Who needs Todd Wash when the big D-line coach in the sky is working his wonders on Gerald McCoy?

Asked on The Gerald McCoy Show last night on WDAE-AM 620 what’s caused the recent improvement in his game, McCoy said the following verbatim:

“To be honest, what it was and what’s changed in how I’m playing is God has a vision for each one of our lives. And his vision for mine I lost focus of. And I started to live according to how I wanted to, instead of focusing on God’s vision for me. And I kind of got off on a different, not that I got off on a wrong path but my mindset was just different. And I was worried about the wrong things, and sometimes it caused me to do the wrong things. 

“So once I put my total and 100 percent focus into God’s plan for my life, things just made a quick flip. I mean within two games I had three sacks. It happened that fast. And it was simply just God showing me, ‘Look, this is what I want you to do. This is what you’re supposed to be doing. This is what you’re not doing. So I have to open your eyes somehow.’ And that’s really what just happened.

“I didn’t do anything different. I prepared the same. Watched film, all that. It just started to happen.”

Joe respects and admires men of faith. And Joe’s not about to speculate whether the Lord enlightened McCoy regarding Xs and Os or simply offered personal spiritual guidance.

Joe just hopes the change in McCoy’s game is lasting.

Joe would be flabbergasted if the Bucs don’t target a top pass rushing defensive end in free agency next year or draft one in the first or second rounds.

How could they not?

Kyle Moore, whose season ended yesterday when he went on injured reserve with a shoulder injury, has zero sacks over two seasons (15 games), has had work ethic issues and surely doesn’t seem to be better than 25-year-old Tim Crowder, another Mark Dominik waiver wire steal who has 6.5 sacks since joining the team in September 2009.

In Joe’s eyes, Moore is neither the present nor the future.

With durable veteran Stylez White (4.5 sacks in 2010) playing for a contract over the final five games, it’ll be interesting to see how it all shakes out at the position. If Stylez finishes strong, Joe suspects he’ll surely be back next season but likely competing for a job.

It seems all the roster moves made by the Bucs yesterday caught the attention of “The Professor,” John Clayton in this BSPN video.

The news yesterday of the Bucs letting Sabby go brought back to mind for Joe the cursed draft class of 2007.

Of the Bucs nine players taken in that draft, only two — two! — are currently on the Bucs roster and a third is playing with the Rams, Kenneth Darby.

Just take a look at the Bucs cursed class of 2007:

First round: Gaines Adams, dead.

Second round: Arron Sears, unable to play.

Second round: Sabby, out of work.

Third round: Quincy Black, starting but with mixed results.

Fourth round: Tanard Jackson, gifted but has pretty much smoked his way out of the league.

Fifth round: Greg Peterson, out of work.

Sixth round: Adam Hayward, backup.

Seventh round: Chris Denman, out of work.

Seventh round: Marcus Hamilton, out of work.

Seventh round: Kenneth Darby, playing for the Rams.

Folks, that’s downright miserable. And people actually wonder why Bruce Almighty and Chucky were given their walking papers by Team Glazer, and Chucky’s so desperate to get back into coaching he’s rumored to be flirting with the Canes as Joe types this very post.

Check out the great opportunity below from Joe’s good friends at Topper Town in Clearwater. It’s the same ad you saw in the Thanksgiving edition of the St. Pete Times.

Everything you want for your truck, van or SUV lives at Topper Town, and the owners are big Bucs fans. Click the ad below and check it out. And check out JoeBucsFan.com over the next week for a shot to win great prizes from Topper Town.

Yesterday when Joe learned of the news that the Bucs washed their hands of Sabby, Joe literally had to call a second source for confirmation, and then received an e-mail from a third, trusted source that Joe then knew confirmed the news.

Yes, that’s standard operating procedure for a good reporter. But the news was so startling to Joe he couldn’t believe it.

Now Joe doesn’t have to connect the dots to figure out who blew the coverage on the Todd Heap touchdown last week. Some thought it was Sabby. The Bucs wouldn’t say… until yesterday that is.

Well, the Bucs didn’t actually say it. But actions often speak louder than words.

The move didn’t surprise Tampa Tribune columnist Joe Henderson at all. In fact, he is of the mind the Bucs had their fill of Sabby’s unfulfilled promise.

It’s worth remembering that Raheem Morris coached the defensive backs before taking over as head coach. You figure he’s going to know who has the goods back there and who is just a lost cause.

It sends a terrific message to the locker room. Production counts, no matter who you are or how long you’ve been there.

Even with the secondary thinned by injuries and quarterback Matt Ryan coming to town Sunday, the Bucs decided they’d take their chances with a guy who didn’t know the playbook instead of the guy who knew it (maybe) but couldn’t execute.

Well, here’s what piques Joe’s interest: A guy with a white cane could see that Sabby simply was not learning how to play in the NFL. He was doing the same stupid crap over and over whether it be blown coverages, late hits or his myriad of mistackles which he led the NFL in last year with 19.

So Morris and/or Mark Dominik came to the conclusion Sabby couldn’t play from the Baltimore game? Why not keep him on special teams and find someone else to start?

Mind you Joe’s not arguing against the move. Joe just finds it strange the Bucs wouldn’t keep Sabby as special teams fodder, unless the Bucs thought Sabby would pout and be a distraction for getting usurped by a guy off the street?

Sabby had already been walked over by a free agent pick-up and a rookie seventh-round draft pick, just in the first month of the season. Maybe a lowly practice squad player stepping over Sabby for a starting gig might have been a bit too much for even Sabby to handle?

Along with ridding themselves of Sabby Piscitelli today, the Bucs made a bunch of other roster moves.

The Bucs ended defensive end Kyle Moore’s season, sending him to injured reserve with his bum shoulder, and they gave roster spots to safety Vince Anderson, wide receiver Dezmon Briscoe and guard Brandon Carter, who were all on the practice squad.  Plus they signed rookie safety Larry Asante off the Browns’ practice squad.

Joe will offer thoughts on those moves later. But for now, Joe is realy happy for the face-painting rookie Carter, who Joe had a long chat with before the NFL Draft. It’s gotta be a great feeling knowing you’ve made a roster and a fat game check is on the way.

Perhaps Carter will be dancing tonight like he does in the video below. Will he be painted up on Sunday?

Note to college men everywhere: never let the girl turn the video camera on you. …After watching this G-rated film, Joe looks forward to Carter’s first touchdown celebration.

Joe’s good friend, “The Big Dog,” Steve Duemig of WDAE-AM 620 just broadcast word that the Bucs have cut safety Sabby Piscitelli.

So ends an era that tormented Bucs fans like few Bucs players have.

Piscitelli came into the NFL with great optimism and was (unfairly) compared with former Bucs great John Lynch for a number of reasons likely beginning with his skin pigmentation.

Like Lynch, Sabby came from an upper-class background. Like Lynch, Piscitelli was a force at a PAC-10 also-ran school.

Unlike Lynch, Sabby never seemed to grasp the fine art of mentally mastering the game. Sabby found himself in the Bucs starting lineup last year after Jermaine Phillips was hurt and Sabby soon was roasted more than a badly deep-fried turkey.

Given a fresh start with the eradication of the heinous Jim Bates Experiment, Sabby failed to win the favor of Raheem Morris and lost the starting job to Sean Jones this summer. In an ugly incident, Sabby publicly lashed out at his coach claiming the fix was in and that Sean Jones all along was going to be named the starter despite how well Sabby may have played in the preseason.

The problem was, Sabby was still making the same mental mistakes over and over and over again just as he had with the heinous Jim Bates Experiment.

How far Sabby fell out of favor with the Bucs braintrust was evident when Tanard Jackson was suspended for the season for failing a banned substance test. Rather than tabbing Sabby for the opening the Bucs turned to rookie Cody Grimm, essentially relegating Sabby to third string.

Shortly after Grimm was lost Sunday to a broken fibula, and lost for the season, someone badly blew coverage on Crows tight end Todd Heap resulting in a long Crows touchdown. Though no one not on the field knew for sure who blew the coverage, though some knowledgeable football people suggested it was Sabby.

Given that Sabby didn’t last 48 hours after the game tells Joe it was Sabby who blew coverage on that fateful play.

This is not to kick sand in Sabby’s face or to dance on his grave. But the move suggests the Bucs gave Sabby every reasonable opportunity to redeem himself on the field and to earn playing time and Sabby just didn’t or wasn’t able to take advantage.

Sadly, Sabby’s tenure with the Bucs will go down as racking up the most mistackles (19) of any defender in the NFL for the 2009 season.

The Bucs were forced to use their third-string free safety Sunday, 27-year-old Sabby Piscitelli.

It didn’t go so well, although Sabby employed great trickery and savvy that drew a penalty and saved the Bucs a touchdown. Perhaps he has a future across the pond.

After reading esteemed Tampa Tribune NFL writer eye-RAH! Kaufman’s brief look at former Buccaneers today, Joe was surprised to learn that Jermaine Phillips played this fall for Omaha of the UFL. Joe was unaware that the longtime Bucs linebacker safety and Raheem Morris favorite was recovered from his shattered thumb and back on the field.

After more research, Joe sees that Phillips, 31, had an interception for Omaha a few weeks ago, as well.

Joe hopes the Bucs at least take a look at Phillips, assuming he’s healthy, and consider him for the final five weeks of the season. The guy knows the defense and is a proven commodity.

Only reported by JoeBucsFan.com — shame on the local scribes — all domestic violence charges were dropped against Phillips last year. So that shouldn’t be a factor.

Phillips might only be good for a couple of games. But that might be enough to help the Bucs reach their lofty goals.

Derek “Old School” Fournier of WhatTheBuc.net expands on many of the same thoughts Joe had of the Bucs loss to the Crows Sunday.

Secondary maven and Bucs head coach Raheem Morris said this week that Aqib Talib is playing like a Pro Bowler. 

Ronde Barber can’t stop raving about the guy. And even Jeff Faine piped in last week with hefty praise of Talib and his teamwide leadership and impact.

And then there’s former Bucs DT Chris Hovan explaining yesterday on 1010 AM that Ravens wide receiver Derrick Mason “was eating [Talib] alive” Sunday.

“Talib was gettin’ beat on bump and run, press, zone, deep. Talib got schooled,” Hovan told host J.P. Peterson. “Aqib is that great of a player where he’ll correct it and probably get three or four more picks. He’s playing like a ballhawk right now.”

Hovan went on to say that going after Talib was clearly calculated by Baltimore. “It gets in your head when they come after you, that you’re part of their gameplan.”

Now Hovan has forgotten more football than Joe knows, but that doesn’t mean he’s right. Joe’s wasn’t seeing Talib getting beat all over the field like Hovan claims.

Joe’s favorite NFL TV analyst, Tim Ryan of FOX Sports, details what sank the Bucs Sunday in the loss to the Crows in this FoxSports.com video.

Video: NFL on FOX: Ravens fly past Bucs

Joe can’t remember who he read this from on Twitter, but Sunday someone wrote that Texans wide receiver Andre Johnson’s beat down of Titans defensive back Cortland Finneran was so severe that the NFL was going to fine James Harrison.

The Steelers All-Pro linebacker has been a target of NFL warden commissioner Roger Goodell in his crusade to turn football into high school girls basketball. It seems that Harrison cannot breathe on any person with a different colored jersey lest he gets fined six-figures.

In short, Harrison, and indirectly the Steelers, have become a target.

Could the same be happening to the Bucs?

The first thing Joe thought of when he heard Bucs cornerback Aqib Talib had to be restrained from attacking an NFL official after the referee mocked Talib using a vulgar street term for female genitalia, was that Talib won’t get the benefit of the doubt on any call for the rest of the season if not beyond that.

Now, with Talib being an enemy of the NFL referees, like Harrison, Talib won’t be able to look the wrong way at a wide receiver lest he get flagged for interference, or worse.

Seems as though a former Bucs great thought the same thing.

Twittering Sunday night, former Bucs linebacker Derrick Brooks believes Talib is now a marked man.

@DBrooks55: Wow That now makes him a marked man he wont get calls now, Officials tite group.

Joe was afraid of this and who better to know about this than Mr. Derrick Brooks? It’s going to be razor close for the Bucs to make the playoffs if they cannot beat the Dixie Chicks this weekend.

Did Talib’s actions after Sunday’s game potentially paint the Bucs into a corner with the zebras that may eventually cost the Bucs a game in the chase for a wild card?

Like most Bucs fans, Joe’s good friend Justin Pawlowski is irritated the Bucs cannot beat a team with a winning record.

So the WDAE-620 radio personality and host of the internationally acclaimed “Blitz” — which Joe hopes reappears before 2011 — did a little research and found a nasty common denominator.

It seems whenever the Bucs play a team with a winning record, the Bucs offense goes into hibernation, so Justin wrote on his blog in his weekly “Things I Learned About The Bucs.”

I learned that the Bucs have a tough time putting together offensive game-plans in the biggest of games. In 4 games against teams with winning records this year, the Bucs have managed just 9.25 offensive points per game.  We have seen the Bucs get more competitive later in the season, but the offense has still struggled in these big games.  I’m at a loss for words for why Blount was not more involved.  That’s actually a sentence you could use in 3 of these 4 “big games”.  Blount had 13 carries for 55 yards and was matching the Ravens physical defense with his own physical play.  It was as if Greg Olsen pulled a Jon Gruden on us and thought he could trick the Ravens on every drive.  If I would’ve seen the Bucs throw the ball again on first down and end up with 2nd and 10, I was gonna puke.  This offense needs to figure it out before the Falcons come to town on Sunday.

Very interesting point Justin has, and he pretty much agrees with Joe that Olson, seeing that Josh Freeman was struggling terribly with his accuracy, should have adjusted and fed Blount and Cadillac Williams the ball more, especially on third-and-short situations.

However Bucs fans may want to determine blame for the loss, Joe was impressed the Bucs defense held the Crows scoreless in the second half on their home turf.

There was spirited debate in the comments section of these here pages yesterday as to who was to blame on Ravens tight end Todd Heap’s 65-yard TD catch and run.

Some blamed Sabby Piscitelli for being the out-of-position culprit on the blown coverage. Some didn’t. Joe offered the video evidence and, frankly, was quite surprised so many didn’t finger Sabby as the goat. Raheem Morris wouldn’t blame a specific player after the game but Heap was quoted saying the safety [Sabby] was out of position.

In his must-read, detailed breakdown of all things Bucs-Ravens, former Bucs defensive end Steve White offers his take on what went wrong on that critical play.

I have watched the play where the Ravens tight end Todd Heap catches the 65 yard touchdown and in my mind there is only one explanation. Everyone in the secondary appears to be playing cover 2. Everyone that is but Sabby Piscitelli. He rolled up in the box and then kind of stood flat footed at the snap while Heap ran right by him. I don’t know how he ended up that out of position but with both corners rolled up and with Sean Jones on the opposite hash at cover 2 depth its hard to see how the call was anything but cover 2.

No matter what it was an embarrassing play on a day when the defense didn’t play bad at all otherwise.

On The Raheem Morris Show on WDAE-AM 620 Monday, the Bucs head coach again wouldn’t name Sabby but made it clear the other Bucs around the play didn’t screw up.

“A miscommunication from safety to corner” was how Morris described busted coverage to his radio audience.

“We had run a coverage the whole game and it had been effective. In that time, at that instance, we weren’t able to communicate it and get it across to each other. We had a busted coverage and we get a tight end running from down our zone,” Raheem said. “People wanted to blame Barrett [Ruud] but he really had nothing to do with it. He was just hustling and chasing. And Ronde as well. We just got to go out and keep playing.”

Clearly, Sabby blew the play. Joe just can’t see how the Bucs keep him starting at safety for the stretch run.

There is a line of thought by some that a team takes on the personality of its coach.

There is also a line of thought that Raheem Morris’s penchant for “violent” play may not exactly be the best for someone who has a tendency for violence off the football field.

Those premises seem to be in the forefront of Tom Balog’s latest. The longtime Bucs beat writer for the Sarasota Herald-Tribune seems to believe the Bucs, or at least Morris, are enabling Aqib Talib’s sometimes non-conformist behavior.

Balog took Morris to task for defending Talib’s outburst at an NFL official after Sunday’s game. Talib’s tongue-lashing of the official nearly ignited a physical confrontation between Talib and the official after the official went totally overboard calling Talib a vulgar street term used for female genitalia.

Instead of chastising his loose cannon cornerback Aqib Talib for being out of line and embarrassing the Buccaneers’ organization for using language depicting slang of the female anatomy at a game official Sunday, Tampa Bay head coach Raheem Morris put on his lawyer cap Monday to once again enable his famously volatile player.

Listen to this spin, which Morris delivered with all the fake downplay demeanor perfected by everybody’s favorite most recent president, George W. Bush.

”I’m not going to sit here and act like Aqib did anything wrong,” Morris said. “That’s between those two men and whatever happened, happened.”

Look, Joe is simply outraged at what the NFL official said to Talib and he should be thrown out of the NFL as a result. But Joe is not condoning Talib’s actions either. Screaming at a referee about a call made 90 minutes prior isn’t going to change the score of the game.

Balog seems to imply that Morris’ outburst at the officials in the first half over the same call, and Morris’ debate with the officials as the first half ended, may have indirectly egged on Talib.

Joe will have a little more on this later but it’s unfortunate this incident happened shortly after Talib passed anger management counseling.

In addition to former Bucs guard turned radio talking head Beckles, another longtime Buccaneer wants to see the Tampa Bay ride the horse that is LeGarrette Blount.

(Count Joe in that mix, too, sans the NFL playing experience.)

Former Bucs quarterback Shaun King, co-host of The King David Show on 1010 AM, which always makes Joe think of the ancient Israeli leader, said the Bucs should have let Blount pound the rock more against the Ravens. He finished with 13 carries.

“Their bread and butter, if they’re going to make the playoffs, is LeGarrette Blount,” King said.

King went on to say he did not want to see the Bucs call more hurry up/up tempo offense against the Ravens, something Fox color analyst Tim Ryan was looking for as were many fans.

King explained the offensive line and receivers — and the quarterback — are too young and inexperienced to pull off everything a hurry-up offense entails for more than a few plays or beyond a late-game, comeback situation.

Joe really hasn’t seen any team take Blount’s game away. Greg Olson seems to be the only one that can stop him.

Gerald McCoy must really be feelin’ it right now after recording two manly sacks against the Ravens yesterday.

That soaring confidence is only going to make him a better player.

McCoy started the season thinking that he could get the job done but was thinking too much, then he progressed to believing he could play more instinctively and be a force soon, then last week he got his breakthrough sack and now his confidence must be sky high after yesterday.

McCoy’s got three sacks on the season and two forced fumbles. For those keeping score at home, Ndamukong Suh has eight sacks and no forced fumbles.

Joe’s been impressed watching replays of games and seeing evidence of McCoy’s strength and the seemingly improved use of his hands.

The guy plays every snap and at 22 years old he’s only going to get stronger and smarter. Joe suspects McCoy’s going to finish the season very strong.  

Oh, no!

Yes, the end of Cody Grimm’s season was expected after being carted off yesterday with a broken leg. But Davin Joseph who walked off with a foot injury? Ugh.

Raheem Morris just announced at his noon news conference that Joseph and Grimm have been placed on injured reserve.

Jeremy Zuttah will move into Joseph’s right guard spot as he did yesterday, Raheem said.

In a classic sports radio moment, David Duggan, the cab driver slugged by Aqib Talib called into the Ron and Ian Show this morning on WDAE-AM 620.

Duggan wanted to comment on the JoeBucsFan.com exclusive today that charges against Talib were dismissed and to chat about the Ravens-Bucs game.

Duggan said he loves Talib’s game at cornerback but is concerned he might get in trouble again off the field. 

Asked by host Ron Diaz how he was doing, Duggan said he was doing well since collecting a settlement from Talib last year.

“I haven’t worked since because I don’t need to,” Duggan said.