Joe is known to frequent a watering hole a short walking distance from his abode for Monday Night Football.

Virtually every person, including the manager of said establishment (named for a certain very famous Bucs player — Joe knows executives of said establishment read Joe, so let’s talk turkey and Joe will pimp your place heavily for a modest reimbursement), thought the Bucs creamsicles looked cool in person, and great in HD.

Seems quite clear Bucs fans would like to see the creamsicles again.

Seems the feeling is mutual with quite a few Bucs players not named Jeff Faine. eye-RAH! Kaufman of the Tampa Tribune documented how a number of players were fond of the creamsicles.

“I wouldn’t mind wearing them again at all,” said linebacker Geno Hayes, whose blocked punt contributed to Tampa Bay’s 38-28 triumph against Green Bay at Raymond James Stadium.

For defensive end Jimmy Wilkerson, the retro-jerseys were both comfortable and stylish.

“I like ’em,” he said. “We’ll see what they have in store for us down the line. I thought it was a good fit and the colors to me actually made it feel like a lighter weight. It was like you stepped into a secretary’s office here and saw all the pictures from the early days of the franchise. It felt like we were part of old-school Sundays.”

Joes hopes wearing the creamsicle throwbacks was not just a one-game deal, not to be brought out again for a decade. If nothing else, the Bucs cheerleaders looked especially hot in their swashbuckler attire.

It’s official! The Bucs orange uniforms helped them win.

Yes, It’s true. A group of professional football players care so much about their appearences that jersey color has an impact.

Raheem The Dream told the world this was the case during his news conference at One Buc Palace today.

“I’m thinking it was a big effect. It definitely created some excitement about the game. More people talking about how they’re going to look, how they’re going to do,” Raheem The Dream told the media with a straight face.

After this admission of the orange’s impact, Raheem The Dream shockingly said he wasn’t sure he’d try to influence his bosses to have the throwback uniforms worn again.

 “I don’t know about push to use them. I got other problems to worry about to be honest with you,” Raheem The Dream said. “I leave that to, Mark Dominik can make that decision. I leave that stuff to Mark and our ownership, and things of that nature.”

C’mon, Rah. You just said the uniforms helped. Now you don’t want to ask Dominik to use them?

Crap, you checked in with him on nearly everthing else, a fact you’ve defended on many occassions.

Man up, Rah. Get on that sideline phone as ask for orange.

It was the wiseass moment of Raheem The Dream’s news conference today at One Buc Palace. Joe would wager 10 bucks that it doesn’t find its way to the official quotes released by the team.

Reporters wanted to know how Raheem The Dream celebrated his first win as a head coach and who called to congratulate him.

The head coach said he didn’t throw any parties but did enjoy time with family take in lots of congratulatory text messages and phone calls.

“Derrick Brooks, Some of the guys you know. Warren Sapp. I took Sapp’s phone call. Because if I didn’t take his phone call, he’d yell at me,” Raheem The Dream said. “Got all the texts, responded to them about 4 o’clock this morning.”

Then someone in the throng of scribes and talking heads apparently asked Raheem The Dream if one Bill Cowher, the guy many Bucs fans fantasize will be the next Tampa Bay head coach, contacted him to send his good wishes.

Raheem The Dream replied quickly, “I didn’t get a text from Bill Cowher. No.”

Joe was really most wondering if Chucky called. After all, Raheem The Dream is the fruit ripening on Chucky’s coaching tree.

Former Bucs tight end and extremely tough critic Dave Moore said he was impressed by Josh Freeman’s “intangibles,” speaking after the game on the Buccaneers Radio Network.

Moore raved about how Freeman was “able to elude rushers and keep his eyes down the field.”

“He kept his eyes on that 2-point conversion on Michael Clayton when he easily could have pulled the ball down,” Moore said. 

Moore also said the Bucs’ two fumbled snaps were a result of an “exchange issue [from the] low stance of Jeff Faine’s squat” and Freeman’s tall stature. “That will come with comfort. It’s correctable,” Moore said. 

The exchange issue is the easiest thing for Freeman to correct. And, of course, critical to be rectified immediately.

Yesterday was a great day to be a Bucs fan. The creamsicles came back (as did the hot swashbuckler unis). Lee Roy Selmon was given a long-overdue honor of being inducted into the new ring of honor. Many Bucs alumni showed up as well.

Oh, yeah. And the Bucs won. With their rookie, first round draft pick Josh Freeman scoring three touchdowns, including two in the fourth quarter to rally from an 11-point deficit for the win.

Joe isn’t crazy enough to expect that every day from Freeman. There likely will be further peaks and valleys. Unlike the Packers, the Dolphins now have a full NFL game tape to go on.

Still, as former Bucs beat writer and current SI.com columnist Don Banks points out, Freeman’s play gives the Bucs hope in a hopeless season.

Tampa Bay isn’t going anywhere this season, but at least the Bucs now have some honest-to-goodness hope with rookie first-round quarterback Josh Freeman making some big plays in his first NFL start. After a shaky beginning, the 21-year-old Freeman — the Bucs’ youngest starting QB ever — got better as the game wore on and finished with 205 yards passing, three touchdowns and just one interception. He also showed he can make plays on the move, and wound up as Tampa Bay’s second-leading rusher with four carries for 20 yards.

For a team that has looked completely overmatched on offense this season, the dawn of the Freeman era was a start.

Granted, any prayer for a playoff spot has long since expired. Even though the Bucs may still lose a ton of games, seeing how Freeman progresses will give Bucs fans reason to turn the Bucs on each Sunday.

Watching the game from the CITS yesterday with Freeman at quarterback, Joe had the feeling that the Bucs had a shot at moving the ball.

Lost amid the giddy feeling of a Bucs win yesterday — first one in almost an entire year — may be a small fact the Bucs helped people realize: the Packers aren’t that good.

Maoist Michael Silver of Yahoo! Sports went so far as to call the Packers a “fraud,” thanks to the Bucs.

Last week, I told you the Green Bay Packers weren’t ready for prime time. On Sunday, they looked like a bunch of miscast actors on a low-rated show headed for cancellation. Playing the previously winless Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Green Bay (4-4) allowed the Bucs (1-7) to stay in the game via a blocked punt for touchdown, an 83-yard kickoff return and an Aaron Rodgers interception that set up an early TD – and, in the end, let Josh Freeman, a rookie quarterback making his first NFL start, produce the big plays in a 38-28 victory. “[Expletive] that was rough,” inside linebacker Nick Barnett(notes) wrote via text message Sunday night. Yeah it was. Conversely, it was a great day for the home team and rookie coach Raheem Morris, who got his first career victory. Wearing their retro Creamsicle jerseys, the Bucs and their frustrated fans partied like it was 1979, as they should have. The Packers, meanwhile, flew back to Titletown wondering if they can regroup, with the Cowboys coming to Lambeau Field next Sunday. This embarrassing defeat will either go down as the game that compelled the Packers to break out of their funk, or as the moment it officially sunk in that this team is a fraud.

Could the Bucs — and Freeman — maybe expose the Dolphins as a fraud this weekend as well?

One can call Joe a boring guy. He’s not into fantasy sports (Joe’s fantasies have zero to do with sports) and he doesn’t like to gamble, save for an NCAA basketball pool.

Joe is even of the mind that gambling takes away from the enjoyment of watching games, not an enhancement as some gamblers would suggest.

So the fate of gamblers is not forefront in Joe’s mind when he watches games. So Joe became curious when he began receiving frantic texts while at the CITS yesterday in the fourth quarter of the Bucs win over the Packers.

Joe has a good friend, Vitto, who is a highly successful high school football coach up north. Vitto, a hardcore football fan if there is one, is known to dabble on a weekly basis with his short-term investment broker over games.

So while Joe was at the CITS yesterday, Joe started receiving a flood of texts from Vitto early in the fourth quarter. The first raised Joe’s eyebrow:

“Is Green Bay playing that bad or is TB playing that good?”

Joe knows Vitto is a Steelers fan, so right away Joe knew Vitto had money on the game. Joe just didn’t know how much Vitto had riding on the game. Joe found out a few texts later when Vitto wrote:

“I have GB in a survivor pool for $277k. Now I am going to commit suicide.”

Browsing around the interwebs today, Joe has learned quite a few people took a bath on the Bucs, specifically those who had the Packers in a survivor pool.

While Joe is happy today, he admits he hasn’t heard from Vitto yet this morning.

The always eye-catching Jaime Hanna, "friend" of Evan Longoria, looked especially sharp in her swashbuckler attire Sunday. Joe can understand how this could move someone to streak.

Joe was geeked yesterday with the Bucs win. The creamsicles, the ceremony honoring Lee Roy Selmon and the Ring of Honor, the 1979 Bucs alumni, the hot swashbuckler unis, the field painting… oh yeah, and the win too!

Naturally, Joe was not the only one who was happy. It seems one Bucs fan may have had a few too many Caybrews and, thus, was too happy.

A Bucs fan was caught streaking at the game. Disgustingly, it was some dude, notes Kim Wilmath of the St. Petersburg Times.

Officers say he disrobed in the south end zone and jumped onto the field in a streak attempt before an officer immediately arrested him. Levengood, 33, was charged with disorderly conduct and trespassing.

Travis Levengood of Bradenton bared it all for the Bucs during Sunday afternoon’s game, but not for long, authorities say.

Wilmath goes on to write that the streaker was rewarded by police with a Bucs throwback-matching orange jail jumpsuit. He was released on $750 bond.

Just a brief update for those who share Joe’s unhealthy obsession with the NFL Draft.

Five teams, including the Bucs, are tied in the NFL cellar with 1-7 records: Cleveland, Detroit, Kansas City and the Rams are the others.

The horrendous Browns have games at Detroit and in Kansas City. Both of those contests should go a long way toward determining who gets the No. 1 pick.

St. Louis has a tough remaining schedule, as do the Bucs. The Rams’ best chances at another win seem to be a home game against Seattle and a season-ending home game against San Francisco.

Sitting with two wins are the Titans, Redskins and Raiders.

The Titans should win at least a few more games, but the Skins and Raiders are horrendous. They face off in Oakland on Dec. 13.

The Raiders also host K.C. on Sunday and head to Cleveland later in the year. The Skins have no such patsies on their remaning schedule.

While Bucs safety Sabby Piscitelli was trying to keep Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers out of the end zone, dirtbags cleaned out Piscitelli's home.

Yesterday was a great day in Tampa Bay.

Not so for Bucs safety Sabby Piscitelli.

Seems while most of the area was watching and enjoying the Bucs win over the Packers, some scumbag(s) decided to clean out Piscitelli’s home, reports Kim Wilmath of the St. Petersburg Times.

At about 2:25 p.m., someone broke into the South Tampa home of Sabby Piscitelli, a safety from Boca Raton.

A lawn crew at the house noticed the rear doors had been forced open, and told a neighbor to call police.

Officers found the home ransacked and a flat-screen TV stolen. The burglar was already gone, and no arrests have been made.

Joe hopes the jerks are caught and as a penance, have to clean Piscitelli’s bathroom for a year.

Hard to believe the Bucs could allow 404 yards to the Packers and get pounded by Green Bay in the running game, plus allow two big plays for touchdowns in passing game, yet still look like they’re improving on the defensive side of the ball.

Joe’s not sure what that all means. But it’s got to get better.

At least the Bucs had some 3-and-outs and interceptions in the second half to build on going into Sunday’s game in Miami.

The pass rush has improved for two consecutive games and more splash plays are happening. But the run defense, the linebacker play and the man coverage has to rise above the level of horrendous. Even just a little bit to spare Josh Freeman playing from a first-quarter hole every week.

Joe’s hopeful, but Miami pounds the ball big time.

The Dolphins are ranked fourth in the NFL in rushing, and they’re offensive coaches are probably salivating in the film room about now.

It seems the Packers have gained respect for Josh Freeman.

Tom Silverstein, of the Journal Sentinel, penned a story out of yesterday’s game about Freeman that included various Packers speaking well of the rookie. Those kind of comments are quite rare to dig out of a losing NFL locker room.

Joe found it quite interesting that Packers linebacker Nick Barnett said Freeman’s size makes him an immediate beneficiary of the Brady rule.

When it was over, Freeman was sacked just once.

“We had guys around him, we were doing some things,” Barnett said. “He kind of got out of the pocket and scrambled a little bit. He’s a tough guy. With the new rules you can’t knock his feet out, you have to tackle him a certain way.

“But we’ve got to make that play. . . . Personally, I think you can only take it so far running the ball as a quarterback, but this game he was able to execute and make it happen.”

Joe wants to give a belated pat on the back to the offensive line for their tremendous pass protection yesterday (minus Donald Penn putting his whole mitt on the face of that defensive end under his face mask).

Like Joe’s favorite series of TV commercials, “Messin’ with Sasquatch,” former Bucs beat writer and current SI.com columnist Don Banks thought the Bucs toying with the creamsicle uniforms would not end well.

Alas Banks, and virtually every Bucs fans, was pleasantly surprised that a rookie quarterback would rally the Bucs from an 11-point deficit in the fourth quarter for the first win of the season.

It’s the power of the creamsicle!

As one who grew up in the Tampa Bay area and suffered through the Bucs’ orange-uniform era, I’m not sure I would have messed with losing karma like that. But the Bucs trotted out the throwback creamsicle uniforms Sunday at home against Green Bay, in part to celebrate their 1979 playoff team, and it worked. They finally gave rookie head coach Raheem Morris his first NFL win, upsetting the humiliated Packers 38-28 on the strength of a 21-point fourth quarter.

Joe thought the whole scene yesterday was so cool — Joe always liked the creamsicle uniforms — that the Bucs should keep them for home games until they lose. And the creamsicles should be brought back once a year.

Cris Carter and Jon Anik of BSPN discuss the Bucs win over the Packers yesterday.

Ronde Barber established himself as a sick ball hawk in the NFL with 10 interceptions in 2001, a single-season team record that still stands.

But Joe believes Aqib Talib just might dethrone Barber this season. Halfway through the 2009 campaign, Talib has five picks.

And considering Talib is playing on a defense and a team much, much worse than that 2001 club, Joe believes him tying or breaking the record would be a bigger accomplishment than Barber had. It’s an interesting argument.

Looking back to 2001, Barber picked off young Saints quarterback Aaron Brooks three times in a late December game to jack up his total, including his one and only “pick 6” of that season. Barber also had a two-interception games against Kordell Stewart and a strong Steelers team, and two picks of Charlie Batch who was leading a then 0-8 Lions team.

Talib has yet to score this season, and he racked up a three-interception game in Washington.

Even if the Bucs had lost, Joe thought the CITS looked sharp Sunday.

The place was total throwback from the unis to the field painting to the throwback Swashbuckler uniforms to the 1970s music blaring from the public address system.

Most of the Bucs fans found some orange gear, likely dug out of their closets.

On a day that was devoted to the past — Lee Roy Selmon and the 1979 Bucs — the future of the team stole headlines: rookie quarterback Josh Freeman.

 Joe Henderson of the Tampa Tribune writes about what a neat scene it was on a warm November day.

It was all anyone could ask on a day when the Bucs improved to 1-7 and now – deep exhale – don’t have to listen to comparisons to the 2008 Detroit Lions anymore. Raheem Morris got his first win as an NFL coach.

It was pretty cool seeing Ray-Jay decked out in orange Sunday. People really did dig deep into their closets for those faux chic Buccaneer uniforms of old for the first ‘Throwback’ game in team history.

The ceremony at halftime honoring the 1979 division champion Bucs was dignified and long overdue, and if you didn’t get at least a little choked up watching the eternally classy Lee Roy Selmon become the first Buc in the new Ring of Honor then I’d gently suggest you’re overdosing on cynicism.

At one point yesterday when Freeman rolled to his left, Joe had flashbacks of Doug Williams.

Clobbered without warning to the side of the head, the unsuspecting victim was stunned and writhing in agony.

No, these words were not taken from Aqib Talib’s most recent police report. But they could be used to describe the aftermath of Donald Driver’s tackle of Talib during his third-quarter interception return against the Packers.

Talib emerged from a swarm of Bucs defenders on the goal line with the pick, his fifth of the season.

With his eyes focused downfield during the return, Talib apparently didn’t see the cab Driver, who came up and leveled Talib with a high hit that cleared out his legs.

Joe was flushed with irony.

“I’m good; just got the wind knocked out of me,” Talib told Greg Auman, of the St. Pete Times. “He asked me if I was all right.”

Talib no doubt slept well following the game, unless he was tossing and turning thinking about his arraingnment this morning at the Pinellas County courthouse.

Joe suspects this Cadillac Williams non-catch was on the perplexing swing pass call on 2nd-and-4 from the Packers' 7 after Caddy ran for six yards on first down.

Yes, Joe is happy as a clam right now. But there was still plenty that got under Joe’s skin during this game.

No. 1 on the list is the Bucs’ Chucky-like abandonment of the running game — over and over again. This Packers game was never out of reach. There was no excuse.

Joe thought today was the day to establish the run-first, play-action identity Raheem The Dream kept talking about ad nauseum for months. So what do the Bucs do with Josh Freeman on his opening drive? They open with a swing pass to Cadillac Williams that a nervous Freeman overthrows en route to a 3-and-out.

This is your identity, Rah? Your violent, smath mouth identity?

Fast forward to the Bucs driving for the winning touchdown after Michael Clayton’s deep catch at the Packers’ 13 yard line.

On first down, Cadillac Williams ran for six yards to the Packers’ 7 yard line. Then the Bucs threw the same darn swing pass to Cadillac on 2nd-and-4. Incomplete. Where the hell was another run play to take pressure off the young QB? Pound the freakin rock down there.

On third down the Bucs threw incomplete, and then Freeman and Sammie Stroughter earned hero honors with the winning touchdown.

Joe’s just praying the Bucs decide to pound the ball a bit more. It’s the answer in the long run with the talent on their roster.

Yes, Joe finally got to type “highlights” after a Bucs game rather than “lowlights.”

There’s no need to stay up until the middle of the night waiting for Bucs highlights of their first win of the season over the Packers when Joe can bring them to you, all courtesy of the good people of the NFL Network.

First are the Bucs highlights replete with the calls from Gene Deckerhoff. Second are touchdowns by Sammie Stroughter and Tanard Jackson.

Also is Josh Freeman’s first touchdown pass and his second touchdown pass.

Other highlights include Ronde Barber’s touchdown of Geno Hayes’ blocked punt and Aqib Talib’s interception. Elbert Mack also had a pickoff.

The NFL Network also highlights Clifton’s Smith’s 81-yard kickoff return and a highlight packages of Freeman’s top plays.

More: there are commments from Raheem the Dream and Freeman.

Lastly, NFL Network analysts Jamie Dukes and Tom Waddle discuss the Bucs win.