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.

Come back Thursday to read Joe's interview with Lee Roy Selmon

Joe was treated yesterday to a man-to-man chat with Buccaneers legend, Hall of Famer and restaurateur Lee Roy Selmon.

What an honor!

Tomorrow, JoeBucsFan.com readers, and those of BucsCountry.com, will be treated to the first of a two-part interview with Selmon.

He spoke about the current Bucs, his induction into the Ring of Honor versus the Krewe of Honor back in Hugh Culverhouse’s day, his personal sports interests, Lee Roy Selmon’s and more.

Raheem The Dream is enjoying the extra control that comes with being head coach and the Bucs new defensive coordinator.

Speaking on his coach’s show Monday night on 620 WDAE-AM, a caller asked Raheem The Dream about how he would pick a defensive coordinator next season and whether the current style of Bucs defense would definitely continue.

Raheem The Dream said he’s liking the results on defense since he defrocked Jim Bates and he’s not so sure he wants another cook in his defensive stew next year.

“I’ve really taken the joystick sort of speak and being able to control what we do on defense. And mix some Tampa 2 in there and also have some stuff that [Jim] Bates was doing here with us that I thought was pretty good, and also mix a little bit of my own personality and some stuff that I like to do and some of the stuff I like to try,” Raheem The Dream said. “You talk about that right end position with Stylez White and Tim Crowder over there splitting time. You’re talking about an animal with nine sacks. You’re talking about an animal with 70+ tackles. And you’re talking about an animal with, you know, a lot of quarterback pressures, 30 or so quarterback pressures.

“That’s something that you hold on. That’s something you build on. You get some of those guys. You may add some other guys with them. And you go out there and you compete.

“I don’t know if I’m ready to give the joystick back yet. I have to wait until I finish these next four games. And go into, you know, the off-field studies and the off-field meetings, and get with my coaches and get with my compadre here, Mark Dominik, and figure out where we want to go. I’m kind of liking having control a little bit right now. We’ll have to go out and see.”

Joe’s all in favor of Raheem The Dream remaining defensive coordinator, especially since he and Dominik have proven to have legendary ineptitude when it comes to choosing one.

Joe also finds it just a bit comical that Raheem The Dream is liking his “joystick” right now, considering many fans have accused him of playing Madden with his various go-for-it calls on fourth down.

“The Professor,” John Clayton of BSPN, talks about the problems that both Bucs quarterback Josh Freeman and head coach Raheem the Dream face.

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.

Josh Freeman had his worst day as a pro Sunday. The other rookie QB’s this year have also had similar days, so it’s just a bump in the road on Freeman’s journey to reach his vast potential.

Most seem to be enamored with his “unflappable” demeanor, handling things in a very even-keeled manner as he grows up as a quarterback and begins to define his career path.

Raheem Morris’ career path is tied tightly to his big, young “gun,” but also to his defense’s performance and most importantly to his decision-making as head coach.

These decisions include coaching staff management, roster management, in-game decisions (e.g. challenges, time-outs, fourth-down calls, going for field goals vs. touchdowns or point-differential decisions). At this point in his first season, Morris has a failing grade on all of the above and doesn’t seem to be getting much better as the season progresses.

Sunday against Carolina, the Bucs were goal-to-go on third down from the 5-yard line. This is an obvious passing situation or possibly a QB draw. But the Bucs ran off-tackle from a standard two-back set and got a yard.

On fourth down from the 4-yard line (with nearly 10 minutes left in the game and a chance to cut the lead to one score) Morris chose to “go for it,” which he usually does. That was a point-differential decision that I didn’t like and that goes against traditional NFL decision-making.

With that much time on the clock, making it a one-score game was more important than the TD. The fourth down try didn’t work and kept the Bucs two scores away the rest of the day. If they had kicked the field goal, any single play could have tied the game or given Morris the chance to be “GoForIt” Raheem and go for the win with a two-point try. He never got that chance because of the earlier choice.

There are plenty of other examples of decisions, management issues, roster issues (where is Byron Leftwich, the season’s starter? Did he really hurt his elbow?), challenges, etc., that bring a cloud of questions to his abilities, but we can all make a full season evaluation in just a few short weeks.

Gruden was 0-4 last December with Derrick Brooks and others, so let’s just focus on decisions and managment issues vs. wins after this season.

Remember that 66-yard bomb to Steve Smith on Sunday?

Smith beat Elbert Mack late in the game to help the Panthers seal the game.

It looked like Smith simply beat Mack in one-on-one coverage. Bucs beat writer Stephen Holder, of the St. Pete Times, even reported it was one-on-one coverage. But it wasn’t.

Raheem The Dream himself chuckled on Monday when Buccaneers Radio Network host T.J. Rives suggested Sabby Piscitelli made a great play to tackle Smith and save a touchdown.

Per Raheem The Dream, Piscitelli was supposed to be in double coverage on Smith and should have been there in the first place. “You know we had the double of Steve [Smith], you know so Sabby kind of should have been over there a little bit.” Morris said while chuckling.

Joe continues to be amazed how inconsistent Piscitelli is. This is his first healthy season as a starter, and he just isn’t improving.

"G-dammit Don Banks, can't you do a little research before you write such a sloppy column, Jimminy Christmas!"

Sports Illustrated is running a package of stories about the best (fill in the blank) of the NFL for the decade of aughts in the 21st Century.

Among the many elements former Bucs beat writer and current SI.com columnist Don Banks has listed are the top 10 NFL trades this decade. He has the Glazer Family’s acquisition of Chucky as the No. 3 trade of the decade.

Not content to field a perennial playoff team that habitually came up short once January arrived, Bucs owners Bryan and Joel Glazer fired beloved coach Tony Dungy and went looking for a replacement in January 2002. After fits and starts lasting almost two months, the Tampa Bay coaching search eventually turned toward Gruden, who had led Oakland to three straight playoff trips in four seasons. The Bucs sent a pirate’s treasure to the Raiders in exchange for Gruden, but the move quickly paid off big time when he led the team Dungy had built to the franchise’s only Super Bowl title, in January 2003.

Joe can’t quibble with the selection but Joe is aghast that a highly respected NFL reporter like Banks would parrot such nonsense that far too many Dungyphiles regurgitate: that Chucky won with Father Dungy’s team.

That cannot be further from the truth.

The Bucs had five starters on offense that season that never took one snap for the Bucs with Father Dungy as a coach, including the Bucs leading rusher (Michael Pittman), No. 2 receiver (Keenan McCardell) and No. 3 receiver/tight end (Ken Dilger).

Additionally, the left side of the offensive line were first-time Bucs that year: Roman Oben and Kerry Jenkins.

How can anyone claim this was Father Dungy’s team when virtually half of the starting offense never played for Father Dungy?

Also, Joe heard Monte Kiffin himself say that he used a blitz package that season that when Father Dungy was with the Bucs, he wouldn’t allow Kiffin to use. Yet with Chucky as coach, Chucky encouraged Kiffin to use this technique.

The 2002 Bucs defense was one of the NFL’s greatest.

It disturbs Joe a great deal when casual Bucs fans claim Chucky won with Father Dungy’s players. But for an otherwise respected sports journalist to type such garbage is nothing less than shameful.

Come on Banks, you of all people are better than that!

Joe was sad to learn about Peanut Smith getting a second concussion (both against the Panthers no less) and being placed on injured reserve. Joe just learned via a text message he received from the Bucs.

The good news is that Kareem Huggins was promoted from the practice squad and is now on the Bucs’ active roster.

Joe wrote a story about Huggins for his hometown paper (he played for the same college as Raheem the Dream, Hofstra). Huggins is a real good guy, a smart guy, who has worked his rear end off for a couple of years and bounced around in order to try to land on an NFL roster.

He finally has reached his goal; three years of hard work and battling through injuries has paid off.

Joe is sad for Peanut,but happy for Huggins.

Longtime Sports Illustrated scribe Peter King has put together a list for an NFL All-Decade team. Seems like just yesterday Joe was concerned the world would shut down due to Y2K.

At any rate, there is only one Bucs player that made the list. It wasn’t Warren Sapp, it wasn’t John Lynch, it wasn’t Mike Alstott, it wasn’t Meshawn Johnson.

The lone Bucs player on King’s All-Decade team is Mr. Derrick Brooks.

“The one edge no one will ever have over me is the mental edge of knowing players,” Brooks said last year when he painstakingly went over video of Adrian Peterson while showing me how he prepared for games. He watched how runners planted their feet and turned and how they deked so nothing would surprise him on game day. It helped him catch Peterson — and stun Peterson — on a pass out of the backfield in a Bucs-Vikings game.

Damn, the Bucs miss him. And so does Joe.

Former Bucs great John Lynch and Fox play-by-play man Ron Pitts take a last look at what went wrong for the Bucs in Carolina Sunday.

<a href="http://video.msn.com/?mkt=en-us&#038;brand=foxsports&#038;playlist=videoByUuids:uuids:6fd92171-5b98-4e2f-a7ba-959d67736ac7&#038;showPlaylist=true&#038;from=IV2_en-us_foxsports_videosearch&#038;fg=everyzing" target="_new" title="NFL on FOX: Panthers bounce Bucs">Video: NFL on FOX: Panthers bounce Bucs</a>

Joe’s friend and colleague Anwar Richardson, a Bucs beat writer for The Tampa Tribune, believes Greg Olson’s job security as Bucs offensive coordinator is hardly rock solid.

In a Q & A on TBO.com, Richardson says he’s sure the Bucs will consider Charlie Weis, the former Patriots and Jets offensive coordinator and Notre Dame head coach, for the position.

Q: With the recent firing of Charlie Weis is there any slight chance the Bucs would bring him in as the offensive coordinator in 2010?

Lee Jones, Jacksonville, NC

A: I’m sure it’s an option Tampa Bay will look into. Lets be honest, the Bucs didn’t even interview Greg Olson when they were working for an offensive coordinator earlier this year. Charlie Weis worked with Tom Brady and it would be interesting to see what he could do with Josh Freeman. Considering Tampa Bay’s offense is not a juggernaut this year, it’s a move the team should consider.

— Anwar Richardson

While talk of Charlie Weis inevitably evokes the name Tom Brady as an example of someone he developed. Joe also is impressed by Weis’ track record of versatility. 

In his first season with 35-year-old Vinny Testaverde and the Jets, Weis helped turn Testaverde into a world beater who took his team to the AFC Championship. Then Weis followed that up the following year by devising a gameplan on the fly for mobile, inexperienced backup quarterback Ray Lucas — who went 6-3 in his starts and completed 59 percent of his passes — after Testaverde was hurt.

Joe hopes the Bucs take a long look at Weis.

Although Joe would be a little nervous about bringing in an offensive coordinator who has eight-figures guaranteed from Notre Dame and could walk at any moment and never look back.

It’s easy to understand how a quarterback can get rattled after throwing five picks.

It’s even easier to understand how a team can get frustrated with a quarterback throwing five picks, especially in a game where the defense held the opposition to 16 points and the offense racked up 469 yards of offense.

But neither is the case with the Bucs after rookie quarterback Josh Freeman tossed five interceptions. That’s the word via Rick Brown, aka “Backwards Hat,” of the Lakeland Ledger.

Some of the interceptions are bad luck. On one of Jon Beason’s picks, he actually was fooled on the play-action fake and ran up but was able to hustle back and make a great leaping grab.

Some of it is believing in his own ability. Freeman’s attempted throw to Maurice Stovall, who was his last option, was picked off by Chris Harris, where he tried to jam the ball to the receiver.

Some of it is being an inch or two off.

Whatever the case, the Bucs feel Freeman is going to be just fine.

“I’ve been around long enough to work with quarterbacks and I know this kid is going to be a good player,” said center Jeff Faine. “He needs a whole season to work with his wide receivers to know exactly how to throw in certain situations (and) defensive coverages. He’s going to make mistakes. He has composure and he’s really good mentally. I’m looking forward to the future with him. It’s him growing up, right in front of our eyes.”

What happens the rest of the season with Freeman will be quite telling for Joe. Freeman has thrown eight interceptions in his last three games. Joe wonders if teams now have enough tape on Freeman that they have a book on him, hence his recent troubles?

The Football Moron of BSPN talks about how the Jets will run all over the Bucs.

Joe noted yesterday that he saw quite a few positive things out of the Bucs loss to the Panthers.

No, throwing five picks is not among the positive things. But consider:

* The Bucs racked up 469 yards of offense. Not too shabby… if you are able to put the ball in the end zone.

* After a dismal first quarter, the Bucs’ defense buckled down and held the Panthers to just one field goal in the third and fourth quarters each. That’s solid footall.

* Also, for the second straight game, the Bucs have held their opponents to less than 25 points, something that didn’t happen for six straight games. This rebound began when Raheem the Dream took over the defense.

The improvements are not lost on the Bucs, as documented by Woody Cummings of the Tampa Tribune.

For weeks Mondays at One Buc Place were downright painful. They still sting quite a bit, but the sting isn’t quite as bad as it once was.

Improvement will do that. It will take some of the sting out of the Monday routine, and in recent weeks the Bucs have shown some incremental signs of improvement.

Though they still aren’t winning, the Bucs have been moving the ball better and stopping it faster and as a result they’ve been staying alive in games a lot longer – in most cases, right to the end.

Baby steps. Baby steps. Now if the Bucs don’t screw up and win a couple of games, Joe can see Ndamukong Suh in pewter and red. What a beast that guy is.

If Joe were to grade the Bucs in their loss to the Panthers, he would give the Bucs a “C.” The Bucs, with the exception of five interceptions, played well.

But Joe is not Pete Prisco of CBSSports.com. Prisco graded the Bucs out with a C- for the loss.

Josh Freeman moved the ball, but he made some bad decisions inside the 20. Five interceptions is a lot to overcome for a young passer. The defense actually played a decent game to keep the Bucs around.

Joe believes that in Sunday’s loss, that was the best the team had played all year outside of the win over Green Bay.

Joe’s hiring. Feel free to e-mail Joe at joe@joebucsfan.com for details.

Former Bucs DE Steve White

By STEVE WHITE
JoeBucsFan.com analyst

Steve White spent every season of the Tony Dungy era playing defensive end for the Bucs. He’s spent countless hours in the film room with the likes of Warren Sapp, Rod Marinelli and more. Joe is humbled to now have White, also a published author and blogger, as part of the JoeBucsFan.com team. Below is White’s weekly Bull Rush column that breaks down all things defensive line. It’s simply a can’t-miss read for the hardcore Bucs fan.

Same song, different day.

With the Carolina Panthers missing their starting quarterback and starting running back along with one of their starting offensive linemen, I had this crazy idea that we might actually win this game. What in the hell was I thinking?

Now to be sure it wasn’t quite all the defense’s fault. After all, if you just look at the stat sheet it doesn’t look so bad. We only gave up 16 points. The Carolina offense had a little over 300 yards total, which isn’t great but better than what we had been averaging earlier in the year. And, of course, we know the offense turned the ball over four times in the redzone.

Blah Blah Blah.

The truth is this, if they don’t score they don’t win, and that has to be our defense’s mindset at this point.

We came out flat in the first half and the Panthers’ offense moved the ball up and down the field at will because of it.

When we weren’t missing tackles, we weren’t fitting up in our gaps. When we weren’t doing a sorry job of defending the run, we were giving backup QB Matt Moore all day to throw on play-action pass. I mean seriously, how in the hell does Matt Moore complete 70 percent of his passes on our defenses, including a bomb to Steve Smith in the second half to for all intents and purposes seal the deal?

But hey, this is supposed to be a post about the defensive line so I will confine my critique there.

First of all, Chris Hovan did not have a good day. He missed a tackle on Jonathan Stewart at the line of scrimmage that ended up being a 28 yard run.

Hovan also got out of his gap earlier in the game on a counter play where he crossed the guards face and Stewart cut back where he was supposed to be and gained 11 yards on 2nd-and-3. He was ok on the run other than those two plays, but where he was very average was his pass rush. Now all year I have said that the guy getting the most consistent pressure inside has been Hovan, but yesterday we didn’t get a lot out of him in that regard.

Trampling the run on the way to the pass

The truth is, we didn’t get a lot of pass rush yesterday from anybody on the defensive line. We had a few hurries and we got one sack on a play when Tim Crowder simply wasn’t blocked, but for the most part our guys were hesitating instead of creating.

Now I am not willing to make any excuses at all, but if they are still stuck in that wait-and-see approach of the Jim Bates scheme, then they need to get that out of their mind. Whether its run or pass in our one-gap scheme, you have to get off the ball and get up the field. We used to call it trampling the run on the way to the pass.

Instead, way too many times all of our guys are coming off looking in the backfield waiting to see if it’s draw or pass and then trying to speed up into a pass rush after they see the quarterback still has the ball.

Even in the run game at times you see defensive linemen peeking inside, only to see Stewart bounce it outside where they are supposed to be and getting positive yardage. I realize there isn’t a playoff berth or anything like that to play for right now, but hell, at least play for pride and stay in your own damn gap!

Missing run blitzes on first and second downs

Second of all, it was very disappointing that Roy Miller and Michael Bennett were both out with injuries. This was exactly the kind of game that it would have been helpful to use to evaluate those two guys. Instead, Kyle Moore and Dre Moore got their reps and neither guy was especially impressive. But then again, who was yesterday?

On the coaching side of things, I liked the fact that we went to a six-man line on the goal line, but I didn’t like the way the guys were lined up. You need a big guy on the end of the line to keep all runs inside and to be able to rush the passer. You also need at least three linebackers off the line to cover the remaining gaps. Otherwise, as we saw yesterday, when you only have two linebackers they both end up going to lateral instead of downhill and by the time they get to the ball carrier they aren’t able to change his momentum.

What I didn’t like was that we didn’t run blitz enough on first and second down, and the blitzes we did run didn’t make a lot of sense to me.

For years and years we have run what was called a “bark” or a “frisco” run blitz which consisted of a zone blitz with an outside backer and the middle backer blitzing one side of the line and a defensive end slanting all the way inside to the A-gap. The nosetackle cross-faces the center, the 3-technique tackle gets upfield in the B-gap then loops outside to the C-gap for contain. And the other defensive end has a drop.

Not only are these two blitzes good ways to get in the backfield and screw up blocking schemes against the run, they are also great ways to get pressure on a quarterback should they go play-action pass.

For whatever reason we haven’t run these zone blitzes in the last two games, yet they were a staple of our defense for years and years.

And to be honest with you, several of the blitzes we HAVE run haven’t really made much sense to me nor have been gap-sound. Too many times yesterday our defense was lined up just like they would be on a chalkboard, and without having any movement we made it relatively easy for the Panthers to know their blocking assignments.

Like I wrote a few weeks ago, our defensive personnel right now is built to play 3rd-and-long. If we aren’t getting teams in 3rd-and-long situations, then we are usually going to get in trouble. Running these zone blitzes can help get us in our most favorable situations, and hopefully Coach Morris realizes that and starts putting them back in the game plan.

Another game, another loss and it’s getting harder and harder to watch these games.

But I am going to hang in there for the rest of the season if for no other reason than sick curiosity, and I hope you will, too.

Raheem The Dream says his postgame "handshakes across the field are getting easier." Joe suspects postgame handshakes for Joel Glazer are getting more painful.

For months Joe has advised Raheem The Dream to stop talking so much. He needs to realize that making sense to the media is not his strength.

Just recognize it and clam up, coach. It’s for your own good. Joe is trying to help.

For example, today Raheem The Dream tried to explain that losing lately is a little easier to tolerate because his team is improving.

“Handshakes across the field are getting easier,” Raheem The Dream said, referring to his team being more competitive. [Opposing coaches] understand. …[And the Bucs’ players,] they know. They got a feeling.”

Sorry, coach. This is ridiculous, although Joe understands what you’re trying to spit out.

Joe could understand if Raheem The Dream busted out this kind of moral victory garbage after the Bucs, say, lost to the Saints in overtime or played New England to the wire in London. 

But these Bucs just choked away two games to non-playoff teams starting backup quarterbacks. Those postgame “handshakes” should have been the most painful of Raheem The Dream’s career, not “easier.”

Former Bucs DE Steve White

If you haven’t read former Bucs defensive end Steve White’s weekly Bull Rush columns on JoeBucsFan.com, you are just not the football savvy Bucs fan you think you are.

White’s Bucs takes and Xs and Os are razor sharp.

It might be time to catch up now before White’s latest column is posted tonight or tomorrow. Whatever you do, check back to JoeBucsFan.com later. You’ll be glad you did.

Joe had a great laugh during Raheem The Dream’s news conference this afternoon.

The head coach dropped a gem sure to evoke Amen head nods from the legions of Michael Clayton bashers, aka Bucs fans who expect a well paid veteran wide receiver to catch the ball.

Before the priceless quote, Raheem The Dream was asked about starting Maurice Stovall over the struggling Clayton when Clayton returns from injury (presumably next week next week or the week after). 

Raheem The Dream was, of course, non-commital but quick to defend Clayton.

“Clayton’s probably dropped as many balls as Stovall,” Raheem The Dream said.

That got a chuckle from Joe, but the big laugh came a few moments later when Raheem the Dream explained Stovall and Clayton have been sharing practice reps for a while.

“I think Michael Clayton’s a better player when he plays less snaps,” Raheem The Dream said before explaining that Clayton gets worn out from blocking.

Thanks for the laugh, Rah. Joe agrees that less Clayton is a good thing.

Hey, remember me, Lou? Yeah, I know, it’s been a while since I stuck my snout and my wet nose around here. Long time, no smell.

Things have been up and down between me and Joe lately. When the Bolts lost to the Devils, Joe was mad at me because I kept barking at the idiot referees. I don’t watch the Bolts just to see those damned zebras.

Joe was upset with me that night because I wanted to bite Matthew Corrente so bad I was snapping at the TV screen. Joe doesn’t like it when I fog up his HDTV flatscreen.

Saturday night was way cool watching Smitty get a shutout and Victor Hedman get his first NHL goal. Joe was so happy with the win he took me out for a late night walk that got ugly.

Joe forgot to take off my Bolts sweater. So when I went to fertilize a tree, I wet all over myself. What am I supposed to do, I don’t have arms and hands? I can’t pull the sweater up so I can take care of my business!

Joe can be such a dumbass at times! Well, I got him back. He’s still looking for one of his dress shoes!

Anyway, if you want to read my barks about the Bolts game tonight, and the rest of the season, you can find me on Twitter at ThunderPuppyLou.

Well, time to take my afternoon nap. I have to be rested to watch the Bolts tonight take on Alex Ovechkin and the Capitals. I hope the Bolts can prevent Ovechkin from pulling another Jimi Hendrix stunt like he did last spring. So make sure to visit JoeBoltsFan.com for your Bolts coverage

See ya!