Yes, it was an ugly, brutal loss for the Bucs. A stinging loss. But Joe’s good friends at WDAE-AM 620 and the Buccaneers Radio Network have all sorts of audio from the primary players in today’s game, as well as Bucs coach Greg Schiano.

Included in the audio clips are wide receiver Mike Williams, linebacker Mason Foster, safety Mark Barron, cornerback Leonard Johnson, linebacker Lavonte David, defensive tackle Gerald McCoy, safety Dashon Goldson, linebacker Dekoda Watson, offensive tackle Donald Penn and quarterback Josh Freeman.

In addition, there are press conferences from Freeman and from Schiano, as well as Schiano’s one-on-one interview with the Buccaneers Radio Network.

All audio courtesy of Joe’s trusty recorder, WDAE-AM 620, and the Buccaneers Radio Network.

Every Bucs fan’s favorite tight end, Sgt. Winslow, who bristled at Bucs coach Greg Schiano’s New Schiano Order, and who quit on Bill Belicheat last year, caught a late first half touchdown against the Bucs today and was gloating in the win against his former team.

“It was huge,” Winslow said. “I’ve been in this type of situation many times and never managed to pull it out. This is what the hard work is put in for. It always seems to come down to six points or two minutes left in the game so we were prepared for it.

“It feels really good. I was real emotional before the game and I had to control myself. But it felt real good and I’m glad we came out with a win. It’s all about situational football. When you play situational football, you practice it and execute it on Sunday. It becomes easier.”

Joe is getting inundated by Bucs fans who are crying that Lavonte David is not at fault for handing the Jets the upset win. Instead, they claim David did the right thing by shoving Jets quarterback Geno Smith out of bounds, drawing a late-hit penalty, which gave the Jets a chance to kick a game-winning field goal.

Joe is covering the game in New Jersey and was just chatting with good guy Peter Schrager of FoxSports.com, who told Joe to watch the replay of the play in question because Gerald McCoy understood the circumstance and pulled up on the play.

Indeed. In this NFL.com video, at the 2:30 mark, you can see that GMC clearly had an angle on Smith as the Jets quarterback was headed out of bounds to kill the clock, and GMC pulled up on the play as to avoid getting flagged for a personal foul, which is exactly what happened to David.

The difference was GMC used his head on the play.

One reason the Bucs jettisoned Raheem Morris and brought in commander Greg Schiano was to bring discipline to the team. To bring order to what was considered a circus.

If Joe didn’t know any better, then Joe would have thought Raheem Morris was back with the club.

Penalties, dropped balls, boneheaded plays, guys not knowing situations, slow starts. Good grief, it was as if a high school team was playing at the Meadowlands today.

Yes, of course, the worst example was Lavonte David’s personal foul on a play he didn’t need to make, and one he shouldn’t have made, pushing Jets quarterback Geno Smith.

There were others. Leonard Johnson’s blatant holding penalty kept a Jets drive alive, which ended in a field goal.

Oh, and then there was Kevin Ogletree’s drop of a very catchable pass along the left sidelines, plus 13 penalties in all.

Two timeouts and a delay of game on three consecutive plays in the first half? Really? A high school coach would have had a conniption over such a stunt.

Stop with the helmet communication malfunction. You don’t think Schiano and the Bucs don’t practice for such things? There’s a reason the Bucs daily practice with fake crowd noise that is so loud you cannot hear yourself think much less what others are saying.

Joe thinks it’s pretty obvious that at least the first team offense needed just a few more snaps than what it received this summer. That Bucs offense, especially in the first half, looked rustier than a German U-Boat shipwreck off the Cayman Islands.

Last year, Greg Schiano set up his Buccaneers for a late-fourth-quarter punt against the Eagles. Why? Because rather than put the game in the hands of Josh Freeman and Vincent Jackson, for example, Schiano preferred to let his porous secondary match up against rookie Nick Foles.

The Bucs lost.

Today, the Bucs got a huge third-down play from Vincent Jackson. With 1:06 remaining against the Jets, the Bucs had momentum and a first down at the Jets’ 26 yard line trailing 15-14.

Did Greg Schiano go for the jugular? Did he go back to one of his elite receivers for a shot in the end zone to put away the game? Did he throw for another first down to get in position to tick the clock down to nothing for a final field goal?

Nope.

Schiano ran three times, played it safe, and Rian Lindell kicked a 37-yard field goal to give the Bucs the lead with :34 seconds remaining.

Jets win.

Joe knows fans can second guess Schiano all day long. There’s no right answer. But Schiano does trend very conservative, and he doesn’t seem to trust his offense. Today it didn’t work. 

Joe just came from the Bucs locker room and will have quotes later, including some from Bucs stud linebacker Lavonte David.

The second-year man out of Nebraska had a memorable game. Too memorable in fact. David had three tackles, five assists and two tackles for a loss. He was all over the field. But it was his pursuit of Jets rookie quarterback Geno Smith that will be remembered for years.

Smith was flushed out of the pocket on a desperation play with the Bucs up by two points and the clock ticking down to zero. Smith just got out of bounds at midfield to kill the clock and give the Jets one last glimmer of hope.

But in pursuing Smith, who stepped out of bounds, David shoved Smith in the back. Given how the NFL and referees are just looking to throw a flag on someone coughing on a quarterback, David’s shove, while harmless, was just enough for a zebra to grab his yellow hankie and toss it in the air.

Personal foul on David. That’s a 15-yard penalty. What would have been fourth down and a forced Hail Mary (or a 60+yard field goal attempt) was now a first down on the Bucs-30 yard line.

And of course, the ensuing 48-yard field goal by Nick Folk was good and the Bucs had victory grabbed from their hands.

Look, Joe loves David. He’s one of Joe’s favorite players. But you just do not, cannot, allow a referee a chance to throw a flag in that situation. Smith was out of bounds. There was no need to even try to tackle him. He had to run out of bounds to kill the clock or the game was lost (or won by the Bucs).

It simply was a brain-dead, stupid penalty. There really is no way to sugarcoat how bad that was.

David is a fantastic player. But each and every Buccaneer must know and understand the circumstances at every given down, especially when the clock is ticking down.

David may have won some games for the Bucs last year as a rookie. He likely will win some games for the Bucs in the future. But today, he blew a game.

Joe really doesn’t get what Mike Sullivan was doing out there today.

Everybody and their brother knew what the Jets were going to bring defensively, and it was as if the Bucs weren’t ready for it.

Huh?

Doug Martin was pounded and pounded in the running game and did nothing, 24 carries for 65 yards. He caught two balls for negative yardage. Rockstar general manager spoke numerous times this preseason about the depth and talent in the Bucs’ running backs corps, yet Martin was the only guy to get a carry.

Was there nothing that Sullivan could dial up with two-back sets to create some uncertainty for the Jets’ defense? There were no carries for Brian Leonard and Peyton Hillis. Tight end Nate Byham started at fullback and it’s obvious he can’t run block well.

The Bucs didn’t set up much play-action, trickery was absent, and shots downfield were limited. The Bucs got nothing from the tight end position, and Kevin Ogletree (no catches) was a Michael Clayton clone again, minus the blocking.

Sullivan was outcoached today. It happens, but it really shouldn’t look like this after an entire offseason to prepare.

Yes, preseason games are just meaningless practice. But today the Bucs’ offense played the way it practiced.

Disgraceful!

Joe doesn’t know how else to describe this sloppy, ugly Bucs loss to the Jets this afternoon.

Jimminy Christmas! Geno Smith outplayed Josh Freeman! Think about that. The Jets won this game, despite their rookie QB making all kinds of mistakes.

Greg Schiano has to shoulder a lot of blame with his staff seemingly unprepared for a helmet microphone malfunction early in the game. Teams are schooled to switch to hand signals and other old school tactics, but Freeman looked lost when those difficulties arose.

The Bucs were outcoached today — badly– and sloppy penalties killed them. Isn’t Schiano a details guy?

Speaking of lost, the Bucs’ offensive line was manhandled. Remember how much cash that unit is being paid? Offensive coordinator Mike Sullivan was not creative at all.

Kevin Ogletree again did his Michael Clayton impression with the game on the line, but was bailed out by the genius of Vincent Jackson, who was a monster with nine receptions and 154 yards.

Yeah, it’s one game, one loss, but a very telling loss. Bucs fans had every reason to expect a better performance against a bad football team. Disgraceful.

So the Bucs begin their 2013 season wearing home red jerseys and pewter pants in the warmth of MetLife Stadium in the New Jersey Swamplands.

Joe is up here in Jersey and some puffy clouds have invaded the otherwise pristine day, the day of Darrelle Revis’ debut with the Bucs.

As Joe touched on before, there are so many questions about the Bucs that have gone unawnswered that should at least in part be answered today.

Feel free to discuss the game here. As always, you may not post a URL of an illegally streamed broadcast of the game, but you may e-mail the link among yourselves. Posting said illegal link will get you run from the premises.

Have fun. Welcome to Week One. Football, glorious football.

No big surprises on today’s inactive list for the Bucs’ 2013 opener against the Jets.

Injuries/illness have sidelined TE Tom Crabtree (ankle),  G Carl Nicks (MRSA/Foot), CB Rashaan Melvin (hamstring), FB Erik Lorig (calf), and rookie defensive linemen William Gholston and Chris Jones will join third quarterback Dan Orlovsky on the sidelines.

For those looking for former captain of the inactive list Michael Smith, he’s out for the year on injured reserve.

Game 1

Bucs at Jets

Kickoff: 1 p.m.

TV: WTVT-TV, Channel 13 locally. Outside the Tampa Bay area, DirecTV Channel 713.

Radio: Buccaneers Radio Network (in Tampa WFUS-FM 103.5, and WDAE-AM 620); SiriusXM Channel 139.

Weather: Per Accuweather.com, the New York-New Jersey metropolitan area has been experiencing weather kissed by the gods recently. Today should be no different. Expect a temperature of 77 degrees at kickoff under crystal clear skies and humidity at 45 percent. Towards the end of the game the temperature should rise to 83.

Odds: Per FootballLocks.com, Bucs -3.5.

Outlook: Joe doesn’t know where to begin. There are so, so many question marks with the Bucs that were not even remotely answered in the preseason. Can Darrelle Revis play? Can the Bucs get heat on the quarterback? Has the Bucs secondary improved? Has Josh Freeman improved? How or will the Bucs get any production from tight end? Can Davin Joseph return to form? This is why many Bucs fans have so much doubt. How can fans wrap their arms around a team with confidence when there are still so many issues unanswered?

But here is what Joe knows: The Jets start a second-round draft pick at quarterback. That alone should be the difference in the game. If Joe were Bucs commander Greg Schiano, he would throw just about every exotic look at Geno Smith that Schiano can concoct while he lies awake in the middle of the night. The more Smith is confused, the more he is likely to run (well hello, Lavonte David) and get confused and panic and throw into a crowd.

To Joe, look no further than this. If the Bucs cannot handle a rookie quarterback making his first start, then there are massive issues on the Bucs roster.

It really doesn’t (shouldn’t?) matter what Doug Martin, Mike Williams, Vincent Jackson and/or Freeman do. It is what the Bucs defense does against Smith. It really isn’t any more complex than that.

UPDATE: Inactives for the Bucs are Dan Orlovsky, QB; Rashaan Melvin, CB; Erik Lorig, FB; Carl Nicks, OG; Tom Crabtree, TE; William Gholston, DE; Chris Jones, DE.

Beat writer eye-RAH! Kaufman has high expectations

Tampa Bay’s “Custodian of Canton,” the outspoken veteran scribe eye-RAH! Kaufman of The Tampa Tribune, is bullish on the Bucs.

Kaufman has studied and studied and studied the NFC and Bucs relentlessly, and he joins Jon Gruden in predicting the Bucs will win the NFC South.

NFC SOUTH: Bucs

No team has repeated as division champion and this year will continue the pattern. The Falcons won a lot of close games last year and have major question marks in the trenches that will undermine all that firepower. The Saints haven’t done much to improve the league’s most porous defense and Carolina needs more weapons around QB Cam Newton. The Bucs have the talent to post double-digit wins and reward a fan base looking for a reason to believe.

Joe, based on chats with Kaufman, knows he sees the Bucs’ eight Pro Bowlers 30 and younger, plus emerging studs like Mike Williams and Lavonte David, and first-round talents like Josh Freeman and Adrian Clayborn, and the second year of the New Schiano Order with a huge, experienced coaching staff. There’s just too much talent for the Bucs to fizzle, Kaufman believes.

The bar is set high for many Bucs fans. Kaufman is hardly shocking the world here with this prediction. (If you missed it, you can read Joe’s season prediction here.)

Let the games begin.

Barring something incredibly unforeseen overnight (Joe is typing this at 1 a.m. Sunday), Joe would be shocked if All-Pro guard Carl Nicks takes the field for the Bucs today against the Jets.

Nicks, as we all know, is dealing with a nasty turf toe that he said he will have to deal with the rest of his life. Then throw in a bout of MRSA, an antibiotic-resistant infection, and Joe just cannot believe Nicks would be in football shape to take any snaps under any circumstances.

Nicks did not take any snaps in practice this week, but Bucs commander Greg Schiano took part in a bit of (futile) gamesmanship Friday discussing who may play left guard when the NFL season kicks off this afternoon.

“[Carimi has] the most reps [at left guard],” Schiano said. “There are others guys that could [start at left guard]. So we’ll kind of play that one by ear, still. I want to meet with the staff today and make a – we said at the beginning of the week that we would make a final decision on Friday. I want to watch the tape from today and have a good discussion about that, because plenty of guys got good reps at that left guard spot, but he got the most so that’s where we’re leaning. We just want to see and make sure.”

Again, Joe just cannot take Schiano seriously when he even attempts to float the notion Nicks may play. That’s virtually impossible, especially since he hasn’t practiced. The thing with Carimi though, in preseason and training camp, he has blocked on running plays pretty well. On pass plays, not so well.

This will be something to monitor today, how well the pass protection is for Bucs franchise quarterback Josh Freeman’s blind side.

The NFL Network Playbook crew took a deep Xs and Os look at today’s Jets-Bucs matchup. Video here. It’s their usual great stuff.

Among other things, they outline how Jets rookie QB Geno Smith struggled mightily against various blitzes in preseason. The consensus is that Greg Schiano will dial up all kinds of blitz looks — more variety than volume — the kind Smith never saw at West Virginia.

Joe can’t disagree. And Joe also expects the Bucs’ run blitzes to come all day long to force passing downs on young Smith.

It’s going to be a very busy day for Jets tight end DJ Toes One The Line Kellen Winslow and whatever cornerback the Bucs put opposite Darrelle Revis.

The Bucs revealed tonight that starting fullback Erik Lorig continues to battle his calf injury and didn’t make the trip to New Jersey for the season-opener against the Jets.

Lorig’s been battling the injury for more than a month. He was limited in practice this week, but apparently didn’t improve enough.

As Joe wrote earlier this week, Lorig’s situation presents a huge opportunity for Peyton Hillis. Brian Leonard and rookie Mike James are not fullbacks. Even though Leonard played there in college, he’s dropped significant weight since then and isn’t expected to do anything more than backup Doug Martin and serve as a third-down back intermittently.

New readers are always coming to Joe’s Bucs-obsessed home on the Internet. So Joe just wants to give a heads-up on what to expect tomorrow and on game days.

First off, Joe will continue churning out all kinds of stuff tonight and tomorrow morning, but look for Joe’s game-chat thread to appear shortly before kickoff of the Bucs-Jets game. That’s a fun place for fans to go back and forth during the game.

After the final whistle, no media outlet in the free world will deliver more Bucs content than Joe.

You’ll get plenty from the Bucs locker room — yes, Joe is in Jersey for the game — along with all kinds of analysis from Joe and other media from various sources, including the Buccaneers Radio Network and more. Go Bucs!

Joe can’t stand BSPN, but Joe knows many Bucs fans love their BSPN. Love it!

In the BSPN stats geek video below, some Bucs-Jets numbers are rolled out while Mike Sando talks about how the Bucs will win tomorrow. Interestingly, Sando lets us know the Bucs have spent the most salary cap dollars on cornerbacks and the third most on safeties. Joe surely hopes that translates into at least an average secondary.

A lot of Bucs fans seemed to try to connect dots that did not exist between the Bucs players not voting franchise quarterback Josh Freeman as a captain and Freeman’s status both with his team and his teammates.

No need to go there, Bucs commander Greg Schiano said yesterday in his daily press conference. There are no dots to connect. Freeman is the team’s leader, he said.

“I know one thing: Josh is going to lead,’ Schiano said. “Josh is a leader, so I’m not concerned about that. If you look the last two years, Davin didn’t play last year, so, when we voted, Davin was out for the year. The year before, Vincent wasn’t on the team. Those two guys are strong leaders and it just so happens that Josh is on a team with other strong leaders. But I wouldn’t read to that that Josh isn’t a leader. I’ll tell you, to a man, I think every offensive player will say ‘we follow No. 5.’ So I think it’s a good thing. I guess it all depends how you look at it, but I’m fine with it.”

Joe thinks captains, at least in the NFL, are terribly overblown. You are dealing with men here, not high school kids or college guys.

Joe thinks Schiano is dead-on. Freeman is the leader of the offense. That simple. He’s the guy that has the ball in his hands each and every snap. He controls the offense and huddle, hence he is a leader.