Joe firmly believes Sunday’s game in New Orleans could shape Bucs history.

No, Joe isn’t hopped up on egg nog and too much Caybrew.

Playing the top team in the conference on the road (New Orleans), when that team desperately needs the victory for home field advantage in the playoffs, is the ultimate opportunity for Bucs management to evaluate the team as a whole and its respective offensive and defensive units.

And that evaluation is very likely to go a long way toward shaping offseason decisions.

Scary. … Especially if you’re of the mind that Mark Dominik and co. are not exactly top notch talent evaluators. 

Now Joe watches lots of NFL Network, (and do treat yourself to it this Christmas) and Joe has seen replays and film breakdowns of the Saints’ recent games. They haven’t been pretty. The 4-10 Redskins sure looked like the better team in the Skins-Saints game a couple of weeks ago.

Jeff Duncan, a Saints writer for the Times Picayune, served up a damning, detailed report on the Saints performance over their past three games.

The past three weeks, the Saints have not run the ball effectively, have been shaky on special teams and haven’t been able to stop anyone consistently, especially through the air.

Since crushing the Patriots last month, the Saints have morphed from juggernaut to jugger…not.

The Rule of Three appears to be in effect with the Saints: Once is unlucky, twice is a coincidence and three times is a trend.

Reading the entire article, Joe mustered a faint glimmer of hope the Bucs could go to The Big Easy and pull out a victory.

Joe also still hopes Rachel Watson will come down the chimney.

JoeBoltsFan.com’s Amanda Harris has landed in the Lightning locker room to deliver appropriate goodies to the inconsistent Bolts.

Joe’s not sure why Ryan Malone needs a towel to cover himself …

Pat Kirwan and Jason Horowitz of CBSSports.com preview the Bucs-Saints game Sunday. Rather than dwell on the negative of this year, Kirwan gives Bucs fans a glimpse of what to expect next year.

Joe never gets tired of seeing stories like this and he’s been saving this post specifically for today.

Joe cannot think of a better human being than former Bucs great Warrick Dunn, the new minority owner of the Falcons.

As he is wont to do, Dunn was at it again earlier this month, buying houses for needy families both in the Tampa Bay area, and in Tallahassee where he went to college at Florida State.

Kevin Smetana of the St. Petersburg Times documents how Dunn helped a Plant City family earlier this month.

Harris, a University of South Florida student, full-time worker and aspiring lawyer, is just the second dad chosen in the program’s 12 years.

“This started as flat concrete, and this is what we have now — a home for me and my daughter,” Harris said before stepping inside the Plant City house. “I still have a long way to go, but this is going to make it a lot easier.”

Once inside, Harris, saw a furnished living room, a flat-screen TV and, in the corner, a lighted Christmas tree. To his right were custom-made stockings hanging on the wall. In all, the home decor totaled $20,000.

What cool Christmas presents those families had.

Joe can’t imagine the amount of money Dunn has spent out of his own pocket over the years to buy houses for needy families. If every NFL player did just an ounce of what Dunn has done for people in need, imagine what a better community we’d all live in?

Today marks the second Christmas Joe has had his Bucs blog up and running. Joe offers his heart-felt thanks to all his loyal readers and hope today the food is good, the family happy, the kiddies giddy and the Caybrew is cold in each any ever Bucs fan’s household.

Thanks again for your loyal support. Joe hopes to be bigger and better than ever by next Christmas.

Maybe Santa Claus, now that he has escaped the clutches of Jack Bauer, can bring us some more Bucs wins next season, eh?

Joe couldn’t think of a better way to say “Merry Christmas” and “Happy Holidays” than with the ultimate Bucs cheerleader, Rachel Watson.

Parents: Be warned that it seems Santa Claus will be delayed this evening making his rounds as an international incident is developing.

Joe has learned through a source within the highest reaches of the federal government that a Code Red terrorist alert has been issued by Homeland Security. It seems that the animals who behead people are planning some heinous crimes, targeting honorable, innocent Americans celebrating the holidays with family, friends and copious amounts of Caybrew.

Because of this, federal authorities are stopping any and all suspicious travel tonight. Sadly, Santa Claus has been caught in this web and as a result, has been detained.

Fearing Santa is being used by the animals that behead people, not unlike the crippled nuns in airports, Santa himself is suspected of foul play. Just the thought enrages Joe.

Receiving a directive from White House aide Karen Hughes, the head of the Counter Terrorist Unit (CTU), Bill Buchanan (who Joe thought had perished last year in a failed White House coup), has called in none other than the notorious covert operative Jack Bauer to interrogate Santa Claus.

While Bauer is known to have broken some of world’s most hardened criminals, squaring off with Santa Claus seems to be a foe not even Bauer is prepared for.

Who better to analyze the Bucs’ offensive line than former Bucs right tackle Jerry Wunsch? A graduate of Wisconsin, Wunsch was drafted in the second round by the Bucs in 1997. He spent five years with the Bucs and three more years with Seattle.

A Tampa Bay area resident, Wunsch is the owner and  proprietor of “Big Mike’s Pizzeria and Back Porch” in Largo. To this day, Wunsch brags that, while at Wisconsin, he never gave up a sack to future Bucs teammate Simeon Rice, who Wunsch battled when Rice played at Illinois.

Wunsch has been kind enough to share his thoughts with Joe on the Bucs offensive line in between his duties at his restaurant. Wunsch is also an assistant football coach at Indian Rocks Christian High School.

By JERRY WUNSCH

Zone blocking is something you have to learn if you are lead-stepping your entire career, meaning you take a step forward when you begin your block at the snap of the ball. To learn to take a step backward and lead with your shoulders, which is the proper technique in zone blocking, to get momentum to move people off the ball is a very difficult thing to learn.

When someone like Bucs center Jeff Faine said it takes [eight] months to learn, he is being very generous.  It’s a whole different way of blocking. To learn how to do it properly and to get people to move off the ball is very difficult and that is probably why you are not seeing as much movement this year of moving people off the ball to get the running game going.

Another issue with the Bucs offensive line is they are not implementing other types of strategies to be able to cut the defense and not strictly zone block. As they grow and learn, and learn what they are about, I think that will definitely change. When you change offensive coordinators and work on different things, it is very difficult on players. Hopefully, they have found their wheelhouse and what they feel comfortable with.

I played for a lot of great offensive line coaches. The Bucs are in a precarious situation. I see [Jeremy] Trueblood and Faine playing good football. [Donald] Penn is playing good football. Yes, they can finish better more often but that may be a wind-is-out-of-their-sails type of thing.

I think the biggest problem is, you look at the tight ends blocking, the H-backs. They are not fighting and trying to finish.

I see some holes in the scheme. I see blitzers walk right up and [the Bucs are] letting guys go right through the A-gaps. That’s on the offensive line coach. That’s scheme.

You can’t let guys in the A-gap rush the quarterback untouched because he will disrupt the play. He will get there faster than anyone else blitzing. I have seen that over and over again this year, which means it is either the players are not getting it after how many times? Or, it’s not being coached.

In order to get the ball off [on pass plays] you have to protect the most immediate inside gaps when a casino or all-out blitz is coming.

If you think about it, the guy rushing the A-gap immediately will disrupt any slant [pass] possibility you will have. On an all-out blitz or casino blitz, the only thing you have is a slant, or if you know the guy is over-playing the slant, you might have a slant-and-go.

So the onus is on the offensive line to pick up those initial blitzers because when a slant is run, the outside linebackers who are blitzing are outside the window and you can still throw.

But what the Bucs are doing is letting inside guys go. Those are the people who can immediately influence the passing window for the quarterback and not allow him to have the time or ability to throw.

There are a lot of things and dynamics that are going on within their offensive scheme that is creating problems in the running game and also in the passing game. We’ll see how they can correct those things in the last couple of games.

When I played with the Seahawks we went on a three-game winning streak our last three games that catapulted us into the next season, which allowed us to go to a playoff.

What you want to see the next few games is how much the Bucs want to play for their head coach and how much they want their head coach to stick around and how much they want their own jobs.

So I think it is essential to win these games. Going to the west coast, even though Seattle is not a very good football team, that’s not easy. That’s difficult. Any west coast game you win is a good thing.

What I will look for this week is for the Bucs to go back to the running game, take pressure off [Josh] Freeman and start picking up their blitzes right. This would allow Freeman to settle down.

A lot of Freeman’s [trouble] now is he is not comfortable in the pocket and I can’t blame him. The fullbacks and tight ends are having a hard time blocking. Kellen [Winslow] and [Jeremy] Stevens, when asked to block, are not getting the job done by any means and that problem needs to be fixed.

That was one thing about Dave Moore. He would block, run, catch passes, anything you asked him he did 110 percent, which is what got him to a Pro Bowl. I don’t see that multifaceted play from the tight ends right now.

The change in offensive coordinators has really hurt not just the offense, but the line. Here’s why:

If you have a new offensive coordinator, there’s going to be changes and if there is a change, how do we deal with that change?

If you think about it, half of your practices happen before you even start the football season. Think about it: two-a-days for how many weeks? You will do more practices in that time period than you will do the entire season.

So to fire the offensive coordinator just before your first real game, you just lost half of your season of practice. All the things you were working on… just from that [standpoint] you are behind the eight-ball.

Treat yourself this holiday season and stop in at “Big Mike’s Pizzeria and Back Porch.” The eatery is located at 999 Missouri Ave. in Largo, just north of Largo High School next to Wal-Mart. Phone number is (727) 586-5170. Wunsch will be happy to talk Bucs (or Big Ten) football with you over a cold pint of beer (or two).

Might Oklahoma defensive tackle Gerald McCoy be wearing pewter and red come April?

This has been a long season for Bucs fans. If Bucs fans run to a drug store for Zantac or Pepto Bismol in the waning days of 2009, it isn’t for what they may have consumed at holiday parties.

Lots of fans are already looking forward to 2010, if for no other reason than to forget 2009.

Ross Tucker of SI.com believes Bucs fans have something to look forward to in 2010.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers:Though it’s debatable whether Raheem Morris should survive this season, there is no debate about the guy who will be under center. Josh Freeman has played better than most people anticipated, even though he doesn’t have a wide array of weapons around him. His progress and the continued youth movement should lead to an improved record next season. Also, the defense promises to get better with the likes of Oklahoma defensive tackle Gerald McCoy and Tennessee safety Eric Berry available in the draft.

The new year won’t be very special if the Bucs somehow decide to draft offense in the first round. Joe just might have to run out and try to tackle a freight train if that happens.

Joe really wishes he was at One Buc Palace for this conversation.

Joe isn’t sure who asked Chris Hovan, whether it was Tom Balog of the Sarasota Herald-Tribune or some other member of the Fourth Estate, if the Bucs should tank the next two games in the feint hope of drafting Nebraska defensive tackle/manbeast Ndamukong Suh.

Mind you, if the Bucs were somehow able to draft Suh, Hovan would be out of a job.

The reaction from Hovan was predictable, but no less entertaining.

”He’s a good player, but at the same time, I’m not laying down in any games to get a player on my team,” Hovan said. “If that’s the mentality then cut me. If you want me to lay down then I’m in the wrong place because I’m not laying down.”

That takes balls to ask a guy like Hovan that kind of question, given the fact he could break most men in half if Hovan so chose. Joe is beyond impressed.

What ever scribe (radio talking head?) asked Hovan that question, speak up! Joe will happily buy you a few Caybrews.

In Joe’s eyes, the perpetrator is a true journalist.

What better way to spend Christmas Eve than with the gorgeous Jenny Dell of BSPN? Joe assumes you will agree.

With season-ending injuries to Clifton Smith and Sammie Stroughter, a couple of guys who have returned kickoffs for touchdowns for the Bucs, Mark Dominik has brought back Michael Spurlock to backup Kareem Huggins in the return man role.

In case you forgot, Spurlock is the guy who ended the Bucs 30+ year jinx of no kickoff returns for touchdowns in 2007.

You can can check it out in this video, with a bonus look at the Bucs first punt return for a TD by Vernon Turner.

Don't expect Bill Parcells to move up I-75 and become a "football czar" of the Bucs.

By and large, it appears to Joe that Bucs fans want Raheem the Dream gone.

These same fans rattled off all sorts of names of who should replace Raheem the Dream, almost all are names of past successful coaches.

Most common among those is Bill Cowher. Some prefer Mike Shanahan. Still fewer pine for the Bucs to take a stab at Bill Parcells, for the third time no less!

Woody Cummings of the Tampa Tribune suggests all the big-name coaches fans want to replace Raheem the Dream are all wishful thinking. That’s because Bryan and Joel don’t think that way.

Q: It’s apparent that the Bucs have probably won the only game they will win this season. The coaching has been far less than competent or ideal. It’s time the Glazers went after a Mike Holmgren or Bill Parcells type to oversee all the football operations. Barring that, they should go after Bill Cowher, Shanahan or one of the established coaches. What is your take on this idea of a football Czar to run things?
— Jim Wright, Clearwater

A: If the Bucs do as you suggest and hire either Mike Shanahan, Mike Holmgren, Bill Parcells or Bill Cowher, they will have their “football czar.” Shanahan, Holmgren and Parcells want to run the entire show. Same will probably go for Cowher if he returns. That’s why the Bucs probably won’t hire any of them or anyone like them. They’re not big fans of one-man shows. They like the idea of checks and balances within the system.
— Roy Cummings

Cummings has a solid point. Father Dungy and Chucky answered to Richie McKay. In theory, Chucky was supposed to answer to Bruce Almighty but it appears Bruce Almighty answered to Chucky.

If that was truly the case… wait a minute? What happened to both of them?

Joe believes Donald Penn's play this season is Pro Bowl worthy.

When Joe wrote that headline above, he has to admit: He let out a chuckle, sort of the same response when Joe hears a foolish person try to tell him that it is not true that Caybrew is superb choice in holiday refreshments, despite the fact they have never drank one.

The best way for anyone to get Joe to buy them a Caybrew is to utter such nonsense to him at a quality watering hole that stocks Caybrew.

Upon further study with the Bucs, there may be some players that are actually worthy of a Pro Bowl selection, despite the Bucs quality of play more suited for a toilet bowl.

Stylish Backwards Hat, better known as Rick Brown of the Lakeland Ledger, ponders which Bucs may get the nod.

Offensively, guard Davin Joseph made the team last season. Will he go back-to-back? What about left tackle Donald Penn, who has done an admirable job of holding off opponents’ speed rusher and protecting the quarterback’s back side? How about center Jeff Faine, the glue to this unit?

On defense, Aqib Talib leads the team in interceptions and often plays against the opponents’ best receiver. Should he get a nod? What about Tanard Jackson? Linebacker Barrett Ruud is fifth in the league in tackles. Is this his year?

In Joe’s eyes, Donald Penn should be a slam dunk. Joe believes no Bucs player has played as well this season as Penn.

Tanard Jackson would be a good choice as well, but he may be hurt due to missing four games to begin the season as he served a suspension for failing to take a drug test.

Aqib Talib may also be playing Pro Bowl-type football, but Joe wonders if his mishap with a cabby may have clouded his performances?

You saw it. Joe saw it. Even the old man walking down the sidewalk with a white cane saw it.

The abortion of a defense that defrocked Bucs defensive coordinator Jim Bates tried to force feed players not suited for his two-gap system was the biggest cluster(youknowwhat) known to man since New Coke.

Despite this, the Bucs players played the part of good elves and spoke highly of the sordid defense that set franchise records for futility, among them the most consecutive games allowing 25 or more points.

Since Raheem the Dream clipped the wings of Bates, Bucs defenders have grumbled a little about Bates defense, but for the most part have kept their grievances to themselves.

That pattern was destroyed yesterday when Chris Hovan opened the floodgates on his distaste for Bates’ defense, so reports The Mad Twitterer of the St. Petersburg Times.

“The old defense is out-dated and didn’t work,” Hovan said. “This defense is what it is, it’s true. It’s physical. It’s violent, it’s fast. It’s Tampa 2. It’s what this city has been raised on.

“You could just tell the swagger is coming back to this defense, the way we approach the game, the way we study, the way we take the field. There’s a different swagger and it comes into play…We’re not running the old defense against these guys, we’re running the Tampa 2. We’re about to find out how good we are. When we played them in the past and played this defense against them, we’ve been successful. Not to say that we’re going to be successful, but we have a lot of confidence when we run this defense.”

Joe has written this many times before: Of course Bates didn’t have the players to run his two-gap system. Good coaches, rather than shoving their system down players’ throats, mold a system that gets the most out of the talent they have.

And let’s be honest, any coach who has “his” players is going to be successful. Just ask Barry Switzer.

The Lions will keep Daunte Culpepper on the bench Sunday and give Drew Stanton his first NFL start

First it was the one-win Rams taking a day off last Thursday. Now the 2-12 Lions are letting quarterback Drew Stanton make his first career start on Sunday in San Francisco.

Joe would love to see the Bucs pound the Saints on Sunday, but can’t these other bottom feeders at least give 100 percent?

Daunte Culpepper will sit the bench for the Lions as the No. 2 quarterback while Stanton gets some experience.

Stanton relieved a struggling Culpepper in the second half of last Sunday’s 31-24 loss to the Cardinals and completed 10 of 19 passes for 72 yards with one interception.

Go Lions!

Raheem The Dream had his scheduled chat with the New Orleans media today and informed them that he doesn’t have a defensive end who can beat has man one-on-one off the edge and get to Drew Brees.

Maybe he’s right. Or maybe he was on a ramble and didn’t catch himself. Or maybe he’s trying to light a little fire under his defensive ends.

Take your pick.

Q: Is there anything you saw in the Cowboys game that you can take away and implement in this game? 

A: The Cowboys had an impressive day. They caught the Saints in uncharacteristic positions where they were able to get to the quarterback, which has never really been done since Coach (Payton) has been there and they took advantage of it that. They were able to get to Drew Brees. They got a couple of great players out there, the Cowboys as well that kind of helped with that. I don’t have a DeMarcus Ware to beat someone one on one off the edge and make those types of plays. You just have to be yourself and we have to do what we can do and try to do what we can do the best we can.

Joe’s a big fan of Stylez G. White, who leads the Bucs with 6.5 sacks. Joe thinks he has it in him to beat his man off the edge. So there, Coach Rah.

Regardless, the Bucs will surely need to reinvent their pass rush in a hurry to have a prayer against the Saints on Sunday.

(In case you missed it, former Bucs defensive end Steve White, in his regular column for JoeBucsFan.com, turned out a detailed Xs and Os look at what the Bucs need to do to rediscover their pass rush that was awfully quiet in Seattle.)

The PewterReport.com fellas, known for their defunct print magazine that used to grace doctor’s office waiting rooms across Tampa Bay, tuned in to 620 WDAE-AM last night to hear Ronde Barber chat on Total Access.

To nobody’s surprise, Barber wants to return next season.

But Barber also voiced some doubt about his ability to prepare his body and he referenced some “other factors” that likely relate to money.

“Hell yeah,” Barber said when asked if he wanted to play again next year. “I intend it to be yes. I’ve got to see if my body can deal with another offseason, but you know what, I think I will. I know I want to. There are other factors as well and those will play themselves out as the offseason goes on, but I see myself coming back. I know my coaches want me to and I know Raheem does. I feel pretty good about the way I adjusted this year to a new scheme and then adjusted back to the old scheme. I’m still having fun so I see myself back for sure.”

Joe would love to see Barber return in 2010. Although Joe raises an eyebrow at Barber wondering whether his body can get through the offseason.

Joe also believes the Bucs would be wise to draft a cornerback with one of their second round picks, assuming the Bucs don’t wheel and deal their picks around. Having a talented rookie pushing Barber and being mentored by him makes a lot of sense next year.

Joe was as happy as the next Bucs fan with the solid win Sunday — until he realized Nebraska defensive tackle/manbeast Ndamukong Suh was likely gone.

It seems some people were positively giddy over the Bucs win, like Pete Prisco of CBSSports.com. who graded the performance of the Bucs Sunday with a B+.

The Tampa Bay defense looked like the Tampa Bay defense again. That unit had three second-half interceptions to lead the Bucs. Josh Freeman was steady and threw a touchdown pass.

Joe believes people need to start checking themselves. Sure the win was nice and the Bucs have showed improvement. But this was the Seahawks the Bucs just beat for crying out loud.

Remember one of the turnovers came as a result of one of the biggest bonehead plays Joe has ever seen: Seattle quarterback Matt Hasselbeck falling down, pitching the ball to no one in particular deep in Bucs territory.

In his weekly look at the NFC South, “The Professor,” John Clayton of BSPN looks at how safe Raheem the Dream’s job is and takes a glimpse into the Bucs future about what personnel moves may be made.

The less than stellar play of the offensive line this year has been a real head-scratcher for Joe.

It continues to trouble Joe how the Bucs offensive line has terribly underperformed this season.The Bucs were on the cusp of having a dominant offensive line this year. That’s one of the reasons Raheem the Dream (initially) wanted to pound the ball.

And why not? With a bunch of young studs up front, take advantage of them!

At best this year, the Bucs offensive line has been average. Donald Penn has been dynamite. Joe will argue he’s been the best Bucs player all year. He has totally owned some of the NFL’s top defensive ends this year.

The rest of the line, meh. Average. Maybe.

Joe finds it hard to believe that one guy playing hide-and-seek (Arron Sears) is responsible for the line collapsing. Not when Jeremy Zuttah started the 2008 season as a rookie in place of injured Davim Joseph and the line never missed a beat.

Jeremy Trueblood, for being a graduate of such a solid school like Boston College, has been a total dumbass. In well over half of the Bucs games (nine), Trueblood has been whistled for a false start, leading the NFL. That’s simply unacceptable to Joe.

Tack on his idiotic personal foul penalties and Joe has to ask why Trueblood has his head up his ass so much?

In the off season, Joe believes the Bucs hierarchy really needs to take a long and detailed look at why the Bucs offensive line played so subpar.

Former Bucs QB Jeff Carlson

By JEFF CARLSON
JoeBucsFan.com analyst

Former Bucs quarterback Jeff Carlson writes the weekly QB Blast column here at JoeBucsFan.com. Joe is ecstatic to have him firing away. Carlson has TV gigs in the Bay area and trains quarterbacks of all ages via his company,America’s Best Quarterback.

Coming off Josh Freeman’s five interception game against the Panthers, an obvious reaction was to simplify things for your rookie QB, especially going against a Rex Ryan coached defense.

Instead, Greg Olson opened against the Jets with a 5-step drop and a pass over the middle, resulting in an interception on the first offensive play of the game!

Now, Olson didn’t make Freeman throw the ball, but just the dropback in the pocket told me he made a big mistake in the call itself.

I couldn’t bear to watch much more of that poor performance and especially didn’t like Freeman’s comments about how the Jets came up with more unique blitzes that caught the Bucs off-guard. It was Olson’s job to create and call plays that could be successful regardless of what the Jets brought. Not an easy job, but better than saying we were caught off-guard.

I didn’t give my beloved Bucs much of a shot at all this past Sunday, traveling three time zones to play a lackluster Seahawks team, and when Josh Freeman’s first pass once again was a late, over-the-middle interception, I feared the worst.

But credit must be given to Raheem Morris and the other coaches for getting their players to play inspired football in the second half — to win going away.

I will not get giddy about their second win in any sense, but I will say that Olson incorporated a misdirection screen to score a touchdown to Derrick Ward late in the game, something I have been begging to see for years.

Maybe with its success, he will go deep into Gruden’s playbook and find a couple more to take on the Saints.