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No matter how rotten our lives seem to be there’s always something to be thankful for. One of those things for Joe is the gorgeous Jenny Dell. A trooper she is, not taking off Thanksgiving, Jenny once again brings her statistical gibberish to the Bucs in this BSPN video.

As Joe delves deeper into his study of the stinkin’ Baltimore Crows, it’s clear that Ravens fans are uneasy about facing the Bucs.

Fans up there have been yammering about how last Sunday’s game against the Panthers was too close against a crappy team like Carolina — 20-13 in the fourth quarter before Baltimore kicked a 50-yard field goal and scored two defensive touchdowns.

Remember Panthers no-name running back Mike Goodson? The guy who put 100 yards on the Bucs? He dropped 120 yards on 22 carries on the Crows.

Joe’s caught chatter on Baltimore sports radio about how the Ravens start too slowly in games and lack consistency. Beat writer Jamison Henlsey, of The Baltimore Sun, offers up three things that can go wrong for the Ravens against Tampa Bay:

1. LeGarrette Blount runs over Ravens. The Ravens’ up-and-down run defense needs to pack a punch against the physical, 247-pound running back. Ravens players compare Blount to Cleveland’s Peyton Hillis, who ran for 144 yards against the Ravens earlier this year.

2. Secondary struggles to keep Mike Williams out of the end zone. The Buccaneers rookie wide receiver has scored touchdowns in three out of his past four games. Ravens cornerback Josh Wilson has given up a touchdown in his first two starts of the season.

3. Another fourth-quarter meltdown. The Ravens finished off the Carolina Panthers in the fourth quarter, but they’ve hardly been the best closers in the NFL. Tampa Bay has outplayed teams in one quarter this season — the fourth — outscoring opponents 63-29.

Joe’s hardly expecting a “W” from the Bucs on Sunday, a forecasted 44 degrees at kickoff probably won’t help, but surely these Ravens are beatable. 

Joe thought it was interesting that the Bucs’ rushing attack began to pop when there were injuries to the Bucs offensive line, including right tackle Jeremy Trueblood.

Joe also found it more than a little strange when Cadillac Williams sung the praises of Trueblood’s backup James Lee on Sirius NFL Radio, as if Lee was the second coming of Dan Dierdorf.

Tom Balog of the Sarasota Herald-Tribune seems to be sensing the same thing. As we begin the homestretch of the 2010 season, Balog has a hunch these games will be Trueblood’s last weeks as a Bucs starter.

”Anything they say, you just have to take it with a grain of salt, good or bad,” Trueblood said Wednesday. “Just use it and understand where they’re coming from. They’re the coaches, I’m the player. I play when I’m told. I just have to be ready to play whenever they want me to.”

Lee is a low-budget young player earning a minimum salary who has shown over four starts that he can protect quarterback Josh Freeman and block for the run much more cheaply than Trueblood, who is making $1.759 million this season after signing an original draft position tender.

”Effort, consistency, the desire to improve,” said Buccaneers offensive line coach Pete Mangurian, assessing Lee’s play. “He had some penalty problems early. He fixed that. He looks at what he doesn’t do well and he tries to do it better the next week and that’s all you can ask.”

Joe strongly urges his readers to browse through Balog’s story in its entirety. All sorts of good nuggets in there.

If Trueblood left the Bucs, this wouldn’t shock Joe one bit. If Lee can get the job done just as well as Trueblood, for a fraction of the cost, it would be crazy for Team Glazer to cough up the extra dough to keep Trueblood when that same cash could be used to lure a free agent linebacker, for example.

You’ve all read THE PESSIMIST, who spews his Bucs-related anger like no other. But Joe also wants you to know THE OPTIMIST. 

THE OPTIMIST is Nick Houllis, a Bucs fan and an accomplished writer whose steadfast allegiance to the team goes back to the 1970s. Houllis is the founder, creator and guru of BucStop.com, a place Joe goes to get lost in time via Houllis’ stunning video collection.

THE OPTIMIST will shine that positive light in your eyes. Some will love it. Some won’t.

“People aren’t excited.”

I hear the topic on sports radio a lot, especially now that the Bucs are winning. I could understand if the Bucs were 3-7, but they’re not, they are 7-3 and looking like they are going to contend for a playoff spot. This Bucs team IS, for a fact, going to play meaningful games in late November and early December, at least.

Why is no one excited?

Don’t get me wrong, there is excitement among Bucs fans. I’ve been to the stadium three times this year, and it is VERY loud out there for only being half full.

Bucs fans are a great bunch, very loyal. One thing has not changed much in Tampa Bay. There are about 30,000 to 40,000 Tampa Bay Buccaneers fans who will go to see games no matter what.

In 1996 when Tony Dungy had the team, though they were losing, you had 30,000 in the stands. In 1984, you had 30-40k then too. That’s what it is. When the team was selling out Raymond James for all those years, it was because you had an additional 30,000 casual fans. The kind that listen to “hey the Bucs are playing good football” and then decide to go to games. 

Josh Freeman throws a last minute comeback TD pass, and his reputation gets spread around the local airwaves on TV and Radio. Next thing you know, people want to go see this Freeman kid.

But until then, fans are going to have to get over their apathy. And a lot of it comes from what the media has reported over the last couple of years.

Concentrating on stories about how the Glazers don’t spend any money, even though they have it’s just the players they’ve spent money on haven’t panned out, that’s left the public with a negative feeling about them.

It’s been proven over and over that the Glazers keep separate bank accounts with their soccer team, yet the average Joe (not Joe on here mind you) thinks the Bucs are siphoning off their ticket money to England! Meanwhile English soccer fans are accusing the Glazers of doing the very same thing!!!

But the real reason fans haven’t fully come back yet is because this town has had something happen to it — that has never happened before. We’ve had our hearts ripped out, one special player at a time. This town was rebuilt for football by Mike Alstott and Warrick Dunn. By Hardy Nickerson and Derrick Brooks. By Warren Sapp and John Lynch, all of whom have gone by the wayside one at a time, and usually not in a flattering way.

Ronde Barber just isn’t enough, although it seems he will be the only one who will leave on his own terms.

But Tampa Bay has never had to deal with that. The Buffalo Bills, they have fans who know what its like. I’m sure they had a tough time watching Thurman Thomas running the ball…in a Dolphins uniform!! Trust me, no one in Dallas was happy to see No. 22 suit up in a Cardinals uniform. But those towns have been through it before. Buffalo watched The Juice and Joe Ferguson say bye bye. Dallas has seen so many stars leave Texas Stadium, they put a big one on their helmets! The Miami Dolphins said goodbye to Czonka, Morris, Griese and Warfield; so Losing Shula and Marino wasn’t much easier, but they were able to go through with it.

Tampa Bay?  It had been too long since the departure of Doug Williams and, truthfully, he alone didn’t do enough. When Pewter Power was born, it was like a new team was born. And fans were jumping on that wagon like they never have before.

These new Bucs are just as exciting, if not more so. Yeah this area was built with defense in mind, but everyone loves a little scoring machine and they will fall for Josh Freeman and Mike Williams in no time.

Bucs fans were never about 9-7 records or playoff positioning; they were about wearing their 99, 55, 40 or 47 jerseys. Now they have to go out and get some new ones as they learn about these new Bucs heroes, but it will happen. Tampa Bay may not get to see home games, but they didn’t back in 1996 and many years before.

Luckily the team wins those road games like it never has before!

"Where did all my turkey friends go?"

Joe wants to wish all his readers a Happy Thanksgiving!

Of course, Joe has much to be thankful for. Outside of family, friends and health, high on Joe’s thankful list is 7-3 and the many tens of thousands of readers that come here by their own free will every week. …Joe remembers the days when he pounded out everything Bucs on his keyboard daily for just a scant few hundred souls.

The intelligent business owners that grace both sides of this page are up on Joe”s thankful list, too.

Joe hopes everyone has a great day and can be thankful for a while. It’s a good feeling.

"It's time to win it all."

Playoffs or not this season, if the Bucs notch 10 wins, the whole rebuilding plan and Mark Dominik’s approach has to change significantly moving forward.

Right? Joe thinks so.

This is the NFL. In Joe’s mind, you win 10 games with a young club and you better do everything to push your team over the top to the promised land the following season. You go for it. Especially since, as always, an injury or two to a franchise player could change everything..

The “lasting contender” stuff would have to go on the backburner.

Of course, Joe hopes the Bucs bring home the Lombardi trophy this season (a guy can fantasize about more than Rachel Watson), but Joe is giddy over the thought of the Bucs finishing strong and making a huge offseason push to bring in some established studs get the team over the top, in addition to 2011 draft picks.

Frankly, Joe believes that approach would bring back legions of bandwagon fans and get the home games back on TV.

Thanksgiving is tomorrow, and you better believe Joe will be working.

JoeBucsFan.com delivers for Bucs fans 24/7. There’s a reason why Joe has become the premier can’t-miss Bucs site.

In addition to a Thanksgiving greeting from an old friend, Joe will churn out the usual Bucs news, fun and nuggets, plus chatter out of Baltimore. And readers will get takes from THE OPTIMIST and former Bucs QB Jeff Carlson.

So remember to put Joe in your Thanksgiving plans. And while you’re at it, follow Joe on Twitter, and get in the mix to win Aqib Talib jerseys.

Joe sees and reads the comments each day. He can envision Bucs fans pounding on their desks at work with their fists loud enough to startle the chicks in the nearby cubicles, interrupting the mindless prattling about Bed, Bath & Beyond.

“The Bucs are a fraud because they haven’t beaten anyone,” so the cackling goes from news sources based in Bristol, New York and further reaches.

Well, to be fair, the Bucs haven’t. The Bucs are still searching for that first elusive win of the 2010 season against a team with more wins than losses. It’s not the Bucs fault they are beating the dregs of the NFL, but the observation is fair if not accurate.

This has veteran sports columnist Gary Shelton irritated. Shelton points out how empty this thinking is because it was also used against the greatest team of the Super Bowl era: the undefeated Miami Dolphins.

As Shelton pointed out in his St. Petersburg Times offering, the NFL is not a beauty pageant.

For crying out loud, this isn’t college football, where a team can win three times as the athletic director makes out the schedule. The Bucs’ schedule is a result of cycle and circumstance and the fine fortune of playing the NFC West in a year where nobody’s home.

Look, I understand doubt. In some years, I’ve led the league in it. Even now, I’m as quick as the next guy to suggest the Bucs still have proving and improving in front of them. If the subject is the Super Bowl, there is plenty of room for skepticism. But I’ve never been one to fret too much about a team’s opponents. There are bigger worries.

Still, the talk of a weak schedule seems to be growing louder as the Bucs get better. More people seem to be talking about who the Bucs play than Boise State.

Possibly the main reason this complaint is lodged against the Bucs stems from two earlier losses to Pittsburgh and New Orleans. Those weren’t just losses. The Bucs were simply pistol-whipped. At home no less.

For Bucs fans who lie awake at night gritting their teeth in a controlled rage over hearing — again — how the Bucs haven’t beaten anyone, the only way this will stop is if in fact the Bucs do beat someone with a winning record.

A thumping of the Crows in Baltimore this Sunday would be a nice start.

As every Bucs fan can see, Cody Grimm has become a charter member of the man club in Raheem Morris’ eyes.

Grimm has taken off his underwear, put on his big boy pads and put his face on people in a big way since getting a starting job after Tanard Jackson was suspended.

The rookie safety is not going to scare anyone one in the tunnel or on the street, but he brings his hat to the field more and more every game. He’s having a rookie year that rivals’ Jackson big season in 2007, and is stirring memories of John Lynch with some of his tackles and near tackles.

Gerald McCoy also is taking notice. Talking about Grimm on The Gerald McCoy Show on WDAE-AM 620 last night, McCoy admired Grimm’s fearlessness and laughed at him being listed as a 200 pounder.

“It’s amazing how big he plays. He makes big boy tackles. Cody, he’ll come down and hit you so hard and he’s not afraid to tackle anybody. Cody’s probably 190. I mean, he plays like a big guy. He’ll hit with the best of them,” McCoy said.

Advised by gushing co-host Scott Ledger that Grimm is listed at 210 pounds, McCoy replied, “That’s paper weight.”

Joe hopes some of Grimm’s nasty and fearless edge rubs off on and fires up the guys playing in front of him up the middle in the Bucs defense.

Seems as though “The Professor,” John Clayton, is smitten with a certain Bucs rookie defensive tackle who Clayton referred to as “dominating.” Joe strongly encourages his readers to watch this BSPN video as Joe is confident Bucs fans will be more than a little interested in what comes out of Clayton’s mouth.

The guy in Baltimore with a 27-14 career NFL head coaching record talks about the Bucs and Tampa Bay’s “Ray Lewis” in this Baltimore Sun video.

Generally, if a team wins 10 games, a wild card berth is pretty much a lock. That may not be the case as eye-RAH! Kaufman of the Tampa Tribune explained in a recent version of the Bucs TBO question-and-answer feature.

Q: Do you think the Bucs have shot at making the playoffs this year?

Jarrod, Fort Polk, La.

A: In this much-publicized race for 10, it is suddenly becoming clear that 10 wins may not be good enough for a playoff berth in the NFC. To qualify, the Bucs would likely have to be one of three teams from the NFC South to get in, and three teams from the same division don’t advance to the postseason very often. Still, there’s plenty of time for the Bears and the Giants to fade. If the Bucs go 10-6, I think they’ll get in.

— eye-RAH! Kaufman

Joe would be absolutely chagrin if not in need of a three-day bender if the Bucs racked up 10 wins and missed the playoffs. That would simply be horrible.

The mantra of Raheem Morris was “The Race To 10.” Even at this late stage, 11 wins isn’t so crazy of a thought.

The youngest team in the NFL got even younger today as the Bucs cut 30-year-old defensive tackle Ryan Sims, so reports Woody Cummings of The Tampa Tribune.

Sims, who is often mentioned among the great draft busts of the 21st century, started every game for the Bucs last year and seemingly has been dumped because the Bucs see a little potential in Al Woods, who had a sack in San Francisco.

Joe thought this Sims video was a fitting farewell tribute. There are a couple of eye-candy moments.

In stunned disbelief, Joe had to call WFAN-AM in New York himself to confirm the news that former Bucs blocking icon Michael Clayton is now a member of the New York football Giants.

Injuries had the Giants looking for guys on the street who could allegedly catch the ball, and Big Blue apparently was duped by the notorious practice warrior Clayton, who was toiling in the UFL earlier this season after the Bucs gave him a highly paid vacation.

Kudos to the hard-working Clayton, a very wealthy man courtesy of Mark Dominik. Clayton surely could have given up on his dream, but instead he worked his butt off to stay in shape and impressed the Giants in a workout. 

For Clayton’s sake, Joe hopes he doesn’t drop passes in front of Giants fans. If he does, Joe advises Clayton to thicken his skin and keep the radio off.

Joe goes through the daily hate mail, love letters and Viagra ads in his inbox and will sometimes try to answer a question burning up the minds and hearts of Bucs fans.

Over the past couple of weeks, fans have asked Joe about the contract status of rookie LeGarrette Blount, who was signed off the street after being cut by the Titans before opening day.

Some fear the manbeast in the Bucs offense could walk after the season.

Don’t worry. Per a source with intimate knowledge of Blount’s contract, Joe has learned Blount signed a two-year deal with Tampa Bay this summer. So if there is a next season, he’ll be back and playing for the Bucs on the cheap, assuming he doesn’t try to squeeze Team Glazer for a new deal.  

Undrafted rookies sign three-year deals or less. Two years is the most common.

Beyond that, if the NFL collective bargaining agreement remains the same, Blount could be offered an “exclusive rights tender” by the Bucs after 2011, or a fancy new deal.

Exclusive rights tenders for third-year players don’t pay much. So that all could get extraordinarily messy if Blount has a great 2011 season.

Joe would love to see Blount close out 2010 with 1,000 yards and get rewarded by Team Glazer.

So how does 22-year-old Josh Freeman command massive respect, the kind that stops teammates in their tracks when he speaks?

Per Raheem Morris, some of that comes from Freeman’s extraordinary preparation and that guys know Freeman has worked harder than they have.

“Our young football team, they all understand the work that he puts into it. He’s accountable to all those guys to be on the details of everything. When Josh Freeman says something to our offensive team, they all listen. Because they know, ‘he might have looked at something more than I did.’ They want to make sure,” Morris said on The Raheem Morris Show last night on WDAE-AM.

” They’re going to win because of him not in spite of him. They understand that. These guys go out and do a great job for him. It spreads over to the defensive side of the ball now, too.

Joe is impressed and not surprised. A huge component of leadership is knowing more than the other guy — all the time.

Freeman obviously embraces every aspect of being a franchise quarterback.

Joe’s been banging on his laptop at a popular coffee shop doing real work for a change and is all caffeined up.

Generally, this means Joe is about to fire off a missive about the Bucs that would singe most people’s eyes, or write such a lustful post about Rachel Watson that it would cause most red-blooded American males to start downing shots or run for a cold shower, or both.

But neither is the case here.

Joe just can’t write enough about the stunning job Bucs coach Raheem Morris did in crafting a gameplan to shutout the 49ers. Blanking an NFL team on the road is spectacular enough but for the Bucs soft defense to do this, to hold Frank Gore to 23 yards and to rack up six sacks on a mobile quarterback, well, Joe thinks that was the performance of the season and perhaps the best coaching job done on the Bucs sidelines since Chucky in the Super Bowl.

It was the first time the Niners suffered a shutout at home in 33 years, a third of a century if you can imagine.

Since, Joe has written several times that almost as equally surprising to him is that Niners coach Mike Singletary is still employed after such an awful effort. National scribes made such a big deal of the Packers wiping the floor with the Vikings Sunday but Joe thought the (lack of) effort and coaching done by the Niners against the Bucs was far more shameful.

Given the fact Singletary didn’t lead the Niners to the NFC championship last year, Joe thought sure Singletary’s head would be on a platter before sullen, mumbling introvert Brad Childress, who Joe doesn’t think could lead a Little League team to an ice cream shop much less a gaggle of sailors on shoreleave to a house of ill repute.

Seems as if the blog Niners Nation agrees with Joe, and thanks to Raheem, has called for an outright firing of Singletary. Now.

Mike Singletary was out-coached in every aspect of the game. Raheem Morris, eighteen years younger than Singletary, put together a gameplan that was tailor-made to beat a team that would have a one-track mind. The 49ers deficiencies are clear and out there for everybody, and it falls on Singletary and his assistants to disguise and correct them. Raheem out-coached Mike at every single turn, and looked like a genius doing it, in only his second full-year as an NFL head coach.

That’s pretty much what Joe thought, that Raheem was two steps ahead of Singletary virtually each and every play. In Joe’s eyes for that Bucs rush defense (weak) to shut down Gore is such a way, and for that Bucs defensive line (anemic) to nearly double their season sack total was nothing short of brilliant.

If Raheem can keep that up, the next few weeks should be special for Bucs fans.

Former Bucs guard Ian Beckles (1990-1996) hasn’t been a fan of Barrett Ruud for a long time.

As Beckles continually has hammered Ruud as a shamefuly soft Bucs middle linebacker, it seems Beckles has been feeling pressure to explain in more detail why Ruud is second rate.

Speaking as the co-host on The Ron and Ian Show on WDAE-AM 620 today, Beckles said he was asked to give a more detailed on-air report on Ruud so he spent Monday night re-watching the Bucs game from start to finish with a pause button in hand and a notepad and pencil.

“He went the whole game [against San Francisco] and didn’t make a play,” Beckles said of Ruud this morning. “Barrett Ruud has no physical mentality. There were no violent plays.”

Beckles suggested fans go to the game tape at 13:55 of the third quarter to see exhibit A of Ruud not playing physical and downhill. And the former Bucs guard said if one were grading Ruud on physicality on every play, Ruud would never score more than a 6 on any individual play while averaging much lower than that. 

“He jumps around a lot,” Beckles said of Ruud’s style.

Raheem has called Ruud his quarterback (of the defense) on several occasions. Perhaps it’s time to get a franchise quarterback in the offseason.

Jay Glazer hosts Bucs cornerback Ronde Barber in his “After Party” video feature following the Bucs improbable shutout at San Francisco, the 49ers first home shutout in 33 years, in this FoxSports.com video.

Video: After Party: Ronde Barber