"I hope Coach still loves me."

When you are an ego-maniacal spin doctor like Jon Gruden, your comments must always show a little bit of your hand so nothing ever looks unplanned down the road.  You must always appear in control.

So on Monday, ever so slightly, Gruden laid the groundwork to return Jeff Garcia to the mix this season and have it seem like it was part of the plan all along, according to the St. Petersburg Times. 

Gruden did acknowledge that backup quarterbacks Luke McCown and Garcia could get some repetitions this week in preparation for Sunday’s game at Denver.

“We’re going to try to split the reps up and get all three guys some work,” Gruden said.

And he said he believed the Bucs would need all three quarterbacks at some point during the season, including Garcia, who has been the inactive third quarterback the past three games.

“Garcia was our starter and might be our starter again at some point in time,” Gruden said.

Coach Gruden spins and spins for the local media.

In his weekly spinfest for the local softball media, Chucky gave credit to Brian Griese today, in part, for the Bucs not allowing a sack in a whopping 97 passing attempts spanning the last two games.

“A lot of that is because of Griese. He does a great job of getting rid of the ball,” Gruden said.

This was laughable, considering Griese has tossed six interceptions in two games. Perhaps Griese should take a sack or two – or three, or four – rather than throw the ball to the opposition?

JoeBucsFan.com analyst Steve Campbell will have more on the Bucs’ stellar line play later in the week. You won’t find a better breakdown of O-Line play anywhere.

SI.com's Peter King thinks Bucs linebacker Derrick Brooks should be the NFL's defensive player of the week. Joe agrees!

As Joe has stated previously, he really enjoys Peter King’s Monday Morning Quarterback on SI.com and it should be required reading for all NFL fans.

In this week’s edition, King gloats over Bucs linebacker Derrick Brooks and explains how he is the defensive player of the week. Or should be.

All the homework — the endless, weekly, daily, hourly homework — done by Brooks over the years culminates sometimes in the kind of game he had against the Packers on Sunday. Specifically, let’s examine the first three defensive plays of the second quarter, plays that should go in the Brooks’ career time capsule.

Later in the column, King writes about how Brooks taught King something this week he didn’t know about football.

Tampa Bay has always been able to rely on Brooks’ sideline-to-sideline play in the middle of the defense; now the Bucs have a bona fide pass-rusher and defensive end who can drop in coverage, Gaines Adams, who dropped about 10 yards deep to make the interception that locked up Sunday’s win over the Packers. Watch for Brooks down the stretch. If his injury allows him to remain the instinctive player he’s always been, Tampa will be a serious threat.

Gruden wants more respect for Earnest Graham. Just give him the ball more, Coach.

GRUDEN ON RB EARNEST GRAHAM

“I hope somebody recognizes, maybe one of these fancy cable channels, recognizes that we have one hell of a back here. I know they have all of these other backs they have to cover, but this guy has had 100 yards in almost every game he’s played in here, period. Maybe somebody will step up to the plate and recognize that he is a big-time back. He makes some explosive runs and I just hope Earnest Graham gets the respect he deserves. He’s very overshadowed, in my opinion.”

Joe likes what Gruden had to say in this post-game quote. But one has to wonder if Gruden realizes that he, too, didn’t recognize what he had in Graham until there were no other options in the backfield last year.

Joe would like to see Graham catch more balls out of the backfield. He only has five in four games this season, but he caught 49 in limited action in 2007.

He’s tough. He falls forward. He takes care of the ball. And he clearly gets better as the game wears on.  He’s 28 years old. This is his prime, and he should be a workhorse.

Garcia gives the Bucs the best chance to win. Or at least not throw games away.

Healthy. Ready. Hungry.

He’s Jeff Garcia, and he’s the Bucs’ best quarterback.

Griese’s tough, tenacious and seasoned. We get that. But he also sucks. And he’s not a winner.

Chucky needs to look in the mirror, swallow his pride, come up with some good spin to justify naming Garcia the No. 1 quarterback, and get on with the season.

This team can win the NFC South. It’s time to stop testing fate with Son of Bob. He will lose the Bucs games.

Enough already.

Dexter Jackson doesn't need trucknutz. He found his own.

Dexter Jackson’s Sunday stats show three kick returns for a 33-yard, per-return average, plus one clutch punt return for 19 yards to set up the Bucs winning score. 

Oh, yeah, and no slips, trips or phantom dives.

Just days after Jackson admitted to playing scared, he stepped up against the Packers and looked like a legitimate second-round pick.

Props to Chucky for showing some faith in Jackson. The kid discovered his manhood today.

Ronde Barber gave up on a play against the Packers. If he's not fined, he should apologize to the team and the fans

Yeah. Yeah. We all know that Ronde Barber is a superstar, a likely Hall of Famer.  Blah. Blah. A cornerstone of the Bucs’ D for years.

But the reality is that Ronde was beaten badly against New Orleans, was skewered multiple times against the Bears, and against the Packers today he fell down in coverage and allowed a first-quarter touchdown.

Worse, Barber gave up on the play after getting up from the fall. Who the hell gives up on a play on the opening drive? 

Look at the tape. Barber falls. Greg Jennings gets behind him. Barber gets up. Jennings makes the catch. Barber puts on the brakes. 

If Gruden and Kiffin have any guts, they’ll fine Barber for dogging it. Nobody’s above the team and exempt from giving 100 percent.

And whoever stole Barber’s shoes and swapped them with Dexter Jackson’s, please return them. It’s not funny.

The Bucs defense wanted this game more than Brian Griese wanted to give it away. Thank goodness.

Son of Bob did his darndest to hand the Packers a road win with three interceptions, including a gift-wrapped TD return for Charles Woodson in the fourth quarter to give the Packers a 21-20 lead.

Other than starting Griese over Jeff Garcia, Chucky deserves credit for a well-coached game. Again, the Bucs came to play, as they do every week. And the Bucs actually stayed committed to the running game, even though it wasn’t clicking steadily throughout the game. Take away Earnest Graham’s game clinching 47-yard run late, and the Bucs ran 40 times for 131 yards.

Joe will have more later. Now it’s time to celebrate!

Nice to see a freakin’ pass rush and how that prompts big plays from the linebackers and secondary. Bucs D had a flashback to its glory days. 

Give Chucky credit for the TD call to Alex Smith. Griese rolling left the Pack stunned.

Ronde Barber flat out gave up after slipping and falling and letting in a TD score. Inexcusable. Check the tape, if you don’t believe it.

Finally a few runs to move the chains.

Griese was lucky not to be picked off. But so was Rodgers.

Hey, Clayton, catch the freakin’ ball.

Settling for three can’t continue.

Packers (2-1) at Buccaneers (2-1)
Week 4
Kickoff: Sunday, 1 p.m.
TV: WTVT Channel 13.
Radio: Buccaneers Radio Network (in Tampa WFUS-FM, 103.5 and WDAE-AM, 620); Sirius Channel 113.
Weather: Per AccuWeather.com, perfect Florida weather. Temperature at kickoff expected to be 87 under partly sunny skies with a high of 90 sometime in the second half. A video forecast from AccuWeather.com can be seen via the NFL Network.
Odds: Per Bodog.com, Pick’em.
Outlook: If the Bucs can play much like they did in the overtime win over the Bears, this should be a solid game. The Bucs offensive line was nothing short of spectacular last week. No sacks in 67 throws with the statue-like Son of Bob in the pocket.

The Bears defense threw everything they had at the Bucs front five and, other than some struggling with run blocking, in which they were outmanned just in sheer numbers, this may have been the highwater mark for a Bucs offensive line.

Last week, longtime cornerback Ronde Barber had an awful game, making Bears journeyman wide receiver Brandon Lloyd look like Jerry Rice. Barber will have to return to his normal self if the Bucs hope to win. The Packers receivers are just a bit more talented than Brandon Lloyd and quarterback Aaron Rodgers is a pretty big upgrade from Kyle Orton.

The Pack is a good team and the Bucs stiffest test this season. Historically, the Bucs have feasted on young quarterbacks. Tough game to call. The winner goes to 3-1 on the season. The loser has its fans lighting up sports radio in a state of panic.

ProfootballTalk.com is reporting that Bucs kicker Matt Bryant will play Sunday against the Packers at Raymond James Stadium. Bryant’s 3-month-old son Matthew Jr. was found dead in his crib this week.

Bucs officials said earlier this week that Bryant would make a last-minute decision on whether to participate. The team did not sign a kicker to replace him.

Jeff Garcia's dad says his son is keeping a postive attitude. Joe looks at the Garcias above and wonders, "How could Jeff ever be sad?"

Joe might have apologized for missing this one, but it was buried in the obscure Gilroy Dispatch. And the MSM didn’t catch it, so we deserve a pass.

Bob Garcia, father of demoted Bucs quarterback Jeff Garcia and a renowned football coach in California’s garlic belt, writes a weekly blog for his hometown newspaper.

Asked about Jeff’s benching, dad dished out some tough love.

“That’s right. I said, ‘Hey, did you get paid on Monday.’ And he said, ‘Yeah.’ And I said, ‘Hey, what a great day!’ . Nobody died, we’re not going to a funeral. If That’s the worse thing that happened to you in (a day of) your life, you got it made. Go out there and do what you have to do.
He’s taking a different attitude, he’s looking forward to going to practice and being with his teammates and he’s ready to go to work. Everything in our family now, like I said, is going to be, ‘Let’s go. Stitch up that belt, and whatever happens, let’s go.'”

If Garcia really is the whiner some claim him to be, he didn’t learn that behavior from dad.

Now it’s official. Dexter Jackson is a Grade A wimp.

The Bucs second-round pick in 2008, who has slipped and tripped all over the field in his limited action as a kick and punt returner, tells the Tampa Tribune he’s worried about getting tackled.

And his teammates agree.

How pathetic is that?

“You can’t be scared,” Clayton said. “You’ve got to just to hit it up in there through the hole and get all you can get. Dexter is a young guy. He’s going to learn how to do it.”

Clayton, who likely will carry the load in the kick return game against the Packers, also told the Tribune that Jackson took a big hit on opening day against New Orleans. implying that the hit put fear in Jackson’s head.

Joe says it’s time to cut your losses, Bucs, and send Jackson packing. If a guy’s afraid to be tackled, he’s got no future in the NFL.

Could the addition of Lions wide receiver Roy Williams help the Bucs? Joe thinks so.

Joe has written several times that Joey Galloway is needed if the Bucs are to go far because the wide receiver corps is the weakest group on the Bucs.

Well, Galloway has been dinged up all year, from the preseason and now into the regular season. Plus, he’s old. Joe doesn’t hate Galloway for missing valuable time. It happens to the best of players. Father Time makes exceptions for no one.

Who knows when Galloway will return and for how long will he remain healthy?

So far, Antonio Bryant has played well. That’s all of one game. Michael Clayton and Maurice Stovall are more efficient at dropping passes than anything else.

Could Roy Williams make a difference?

Per ProFootballTalk.com, now that the Lions have new leadership, it seems the team is open-minded to any and all deals.

Williams, per the lord of PFT.com Mike Florio, is in the final year of his contract. Does anyone believe he will stay in Detroit and possibly languish with a losing team the rest of his career? Surely the Lions would be interested in obtaining something for him before he leaves them empty-handed.

Would it be in the Bucs best interest to possibly rent Williams, maybe give up a third round pick for him and take the chance of resigning him in the offseason?

Joe wouldn’t be opposed to such a move. Unless Clayton and Stovall demonstrate otherwise, and one game (Chicago) does not a season make, the Bucs badly need a healthy Galloway.

Or another receiver to pick up the slack.

Dr. Z of Sports Illustrated suggests Vinny Testaverde is a better quarterback than Son of Bob. Joe doesn’t disagree.

Joe likes Paul Zimmerman. Bucs fans may know him better as Dr. Z of Sports Illustrated. One of the reasons Joe likes Dr. Z, aside from the fact he is a sarcastic old cuss, is that Dr. Z is a football historian who studies the game like a biologist would snails eggs.

Today, Dr. Z has on SI.com a breakdown on just how miserable quarterbacking is in today’s NFL. He compares each team’s quarterback to the starting quarterback for the same team 20 years ago.

The vast majority of the teams had better quarterbacks 20 years ago.

In a bit of a suprise, Dr. Z claims Vinny Testaverde is a better quarterback than Son of Bob.

Tampa Bay Bucs
Vinny Testaverde vs. Brian Griese

Edge: 1988. This was Vinny’s third year of a career that has washed up onto the very shores of today… well, at least last year, but I have a feeling that we have not seen the last of him. Griese is another early-season switcheroo, this time for Jeff Garcia.

Again, this surprises Joe a little bit, but not much. Regular readers know Joe thinks little of Son of Bob. Sure, Vinnie was an interception machine. But so too is Son of Bob.

Warren Sapp is an asshole.

Joe has never liked Warren Sapp. Sure, he was a great player and Joe was glad he was on the Bucs. But all things being equal, Joe had no use for the guy.

Well, it seems Sapp is getting exposed (finally) for being the asshole he truly is. Seems the “Dancing with the Stars” contestent (Joe refuses to stoop so low as to watch this show; he’d rather watch “Mama’s Family” or worse: poker) is being himself to the staff of the awful TV show, which is to say he’s an asshole.

TMZ.com is reporting how Sapp is treating staffers and co-workers on that wretched reality show. This doesn’t come as a surprise to Joe. Though Joe doesn’t wish ill will on people, he can sit back and smile knowing that bad things can happen to bad people.

And Sapp is bad people. (Yeah, Joe know’s that last sentence should irritate third grade English teachers).

In a podcast on TBO.com, Bucs beat writer Woody Cummings suggests Chucky doesn't trust Luke McCown, thus Jeff Garcia will not be traded.

Check out a TBO.com podcast with Bucs beat writer Woody Cummings

Cummings discusses how the Bucs somehow beat the Bears, how Jeff Garcia will remain with the Bucs and other items on the state of the team.

The Bucs hope to smother Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers like the Dallass Cowgirls did Sunday night.

Joe is sad that the NFL Network won’t embed videos. But that doesn’t mean they aren’t worth watching.

The first video is a four-minute preview of the Bucs-Packers game. Then, Chucky talks about how physical the Packers can play. Later, Chucky talks about the Packers offense.

A plea to Roger Goodell: Please make your videos available for embedding. The NFL Network does solid work. Why try to hide them in a virtual vault when NBC, CBS, BSPN and other sports leagues allow embedding of their videos?

JoeBucsFan.com analyst Steve Campbell is almost giddy over the play of offensive tackle Donald Penn in the Bucs overtime win over the Bears.

JoeBucsFan.com analyst Steve Campbell reviews the Bucs’ offensive line play in Week 3 and projects what fans can expect against the Green Bay Packers on Sunday.

Campbell was a NCAA Division I offensive lineman and played semi-pro football in the 1990s (he likes to say he was a tackling dummy for a future NFL defensive tackle). His analysis appears weekly.

If you would have told me that the Bucs would have attempted 67 passes and only 17 runs against Chicago’s defense, I would have predicted a Bears win by at least 21 points and Brian Griese to be taken from the Soldier Field turf on a stretcher. The fact that the Bucs not only won, but that Griese was not sacked in 67 pass attempts is amazing.

First, I’ve been quick to criticize Jon Gruden for his tendency to abandon the run early this season, but I think he had no choice in this game. Look at these numbers:

   * The Bears had eight defensive players in the box on nearly half of the Buccaneer offensive plays.

   * They had nine in the box on 19 of the 84 offensive plays.

Any time the Bucs went to an Ace formation (two tight ends, two running backs, one wide receiver),, the Bears immediately brought both safeties up to the line and covered the lone receiver man-to-man with a cornerback. That’s a “loaded box” look. The Bears virtually had a man in every gap, and that makes it impossible to run.

What Chicago was saying was, “You don’t have Joey Galloway. We don’t respect Brian Griese. You can’t beat us passing the ball.”

Give the Bears credit, because for three and a half quarters, it did work.

So, I’m going to give Gruden credit for showing trust in his players to make it happen for him. According to Griese, Gruden told him in the beginning of the fourth quarter that he was going to throw on virtually every play. He put the game in Griese’s hands. And forgotten players like Antonio Bryant, Michael Clayton, and Jerramy Stevens emerged as playmakers.

I know it’s early, but the Buccaneer offense is currently ranked No. 7 in the NFL. Do we finally have an offense in Tampa Bay? It starts up front, so if this line is as good or potentially good as I think they are, we may be in for a good offensive year for a change.

I can’t say enough about the pass protection of the offensive line on Sunday. Let’s go to the grades:

Donald Penn: If Penn keeps this level of play up, he is going to make a serious amount of money next season. Penn absolutely stoned Bears defensive end, Alex Brown, who made all of one play Sunday, and that was a play where Penn blocked down on a linebacker. An example of Penn’s outstanding play was on the Bucs first scoring drive on the 31 yard pass play to Stevens. Brown, who has exceptional speed as an outside pass rusher, used an inside move on the play and appeared to have beat Penn and moved in on Griese. But Penn showed outstanding feet and recovered by pushing Brown past Griese which allowed Griese to step up and hit Stevens in stride. Grade: A

Arron Sears: A much better effort from Sears, and it couldn’t have come at a better time. He picked up a lot of A-gap blitzes from the Bears speedy linebackers. Grade: B

Jeff Faine: Faine was probably mentally exhausted after this game just from making the line calls. The Bears blitzed on 57 plays Sunday and Faine is responsible for making the adjustments to pick up those blitzes. Grade: B

Jeremy Zuttah: Another solid effort from the rookie. He showed his intelligence by not being rattled by Chicago’s confusing schemes. Grade: B

Jeremy Trueblood: Trueblood was outstanding in protecting the passer on Sunday. Adewale Ogunleye is a top notch pass rusher and he Jeremy stoned him all day. Ogunleye did beat him on some running plays, however. And let me state this: I’ve read a lot of whining about Jeremy Trueblood’s “dirty” and “foolish” plays from Bucs fans on various message boards. As I’ve said before, as long as Jeremy knows how to walk the line and not be the one that is “caught,” I have no problem with his aggressiveness. In fact, I welcome it. As an offensive lineman, it can really work to your advantage to have the defensive lineman coming after you every play instead of your quarterback. Keep it up, Jeremy. Grade: B-

The Green Bay Packers come to Raymond James Stadium on Sunday, and they have shown some weakness against the run this season. They are currently No. 26 in the league and giving up 151 yards per game rushing. Left defensive end Aaron Kampman is a very active pass rushing end. Trueblood will have to be on top of his game on Sunday.

The Packers right defensive end, Cullen Jenkins, has primarily been a run-stopping end, but he does have 2.5 sacks already this year. He usually slides down to defensive tackle on passing downs and Kabeer Gbaja-Biamilla (KGB) comes in to play the right defensive end position.

Up the middle the Packers use mammoth defensive tackles Ryan Pickett and Johnny Jolly. Both Pickett and Jolly are pretty solid against the run, but don’t get to the quarterback too often. The good news is the Bucs are expected to get right guard Davin Joseph back from his foot injury this week. He has practiced all week, but the Bucs have been tight-lipped about his availability this weekend. They apparently were very cautious with his rehab, so if he is practicing, I would expect that he would play quite a bit.

Charley Casserly and Jason Horowitz of CBSSports.com preview the Bucs-Packers game. Casserly seems to think the Battle of the Bays may be a wide-open passing game.

Watch CBS Videos Online

Joseph Looks Ready To Go On Sunday

Update: 3:30 p.m. – Joseph sat out Thursday’s practice

Pewter TV at PewterReport.com gives us a look inside Bucs practice and interviews with Davin Joseph, Chris Hovan and Gaines Adams. Nearly as important, the report gives us a quality look at Emily Gagnon, Joe’s favorite Bucs beat writer.

Joseph looks healthy on the video and says he feels good, too. He should have more to say regarding his comeback from a broken foot this evening at 6 p.m., during his radio show on 620 AM WDAE.

The Colonel Sanders-looking character in the background of the Joseph interview is Lightning and Orlando Magic PA announcer Paul Porter. He works as the morning newsman on 1470 AM ESPN Tampa Bay.