Barrett Ruud is devastated by his missed tackles against New England, so he told Stephen Holder of the St. Pete Times.

“It always starts in the mirror,” he said. “And it’s not going to be good when you play, individually, like I did. That’s where I start. There’s just too many bad plays. And it’s been consistently bad plays. All I can do is work harder.”

Joe’s feeling the debilitating growing pains of linebackers Geno Hayes and Quincy Black, too. 

Are these guys getting better? Or are they just out there because the Bucs stink and they’re in over their heads as young players who weren’t high draft picks to start with? 

Jim Bates was known for taking a hand-on approach with linebackers during his time in Denver. And linebackers coach Joe Barry has a Super Bowl ring with the Bucs when he filled that same role in 2002.

So, of course, the Bucs struggles at linebacker couldn’t be a result of coaching. Right?

Joe will take a moment now to remind Bucs fans of a quote from general manager Mark Dominik  in early August.

Dominik on linebackers: “It’s probably our strongest position on our football team, suprisingly I bet to a lot of our fans. That our depth and our talent is pretty good there. So that’s a good battleground to watch during training camp if you want to see some real competition.”

Joe was never sure what Dominik was thinking when he said that. And Joe is still at a loss for words.

Perhaps it’s just of those things that Raheem The Dream says “fans never really understand.”

Paul Severino and Cris Carter of BSPN discuss the Bucs loss to the Patriots. Joe can’t understand how a guy with as much cash as Carter has can’t afford a white shirt. Despite the lack of color coordination, Carter totally agrees with Joe about not playing Josh Freeman.

In his postgame news conference following the Bucs loss to the Patriots, Raheem The Dream admitted he called Mark Dominik on a sideline phone in the fourth quarter to discuss the decision to put Josh Freeman in the game yesterday.

Joe was flabbergasted at the time.

What was to talk about with Dominik, in the middle of a NFL game, that wouldn’t have been discussed before the game? Bizarre stuff.

The moment was caught for all when TV cameras filmed Raheem The Dream on the phone and then marching over to Greg Olson to give the Freeman order.

Luckily for JoeBucsFan.com readers, Joe has worked with Wembley Stadium officials and obtained a transcript of the fourth-quarter phone conversation:

Mark Dominik: Hello?

Raheem The Dream: Man, Why didn’t you pick up your cell in the third quarter? I needed to ask you if I was allowed to kick a field goal?

Dominik: Sorry. I was busy re-writing our plan.

Raheem: That’s OK. Look, we’re down by 28 points. Am I allowed to put Josh Freeman in the game?

Dominik: Well, the plan doesn’t say anything about this.

Raheem: Dude, screw the plan. We’re on our fourth edition of that thing and we haven’t won a game. I want to give Freeman a few reps.

Dominik: Your call. But I gotta go. The Glazers are going to rip me a new one for racking up all these roaming charges in London. You know how they like to keep the cell phone bills down.

SI.com's Peter King also thinks Bucs fans got the short end of the stick with a home game in London, denying Bucs fans a chance to watch Tom Brady and gawk at Bucs cheerleaders.

Last week Joe brought you the story of the Unknown Author of the Bradenton Herald who wrote how Bucs fans were robbed of a chance to watch Tom Brady and the Patriots.

Peter King of SI.com must have gotten wind of the Unknown Author. King too believes Bucs fans were hosed out of a home game, as he explains in his must-read Monday Morning Quarterback column.

I guess I don’t mind foreign football, though I have doubts it will work. But if I were a fan in Miami, New Orleans or Tampa in the past three years, I’d have a big problem with it.

The New England-Tampa Bay game Sunday in London was a home game for the Bucs. The Bucs haven’t hosted the Patriots in a regular-season game in Tampa Bay since 1997, and under the current scheduling format, which calls for NFL teams to play at out-of-conference foe at home once every eight years, the Patriots won’t be in Tampa ’til 2017. Tom Brady will be 40 then. Who knows? He may still be playing, but I’d bet Brady will never play a regular season game in Tampa, ever.

Two years ago, the league moved Miami’s home game with the Giants — likely the only Giants-Dolphins game in Miami ’til 2015 — to London. That would make it a full generation, 19 years, between Giants games in south Florida.

And when the Chargers played the Saints in London last year, it meant no San Diego trip to Louisiana until 2016. So Saints fans in New Orleans will never get to see LaDainian Tomlinson.

What I’d suggest: The league should stop scheduling cross-conference games for foreign soil, or limit them. The Tampa fan probably wouldn’t miss an Atlanta game nearly as much as he’d miss Brady’s only appearance ever in Raymond James Stadium.

Joe is of the mind the NFL and warden commissioner Roger Goodell should just scrap this nonsense of playing regular season games in London. Nobody, but a few scant owners, wants it.

One of those owners is Redskins tyrant/owner Danny Snyder. Maybe Snyder should start worrying about his rotten franchise first before he decides to take over the world?

Vacation Man, of BSPN, and Joe don’t always see eye-to-eye. This is another example.

Right now, not even the most ardent Bucs fan can say with a straight face this team has a shot to win, say, three games.

If Josh Freeman is the starter against Green Bay — Joe wants that delayed while Vacation Man has been pining for Freeman — does anyone really believe the Bucs will win that game against one of the NFL’s best defensive coordinators, Dom Capers?

And Green Bay isn’t that great of a team. Good, not great, certainly beatable (without Freeman as the starter).

Vacation Man sort of sees the handwriting on the wall, that the Bucs very realistically will toy with a winless season. Right now Carolina appears vulnerable, but not unless the Bucs beef up the run defense.

Vacation Man goes so far as to suggest Raheem the Dream may be out of a job if the Bucs don’t win two or more games.

Gerald in Bradenton writes: Do you think coach Morris will be there next year, or is his job in jeopardy?….(the play calling has been horrible)

Pat Yasinskas:The Bucs didn’t hire Raheem Morris just to fire him after one season. They’re hoping he’s there for a long time and things turn around. That said, Morris needs to win a few games and the Bucs need to show progress. If they go 0-16 or 1-15 and don’t show much hope for the future, it would be tough to keep Morris.

Joe doesn’t believe this will happen, once again, until Chucky’s salary is off the books (just how much will Chucky slurp Danny Snyder and the Redskins tonight?). The Glazers are not going to pay for three coaches (Chucky, Raheem the Dream and the potential next head coach).

What Joe will say is the Bucs, whether it’s Mark Dominik or Raheem the Dream or as high up as Bryan and Joel seriously need to take a long look at both coordinators. Joe will have something later today where a couple of fellows with significantly more NFL street cred than Joe are questioning the coaching of the Bucs.

Going back to the Chucky playbook is borderline crazy. On defense, this team from game-to-game either gets roasted by the pass or has the ball jammed up its rear end.  Joe thought the Bucs did a fine job yesterday of defending the run, which shocked the hell out of him.

Pass defense was a different story.

Despite a few spurts, Josh Johnson seems to be regressing rather than progressing. That is unless defenses have already figured him out. 

In the first half, Johnson was horrid, looked lost and out of it. Not long thereafter, he was removed when Josh Freeman made his NFL debut.

In some cases, quarterbacks will begin bickering when that happens. Jealousy sets it which Joe can understand.

But when pressed by Stephen Holder of the St. Petersburg Times, Johnson said he understood the move.

“I told him, ‘You don’t have to say anything. I understand,’ ” Johnson recounted later. “(It was) the same situation as Byron (Leftwich). If we don’t win games, maybe Josh (Freeman) is going to play. I understood what was going on when I first was (named) the starting quarterback.”

Joe has written this before and will write it again: Josh Freeman at this point is not an upgrade so there’s no reason to rush him. None. Zero. So what’s the point?

If Freeman’s not ready, he’s not ready, unless fans are in a sinister mood and really want to hasten ruining the kid’s career and pissing away millions of the Glazer’s money.

Yet another loss. Yet more Caybrew for Joe.

As always, Joe brings you the highlights, courtesy of NFL Network, hours before your local news outlet gives you scant coverage in the middle of the night.

First are the highlights of the game, replete with Gene Deckerhoff behind the mic.

Next are the interceptions by Aqib Talib and Tanard Jackson.

Then there’s the lone touchdown by the Bucs, caught by Antonio Bryant. Also are the scant Josh Johnson highlights.

Also, courtesy of Buccaneers.com, there are postgame remarks by Raheem the Dream, Josh Johnson, Ronde Barber and Jeff Faine.

Raheem the Dream spoke on the Buccaneers Radio Network after yet another loss and spoke on many things including his groom finally getting some playing time.

“We almost played the Patriots to an even keel in the first half. Their quarterback absolutely stepped up in the second half. That was the difference in the game.

“We got to give [Freeman] a chance go get in there and get some experience against a very good defense and a well-coached defense. He got a chance to hear the calls. We felt good about getting him in there.

“We will evaluate over the next week. The evaluation of our team continues. You go back and look at yourself first. We will have the ability to look at everything. We will look at the decisions, the decisions, the coaching staff, the talent. We have nine games to see what our franchise is to become.”

Maybe fearing what could come, Raheem the Dream then went out of his way to thank Bryan and Joel.

“The advice [on the trip to England] by ownership was great,” Raheem the Dream said. “The advice on where we went, when we traveled over here, where we slept, it was great advice.”

Tom Brady runs like Josh Johnson.

Today, Brady had one rush for five yards against the Bucs. And the formerly scrambling Johnson turned in the same stat line.

Joe wonders who threatened to punish Johnson if he kept scrambling for yards.

It sure seemed to Joe that Johnson had numerous opportunities to run the ball and make a play — plays he would have made in his previous starts. But today he did none of that. Almost like he had no interest — or was thinking too much about not running.

So instead Bucs fans got a look at Johnson trying to play like Tom Brady. The result was a QB who looked more comfortable behind Sean Mahan in the face of Philadelphia’s endless blitzes.

Johnson finished 9-for-26 for 156 yards, with one touchdown and three interceptions. The kid looked down on himself. Hardly the fired up leader he tried to be in his first couple of games.

Raheem the Dream was right. Johnson is Josh Freeman’s career backup.

"Man, it was so cool to meet Phil Simms. Did he sign your Simms jersey?"

Joe just about wet himself when Phil Simms said during the Bucs-Patriots telecast that he and Jim Nantz chatted with Joel and Bryan Glazer this weekend about the state of the franchise.

Joe was flabbergasted.

Since when do the Glazers talk to any media outside of their annual state-of-the-team address every winter? (And who could forget their last public blubbering?)

Simms said the Glazers were talking about how they feel about the direction of the team going young and building through the draft.

Is the the start of a new trend for the Glazer Boys? Maybe they really are at the other end of that sideline phone.

The Bucs most consistent, dependable wide receiver, rookie Sammie Stroughter, offered some pointed yet accurate and welcome words on the Bucs radio network after the Bucs loss to New England.

“You can’t keep spotting teams points and playing catch-up,” Stoughter said. “We want to pound the ball. But when  you are starting off in the hole, it’s hard to do that.

“We are not getting the breaks. You have to keep fighting.”

Stroughter noted how Johnson was having a terrible time against Bill Belicheat’s defense, not that a quarterback in his fourth NFL start ever would (cough, cough) but stopped short of saying Freeman should be the starter.

“Johnson couldn’t get it going,” Stroughter said. “But he stayed calm. That was a bright spot.”

Raheem the Dream’s groom, object of his lust and whose career his is pinned to, Josh Freeman, claims he is not the Bucs starting quarterback.

Asked on the Bucs radio network after the game if he was the starter, Freeman said Josh Johnson is, but didn’t deny he wanted the job.

“It’s business as usual. Josh is still the starter,” Freeman said of his teammate with the same first name. “I am looking forward to what I am doing. The decision [on who starts against Green Bay] is not mine. Josh is still the starter.”

Freeman seemed more bummed out by the loss than he was happy to take his first NFL experience.

“I hate to get my first snaps under these circumstances,” Freeman said. “But at least I got some game experience. It was good to get out there. I didn’t get things going like I wanted.”

Bucs starting (?) quarterback Josh Johnson spoke on the Bucs radio network after the game and took full blame for the loss.

“The [interceptions] were just unacceptable. I take responsiblity for that. My interceptions took us out of what we wanted to do. It hurt us. That’s been the story the past couple of weeks.I will do better and this is something I will learn from.

“AB [Antonio Bryant] was running great routes and getting open. All he asks for is the chance to make plays and it gave us an opportunity to put points on the board.”

Joe’s buddy Justin Pawlowski, on-air talent at 620 WDAE-AM and NFL draft guru extraordinaire, is inviting you to join him on the air shortly for some hard-hitting Bucs post-game talk.

Pawlowski will follow the Buccaneers Radio Network when it signs off about 5:30 p.m. 

Fun stuff, to be sure.

Joe’s really having a hard time figuring out the Bucs decision-making.

Who isn’t?

It was just a couple of weeks ago that the Bucs told the world Cadillac Williams would be their feature back, that they needed to get Caddy more touches, that a feature-back plan would replace the heralded three-man running backs rotation that never had a prayer.

Then, Derrick Ward refused to speak to the media this week, reported Anwar Richardson of The Tampa Tribune. And poof, Ward had 13 carries today against New England to just 11 for Caddy.

Joe hopes Caddy isn’t hurt. But it sure didn’t look that way.

Joe can only conclude that the Raheem The Dream and Mark Dominik, and/or whoever is on the other end of the sideline phone, wants to keep Ward happy so he returns next season.

Showtime, fellas.

Now Joe’s not going to be a jerk and harshly critique Josh Freeman in his NFL debut in garbage time of a blowout.

Sure, the kid failed to get a snap off on a 4th-and-2. Sure, he fumbled. Sure, he showed some mobility and made one nice pass. Sure, he didn’t exactly spark the Bucs like Josh Johnson did in his debut at the end of another blowout against the Giants.

All meaningless.

But make no mistake. This is it. Freeman will start after the mercy bye week at home against Green Bay in two weeks.

The Josh Freeman era has begun. Raheem The Dream and Mark Dominik are on the clock.

So there was Raheem The Dream shown on the CBS-TV cameras getting off the sideline phone and coming over to offensive coordinator Greg Olson saying “No. 5.”

That’s Josh Freeman’s number. And as Raheem The Dream yelled and gestured to Olson the CBS-TV broadcast team told viewers Freeman was entering the game.

Joe wonders, just who was Raheem The Dream chatting with on the phone?

Joe is downright scared to think he was calling Joel and Bryan Glazer who were sitting alone in their luxury box. Would Rah call Mark Dominik in the middle of a game?

Who’s really in charge of this team?

Pats 35, Bucs 7

* Moss catches a pass, sees Tanard Jackson and runs out of bounds. What a freaking menstruating woman! Joe wants to use stronger language but Joe also wants advertisers. Joe suspects his readers will get the point.

* Pats are now slicing up the Bucs defense with passes.

* Damn. No need to help the Pats with a penalty.

* OK, who hypnotized this Bucs run defense?

* Now Antonio Bryant, Wes Welker just showed you how to make that seam catch.

* Roy Miller with a nice stop to delay a touchdown.

* Too easy of a score but as Joe just wrote: it was only delayed.

* That clown from London that the Tampa Tribune is in love with for some reason and who also has sent nasty correspondence to Joe is now in the Bucs broadcast booth and Gene Deckerhoff has turned the mic over to him to do the broadcast. Joe has turned off the radio.

* The Josh Freeman era has begun with a pair of handoffs.

* Welcome to the NFL kid. Thrown down like a ragdoll. You’re not in Kansas (State) any longer Tito.

* Well, already Tito looks more comfortable in the pocket than Johnson. Not much but better.

* Garbage time. Pats seem content to run the ball. Brady’s out of the game too.

* Mostly safe passes for Freeman. Smart.

* Smooth run to the right by Freeman, nearly got the first down.

"He says one thing and does another. Who is he?"

Raheem The Dream’s self-proclaimed “fearless” Buccaneers were sitting at the Patriots 37 yard line down 21 points and in a fouth-and-long situation with about three minutes left in the third quarter.

What does fearless Raheem The Dream do? He punts.

C’mon, Rah.

What were you afraid of? There’s no wind in the nearly domed Wembley stadium. Give the kicker a shot?

Then “fearless” Raheem on the next series, still in the third quarter, punts again on 4th-and-6 from the Patriots 35 yard line.

Let Joe be the first to say that Raheem is playing scared. He’s coaching scared. And he’s riddled with fear right now.  

Joe will leave you with Raheem’s own words explaining a Bucs team philosophy earlier this month.

“We’re always going to play not cautious. We’re always going to play, you know, fearless, you know, not cautious,” Raheem The Dream said.

* Despite the Pats getting a first down, still the Bucs rush defense looks halfway decent which is shocking Joe.

* Anyone hear Ronde Barber’s name yet? That’s usually a good thing. The Pats are not passing his way.

* Tim Crowder was certainly held and Joe is glad the zebras saw the same thing. Brady was going down.

* This is clearly the best the Bucs pass rush has played all year. Easily.

* Brady is a freaking assasin. Just when it looks like he might be rattled, zing, completion, first down.

* Timely penalty by the Pats. Brady was slicing the Bucs linebackers apart.

* Man, that was quick. Touchdown Pats.

* Apparently the Brits must be Bucs fans. Dave Moore just said he can hear Johnson’s calls, so that speaks to the fact the crowd is pro-Bucs.

* A quick series by the Bucs. This could be the start of the blowout everyone expected.

* Nice job by Geno Hayes with getting a hand on Brady’s pass.

* Joe, for the first time all year, is impressed with the Bucs pass rush, chasing Brady out of the pocket and forcing a third down punt.

* Seems CBS is too busy with Goodell’s interview to show a replay of a blown interference call on New England. Sweet. Jackasses.

* Joe will write again: Sammie Stroughter has been the Bucs best receiver this year.

* Damn players are sliding all over the place. Break out the ice skates. Dave Moore claims it’s the dew. Makes sense. Joe forgot it is a night game over there.

* Once again: Sammie Stroughter. Draft steal.

* Geez. Antonio Bryant on the fleaflicker — Joe loved the call — was wide open and Johnson one-hopped the ball to him. Who does he think he is, Daryll Clark?

* Joe doesn’t blame Bryant for spiking the ball. The guy was all alone and Johnson horribly underthrew the ball.

* For the most part, Johnson looks like he is just heaving the ball and praying some Bucs receiver can get a hand on the ball.

* Barrett Ruud makes a tackle for a loss. How novel?

* Dave Moore claims Moss is dogging it only playing half-assed. Joe is shocked.

* Joe is still stunned at the traffic the Bucs are putting on Brady.

* Interesting. Earlier Pats owner Bob Kraft had a luxury box full of people with him. Later, CBS shows Bryan and Joel sitting by themselves in their suite. Wonder why?

* Non-catches like what Antonio Bryant just pulled will hurt his salary requirements for his new team next season.

* Ha! Scumbag Randy Moss got jacked up and had to leave the game, compliments of Tanard Jackson.

* Tanard Jackson saves the Bucs. That would have been the fifth play of the drive that Joe predicted the Pats would score. Really lousy throw by Brady, not that Joe is complaining. 🙂

* Johnson again underthrows a pass. Is there any wonder why Freeman isn’t ready, this game is evidence of it.

* Johnson sacked. Rattled. Lost. Out of it. Johnson seems to appear the way Joes does the last time he attempted to watch Sportscenter some years ago: “What the hell am I doing here?”

* Joe thinks he is drunk because he sees the Bucs playing run defense. Yet Joe hasn’t (yet) had a Caybrew. Strange.

* Boom, 21-0. That quick. That’s why the Pats are the Pats. Joe is “this close” to hoping this game is 65-0. The Bucs need to be shamed on an international stage.

* Oh, and Barrett Ruud is supposed to be the Bucs best linebacker? (Cough, cough).

* Well, maybe if Caddy continues to run, the Bucs will only lose by 42?

* Maybe the Lightning can play better since the Bucs are playing on ice, slipping all over the place?

* Johnson is totally pathetic today.

* If Wes Welker reads his blocker’s ass and runs outside like he should have the score would be 28-0.

* Talib saves the Bucs. Secondary is playing well. Not great, but well. He and Donald Penn are playing Pro Bowl-type level this year. The rest of the team? High school level. Somewhere in Pinellas County, a cabbie is frowning.

* Davin Joseph absolutley got blown off the line on that attempt at a third down run. Joe has never seen Joseph thrown back like that. He was tossed nearly four yards back.

* A Tim Crowder sighting. Almost as rare as a Kyle Moore sighting.

* The defensive front — maybe the first time this year — is playing OK if not good at times.

* Joe happens to be at his favorite watering hole (Joe knows a high executive of said watering hole reads this so as soon as your organization cuts Joe a check he’ll start pimping it heavily) and Bucs fans here are so disgusted, they have turned to rooting for the Pats to run the score up hoping the Glazer Family will be so ashamed, maybe changes might be made. That’s how awful things have gotten for the Bucs.

* When’s the last time Derrick Ward had an eight-yard gain?

* Ward is looking sharp all of a sudden.

* Two minute warning? Wow, quick second quarter.

* Dave Moore ripped Johnson for not checking out of the jailbreak blitz that the Pats used on the first play out of the two-minute warning.

* Pass to Bryant from Johnson was the first time all day Johnson looked like he knew what he was doing, which is just what Dave Moore just said.

* What the hell all of a sudden got into Josh Johnson? Something clicked. Could this suddenly become a game? Nice job by Bryant on the play to get away from the defender.

* Dave Moore just noted Randy Moss has been pretty quiet since he got drilled by Tanard Jackson.

* A sack! A Bucs sack! This is nearly as rare as a blue moon.

* Speaking of which, Joe hasn’t had a Blue Moon beer in a long time. Hmmm?

* Joe thinks the Bucs are more than fortunate this game is only a two-touchdown game.

* As he came of the field at halftime, Raheem the Dream told the Bucs radio network, “We are killing ourselves with turnovers.”