Suzy Kolber, Mark Schlereth and Darren Woodson of BSPN break down the Jets-Bucs game Sunday.

Joe never understood the fascination with Kolber. Joe knows some guys that go wild over her, as if she is Rachel Watson. Hhhmm, let’s see: A TV chick talking football. Should Joe choose, well, Erin Andrews, Jenny Dell, Tiffany Simons or Kolber? Really?

Only a (blind) drunk Joe Namath would pick Kolber.

Look, just because a chick can talk football doesn’t mean she’s hot.

Bucs great Lee Roy Selmon

Joe was treated this week to a man-to-legend chat with Hall of Famer and restaurateur Lee Roy Selmon, the former Bucs defensive end.

What an honor!

Below is Part I of the interview. On Saturday, check back to JoeBucsFan.com or BucsCountry.com for Part II.

Joe: Reflecting back on your induction into the Bucs’ new Ring of Honor in November, how do you feel about the experience?

Lee Roy Selmon: It really means an awful lot. It was one of the most exciting experiences in my liftime, simply because it reflects all of the pepole that have been so supportive in my life — my wife, children, family back in Oklahoma and teammates and the Buccaneers organization. Of course, I can’t leave out the fans. It was a wonderful collaboration. The Glazer family brought all those people to mind with a wealth of gratitude and appreciation together and with humility. …I’m still humbled. 

Joe: In the early 1990s, Ricky Bell, John McKay, Doug Williams and you were inducted into the Buccaneers “Krewe of Honor” and had some in-stadium recognition at the old Tampa Stadium. How is the new Ring of Honor different? And do you recall the your Krewe of Honor induction?

Selmon:I do remember the Krewe of Honor. The Krewe of Honor was different. It was more of a just a ceremony of who was coming in and without the fanfare and families and all of that. It was nothing like the fanfare of the throwback game we just had against Green Bay and bringing back the 1979 team. When we had the Krewe of Honor, of course, the organization didn’t have the history it has now. So I guess the current ownership took a look at that and what other teams are doing and wanted to bring forward for the organization this new Ring of Honor tradition. …I’m glad they made the decison to connect the past the present and future. It’s very important to connect with history.

Joe: There’s been endless speculation about who should and shouldn’t be in the Ring of Honor. I’m not going to ask you to give names, but what are your thoughts?

Selmon: I think a lot of folks have certainly expressed good ideas. It’s important to people, now that it’s part of the history of the Bucs. There are many players and coaches that are deserving. I’m sure the Glazers and Buccaneers will make those decisions. The fans have their intputs and favorites. You think back on Ricky Bell and Doug Williams, and Paul Gruber and a number of folks. There’s a very deserving list.

Joe: Your restaurant chain, Lee Roy Selmon’s, has transformed into a real haven for sports fans and all lovers of fabulous food. The slogan at Selmon’s is, “Cheer Hard. Eat Well.” What kind of sports fan are you throughout the year?

Selmon: I’m a pretty good sports fan. I admire all athletes, golfers, hockey players, baseball, football, basketball players. I realize it takes an awful lot of work for those men and women to reach the level of talent. …When I’m watching sports, that’s what I look for most, is admiring the talent levels. I’m kind of a year-round sports fan. Certainly at Selmon’s, that’s what you’ll see, a good amout of varying sports. …Basketball is coming on-line now and I enjoy that.

Joe: Do you have any players you most enjoy watching?

Selmon: Dwayne Wade in basketball what he does from the guard position, his exciting plays and drives to the bucket. He’s exceptionally talented. LeBron James, of course, is in a league of his own. I enjoyed watching the Yankees win their World Series this year. You see the athletes there.

Tomorrow, Joe will share Part II of his interview with Lee Roy Selmon. Mr. Selmon will talk a bit about the current Buccaneers and his passion for unmatched hospitality at Lee Roy Selmon’s.

Joe isn’t much into fantasy sports of any sort. Joe’s concept of a fantasy involves, well, the finer things in life.

At any rate, in this fantasy football video from NBCSports.com, the lovely Tiffany Simons and someone named Gregg Rosenthal discuss who to play this week on your fantasy team and Bucs wide receiver Antonio Bryant’s name is amid the discussion.

This just gave Joe a reason to post a video of Ms. Simons, a former Miss Florida finalist and Joe believes to be — but cannot confirm — a former Florida State cheerleader.

Breaking sports news video. MLB, NFL, NBA, NHL highlights and more.

Winning a game in the final month of the season likely would be losing a chance to draft Nebraska monster Ndamukong Suh.

The brutal Bucs season has been so miserable, so pathetic, that on a warm, late-fall Florida evening, Joe could swear he’s on a dairy farm.

For Joe hears the constant, not-so-feint cries of “Suh… Suh … Suh… “

The Bucs are now tied with the St. Louis Lambs for having the worst record in the NFL. If the Bucs are tied with either the Lambs or the Cleveland Clowns (or there’s a three-way tie), the Bucs would lose the tiebreakers.

Though there is some doubt who the Lambs and/or Clowns would choose, there’s virtually no question who the Bucs would choose: Nebraska defensive tackle/manbeast Ndamukong Suh.

So with that in mind, Tom Balog of the Sarasota Herald-Tribune writes if not pleads that a win, any win, the rest of the season would in fact be a loss.

A loss of Suh.

All that should matter for the Buccaneers is doing all they can to get the highest possible draft choice.

To do everything possible to position themselves to select Nebraska senior defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh — who could be the most coveted draft prospect — in the first round.

The Heisman Trophy finalist would be the future cornerstone of a Buccaneers defensive line that desperately needs an impact player. If they beat the New York Jets on Sunday at Raymond James Stadium, what’s it going to matter?

Joe agrees. Sure, a win on a Caybrew-drenched Sunday afternoon would be cool. But in the long run, it would be terrible.

Click on the video below and you will see one of the best, most in-depth previews of the Jets-Bucs game that Joe has seen.

In short, former Jets front office executive Pat Kirwan, appearing with co-host Jason Horowitz, claims the Bucs should be more worried about bootleg passes from Kellen Clemens than Thomas Jones or Shonn Green, and explains in detail why.

Kirwan, in addition to his CBSSports.com duties has a weekday show on Sirius NFL Radio and a weekly column on NFL.com, also has some harsh words, indirectly, for Bucs offensive coordinator Greg Olson’s playcalling (where have you read that before?) and Bucs defrocked defensive coordinator Jim Bates.

Near the end, Kirwan springs a surprise as well.

Josh Freeman and Joe Montana actually have something in common. It's not something to brag about, however.

The San Francisco 49ers of the 1980s was one of the most dominant teams in NFL history, and Joe loved to watch them take apart teams.

At first glance, Joe was shocked to read that eye-RAH! Kaufman of the Tampa Tribune had the nerve to draw a comparison between this year’s Bucs and the 1986 49ers based on the Bucs loss to Carolina last week.

But Kaufman is not off base.

Kaufman notes the Bucs racking up 469 yards against Carolina was the most yards gained by a team without scoring a touchdown in a loss since 1986 49ers lost at Washington 14-6.

Tampa Bay joined the 1986 San Francisco 49ers, who dropped a 14-6 decision at Washington while gaining 501 yards. Bill Walsh’s 49ers were undermined by four turnovers and 15 penalties as Joe Montana threw for 441 yards while attempting 60 passes against the Redskins.

Ironically, that San Francisco club finished the ’86 season 10-5-1 and won the NFC West by leading the league with a plus-20 turnover differential.

Before Bucs fans get all worked up, let Joe be the first to document that Josh Freeman is no Joe Montana. Yet.

Cornerback Darrelle Revis is one reason why the Jets have a strong defense.

Joe was fortunate to be able to bend the ear of Jets correspondent, blogger and chef Lisa Zimmerman to get some background information on the Bucs’ opponent this Sunday, Gang Green.

Zimmerman’s work can be found on CBSSports.com and her fine Jets blog Jetting Around With Lisa Z. Word is that Lisa also bakes the best apple pie found in the greater tri-state area.

JoeBucsFan: So, is Jets coach Rex Ryan using Mark Sanchez’s knee as a cover to bench him, given the fact the Bucs actually have an OK secondary or is Sanchez’s knee really that bad?

Lisa Zimmerman: The benching is legitimate. Early in the week Ryan wanted Sanchez to start but the doctors determined that the risk was too high. The doctors and the team did not want to expose Sanchez to the possibility of injuring the knee further or more severely. If Sanchez could play safely, Ryan would play him.

Joe: Has Sanchez and his interceptions really killed the Jets that badly? The old adage of running the ball and playing solid defense wins games isn’t the case with the Jets. It’s hard to believe a team that leads the NFL in running and is second overall in defense is only 6-6.

Lisa: Mark Sancehz’s interceptions have hurt the team, but they are not the sole reason for the team being 6-6. The team has had games where Sanchez played great, but the team still lost. Losses like their first game against the Miami Dolphins were, in fact, due to scores made by the opposing special teams. In other games, the defense has been the culprit. So, while they have been a problem, they have been nowhere near the sole culprit.

Joe: What has been the secret to the Jets’ defense? While the Jets lead the league in fewest passing yards allowed, they don’t have an inordinate amount of interceptions. Are the Jets just getting a lot of pressure on the quarterback which results in bad throws and bad decisions?

Lisa: The Jets players bought into Rex Ryan’s aggressive, take-no-prisoners style defense right out of the gate. This belief in what they do has given them confidence and ultimately led to successful execution. They do blitz and pressure a lot, which generally results in teams running the ball more and therefore throwing less and fewer interceptions.

Joe: What are the whispers you hear from the Jets about Bucs rookie quarterback Josh Freeman? Like Sanchez, Freeman started out hot but recently has thrown quite a few interceptions. Is there now a book out on Freeman?

Lisa: The Jets are wary of Josh Freeman. The defensive players I have spoken to about him point out that you always expect interceptions from rookies but they are not going to the bank on those. They find him athletic, poised and able to move around in the pocket. They are putting a lot of time into studying him to avoid getting burned on Sunday.

Joe: What is the chatter in Florham Park about the Jets’ possibly winning the AFC East? With the Patriots suddenly looking mortal, it seems the division is up for grabs.

Lisa: No real chatter about this. Open playoff talk stopped after the second or third loss. Realistically I think they believe they have a good shot at a Wild Card, but stop there.

Joe: Naturally, Jets running back Leon Washington has a lot of ties to Florida. What may be his future, if any, with the Jets? He had that nasty compound fracture to his right leg and was in the last year of his contract. Will the Jets wash their hands of him or are they interested in seeing if he can return?

Lisa: The Jets organization really likes Leon Washington and if possible, and if his recovery goes well, I think they are going to do their best to keep him. He was lucky in that he sustained only the compound fracture – there was no knee or ankle damage and he did not get an infection, which is often the biggest concern because it provides the biggest impediment to a full recovery from this type of injury. That said, their offer may go down. However, a lot of the negotiating and outcome will be predicated on how Washington performs once the team returns to OTAs and Mini-Camps.

As Joe is confident all real men witnessed in the comfort of their own living rooms on the precious NFL Network, with their stunning win in arctic-like Cleveland last night, the Browns helped the Bucs in their quest for defensive lineman/beast Ndamukong Suh by knocking off the Steelers last night.

That means the Bucs are now tied with the lowly St. Louis Lambs with 1-11 records in the race for the No. 1 draft pick.

Just a quick look at the obstacles for both the Bucs and Lambs the rest of the way.

Bucs
vs. Jets
at Seahawks
at Saints
vs. Falcons
 
Lambs
at Titans
vs. Texans
at Cardinals
vs. 49ers

Both teams can easily lose all of their remaining games.

Joe is crossing his fingers.

A play that was overruled in the Bucs favor to award Antonio Bryant a catch should never have happened.

Each week, the NFL Network — what, you don’t have the NFL Network? Then you are not a man — has a segment where NFL vice president of officiating Mike Pereira discusses with NFL Network host Rich Eisen some of the more controversial calls of the week.

Often Pereira breaks down why or why not a specific call was made.

The Bucs — no strangers to getting hosed by the zebras — got a break last week, Pereira said.

A catch by Antonio Bryant was initially called incomplete but Raheem the Dream challenged it, and the call was overturned in the Bucs’ favor.

In this video, Pereira explains how the call should not have been reversed.

In this wide-ranging TBO.com podcast, Woody Cummings of the Tampa Tribune sits down with TBO sports honcho Aaron Knox to discuss a variety of Bucs subjects.

Cummings is of the mind that any player remotely suspected of having a concussion should be required to skip a game. Hence, he is not disagreeing with the Bucs’ decision to put Peanut Smith on the shelf for the season.

Cummings also describes what the chatter is within the walls of One Buc Palace in regards to what position the Bucs will pick in next spring’s draft.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

Subscribe: RSS

Antonio Bryant is the Bucs’ best wide receiver. He’s also the team’s highest paid player.

He’s also arguably the Bucs’ only true playmaker on offense.

And like many No. 1 wide receivers around the NFL, Bryant wants the ball. And he isn’t afraid to talk about his desire for it and question anything that stands in his way. In fact, he’s done that for three consecutive weeks.

Deep in the bowels of One Buc Place, the Bucs’ heirarchy is not happy about Bryant speaking out and is not eager to bring him back next season, says Bucs beat writer Jim Flynn. Mr. Flynn used to write for the defunct, hand-held print magazine Pewter Report, which now operates as an Internet-only news operation with fan message boards, aka PewterReport.com.

Flynn talked Monday on the renowned Spitz on Sports radio show on blowtorch 1530 AM about what his unnamed sources are telling him about Byrant.

“But the issue the Buccaneers have is, for one, they weren’t too thrilled, from talking to people behind the scenes, they weren’t thrilled at all that Bryant came out and vented the way he did to the media earlier in the week leading up to the Panthers game saying he wanted the ball,” Flynn said. “Saying [Bryant] understood the circumstances yet he was still venting about it. For all practical purposes complaining. And the Bucs weren’t thrilled about that given his history. And they’re also very skeptical of how long can Bryant continue performing at this level with a knee that’s just lingered throughout the whole year.

“I know for a fact that the Bucs will not franchise Antonio Bryant next year. …I’ve heard from pretty good people inside of One Buc Place, pretty reliable people, that if it’s this regime in tact, that there’s a very good chance the Bucs are going to let Antonio Bryant hit the open market, test free agency, and unless it’s a really good deal, I would expect the Bucs at this point to pass on re-signing Antonio Bryant.”

Joe has stated repeatedly that he is no fan of blathering rumors from unnamed sources. And Flynn is rather oddly confident saying “he knows for a fact” the Bucs will not franchise Bryant again in 2010.

That aside, if the Bucs are annoyed with Bryant, Joe advises them to deal with it.

If Bryant closes out the season strong, there’s no reason for Mark Dominik and Raheem The Dream not to check their egos and either franchise Bryant again or offer him a fair-market deal.

When your team is a low-spender, and you could lose your top offensive weapon, you step up to the plate, assuming the player’s healthy and you don’t need the money because your soccer team sucked you dry.

Bucs rookie quarterback Josh Freeman appeared on “The Blitz” earlier today with Adam Schein and Rich Gannon, heard exclusively on Sirius NFL Radio.

(An aside: In the last two weeks, not once — not once! — while listening to NFL Radio has Joe heard anything about some golfer named Eldrick Woods and his harem, people bitching about a lack of a college football playoff, who should win the Heisman Trophy or the NBA.)

Freeman has some very interesting things to say about his development and the Jets. In short, one reason Freeman wasn’t ready to start sooner is that Raheem the Dream stunted his growth, and that the Jets throw blitzes at teams like he’s never seen before.

Rich Gannon: This is your first year, your rookie year. A lot has happened both on and off the field with the Bucs, there have been a lot of changes. How has the offensive coordinator change affected you and the offense?

Josh Freeman: Well, when I was drafted I went through rookie camp and the mini camps and almost all the way through training camp and the preseason running Jeff Jagodzinski’s offense. When they made the switch — coach Olson did a good job of integrating his offense. But I didn’t get to have all that much time with Coach O’s stuff because I was doing Coach Jags’ stuff.

Adam Schein: How long did it take you to learn the new offense?

JF: Not too long. [Olson] did a good job of making the transition smooth with a lot of the concepts. But he added a lot more volume, that jumped up a lot because he was with coach Gruden. [Olson] took a lot of concepts from him. A lot of volume. A lot of concepts. It came down to studying and grinding.

RG: What has been the hardest part of learning the NFL?

JF: The speed of the game. It’s not necessarily how fast they run but everybody finds a way to get in the right place. The windows are so much smaller. You don’t get the easy holes. Everybody is all over it. We played a team using a Tampa-2 and they played everything. You either had to check down or throw it away.

I had to do a lot of film study on blitz pickups and learning the calls to make sure how a defense works.

AS: What happened last week?

JF: It was a tough day, just in the red zone. We felt like we had a good plan and a good mindset. We marched down on the first drive and got in the red zone and we just didn’t get it done.

On the first drive, I threw blindly, I looked left and threw right and I thought I had a window.

The second one, I had a hard sell play action in the red zone on the five. [Carolina’s Jon] Beason was the middle linebacker and he’s not in your mind at all about making a play. He hid behind a defensive tackle and made the pick. I should have thrown it out of bounds since it was first down. Live to play another down.

The third one was another one to Beason in the red zone. They were in a Cover-2. I was trying to work the backside. I thought I could get it over Beason and he jumped and picked it off.

The fourth one was on fourth down in the red zone. We had a spacing concept in the back of the end zone and they hemmed it up. I threw it up for grabs. I couldn’t run it in. Everything was going wrong.

The last one I was trying to push it downfield. I gambled and underthrew it.

RG: What jumps out at you about the Jets?

JF: Really, how there aren’t that many teams that protection-planned against them that well. They don’t have that many sacks but they have brought constant pressure that has forced [bad] throws. It has allowed them to be the No. 1 in pass defense.

Every team we have dissected, we have never seen any of these blitzes [that the Jets run]. They overload and mix up the coverages.

We’ll have to mix up the cadence [of the snap counts] to see if they give it away or maybe try to quick-count them to keep them off balance. I hope it works out. I think we have a good protection plan for them.

AS: Weren’t you thinking you were going to be drafted by the Jets? Is there any revenge factor there?

JF: (Busts out laughing). I had a lot of thoughts about the draft. You never know with the draft. Anything can happen.

No [no revenge]. The Jets interviewed me and worked me out. I really enjoyed the coaching staff but I really didn’t know how [the draft] would work out.

No, no revenge. I wish them well when they don’t play us.

RG: What’s the feeling on the Bucs for the next four weeks.

JF: We want to win four games. There have been quite a few games where we should have won but for whatever reason didn’t come out with a victory. No one is hanging their head. No one is wishing the season is ending.

The offensive line, they want to win. We feel we can compete with anyone. We just have to put it together. We have not lost the competitive drive. We still have the fire.

AS: You and Kellen Winslow have a nice relationship. Is that accurate and why is he a good target?

JF: you can say that. Kellen has taken me under his wing as a little brother. He did a lot to help me, telling me about the mistakes he made as a young player and he is really smart. He understands coverages. He has helped me on the football end of and off the field with life’s aspects.

It’s almost unfair to have him. He’s a combo receiver and tight end. He creates mismatches. Some teams put a corner on him which means one less corner for Antonio Bryant or Sammie Stroughter.

Against the Packers, they were in a nickel and put Charles Woodson on him and when they weren’t in a nickel they put A.J. Hawk on him. I think he disrupted them.

RG: I was watching a third down blitz reel for the Jets. It’s lengthy.

JF: That’s for sure. They have a lot of looks. We put together their blitz coverages, the nickel blitzes, their base blitzes. We had their third down blitzes cut up and they had 163 different blitzes.
They blitz heavy, like 20 snaps a game. That is bringing it. They do a good job of disguising it. You never know where they are coming from.

With the exception of Rachel Watson, nothing gets Joe worked up more than seeing an angry Bucs offensive lineman work over the defense.

At times, that’s Bucs right tackle Jeremy Trueblood. Sadly, Dunderhead comes with a lot of baggage.

If he isn’t making moronic personal fouls, Dunderhead is making idiotic penalties, as documented by Vacation Man of BSPN.com.

Tampa Bay offensive tackle Jeremy Trueblood says he needs to play with more controlled intensity after costing the Bucs with an unnecessary roughness penalty in Sunday’s loss. While he’s at it, Trueblood might want to work on cutting down his false starts. He has seven of them and is tied for the league lead.

Leads the league in false starts! That’s absolutely inexcusable to Joe. There is no more simple thing in football than knowing the snap count. It’s the most basic of football skills. And Dunderhead can’t seem to handle that.

Between the false starts and moron personal fouls, Joe has to wonder where the hell this guy’s head is?

Ex-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.

It is easy for anyone, even those that did not see the Bucs-Carolina game at all, to stand around the water cooler at work (if you are blessed enough to be employed) or comment on your favorite website that Josh Freeman played terribly in his FIVE interception game last Sunday.

Freeman’s performance is one of the reasons players and coaches often say that they need to look at the film before a final assessment is made. 

IN THE FILM ROOM, I DON’T THINK FREEMAN GOT A POOR OVERALL GRADE FOR HIS DAY SUNDAY!

This just in. After another look, Freeman had a very good day, very good.

Did he throw his interceptions? Yes.

Did he throw a perfect touchdown pass to Kellen Winslow? Yes.

If I was the QB, I would have a big issue with Winslow’s effort at that pass in the end zone. He had a defender not looking at the ball and should have planted and caught it at a higher point over safety Charles Godfrey’s head, then the two options are TD catch or pass interference, ball at the 1 yard line.  A better effort ties the game and puts Freeman in a different position the rest of the way.

His interceptions were as follows:

1. Bad pass to Sammy Stroughter on a dig route.  Maybe Stroughter could have come out of his break a little quicker, but the ball sailed high regardless.
2. The first Beason INT was a play similar to the Super Bowl interception by Steelers’ LB James Harrison before halftime. The LB squats near the line of scrimmage and bounces back just in time to snatch it. Future Hall of Fame QB Kurt Warner got caught, so did rookie QB Josh Freeman.
3.  The second Beason INT was another bad pass, with a bad decision, as well. The ball was so underthrown, the LB way in front of the play caught it, but even if it was at his target, it would have been intercepted by the DB. He forced that one, no doubt, but didn’t see any others.
4.  This one was similar to his first, sailed on him in the middle of the field.
5. The final INT was an ill-advised choice to go for it on fourth down from the four after running on 3rd-and-5 from the five yard line. John Lynch made the point of the poor decision on the FOX broadcast. Nonetheless, after looking all over the field, Freeman finally let it go to his tallest receiver and the defender came back to the ball better than the receiver.
 
The only one that gets much criticism is the second Beason INT.  This was a bad decision and a bad throw. The others have to be measured against so many throws with “pinpoint” accuracy and his ability to avoid pressure and get rid of the ball. 

This game could have been changed significantly by sideline decisions, including taking a timeout on 3rd-and-1 in the red zone (where Caddy picked it up).
 
Josh Freeman doesn’t need to “overcome” this “horrible” outing. Freeman was relatively impressive again.

Go back and watch it again if you don’t believe me.

Capt. Lou Albano's in-your-face style has the Jets defense playing solid.

The Bucs aren’t exactly a juggernaut offensively, though they did rack up 469 yards of offense last week at Carolina.

Still, despite roling up the fifth-most yards in a game in franchise history, the Bucs had just two measly field goals to show for it.

It’s one thing to hammer the defense of the Panthers, who are a shell of their former selves this season. It will be quite another to do much against the Jets.

When the Jets hired Capt. Lou Albano as their new coach, unloading a clown only Chucky could love, Albano promised to bring his punishing, take-no-prisoners defensive style with him.

So far, promise kept so claims Mark Cannizzaro of the New York Post.

Twelve games into Ryan’s first season, the results have been rather good on defense. And, a hallmark of that success has been Ryan’s uncanny ability to make effective, sometimes game-changing, in-game adjustments on the fly.

This was always one of the things that separated Bill Belichick from his peers, and it’s what separates Ryan from the rest.

“Coach (Ryan) is not going to let you do the same thing to him twice and hurt him,” said defensive end Marques Douglas, one of the former Ravens Ryan brought with him to the Jets. “He’s seen it all. When you think you’re getting over on him he can tweak something that’s so simple that he’ll shut down your run the rest of the day.”

If the Bucs hope to get any offense this Sunday, throwing three picks in the red zone just won’t cut it.

The Dean of Tampa Bay sports radio, Steve Duemig, is enjoying some vacation time today but will return to the 620 WDAE-AM airwaves tomorrow.

His fill-in today is Rock Riley, the guy who chased Jim Bates with a microphone in a fast-food restaurant parking lot while the Bucs were practicing and management was saying Bates was still in the mix.

For Joe, it was Riley’s finest hour.

Don’t deny it: You love her; Joe loves her.

“Her” is the gorgeous Jenny Dell of BSPN. As she is wont to do, Jenny offers up her weekly breakdown of an upcoming Bucs game, this time the Jets and the Bucs.

Enjoy!

Helmet-wielding, alleged cabbie-slugging, coach-cussing, stud cover cornerback Aqib Talib returned to practice on Wednesday after missing time and Sunday’s game with a bad hamstring.

Mr. Talib is likely to play against the Jets on Sunday. But he seems to have no plans to throw on his best suit and wheel and deal in a Pinellas County courtroom on Monday morning.

This week Talib and his legal team filed a waiver of appearance for Talib at his pretrial hearing scheduled for Monday, per court documents.

The hearing is the next step in the State vs. Talib, in which the Bucs’ “wild child” is charged with misdemeanor battery for allegedly belting a cab driver in the back of the head while the cabbie drove him, Torrie Cox and Angelo Crowell back to the Bucs’ training camp hotel on Aug. 18.

Often at pre-trial hearings for misdemeanor cases, plea bargains are worked out and the defendant can enter a plea before the judge and be sentenced immediately.

So it seems that Team Talib isn’t interested in making a deal.

Joe will bring you more analysis of Talib’s case in the coming days.

Now the folks at BSPN are pretty good when it comes to stats.

They’ve got rooms full of young gremlins charting everything one could imagine. Many of these gremlins are naughty interns, but that’s another story.

Pat “Vacation Man” Yasinskas, of BSPN, their resident NFC South reporter, tapped the stats gremlins to get their data on wide receiver production in the division.

Guess who’s bringing up the rear. That would be Michael Clayton.

This comes from ESPN’s Stats & Information. Out of 109 receivers charted by our stats people, Meachem ranks No. 6 in the league with a 76.3 catch percentage. What that means is Meachem has been targeted 38 times and has 29 catches. He also doesn’t have a drop this season.

That’s by far the best catch percentage in the NFC South. Here’s a list of the NFC South receivers on that list:

Hands Team

Receiver	Targets	Catches	Drops	Percentage
Robert Meachem	38	29	0	76.3
Devery Henderson	59	40	3	67.8
Marques Colston	80	50	5	62.5
Michael Jenkins	65	40	4	61.5
Muhsin Muhammad	64	38	2	59.4
Maurice Stovall	33	18	0	54.5
Roddy White	124	65	4	52.4
Sammie Stroughter	52	27	2	51.9
Steve Smith	100	49	4	49.0
Dwayne Jarrett	25	12	0	48.0
Antonio Bryant	58	27	5	46.6
Michael Clayton	43	14	4	32.6

A news lowlight during a quiet Wednesday at One Buc Place yesterday was Clayton telling the media he’s hopeful about returning from his knee injury on Sunday against the New York Jets.

Please, Michael, take your time. We’ll be OK without you.

Joe believes Jets rookie quarterback "Sanchise" will find a way to pass the time Sunday since he's been benched.

Bucs rookie quarterback Josh Freeman and Jets rookie quarterback “Sanchise” (along with Lions rookie quarterback Matt Stafford) are all joined at the hip.

Given the fact all three were drafted in the same round (first) in the same draft (2009), the three will be forever linked in NFL history and judged against each other.

Though it’s very early in all three careers, one could suggest that Freeman has the early lead as the better of the three.

With a chance to face off against one of his fellow first-round picks Sunday, well, Freeman will have to wait as Jets coach Capt. Lou Albano decided to bench Sanchise to allegedly rest his sore right knee.

Jets beat reporter Mark Cannzzaro of the New York Post claims Sanchise is more than upset at missing a chance to one-up Freeman.

Rex Ryan described Mark Sanchez as “mad as a hornet’’ at him when he informed his rookie quarterback today that he wouldn’t be playing against the Buccaneers on Sunday in order to rest his injured right knee.

“That sounds about right,’’ Sanchez said tersely.

Since Sanchez suffered a slight tear of the posterior cruciate ligament in his right knee last Thursday, Ryan has been saying he was “optimistic’’ Sanchez would be able to play this week.

Asked today if that was the vibe he was getting from Ryan, Sanchez, who was informed of Ryan’s decision to start Kellen Clemens after today’s practice, said, “Sure … I was planning on playing.’’

“It’s disappointing,’’ Sanchez said. “I’m pretty upset about it. I understand he wants to make the right decision for me, but it’s just a frustrating part of this game. I asked him if I could at least try to practice (Thursday) and he said, ‘No way,’ because he said, ‘I know if you practice (Thursday) you’re going to play, and we don’t want to run any risk of further injury.’”

If there is one thing that bothers Joe about Sanchise getting benched, it is that, like Freeman, he has turned into an interception machine. In Joe’s eyes, that means Kellen Clemens starting is actually bad news for the Bucs.

Former Bucs defensive end Steve White isn’t just all about breaking down the defensive line play for JoeBucsFan.com readers every week.

He treats his own blog audience to Xs and Os and solid takes on everthing Bucs and more.

Today, White delivers his Good, Bad and Ugly picks for the Bucs against the Panthers. Greg Olson is among the “Bad.”

….Because the perception is that the coaching staff will rise and fall with Freeman’s performance the pressure is there to showcase him so to speak. The problem of course is that he is still a rookie and he is still going to be prone to making mistakes.

It’s precisely for that reason that you run the ball, particularly in the redzone, to take pressure off the guy. What you DON’T do is line up in shotgun on first down at the 20 or closer and try to chunk the ball around. For anybody reading this that ever wants to go into coaching, pay close attention to what I am about to say. If you want your redzone percentage to be close to 100% RUN THE GOT DAMN BALL IN THE REDZONE! And it wasn’t just that we didn’t run the ball, it was also that our power 0/counter play to our right with Jeremy Zuttah pulling play side was friggin killing the Panthers all day. Hell I am not sure that we got less than 3 yards on that play all day. Yet we get close to the endzone and instead of running the play that evidently the Panthers just can’t stop, we keep running slants and having Freeman throw into traffic where he tends to have problems as any rookie quarterback would.

White’s got many other takes and a chalkboard look at a play that hurt the Bucs defense Sunday. Joe recommends you check it out.