Bucs fans love Cadillac Williams, and for good reasons. Lesser men may have already been out of football after having one knee surgically rebuilt, much less two.

But Caddy has fought back from ugly injuries and sort of remade himself as a running back, certainly good enough to make an NFL roster.

But the beginning of last year showed Cadillac is no longer a go-to running back. The Bucs’ running attack was simply anemic until LeGarrette Blount burst upon the scene.

Settling into a third down/change-of-pace running back, Caddy excelled. It is for this reason that Caddy, now a free agent, is not “a top priority,” so says Super Bowl winning coach Brian Billick on FoxSports.com.

With the emergence of LeGarrette Blount, who was able to rush for a 5.0-yard average this season, the Buccaneers would be completely content with losing Williams via free agency. That’s not to say they wouldn’t like to have him back, but he definitely will not be a top priority once the signing period begins. The Rams need to add depth behind steady producer, Steven Jackson, and Williams will not demand a high price tag, which could make for the perfect storm in St. Louis.

In fact, teams in the NFL think so little of Caddy, that Billick believes there are only two teams interested in Caddy, the Bucs and the Rams.

If Caddy can be signed for the right price, Joe firmly believes Bucs rock star general manager Mark Dominik will re-sign him. But if Caddy’s agent tries to play Dominik in order to gain a payday from the Rams, well, let’s just say don’t be shocked if Caddy has already carried the ball for the last time with the Bucs.

Joe’s not on the Nnamdi Asomugha bandwagon like many other Bucs fans. Heck, a poll on this here site two weeks ago saw about 27 percent of readers claim Asomugha should be the Bucs’ No. 1 priority in free agency.

Keeping it simple, Joe believes the Bucs don’t need a cornerback, and they surely don’t need one at Asomugha’s projected $19 million price tag.

Former Bucs QB Shaun King offered a take yesterday on The King David Show on 1010 AM explaining, in part, why he has no interest in Asomugha for the Bucs.

“Worst thing you can do is pay a cornerback big money and he comes in and plays a Tampa 2,” King said.

His comments came on the heels of explaining the Bucs play “60-70 percent” Cover 2 defense at this point and Asomugha is a man-to-man specialist who hasn’t been in the Bucs’ kind of system. King added: you don’t build a defense around a cornerback.

Fans can keep dreaming. But Joe would much rather see the Bucs spend the money in other areas. Cornerback has to be a low priority.

Joe reads the comments and hears the sports radio chatter. Inevitably, when talk of the Bucs Ring of Honor comes up, left tackle Paul Gruber’s name shows up on a lot of fans’ short lists.

But former Bucs guard Ian Beckles, Gruber’s teammate in the 1990s, says Gruber is not Ring-worthy and the conversation about him should start and stop with Pro Bowl honors, so Beckles said today on the Ron and Ian Show on WDAE-AM 620.

“Whose Ring of Honor has guys in it who never made a Pro Bowl?” Beckles asked, after referring to Gruber never grabbing that honor in his 12 seasons.

Beckles went on to say the Ring should not be a nice guy competition and, if Gruber gets in, Beckles said, then Tony Mayberry has to be a lock to join him. Mayberry (1990-1999) was a Pro Bowl center in his final three seasons.

Joe’s not sold on Gruber or Mayberry, both excellent players and career Buccaneers. Plus, after the Bucs induct all the guys definitely worthy, if they continue to go one inductee per year, there should be a whole new generation of Bucs in the debate for a spot. Of course, that assumes the Raheem Morris era doesn’t crash and burn.

Joe apologizes up front if his readers do not think this is Bucs news, but it is sort of Bucs related.

We have the first casualty of the 2011 NFL season thanks to the asinine lockout. It is the annual HBO series “Hard Knocks,” which documents life in training camp for a specific team.

In answering a question from SI.com’s Jimmy Traina on Twitter, the Watchdog himself, media columnist Neil Best of Newsday, announced to Twitterverse that Hard Knocks is “dead” for this season.

@JimmyTraina: Dumb question for media people: If NFL lockout ends this week will/can HBO do ‘Hard Knocks’ or is it dead this season?

@sportswatch: Dead.

The reason why this is partially Bucs news is that, after lobbying HBO to be part of Hard Knocks, the Bucs were invited by HBO to be the subject for this season but pulled out.

Of the many reasons given was the Bucs wanted to concentrate on football without distractions, as the team would have a lot of time to make up with such a young roster thanks to the asinine lockout.

After the Bucs politely declined the offer, several NFL teams also passed, for many of the same reasons.

Now Joe hasn’t had HBO since the moment The Sopranos went dark. So it’s no hair off Joe’s behind if the Bucs were not on Hard Knocks, or for that matter that Hard Knocks is “dead” for this season. But the bummer is that the NFL Network always rebroadcasts these series later in the year.

Not this year.

Players are locked out, yet NFL commisioner/hatchetman Roger Goodell has longed claimed he’ll hold players accountable to the league conduct policy during the lockout. That means he’s crack down on alleged offenders whenever the labor mess ends.

It’s the NFL version of dumping your girlfriend and then getting mad her because she was naked in a hot tub with some dude the following night.

Months ago, after Aqib Talib was arrested, Joe talked to a Florida employment lawyer to see if such a move by the NFL could be legal. The attorney gave Joe so many annoying hypothetical scenarios, it was too much to sift through to present simply here. But the overall take from the attorney was that the league didn’t have a stong leg to stand on.

Lawyer and NFL guru Mike Florio, creator ProFootballTalk.com, dives into this point today. Florio, a master at boiling down the boring legal mess of the lockout, isn’t seeing how the NFL and the allegedly disbanded players association can get away with punishing players that stepped out of line since early March.

But we’ll have trouble understanding any understanding that allows the NFL to punish players for arrests occurring during the lockout.  Indeed, a decision by the NFLPA* to expose players retroactively to responsibility for violations of the personal conduct policy could open the door for a fairly potent lawsuit alleging breach of the duty of fair representation, which could open a fairly significant can of worms given that the labor deal will have been negotiated at a time when, technically, the NFLPA* has the power to represent no one.

Common sense applies to Florio’s take. How could the players (non) association negotiate punishments for its members when they’re not being represented? Then there’s still the matter of Goodell playing dictator when he’s closed the door on the players, who are currently without benefits and other terms of their employment.

Joe suspects the legal issues here all but seal that Talib’s situation won’t be addressed by the league until it’s resolved fully by the courts. After that happens, Goodell or the Bucs can always find some sort of loophole to punish Talib, if he doesn’t walk away cleanly from the charges.

Bucs minicamp highlights, exclusive interviews and never predictable. It’s your favorite website on video.

While quarterback Josh Freeman put up some sick numbers last year, one could make a good argument that the MVP of the Bucs was LeGarrette Blount.

Before he became a main element of the offense, the Bucs run game was pretty much impotent. The run game was so weak, that opposing defenses pretty much dared the Bucs to run and only concerned themselves with the pass.

It was no coincidence that when Blount began tearing through defenses and using linebackers and defensive backs has track hurdles, the passing game opened up big time because now defenses had to play honest.

But will Blount’s success continue to grow? That was a question posed to Pat Yasinskas of ESPN in a recent chat; Can be one of the NFL’s elite running backs given a full season?

Scott (Northglenn, CO)

From the point in the season he started playing, LaGarette Blount was the 3rd-leading rusher in the league…can he be a top 7 RB this year, or will his physical running style lend itself to injuries?

Pat Yasinskas

I like Blount and wonder what he can do over the course of a full season. But I do worry about his style of running. Those hurdles make for great highlights, but they’re also a good way to get hurt. That’s why I’d like to see some depth behind him.

Yes, hurdles look cool on TV but those leaps also open up Blount to a serious injury. There’s a reason those moves are penalties in high school football. Joe wonders if those will be outlawed as the NFLPA and the NFL owners haggled over “safety concerns” in the final stages (hopefully) of this asinine lockout.

But what has Joe concerned about Blount isn’t so much the hurdles, but the asinine lockout itself. Raheem Morris has gone on record talking about how a player makes the greatest advances and adjustments from his rookie season to his second year by working out with the team at One Buc Palace all offseason. That was lost this year for Blount and other rookies.

Joe knows there are loads of Bucs fans who would be happy to turn over the keys to the Bucs defense to rookie linebacker Mason Foster. Anything’s better than Barrett Ruud, so they would say.

While nobody’s seen Foster perform as a professional, it’s at least clear from an extensive NFL.com interview that he won’t be outworked.

In the second of a two-part conversation with Jenna Laine, Foster details his offseason preparation. Here’s a nugget outlining his eagerness to learn:

Foster: “Yeah it’s something I’ve done ever since high school. Really, [safety] Nate Webber is one of my best friends, and at the same time I’m working with him [at Washington]. It’s just something you can do -– you can do safety drills and linebacker drills easy. So I try to do a little bit of both -– back pedaling, working on my breaks, everything.

I did the same thing with the D-line when I was in college. I was trying to work on my pass rush moves so I went out there with them and tried to get some extra work in with them. But I feel like with safety drills, it’s a lot more running than at the linebacker [position] so it gets me in good shape, it helps me with my breaks, and in reading coverages. It’s something I’ve always done since high school. Just a little extra work.”

Joe suggests you soak in the entire interview. Foster explains he’s training in two-a-day sessions every weekday at the University of Washington, among other things.

Joe’s hardly advocating the Bucs stick Foster in the starting lineup, though Joe wouldn’t be stunned if Quincy Black moves on and Foster gets tossed into the fire on the strong side.

Much hand-wringing and kvetching and gnashing of teeth has taken place since troubled Bucs cornerback Aqib Talib was pinched for allegedly pistol whipping and firing a gun at a fleeing man earlier this spring in Texas.

After initial reports that Talib was a goner from the Bucs, information has trickled out little by little that the exact opposite is the case.

The latest report that Talib is safe comes from Jason La Canfora of NFL.com, who says his sources tell him that not only will Talib be on the Bucs roster through 2011, the case against him is shaky.

Soon after Talib’s arrest, reports emerged that the Bucs would release him. But according to sources, team hasn’t made a decision on the cornerback’s future and hasn’t set a timetable to do so. There’s every expectation that he’ll be with the team whenever the 2011 league year begins.

The Bucs haven’t made any recent public statements about Talib, instead deciding to wait on decisions by the courts and the NFL before making any determination about whether or not to cut ties with the No. 20 overall pick in the 2008 NFL Draft. Talib’s trial isn’t scheduled until March 2012, and sources with knowledge of the case said the level of evidence and nature of the testimony against the 25-year-old might work in his favor.

It sure helps Talib that his case won’t be heard until next season. Hard to run a guy right now when it is possible his charges could be lessened or  perhaps dropped.

Does this make Talib an angel? Of course not. He still has to face the court of Roger Goodell, who is not bound by Texas law. But it’s difficult to issue Talib a football version of a felony sentence when his criminal charge could be a misdemeanor.

In Joe’s eyes there is no better receiver in the NFL than Arizona’s Larry Fitzgerald. He demonstrates how horrid the Cardinals quarterbacks have been since Kurt Warner retired.

Fitzgerald and his acrobatic catches just fool with defensive backs. But if one is to believe numbers — and Joe knows there are a lot of statheads out there — one could make an argument Bucs receiver Mike Wiiliams is peer in the NFL.

That’s what Evan Silva suggests. The writer for ProFootballTalk.com breaks down how Williams in his rookie season put up eye-popping numbers.

Bucs WR Mike Williams scored a TD every 6th reception as a rookie, a Rice/Moss kind of pace. Larry Fitz’s career best is 1 TD/7.25 catches.

Damn. Joe knows Williams was a stud; Joe wasn’t aware he was putting up Jerry Rice kind of figures.

Later in his Twitter feed, Silva predicts Williams’ numbers will decrease next year because his touchdown-per-reception numbers are “unsustainable.”

That’s one way of looking at it, and Silva has a point. But remember Williams was a rookie still learning the NFL and for much of the season had no protection in that he didn’t have another wide receiver to take heat off of him, or a running back to keep defenses honest until both LeGarrette Blount and Arrelious Benn began to blow up.

Joe wouldn’t be shocked if Williams indeed is able to sustain his numbers.

As Joe engages in intense internal debate about whether to guzzle drafts or bottles tonight, Joe is listening to a recent interview of defensive end Michael Bennett on WhatTheBuc.net.

He of the explosive get-off, Bennett shared a few nuggets Joe found intriguing.

First, Bennett flashed a down-to-earth perspective on the D-line. Asked what he was working on to improve this offseason, Bennett said he’s focused on all phases of his game because he needs work on everything and his teammates should be doing the same.

“Obviously, the stats that we had last year shows that none of us really did anything good,” Bennett said.

Bennett went on to say he looked forward to “when Coach Millard comes in and shows us and gives us a chance to harness our talents.” Joe looks forward to Millard working his magic, too. And, lest he not be forgotten, the other new D-line coach Grady Stretz will be in the mix.

Bennett also said he’s down to 265 pounds. Why? To be ready for “a more a fast paced, fast type of defense like the old Tampa front, so it’s not going to be big and heavy and holding up like we did last year.”

On Brian Price, Bennett was upbeat, saying he talked to Price and felt good about seeing him on the field.

Asked to name standout leaders at the Bucs minicamp in Bradenton, the man who replaced Stylez White late last season singled out E.J. Biggers and Aqib Talib.

Joe’s been a big fan of Bennett, and Tim Crowder, too. Just a couple young guys with a pile of intangibles and potential.

Got 10 minutes? Go back and read former Bucs DE Steve White’s take on Bennett. Joe guarantees it’ll fire you up.

Regular readers of Joe know he pretty much ignores covering anything related to the lockout, other than acknowledging its asinine existence and the hatchetman comissioner that presides over the whole mess.

However, that doesn’t mean Joe isn’t up on what’s happening. So Joe knows very well that signs from all kinds of NFL sources now point to an end to the lockout in a matter of hours. And Joe suspects from the massive traffic numbers on this site yesterday loads of Bucs fans are feeling the excitement and ready to immerse themselves into one of the most interesting Bucs seasons in years.

Joe certainly is.

A quick look at Joe’s calendar shows Bucs training camp was (is?) scheduled to kick off in exactly two weeks, with the first preseason game just four weeks from last night in Kansas City. (Holy crap. That’s a Bucs football game.)

Joe’s not having a pool party, as Raheem Morris enjoys, just yet. But Joe’s going to stock up on beer today to get ready.

Bucs beat writer Jenna Laine, of NFL.com, sits down with Joe to share insight into Adrian Clayborn and more. Joe found Laine’s information on Clayborn’s draft stock and physical limitations fascinating. Makes you realize how much Clayborn has overcome.

It’s been a while since Joe checked in on one of the most notorious Bucs players in recent history, Sabby the Goat.

The mere mention of his name makes many Bucs fans break out into a cold sweat or want to chug a bottle of whiskey.

The reason Joe brings up Sabby the Goat on this fine, steamy Friday afternoon was that for the first time, Joe found an article worth a hill of beans from the over-hyped site, Grantland. Most of the, um, stuff written on that site is for New Yorker types only with sports themes, sans some screed the other day about the relevance of Jennifer Aniston upon society who, aside from being amazingly hot beyond her years, really is irrelevant in the grand scheme of life.

Look, would anyone go into a dark, deep depression if she suddenly decided to retire from Hollywood? Would anyone really notice?

Shoot, Sarah Tyson has more interesting articles on her site than the perceived best young sportswriters of our era have on Grantland. The site’s a bore!

Anyway, finally, an interesting article on Grantland appeared earlier this week, detailing the 25 least valuable NFL players currently tagged as present day players and Sabby the Goat, largely for his ineptitude with the Bucs, was chosen as No. 2 behind only Jake Delhomme.

After a dismal 2009, Piscitelli responded to losing his job in camp by all-but-invoking “Operation Shutdown”; he got back into the lineup after rookie Cody Grimm broke his ankle, promptly gave up a touchdown after biting on a run fake, and got cut anyway. His unique mix of blown tackles, dreadful instincts, and inflated ego really make him the worst player to see regular time in the NFL over the past several years.

And to think that Sabby the Goat, with his wretched play, stained the very soil that Warren Sapp, Derrick Brooks and John Lynch shed blood upon. Wow.

But as much as Joe has a perverted sense of humor over Sabby’s horrid play, one of the most touching moments Joe saw from a professional athlete came from Sabby. After the Steelers lit up the Bucs this year when rookie Cody Grimm, who turned out to be a damned good safety, was torched as a form of NFL baptism in his first start, Sabby put his arm around Grimm after the game and spoke softly to him for roughly 10 minutes while patting him on the back, encouraging the youngster that he will learn from this, as he showed later he did.

So maybe Sabby could become a strong counselor or perhaps maybe even a coach. Maybe that’s Sabby’s calling?

It sure as hell isn’t playing safety in the NFL.

And to think Chucky flushed a second round pick for Sabby?

Now it’s time for Joe to swill a few pints on this blazing hot Friday, hopefully the final Friday of this asinine lockout.

Count Joe among those that would love to see the Bucs add another weapon or two for Josh Freeman.

Joe still has concerns about Arrelious Benn’s health and Joe wouldn’t mind seeing a real lightning-quick dude in the backfield.

However, Joe’s not for welcoming an ancient head case type ala Randy Moss or Terrell Owens — even if he can still play and sell tickets. During an interview on PrimeTime on WHBO-AM 1040 yesterday, Davin Joseph answered a Randy Moss hypothetical from host Tom Krasniqi. It was a great illustration of how confident the Bucs are in each other.

“That’s a tough one. The thing about it is, when [Moss]comes in he wants to be a No. 1 guy. Right? We have a hell of a No. 1. The we have a hell of a No. 2. And we have a couple of No. 3s that I can think about. So where he does fit in is with depth and experience,” Joseph said. “He wouldn’t be given anything if he comes there. So I don’t know if this is exactly what he’s looking for because he’s not going to get a lot of balls thrown to him. He’s not going to be our first option or second option. Then we have Kellen Winslow also, who’s going to get his touches. We can use him experience and depthwise, but I’m not sure we could use him in the fashion he would want to be used, featured.

“… You see guys busting their ass on tape all the time. That’s where the confidence comes from. …The effort, the attitude, the speed, all of that’s within our play. We’re just waiting for the opportunities to fall before us and we’re going to take them next time.”

The across-the-board confidence from Buccaneers astounding — a real testament to Raheem Morris. It further reinforces Joe’s belief that the Bucs won’t make any cannonball dive into free agency via Nnamdi Asomugha or anyone else, unless they’re forced to if their homegrown, big-money free agents leave town and they must stretch to reach a new salary floor.

The post-Haynesworth plan is firmly in place. It works. And the Bucs won’t mess with it.

For the past eight seasons, WFLA Channel 8 has been the flagship of Bucs preseason television broadcasts.

That will change this summer, provided there is a preseason.

Joe has learned through three independent Tampa Bay television industry sources that the Bucs and WTSP Channel 10 have reached an agreement whereby the Gannett-owned TV station will broadcast non-network Bucs preseason games for the next two seasons.

The contract awaits approval from the NFL to be finalized. The delay, per Joe’s sources, stems from the asinine lockout, not from any indecision by the Bucs or Gannett.

One element of the deal will be very good for Bucs fans despite initial pitfalls.

If a Bucs home preseason game is blacked out, WTSP will broadcast the blacked out Bucs game on a tape delayed basis three times. In the past with WFLA, blacked out games were broadcast twice, once shortly after the game ended and a second time the following day.

Combined with the NFL Network typically broadcasting each Bucs preseason game on a tape delayed basis, this will allow Bucs fans four opportunities to watch a blacked out preseason game.

This season, if the Bucs cannot sell out their home preseason games, WTSP will only broadcast one Bucs preseason game live, that being the Bucs road game at Washington Sept. 1 to end the preseason. The Bucs first preseason game Aug. 12 at Kansas City will be nationally broadcast by FOX.

The Bucs preseason broadcast duo of Chris Myers and John Lynch is employed by the Bucs, not the team’s broadcast partner. Joe could not confirm whether the two will return this summer but Joe did confirm no WTSP staffer will serve as a play-by-play man or game analyst.

Can Tanard Jackson sit out a year and come back to the Bucs ready to play in September?

Absolutely says Earnest Graham, so he told J.P. Peterson on 1010 AM yesterday. Graham was nonchalant about Jackson potentially having adjustment problems to returning to the Bucs. And Graham talked like he expects it to happen.

“He’ll be fine,” Graham said. Tanard’s an “instinctive football player.”

Graham went on to say Jackson’s in top shape and has always been impressive with his instincts and by playing far bigger than his size.

During the extensive interivew, Graham said he expects the Bucs to take a don’t-mess-with-success approach in free agency, especially when it comes to the offensive side of the ball. Graham seemed confident the Bucs would want to keep the offensive line in tact and Cadillac Williams.

However, in the next breath, Graham said he looked for the Bucs to make a few key acquisitions in free agency to improve the team and the locker room. He cited Sean Jones as a great pickup last year.

Graham went on to praise Mark Dominik and staff for the quality of men their administration has drafted. He said Adrian impressed him in Bradenton as a “humble kid” with “an NFL body.”

Joe was pleased to hear Graham, like Joe, is rather disinterested in lockout talk. Graham said he’s simply training hard and enjoying his family and, outside of the occasional lockout update from Maurice Stovall, is just waiting to enter his ninth training camp.

We can only hope.

"Step aside, little man."

You’ve all read THE PESSIMIST, who spews his Bucs-related anger like no other. But Joe brings you THE OPTIMIST. 

THE OPTIMIST is Nick Houllis, a Bucs fan and an accomplished writer whose steadfast allegiance to the team goes back to the 1970s. Houllis is the founder, creator and guru of BucStop.com, a place Joe goes to get lost in time via Houllis’ stunning video collection.

THE OPTIMIST will shine that positive light in your eyes. Some will love it. Some won’t.

Every time the Tampa Bay Buccaneers have tasted success after prolonged agony, the next season turns out to be a major disappointment.

The start of it goes back to 1980, when the Bucs sold out almost every home game following one of the greatest sports seasons in Tampa Bay history. It was the year after 1979, when the Bucs shocked the world and won 10 games when only 16 games before that the Bucs had won their first two games EVER — to the tune of a 2-26 lifetime record.

Ending up 10 points short of the Super Bowl, everyone expected the Bucs to make a serious run for the Big Game in ’80. Instead, Bucs fans got a team that surprised no one, and felt the move from an easy schedule to a much tougher one.

The ’80 Bucs defense was passed on repeatedly and its linebackers were exposed for being poor at covering receivers and speedy runners out of the backfield. Add to the mix rumors of drug use, and 10-6 turned into a 5-10-1 disappointment. The Bucs bounced back to make the playoffs the next two years.

Fast forward to 1998. The second year of Pewter Power had the Bucs expecting a playoff push to the Super Bowl following the breakthrough playoff season in ’97 with new uniforms and a new day in Tampa Bay. Instead, an inconsistent Tony Dungy team made more mental mistakes than ever, and it wasn’t until proper focus in 1999 and beyond were the Bucs perennially playoff bound.

I could go on and on … the Super Bowl victory was followed up with a 7-9 season. Take away a blocked extra point vs Carolina and that ridiculous LEAPING game with Colts on MNF (and the 21 straight points Indy Scored) and the Bucs start out 2003 with a 5-0 record. Instead they were 3-2 and the wheels were ready to fall off. After two losing seasons, Jon Gruden put together a solid defense and durable running attack in 2005. The next year, the QB’s spleen and the rest of the 2006 season were outta here.

This time it’s different; so don’t expect the 2011 Bucs to have a down year before resurfacing in 2012. There are just too many reasons why it won’t happen, and we’ll all be happy campers, lining up overnight for playoff tickets this coming January.

1) Nothing was really won in 2010: All the other examples show the Bucs winning something tangible, and when you win something, sometimes your fight goes away for a bit until it comes back. The Bucs won nothing; no division title, no playoff position, they simply had a winning record. If anything, that should make the team even hungrier, because they were ‘robbed’ of something.

2)The schedule does not get tougher: Granted we don’t play the NFC West this year, instead we get the NFC North, which does have two tough teams but two easier ones as well. Even the AFC division we play, the South, has Titans, Jaguars and Texans teams with weaknesses. The Colts are no longer the powerhouses they once were. The Bucs are going from the easiest schedule to the 15th-easiest, right in the middle, so there should be no complaining. There are only TWO GAMES each year that match your position in the division standings anyway. And this year it’s third place.

3) The Bucs have potentially nine games against teams with new coaching staffs and/or rookie QBs. That alone is an advantage in any normal season, but coupled with the lockout, a team like the Bucs returning its core group of players and coaching staff with the same offense is going to have a major advantage over teams whose players will be learning terminology only a few weeks before the start of camp. 

So I’m pretty sure the outcome is going to be something special in 2011 and beyond, a result you don’t have to be a real optimist to see.

The agony of the Bucs ending up on the wrong end when the Lions broke their 26-game road losing streak in December still keeps Joe up at night.

The stain of that game is lingering far longer than skid mark that was the Jim Bates experiment. 

NFL history literally would have changed if the Bucs beat Drew Stanton and the road-awful Lions at the C.I.T.S. Green Bay would have missed the playoffs and the Bucs would have been in.

Weeks ago, Joe brought you a take from Adam Hayward that stunned Joe. Hayward said the Bucs looked past the Lions.

“We weren’t playing like ourselves. We went in there kind a flat. We were thinking, ‘Oh this is Detroit,”” Hayward said on Tampa Bay Sports Central. “That’s how you get your butt wupped.”

Joe almost chalked that comment up to Hayward being too hard on the team, rather than the young Bucs actually taking a critical December game lightly. But now it’s official in Joe’s mind that the Bucs dropped the ball when they should have been focused like never before.

Speaking on the Ron and Ian Show on WDAE-AM 620 yesterday, Davin Joseph shared a take on the Detroit game similar to Hayward’s after being asked directly about the game.

“We feel like we took it for granted,” Joseph said, lamenting the Bucs’ effort against the Lions.

Joe is shaken to his core again and wants to punch the nearest wall. How could that happen? How? How? Yeah, Joe gets that stuff happens to teams in all sports at every level, but that game? In December? For the Coach of the Year?

Interesting that the Bucs responded to the Lions loss by punching the Seahawks in the mouth and taking out the Saints in New Orleans.

Joe sincerely hopes the Bucs learned their lesson.