their money’s worth.

Joe suggests you click the link above and check out the whole piece.

Joe’s not a big fan of the kindler gentler Trueblood. It sure seems like he and Davin Joseph have lost their nastiness. Although Joe has to give Trueblood credit for dialing back the penalties.

As a point of note, this is what happens when the Bucs do a whole lot of nothing for an entire game; beat writers start searching for compelling stories and write, in this case, about a guy not getting mad.

Lost in the mess of today’s Bucs beating was the announced crowd of 51,759, per the total posted on ESPN.com. That means about 14,000 seats went unsold.

When the “actual attendace” total is reported, that number will be in the high 40 thousands. 

So there were the surprise 3-1 Bucs taking on the Super Bowl champs, and the stadium was about 78 percent sold and the game was blacked out. What’s striking to Joe is how far off the Bucs are and how attendance is down from last year.

In 2009, actual attendance for the Bucs-Saints home game was 49,542, which means that game likely drew more people than today’s game, and those Bucs were a one-win team still operating the heinous Jim Bates Experiment.

Has the economy fallen off that much in 11 months, when the Bucs last hosted the Saints?

Stuffing his face at Lee Roy Selmon’s in Fort Myers with Bucs fans on The Blackout Tour (Rams game tickets now available), Joe had an immediate case of heartburn watching Tampa Bay take a knee at its own 36 yard line following Cody Grimm’s interception.

Down 17-0, this decision had no stake in the outcome, for sure. But it was as if the Bucs killed their own momentum and gave up.

Raheem Morris always talks about opportunities to learn for his young football team. Joe would like to know what is learned by taking a knee.

Surely the Bucs have a play in Chucky’s  playbook that calls for a 25- or 30-yard completion in eight seconds and a 50+ yard field goal attempt. What a great opportunity to try? Or what about the Hail Mary, rolling Josh Freeman out and letting him step into a throw? The Bucs have the tall bodies to get up for a ball.

Again, Joe knows this decision was ultimately meaningless. But it seemed to go against what the Bucs are trying to be about.

There’s no sugarcoating what happened to the Bucs today.

They were manhandled, outcoached and humiliated at home.

Their 3-2 record aside, you can’t be a good team in the NFL and get humiliated in back-to-back home games. The violent team Raheem Morris wants is a fairy tale at this point. Joe’s not sure why the Bucs seemed completely unready to play.

One of the organization’s stated goals of 2010 was to be competitive every game. In that specific category, the Bucs are 3-2, which is not good.

Sure, the 2010 season was bound to be a rollercoaster with a roster of young players and few star-caliber players and an ascending head coach. But Joe’s not sure the low should ever hit such a rock bottom.

Barrett Ruud was quick to speak to how manhandled the Bucs were by the Saints today on the Buccaneers Radio Network after the game.

“The scoreboard maybe didn’t show it enough,” Ruud said.

Thank you for some reality, Barrett. Joe was annoyed after the Steelers ran yet another 200+ yard day on the Bucs two games ago and the Bucs’ brass was talking about how it didn’t feel that bad. That was some smelly positive spin. This smells much more fresh and real.

Asked what went wrong, Ruud said, “We didn’t stop them at all. … I don’t know.” Ruud went on to say the key is the Bucs learning from the game. “Last year we were kinda playing for pride. This year we’re playing for more,” he said.

Joe’s as aggravated now as the next fan. It’s one game. If the Bucs come out and beat the Lambs next week, then the Kool-Aid returns and they’ve done what very few expected was possible.

Bucs fans, with some merit, have been howling about the Bucs’ (lack of) running game.

Those howls may turn to shrieks this week as the flavor of the month, in these circles also known as the cure of the month, will be LeGarrette Blount.

The former Oregon stud who nearly missed a year for stupidly trying to take on a Boise State crowd by himself, and who was later cut by the Tennessee Titans, looks to be the focal point of Bucs fans in the coming days.

For months, over a year, the cure was Kareem Huggins, who left the game today with an ugly right knee injury. Joe doesn’t expect him to be back soon.

Then the cry was for Earnest Graham to move back to tailback. Today, Graham left in the first half with a hamstring injury, which is especially troublesome to running backs.

Now with the Bucs running backs’ depth paper-thin, Bucs fans will be screaming from every rooftop for LeGarrette Blount.

Before calling Joe’s good friend, “The Big Dog,” Steve Duemig of WDAE-AM tomorrow to plea for Blount to save the Bucs’ season, keep in mind this is a guy who was already cut by one NFL team and his second team in as many months. And the Bucs think so highly of him that he was inactive today.

If Blount truly is Ricky Williams dressed in Bucs’ clothing, ya’ think there may be a reason two separate coaching staffs saw fit to use Blount as little more than roster fodder?

Joe hopes Blount indeed becomes the next Williams and runs for thousands of yards. Joe, however, can’t get past the fact that Blount struggles to make it on an active roster on game day.

A lot of Bucs followers and watchers — Joe included — thought this would be the year for Aqib Talib. With an uneventful offseason and coming off a 2009 campaign where he was one of the better cornerbacks in the league, many fully expected Talib to establish himself as an elite cornerback.

He’s not there… yet.

Talib is good, don’t get Joe wrong. He is not yet a star.

We all remember how he bobbled a near-interception in the zone against Pittsburgh that turned into an early Mike Wallace touchdown for the Steelers. Later, Talib had an would-be interception go through his hands on a critical third down play against Pittsburgh on what turned into a Steelers scoring drive.

That nasty near-interception bug bit Talib again today. And it was ugly.

Drew Brees connected with Lance Moore on a 41-yard touchdown that Talib had position on and went for the interception. But his pink-gloved hands were empty and the Saints had six points.

In the aforementioned plays, Talib was not out of position, please do not misunderstand. Talib, instead, went for the big plays and swung and missed each time.

Elite players make big plays. Talib’s not.

Not yet.