Racism, style of play, and fan apathy make the Buccaneers the wrong choice to play annually in England.

As national buzz grows about the Bucs possibly playing a “home” game every year in England so crumpet-munching fans there can build loyalty to a particular NFL club, Joe is riddled with stomach pains.

Aside from being a lousy idea for Bucs fans and the Tampa Bay economy, it seems if the NFL were to choose a team for such a move, the Bucs are a terrible fit.

First, Joe comes back to one of Raheem Morris’ favorite lines when referring to himself and his players. “We’re entertainers,” Raheem says.

Well, to be frank, the Bucs are hardly one of the more “entertaining” teams in the NFL. They’re not sporting a high-octane offense that has the greatest potential to excite a fledgling fanbase overseas. And they’re also devoid of players with big-time name recognition that might attract the most interest internationally. Surely, Euros would be far more interested in Tom Brady’s fashion and flowing locks, for example.

Second, wouldn’t the NFL want England to have a team that’s going to travel the most U.S. fans to a London game — to help build more excitement in the stadium and around the city? That seems like a no-brainer. And Joe’s going to go out on a not-so-wild limb and claim that Bucs fans have to be one of the worst traveling fan bases in the league. Why? Joe would guess the answer is one part apathy and two parts economy.

Third, and Joe’s inevitably going to take heat for going here, England has a loads of overt racism flowing through its sports world unlike in the United States. Just last week, two top-flight LONDON soccer teams pleaded with fans to stop racist and other hateful chanting. Other examples inlclude the ongoing effort there to stop anti-Jewish chants at soccer games, and there’s been escalated discussions this year of instituting measures to stimulate hiring of black coaches throughout English soccer, where black players make up about 25 percent of the leagues but very few coaches.

Is this the best place for Raheem Morris and Josh Freeman to be the face of the home team? Why should the Bucs potentially have to deal with the kind of racist garbage that could come with that?

As Joe has written before, the NFL trying to slam its product down the throat of a largely disinterested kickball-loving nation is annoying at best. And the Bucs possibly getting caught up in the mess annually is very troubling.

The Bucs’ catchy marketing slogan this year is “Climb Aboard.” If next year’s is “Climb Abroad,” Joe’s going to be seriously pissed off.

A lot of Bucs fans are wondering about the Bucs offense.

They point to quarterback Josh Freeman’s struggles with accuracy thus far this season.

They point to LeGarrette Blount not getting enough carries.

Bucs receiver Mike Williams has a suggestion who fans should point fingers at.

Mike Williams.

Woody Cummings of the Tampa Tribune types a piece where he documents Williams claiming he is the reason the Bucs offense is not humming like last year.

“I’m playing terrible,” Williams said Wednesday as he and the Bucs began preparing for Sunday’s against the NFC South division-leading New Orleans Saints at Raymond James Stadium.

“From my aspect, I’m playing terrible. I should be doing a lot more to help my team win. I should be getting into the end zone. That’s something I did last year. I was getting into the end zone and putting up points for this team. That’s what I should be doing and I’m not doing it right now so I need to get it together. I need to step up.”

Williams ranks third on the Bucs in receptions with 19 for 183 yards and a touchdown. After five games a year ago, he had 23 catches for 283 yards and three touchdowns.

Joe is of the mind that there are a variety of reasons for this. One is that during the asinine lockout, coaches throughout the NFL had nothing to do but break down tape, whether it was of college prospects or NFL players. Surely Williams must have surprised a few defensive coordinators. It’s not a shock at all that opposing coaches spent many an hour this summer scheming ways to take Williams out of plays.

This has led Williams to learn to adjust. He’s likely seeing defenses and coverages he’s never seen before. Just like in baseball, football is a constant cat-and-mouse game of adjustments.

Third, naturally, Freeman is having accuracy issues this season. That doesn’t help any receiver, much less No. 19.

(Loyal JoeBucsFan.com readers know there are two “Joes,” and one of them loathes the NBA. So you can be sure he’s not the author of this post.)

Talking heads around the sports world yesterday were abuzz with interest showed by LeBron James in possibly attempting to join the NFL while the NBA is in the midst of a lockout. An athletic freak at 6-8, roughly 260 pounds, and a former All-State high school receiver, 26-year-old James is at least an interesting prospect.

Raheem Morris was even asked about considering James at tight end during his Wednesday news conference. Raheem said he wasn’t up to speed on the James situation, one further fueled by James on Twitter last night, and joked that the Bucs already had former college hoopster Demar Dotson on their roster.

Now Joe’s not advocating the Bucs sign James, but his presence in any capacity sure would stir up a truckload of positive interest in the team, something the Bucs’ front office has openly craved.

Earlier today, Joe brought word from former Bucs defensive end Steve White scoffing at Bucs fans who are adamant that troubled Bucs safety Tanard Jackson, fresh off a 54-week suspension, can step in an NFL starting lineup with an equal number of practices under his belt as fingers on his hand.

Add Shaun King to the list of those who have doubts.

The former Bucs quarterback, only one of three in Bucs history to lead the team to an NFC championship game, co-hosts the too-Jewish sounding name “King David Show” along with Toby David.

When asked when Jackson would start, King emphatically said “I don’t know.” King didn’t think starting Jackson against New Orleans would be smart.

“Will he start against the Saints and Drew Brees right away? That’s not going to be wise. I have to be truthful. I don’t know. He may not be the same player not on the funny cigarette. Some guys play better on the funny cigarette. So I don’t know.”

Jackson was suspended for his third offense for violating the NFL’s substance abuse policy.

King went on to say Jackson could be in the best shape of his life, but it’s not football shape.

“He hasn’t hit anyone in over a year,” King said. “Anyone who says they know what Tanard Jackson will do [Sunday] right now is lying.”

Ex-Bucs QB Jeff Carlson

Former Bucs quarterback Jeff Carlson (1990 & 1991) writes
The QB Blast column here at JoeBucsFan.com. Joe is ecstatic to have him firing away. Carlson is often seen as a color analyst on Bright House Sports Network, and he trains quarterbacks of all ages locally via his company, America’s Best Quarterback. Plus, he’s a really cool dude.

By JEFF CARLSON
JoeBucsFan.com analyst

Football 101 killed the Buccaneers in San Francisco, not the 49ers.

Sure it was a short work week and a cross-country trip after a big Monday night win against the Colts, but for as much as Jim Harbaugh had his team very well prepared for what the Bucs gameplanned, the Bucs simply made elementary mistakes that the Niners took advantage of each time.

I want to highlight three critical plays in the first half that doomed the Bucs to a 21-3 deficit at the break.

1) 49ers quarterback Alex Smith lined up three receivers to his right just outside of the Red Zone and the Bucs countered showing a Cover 2 look with Corey Lynch over the top.

Quarterbacks are taught to read the safeties’ movements at the snap and work away from their “roll.” Lynch back-pedaled away from the three receivers and to the center of the field, leaving a single LB underneath and cornerback Aqib Talib on the outside deep third.

In a sound coverage, the linebacker covers curl-to-flat (knowing he has to “carry” the seam enough to keep the QB hitting the seam route before the free safety can react.) With Lynch moving away to get to the center of the field, he had no chance at reacting when Smith threw the wide open seam route because the linebacker barely helped.  Rolling the safety away from the 3 receiver side must have had Alex Smith and Jim Harbaugh licking their chops as they watched it unfold and laughing on the inside at how easy it was.

2) On the other side of the ball, the simple basics of football got away from Josh Freeman, something I haven’t seen many times. He has been slow to make decisions in the Red Zone in the first few games this year and they have gotten away with it while running their record to 3-1, but obviously they did not stay in a Holiday Inn Express before the game, because he made blatant rookie mistakes on his interceptions, one of which was returned for a Niners TD. 

Again, it was a Cover 2 look pre-snap, which should have automatically taken the “out” route by TE Kellen Winslow off the board. 

When the safety stayed on Winslow’s side of the ball, the Cover 2 corner did not have to worry about a deep threat and just stayed in his shallow coverage. Freeman should have recognized this two years ago and certainly now, but may have lost some confidence in his other receivers and forced a ball to Winslow, even though he should have known not to throw it before Faine ever snapped the ball.

3) Shortly thereafter, Freeman forced another ball that got picked off. In my yet to be released book on quarterbacking, one of my 10 commandments is not throwing to the single receiver side against Cover 2. 

Micheal Spurlock was out wide right and had a cornerback up in his face with a safety wide to his side. This is a Cover 2/Man pre-snap read. It is sometimes possible to blast a quick slant into that coverage, but on this play, it was much deeper and late.

It was a very good play by the corner to come under Spurlock and make the interception, but the safety was also right there to help break up the play and possibly put Spurlock to sleep. When the other team commits two defenders to cover one receiver, you should work the other side, where you have more potential options.

Even without these poor plays and basic mistakes made by the Bucs, I don’t think they would have won on Sunday. Jim Harbaugh’s team was superior in preparation all the way around and they made some great anticipation plays either through tendencies that were picked up on film and game-plan, or were just great aggressive plays. 

For the Buccaneers to win this Sunday against the Saints, they will need to shore up their pass coverage against receivers running in the seams, because Brees is far superior to Alex Smith in his anticipation and execution.

And Freeman will have to go back to the basics of simply throwing away from coverage or we will see many more ugly and lopsided scores.

The Bucs are starting practice today and word from the locker room from two different sources suggest the skies are dark for Bucs running back LeGarrette Blount playing Sunday.

Woody Cummings of the Tampa Tribune, Twittering on the TBO Bucs Twitter feed, along with Stephen Holder of the St. Petersburg Times, suggests word in the Bucs locker room paints a troubling picture of Blount’s near-future status.

@TBO_Buccaneers: No sign of either DT Gerald McCoy or RB LeGarrette Blount at practice today and the talk in the Bucs locker room is neither will play.

@HolderStephen: Sense here at 1 Buc Place is that Gerald McCoy and LeGarrette Blount are likely out this week vs Saints.

How important is Blount to the Bucs offense? Joe believes the Bucs could survive without Josh Freeman for a period of time, but not without Blount.

If Blount cannot suit up against the Saints, the Bucs are screwed.

Bucs quarterback Josh Freeman visited Northeast High School in St. Petersburg to help spread the word about a video game called “Financial Football,” which helps teach youngsters about the game of finances. Freeman discusses his visit in this St. Petersburg Times video.

Joe must commend Raheem Morris for sitting in front of the microphone Monday night on his WDAE-AM radio show to talk about the historic debacle in San Francisco and take live calls from fans.

That type of fan interaction was far beneath Chucky, though Father Dungy embraced the ritual, even going so far as to do his show at a local sports bars as part of a radio station promotion. (Think Father Dungy sitting near scantily-clad waitresses, with blue collar fan types insisting on buying him adult beverages.)

Anyway, Raheem faced the music Monday and graciously fieled a call from a fan who wanted to know when the Bucs would wise up and bring Barrett Ruud, or a Derrick Brooks-type, back to the roster, as well as an inquiry from a guy who offered an intricate Discovery Channel analogy of the Bucs and the largest lions eating the heartiest part of a jungle kill.

But amidst the ridiculousness, Raheem explained that he painfully watched the 49ers game twice and saw a slow and injured Bucs team.

“We had a bunch of nicks and a bunch of bruises, nothing longterm so we’re very fortunate as far as people that are going to be hurt and people are going to miss a couple of things, but there’s nothing long term to stop this team from doing what their ultimate goal is. But we gotta get those guys back. And that’s what their job was [Monday,] to get their bodies right in order to be ready to play, because we got certainly a tough division opponent coming in here.

“For me, it was about coming here looking at [the film,] finding out what went wrong and how we looked. And we looked hurt. We looked slow. We didn’t look as good as we normally look. And we gotta find a way to practice to get those things out of us. And we gotta find a way to do different things this week to get ready for this battle. So I wanted to watch it a couple of times, give myself that ultimate headache that you get when you are a coach. And I got it, and then you gotta get it outta your system.”

It’ll be interesting to see how Raheem practices this week to rid the team of sluggish play.

Historically, Raheem’s Bucs always have rebounded following a big loss, including after clubbings last year at the hands of the Saints and Steelers. So Joe’s optimistic.

Naturally, the subject matter du jour for Bucs fans was the NFL’s reinstatement of troubled Bucs safety Tanard Jackson from a year-long suspension for substance abuse Tuesday.

As one can imagine, this subject was discussed on Derek “Old School” Fournier’s Bucs-centric radio show, “Touch Football with Jaime Hanna” or some such thing, on WQYK-AM 1010. Joe’s not concerned with whatever cute name a radio show is called, Joe’s about content. When Derek is talking Bucs and he has former Bucs defensive end Steve White on weekly, that’s quality radio in Joe’s eyes.

“Old School” tries something novel by running a chat room during the show and if he sees something interesting there he will cite it.

During last night’s show, someone in “Old School’s” chat room wrote emphatically Jackson will be starting for the Bucs when they take the field Sunday against the Saints.

This sent White off on a mini-tangent.

“I’d like to know how someone knows this?” White asked. “I played football. I can’t say that. How does someone know this? How can someone say that? Wednesday is the lottery, right? I want some numbers from this guy.”

White is on to something Joe has referred to before. There is simply no way Jackson can be in football shape in five days to start.

Mind you, Jackson has had a grand total of one football workout with Josh Freeman in Bradenton this June since he was suspended 54 weeks ago. He has since been unable to work out with the Bucs, unable to work out at One Buc Palace, unable to watch film with coaches, nothing.

Joe’s guessing Jackson will play after the bye week, Nov. 6 at New Orleans, but that is simply just a guess.

White went on to throw ice water on Bucs fans believing Jackson will be playing at a Pro Bowl level right away. White noted that sitting out of football for an entire year, Jackson’s biggest stumbling block to overcome will be regaining his reaction time.

White brought up the sobering case of Plaxico Burress, who sat out two years serving a felony sentence in a New York state cage. Many Bucs fans were up in arms that Bucs rock star general manager Mark Dominik didn’t try to lure Burress. But as White pointed out, Burress, with the Jets in his first year back in the NFL, has been a non-factor through five games.

Unlike Jackson, White said, Burress is a wide receiver and offensive guys know where they are going and defensive guys normally react.

There’s no doubt the youngest head coach in the NFL, Raheem Morris, appears to be a loose-ship-running, arm-barring, chest-bumping, vibe-feeling, pool-partying, obscenity-tolerating guy. In other words, a players’ coach.

But Jeff Faine enlightened us yesterday on WQYK-AM 1010 in sharing that the Bucs had an enforced curfew on Friday night in San Francisco, when there would not have been a curfew in place on a typical Friday night before a Sunday home game.

So much for the loose ship, even coming off three straight wins.

As for what happened on the field, Faine said nothing related to the cross-country travel on short rest is or should be a cause for Sunday’s 48-3 beating by the 49ers.

In fact, speaking on behalf of his offensive linemates, Captain Faine liked their body of work Sunday.

“Up front, we felt pretty good about our performance to be honest with you,” Faine said.

Bucs fans were no less than outraged when Team Glazer, in an effort to be loyal to the shield, offered, in the throes of the asinine lockout, a second Bucs game to be played in London in three years.

And the NFL owners rewarded Team Glazer and Bucs fans by slapping them in the face Tuesday, awarding the Bidwill clan of all people a Super Bowl and not the Tampa Bay area.

Also at the NFL owners meetings, the NFL announced it will play at least one game a year in London for the next five seasons.

It seems ESPN’s Pat Yasinskas believes the Bucs could be an annual fixture in London, meaning the Bucs would have but seven regular season home games a year. In the NFL’s statement about continuing to play in London, it cited a benefit for a team “to return” annually.

The Buccaneers could be playing an annual “home’’ game in London? Well, it’s logical in a lot of ways. Look back at that “return’’ word again. The Bucs are about to become the only team to return to London since the NFL started playing regular-season games there.

The Bucs already have had a strong fan club in the U.K. for years. The owners of the Bucs (the Glazer family) also own the Manchester United soccer team.

There’s also the matter of attendance in Tampa Bay. Prior to last week’s sellout of a “Monday Night Football’’ game against Indianapolis, the Bucs had not sold out their previous 10 regular-season home games. When accepting the trip to London this year, the Bucs said part of their reasoning was done with the local economy in mind. Team officials said one less game at Raymond James Stadium would cut the cost of paying for season tickets.

Yasinskas later points out it’s illogical to believe teams with no problem selling tickets would be so willing to give up a precious home game and all its revenue to fly across the Atlantic Ocean to a foreign land to play before an indifferent crowd of kickball hooligans.

As Bucs fans collectively hold their breath wondering whether LeGarrette Blount can wear a helmet Sunday, Jeff Faine offered encouraging words this evening.

“I’m feeling like we should see him out there Sunday … based on how he was acting [after the game.] Faine told J.P. Peterson on WQYK-AM 1010.

Faine went on to remind listeners that he’s not a medical professional and to explain that Blount was walking around like all was well as the team traveled home San Francisco. An official update on Blount will come from the Bucs tomorrow.

Frankly, Joe isn’t the least bit curious what the Bucs would look like without Blount. Joe saw enough of that nightmare when Cadillac Williams grinded out 2 1/2 yards a carry last year.

(Joe hates to tease, but Joe also will serve up interesting comments from Faine tomorrow.)

Bucs fans everywhere saw Gerald McCoy’s ankle and leg get contorted before he hobbled in pain off the field Sunday in San Francisco.

Then the game got out of hand.

Outside of learning that McCoy didn’t break anything, there’s been no significant update on McCoy’s condition until he spoke tonight on The Gerald McCoy Show on WDAE-AM 620.

“I’m alright. I’m doin’ alright,” McCoy said. “We’re going to get the final diagnosis tomorrow.”

But how did McCoy sound? Well, Joe would say he was hardly upbeat about a return Sunday against the Saints. He sounded very uncertain and said he’d be coaching up whoever would play 3-technique if he wouldn’t get a helmet on.

The Bucs beat the Saints last year with Frank Okam in McCoy’s place and Alex Magee getting a lot of playing time at defensive end, along with former Buccaneer Al Woods inside. McCoy has played well this season, but Joe’s not overly concerned.

No doubt celebratory bongs are gurgling across the Tampa Bay area as BSPN NFL Insider Adam Schefter spreads news that suspended Bucs safety Tanard Jackson has been reinstated to the NFL.

@AdamSchefter – Filed to ESPN Buccaneers safety Tanard Jackson, who had served a suspension for over one year, has been reinstated, per NFL source.

Well, the NFL owners have voted this afternoon and hosed Tampa for the 2015 Super Bowl.

That sucks, though one would think Tampa would be the frontrunner for 2016 after now hitting runner-up status for ’14 and ’15.

Read here why Joe thought the NFL owed Tampa.

Times-Picayune reporter Bob Fortus ran around yesterday asking Saints players what they made of the Bucs getting mauled by the 49ers.

You can read about it here. Saints cornerback Tracy Porter also elaborated on this Sunday’s game and is excited to see New Orleans colors in the stands.

“Playing on the road, all the odds are against you,” Porter said. “We look at it as adversity. We’re pretty good playing against adversity. And our fans travel good. That helps a lot.”

Joe sure hopes there’s not a mess of black and gold among the home crowd Sunday, though it’s probably inevitable.

Word is supposed to come down today from NFL owners meetings on who will host the 2015 Super Bowl. Tampa and Arizona are the supposed finalists.

In Joe’s mind this should be a lock for Tampa since Team Glazer took one for the NFL by hauling a home game to London again this year, putting its team at a competitive disadvantage for a pivotal conference game and stripping its hometown of all the revenue generated by a regular season game on Dale Mabry Highway.

What other team has bent over for the NFL like this?

Joe’ only concern is that somehow the NFL might make more money on a Super Bowl in Arizona, and the owners’ votes might reflect that. Joe knows the NFL is all about money.

Any league that would drop a Super Bowl in an outdoor stadium in New Jersey (2014) in February clearly doesn’t care about the quality of the game or the experience for fans.

Matt Maiocco and Mindi Bach of CSNBayArea.com discuss the Niners beat down of the Bucs in this Comcast video.