One of the coolest cats in the Bucs locker room, Mike Williams, is always open and frank with reporters. He’s often one of the first to come to the defense of teammates.

Joe remembers last year how Williams came to the passionate defense of Bucs then-franchise quarterback Josh Freeman and his less than stellar completion percentage. Williams said wide receivers deserved plenty of blame because they had to make sure they were on the same page as Freeman on each and every pass play.

Williams even took heat off of Bucs quarterback Mike Glennon when the Bucs rookie was named starter, saying, “It’s not like [Glennon] has never practiced with the first team.”

After today”s game, recounted by Pat Yasinskas of ESPN, Williams seemed evasive when asked about Bucs commander Greg Schiano not going for a touchdown on four-and-23 with five minutes left and the Bucs trailing by two touchdowns.

Don’t ask me: None of Schiano’s players questioned the call to kick the field goal, but wide receiver Mike Williams had the best quote: “I just block, catch balls and try to get touchdowns. That’s my job. I can’t make the calls. That was his call and that was the right call for him at that time.’’

It sure seems like Williams wanted to go for the touchdown, but for the same of harmony in the locker room and perhaps to protect Schiano, he’s biting his tongue.

Sooner or later there will be more chirping from within the locker room is the losses mount. From what Joe understands, there already are frayed nerves. Not yet publicly, at least, not at the coaching staff.

Former Buccaneer Jorge Diaz saw little silver lining in the Bucs’ performance in Atlanta

“Matty Ice” Ryan was extraordinarily efficient today against the Bucs’ high-paid secondary. Joe’s certain the Falcons’ signal caller hasn’t had many 20-for-26 days in his career like he did this afternoon.

The sackless Bucs barely breathed on Ryan, as Joe noted earlier.

But the Bucs also beat themselves with 11 penalties and stupid mistakes and blunders. Former Bucs guard Jorge Diaz called it a “total implosion” by Tampa Bay on the FOX local postgame.  

Yes, it was an implosion, but Joe thinks it’s important to not pretend the Bucs beat themselves. The Falcons were efficient early and dominated the first half with a decimated offense.

These are very sad times.

Mike James tries to power his way to a touchdown in the second half of the Bucs’ loss to the Dixie Chicks today.

The word in the inner circles of the NFL is that the Bucs don’t have a quality running back other than Doug Martin. Bucs fans won’t necessarily disagree. That’s why Bucs fans were quickly pulling up their Bucs rosters on their smartphones to find out just who this mysterious No. 25 was.

Surely it couldn’t have been troubled Aqib Talib?

No, it was Mike James, you know, the running back from Miami that was a third-day draft pick? (Damn that Bucs rock star general manager Mark Dominik and his draft picks.)

With Martin suffering a shoulder injury deep in Dixie Chicks territory in the third quarter, James came in and got some needed yards up the middle to set up a one-yard pass to Vincent Jackson that gave the Bucs their first touchdown recorded in the second half this season (!).

James would finish with 45 yards on 14 carries, including a strong run for three yards on a critical 4th-and-1 inside the Dixie Chicks-5. Until the status of Martin for Thursday is known, it appears James very well could be the Bucs starting tailback against Carolina.

“I just wanted to do a solid job on pass protection and moving the ball and put something together and get us a win,” James said. He did just that; James had a key block on a blitz that kept a drive alive in the fourth quarter.

Bucs quarterback Mike Glennon seemed happy with how James took over for Martin.

“Mike James really stepped up,” Glennon told the Buccaneers Radio Network. “I’m not sure what happened with Doug, but Mike did a great job. He did a lot of things that were unnoticed. He picked up blitzes or we never would have had a touchdown from Vincent Jackson.”

James’ play didn’t come as a surprise to Schiano, also speaking on the Buccaneers Radio Network.

“Mike has been showing in the last few weeks that he is ready to be an NFL running back,” Schiano said. “We needed him today.”

Joe was outraged when Bucs coach Greg Schiano decided to play percentages and go for a late field goal when the Bucs needed 14 points to tie the game with five minutes left in the final quarter in today’s gut-punching loss to the Dixie Chicks.

At first, Joe hit the ceiling and could not believe that Schiano would suddenly go all French Army on the Dixie Chicks, especially since his job is on the line. The Tampa Bay voice of reason, columnist Joe Henderson of the Tampa Tribune, took to Twitter and believed that move signaled the end of the Greg Schiano Era in Tampa Bay.

@JHendersonTBO: IMO, whatever belief remained in Schiano by this town vanished with a FG that left #Bucs still needing 2 possessions in 5 minutes

This Joe was right with Henderson until he heard Schiano explain his position on the Buccaneers Radio Network.

“We were going for a score to make it one-score game,” Schiano said. “Then we self-inflict. Twice on fourth down. The odds of us doing anything [scoring a touchdown] is maybe 10 percent. If we could make it an 11-point game, we can score and get an onside kick which is what we did. Unfortunately, we didn’t get the onside kick.”

Joe will have more on the self-infliction a bit later. Schiano, Joe must admit, has a point. The Bucs needed 23 yards and the Dixie Chicks would have just put everyone in the end zone or on the goal line to defend against a touchdown. Not good odds.

Rather than being PO’ed at the decision, in retrospect, Joe is more than PO’ed at the sloppy play coming from a team coached by a self-proclaimed toes-on-the-line disciplinarian.

Joe shook his head when Greg Schiano expressed his frustration during his post-debacle news conference this afternoon.

Schiano talked about how he has to thoroughly evaluate the Bucs’ woes and make adjustments but “I think we do all the right things,” Schiano said of his coaching staff’s preparation.

Joe knows it’s irrelevant what Schiano says about the mess of 0-6. But c’mon, Coach. Please don’t embarrass yourself and the franchise and say, “I think we do all the right things.”

Schiano just led a complete re-evaluation of the entire operation out of the bye week and got roasted in back-to-back games by losing football teams.

Joe’s comfortable stating the Bucs are doing all the wrong things.

Now Joe has written before that he doesn’t expect Bucs commander Greg Schiano to return for the 2014 season. Not so much for his coaching shortcomings, but for a lack of trust factor among players — inaccurate or accurate — stemming from the smear job by the NFLPA, when they publicly pointed the finger at Schiano for allegedly leaking defrocked franchise quarterback Josh Freeman’s medical information.

Well, Joe thinks today may have given Team Glazer even more of a reason; the Bucs have now lost 11 of their last 12 games with Schiano at the helm.

The Bucs were playing a one-win team decimated by injuries. The Dixie Chicks were starting a No. 3 receiver who fried the Bucs time and again, Harry Douglas (who was time after time covered by a rookie and a second-year free agent signee, but not All-World corner Darrelle Revis). The defense, in the first half, looked hapless. You mean to tell Joe the Bucs had a week to prepare for the injury-prone Dixie Chicks, with virtually no offensive line to speak of, and they got ripped apart as if Raheem Morris was coaching them?

One guy who came to play on defense was stud Lavonte David. He seemed to be making a tackle every other play. His comments on the Buccaneers Radio Network following the game were rather telling.

“In the first half there were a lot of things we messed up on mentally. It was mental things that happened that gave them big plays. We have to learn how to eliminate that,” David said.

Now wait a minute! The Bucs have a College of Coaches that are supposed to teach. Schiano and his staff are supposed to be detailed to the point of examining pasta and thermostats in order to keep players from being distracted. And yet, the Bucs’ star linebacker claims they are not mentally into games?

Now Joe doesn’t expect Schiano to be relieved of his command, nor should he. The Bucs are in the chase for Jake Matthews and Jadevon Clowney. Why jeopardize that? There’s no better option now.

To conclude why Joe doesn’t think Schiano will be relieved before January is the history and pattern of Team Glazer. They have never released a coach before the end of the season.

Joe again cannot see Schiano coaching the Bucs in 2014. This does not make Joe happy because Schiano’s a good dude. In the NFL, you are hired and paid to win games, which Schiano is not doing, forget about the drama that enveloped the squad this season. Schiano pretty much sealed his fate today when his team came woefully unprepared, which is the same virus that torpedoed Morris’ tenure.

The Bucs are out of the playoff chase. Anyone who thinks otherwise probably agrees Joe has a shot to run away to Vegas with Rachel Watson for a week of twosomes, threesomes and massage.

So given the state of the Bucs, Joe sincerely hopes Doug Martin and his injured shoulder, the one that knocked him out of today’s Falcons-Bucs game, are in street clothes on Thursday night against Carolina. Joe doesn’t need to see a doctor’s report. There is absolutely no reason to play Martin in four days.

Let the man heal. It’s the smart move for the franchise, and Joe sincerely hopes Greg Schiano isn’t the kind of guy to play Martin on a very short week when he’s seriously banged up.

As Raheem Morris used to say, “Next man up.” The Bucs have Brian Leonard and rookie Mike James, who’s got some spark to him. Use those guys and don’t risk the franchise back.

Joe isn’t aware of what happens within the luxury offices of One Buc Palace, where Team Glazer gathers to make franchise-shaping decisions. But Joe’s pretty darn sure Greg Schiano’s future will be atop the agenda of the next shareholders meeting.

How could it not be?

Schiano has guided the Bucs to one win in their last 12 games. The team is getting progressively worse. Fans are outraged, deservedly so. Nobody with a sober mind can call the Bucs a well coached team. Nobody.

The Bucs have another game in four days against a rejuvenated, 3-3 Carolina Panthers team and their ferocious defense. Joe’s almost afraid to watch what the happens to the Bucs in Seattle in two weeks.

Joe doubts Team Glazer makes any kind of coaching change during this season unless the Bucs start quitting on Schiano and that on-field surrender forces their hand. That hasn’t happened yet. But the white flag can’t be far away, barring a historic miracle. The other thing that could force Team Glazer’s hand on a coaching change is fan outcry. Do Bucs fans care enough to march in front of One Buc Palace or boo Schiano out of the Stadium on Dale Mabry Highway? Joe suspects too many fans are too numb and already tuned out.

The Buccaneers’ voted captain and decorated Greg Schiano “Buccaneer Man” Vincent Jackson grabbed his defender’s face mask and pulled it to the turf in an effort to get open in the end zone on 1st-and-goal — 1st-and-goal — in the fourth quarter. That was astounding to Joe.

What a heinous display of frustration and sloppiness.

Is there that much angst and unprofessionalism flowing through the Bucs roster? Apparently so.

One must think that 11 penalties today is more evidence of a team whose head isn’t where it needs to be.

No sacks today for Tampa Bay. And now after six games Bucs defensive linemen have a total of six sacks. Six! That’s about as bad as it gets.

Considering the Bucs were supposed to rack up significantly more sacks this season after adding the likes of Darrelle Revis, Dashon Goldson and Johnthan Banks, the impotence of the Bucs pass rush is astounding.

Joe would like to know. If Gerald McCoy is getting such good push and is a Pro Bowl caliber beast, then why can’t the Bucs get anything off the edge from Adrian Clayborn? The man was a first-round pick and has two sacks this season — and two in his last 11 games.

When NFL stats are updated Tuesday after Week 7, the Bucs will check in ranked in the bottom third of the NFL in total sacks.

Frankly, the Bucs haven’t had a nasty pass rush since Greg White burst onto the scene in 2007, with eight sacks in a part-time role. That Bucs defense had the No. 1-ranked pass defense in the NFL. The Bucs are miles away from that kind of success.

Dropped passes, punting woes, personal fouls, pre-snap penalties, more penalties, sloppy secondary play and fumbled balls ruled the day for the Bucs at the Georgia Dome. How about those undisciplined Buccaneers under Greg Schiano?

And how about that Harry Douglas Show! The Falcons’ No. 3 receiver became their No. 1 today and torched the Bucs for 149 yards. Why wasn’t Darrelle Revis covering him???

That’s two weeks in a row now that opposing quarterbacks have completed more than 70 percent of their passes.

This was an absolutely pathetic loss to a shorthanded and unimpressive 1-4 Falcons team. Your Bucs are now 0-6.

Joe’s really getting sick and tired of pulling positives out of losses. Yes, Vincent Jackson made a great touchdown catch, special teams forced a fumble/turnover, Lavonte David was a playmaker, Mike James looked capable, and others played hard, but the Bucs were nowhere near good enough — and so damn sloppy. Eleven penalties and other errors under a disciplined head coach? Greg Schiano and his massive coaching staff should be updating their resumes.

If the Bucs cannot beat the Dixie Chicks today, Joe won’t know what to say. The Bucs, then, may not get a win until December, if you can imagine. At that point, the race for Jake Matthews or Jadeveon Clowney will be on!

The Dixie Chicks are beat up. They have a rotten offensive line (Jeremy Trueblood???). They have scrubs in place of stars at wide receiver. Their top free agent running back has been shelved with an injury. The Dixie Chicks are a shell of their NFC title appearance from last year.

Go ahead and vent in this post. As always, please do not paste a link of an illegally steamed video feed of the game (or Joe will have to click the Goodbye Button), but you are more than welcome to share said URL among yourselves via e-mail.

Just how rotten the Bucs are will be determined today.

So have fun and don’t hold back, good or bad. Enjoy.

American sports icon Sid Hartman, the 93-year-old columnist for the Star-Tribune in Minnesota, has been doing his share of digging on the newest QB of his Vikings. And Hartman says his Tampa Bay sources revealed an organizational sales job that led to the defrocking of Josh Freeman.

In a video linked here, Hartman says Team Glazer initially was against making the move on Freeman and needed to be convinced.

“I know some people down there [in Tampa] that told that me the owners did not want to let [Freeman] go,” Hartman said. “But when the coach and the general manager sat down with them and told them the problems they’re having with him, and that he’s wrecking the rest of the team because they don’t have the morale, they don’t have that, the players like him and all that kind of stuff, but they can’t understand why he don’t show up on time for practice, why he don’t do different things.”

Hartman went on to say he doesn’t have much faith in Freeman changing his ways in Minnesota and made the comparison to lessons the Vikings learned with Percy Harvin.

Of course, Joe doesn’t know what Team Glazer really thought about the Freeman move but it would make sense if they were apprehensive. Team Glazer knows what it paid Freeman this season, and they know that fans were told this season would be all about No. 5.

Game 6

Bucs (0-5) at Dixie Chicks (1-4)

Kickoff: 1 p.m.

TV: WTVT-TV, Channel 13, locally. Outside the Tampa Bay area, DirecTV Channel 704.

Radio: Buccaneers Radio Network (in Tampa WFUS-FM 103.5, and WDAE-AM 620); SiriusXM Channel 134.

Weather: Per AccuWeather.com, though the game will be played in a soulless dome, Bucs fans tailgating for the game will experience true fall weather (which is known as bitter winter conditions in the Sunshine State). Morning temperatures will be in the mid-50s with virtually no wind under crystal clear, sunny skies. After the game, it is expected to be a pleasant 69 degrees outside the Georgia Dome.

Odds: Per FootballLocks.com, Dixie Chicks -6.5.

Outlook: How ugly has this season become for the Bucs? Consider that today may be the last great chance until December for the Bucs to record their first victory of the season. December! The Dixie Chicks limp into the Georgia Dome ripe for a loss. Down is Julio Jones. Down is Roddy White. Down is Steven Jackson. With the exception of Matt Ryan future Hall of Famer Tony Gonzalez, the Dixie Chicks are starting a bunch of scrubs.

The offensive line? Ha! Jeremy Trueblood of all people, the human turnstile, is the Dixie Chicks’ starting right tackle. Yes, really!

And the Dixie Chicks defense? How does being 26th in the NFL in pass defense? Yikes!

Not only is this likely the last good opportunity until December for a win, this game is a chance for the Bucs’ big-named stars to shine and play to their expected level. If Da’Quan Bowers can’t beat Trueblood, it may be time to turn the page on the Clemson product. Scrub wide receivers? Time for Darrelle Revis, Dashon Goldson and Mark Barron to take over. Rotten pass defense by the Dixie Chicks? Time for Vincent Jackson and Mike Williams to run a track meet with the ball.

If the Bucs lose today, it will be time for Bucs fans to become familiar with Jake Matthews and Jadeveon Clowney.

(Vic Beasely of Clemson? Stop! Did the guy even dress last night against Florida State?)

If the Bucs can’t take advantage of a team teetering on the brink of collapse, Joe suspects brisk alcohol sales late this afternoon in the Tampa Bay area.

Many Bucs fans — largely those known as “Freemanites” — still howl about the Bucs cutting loose malcontent defrocked franchise quarterback Josh Freeman. In some cases, so much so that local animal services has visited their residence for drop-kicking a pet cat across the backyard.

There really hasn’t been a marked difference in the Bucs’ passing attack since Freeman left, partially because of injuries to skill position players. But hold up, says Bucs commander Greg Schiano. The passing of current starter Mike Glennon has improved greatly over Freeman in one area: Accuracy. Can you imagine? Light upon this subject is shed by Woody Cummings of the Tampa Tribune.

Glennon’s mobility isn’t the only thing that has Schiano smiling. His ability to hit receivers on the run with his passes has brought back an offensive dimension Schiano said was missing with former starter Josh Freeman.

Freeman’s inability to consistently hit his targets in stride, Schiano said, greatly reduced his receivers’ ability to make yards after the catch and therefore limited the offense’s true potential. Last week, Schiano said he thinks that trend will slowly change for the Bucs now that Glennon is at quarterback, and there is already proof.

Though the Bucs are last in the league in total yards after the catch with 421, a season-high 107 came against the Eagles, when Glennon completed 26 of 43 throws (60 percent). It marked the first time this season a Bucs quarterback has completed more than 50 percent of his passes.

Joe is somewhat interested to see how Glennon does against the Dixie Chicks. It could be the first time the Bucs had their projected starting tight end and receivers. Vincent Jackson will start, of course. and Mike Williams is expected back. Tight end Tom Crabtree also should log many more snaps.

This can only help Glennon and the Bucs find that elusive first win of 2013.

Unable to score a second-half touchdown all season, Greg Schiano and the offensive gurus on his staff didn’t need any more criticism. But they got another hefty dose of it from a very credible source this week.

Longtime NFL quarterback and noted film guru Ron Jaworski claims he studied all of Josh Freemans 2013 snaps and he did not see a bad quarterback. The Star-Tribune out of Minnesota snatched a chunk of Jaworski’s breakdown behind an ESPN subscription wall and shared some nuggets. Jaworski puts a load of blame on the Buccaneers’ offensive line.

As we know, the quarterback gets too much credit and takes too much blame for most situations on offense. So let me start by saying Freeman’s position certainly amplified his issues with the Buccaneers. When I re-examined all of Freeman’s throws thus far in 2013, I came away confident in my opinion that his benching — and ensuing release — wasn’t warranted. Moreover, I’m convinced Freeman has it within him to be a good quarterback in the NFL. And he’ll prove it in Minnesota.

I’m not about to give Freeman a free pass for the Bucs’ struggles, but he was a victim as often as he was a perpetrator.

Start with the pass protection. In Freeman’s 103 dropbacks in 2013, he was under pressure on 26 of them, according to ESPN Stats & Information. Compare that to Peyton Manning, who has felt pressure on just 29 of his 245 dropbacks to date in 2013, and you get a decent idea of the uphill battle Freeman was fighting the first three weeks.

Again, Jaworski is a top notch source on QB play. He has said in previous interviews that he spends a load of his time working out of NFL Films headquarters, often alongside Greg Cosell, the film guru who claims the Bucs are, in fact, using Darrelle Revis in zone coverage most of the time.

Whatever reality may be, the New Schiano Order’s credibility is taking beating after beating — seemingly day after day.

Sunday against the depleted Dixie Chicks should be time for the secondary of the Bucs to dominate for a change.

Yes, many Bucs fans have focused the past week on if/why Darrelle Revis is playing zone coverage. Or too much zone coverage. Or exclusively zone coverage.

What is important is if the Bucs are to find their first win of the season, then it will be the defense that will lead them, likely the secondary. The defensive backs of the Bucs may not get such an opportunity to dominate as they could and should tomorrow, writes Trey Cunningham of Pro Football Focus.

Julio Jones is done for the year. Roddy White has been playing with various injuries and may not be able to play in this contest. Aside from Tony Gonzalez, who should now be focused on even more by defenses, who is going to receive Matt Ryan’s passes? The fact Steven Jackson, who was supposed to bring a pass-catching threat the team lacked with Michael Turner, seems iffy at best to play on Sunday doesn’t help.

It seems that 2008 third-round pick Harry Douglas will be the No. 1 WR if White is unable to suit up. Douglas, who has actually played one more snap than White, has disappointed thus far in 2013 with only 16 catches, no scores, a fumble, and two drops. The last drop was near the goal line in the Jets loss, one play in a sequence of events that saw the Falcons stopped on the 1-yard line right before halftime. To be fair, that pass, which could have gone for a TD and changed the game, was a bit overthrown, but Douglas still could have made a play. The next wide out with the most snaps on the year is former undrafted free agent Drew Davis, who has played in every game but hasn’t had a pass thrown to him since Week 1. After Davis is Kevin Cone, who has played in four games and actually had a 12-yard catch-and-run and forced a missed tackle against the Jets, but that was his only target. Fourth-round rookie TE Levine Toilolo could become a bigger target for Ryan. Toilolo has caught all but one pass thrown to him this season, forced two missed tackles and scored a pair of TDs. Otherwise expect a lot of short passes to HBs Jacquizz Rodgers and Jason Snelling, who have a combined for 32 catches, 20 forced missed tackles and two TDs.

Look. The Bucs have All-World cornerback Revis, who as Bucs commander Greg Schiano likes to say, even at 70 percent is 50 percent better than most. The Bucs have stud Dashon Goldson. They have high first round draft pick Mark Barron. They have promising rookie Johnthan Banks. They should take the game over. The only receiver to worry about, and he is a big worry, is Anthony Gonzalez.

That’s it. The rest are scrubs. Joe knows Matty Ice is a helluva quarterback but this is the time for the secondary of hte Bucs to dominate and shut down these scrubs. Take the game over. Smother them.

If not, the Bucs just may have bigger problems than just being winless.

The fine folks at BSPN, including Mark Schlereth, Darren Sharper and Jerome Bettis, give their two cents about the Bucs-Dixie Chicks game in this BSPN video.