This afternoon, Greg Schiano lamented the fact that the Bucs are “dead last” in the NFL in penalty yardage, far worse than they were last season.

So why is this happening, Coach?

The Bucs are “trying too hard,” Schiano offered as a reason before media at One Buc Palace.

Schiano said penalties are spread evenly across the team so a fix is not about changing personnel. Schiano called it “an evolving penalty problem.”

The Bucs’ lack of discipline is heinous. Are they really “trying too hard?” Joe hopes that’s not the reason because that’s not really fixable.

Rockstar general manager Mark Dominik made four large calculated gambles on health entering this season. He banked on four highly-paid Buccaneers returning productive off major surgery: Adrian Clayborn, Carl Nicks, Davin Joseph and Darrelle Revis.

If Joe adds up what these guys have delivered, it doesn’t look good.

Clayborn seems healthy, but that’s a little scary if he is, considering he only has two sacks while playing alongside a Pro Bowl defensive tackle. The trade deadline is in eight days. Joe knows the Bucs won’t trade Clayborn, but what would he fetch on the open market? Joe suspects it wouldn’t be much.

Nicks’ foot wasn’t right in the offseason before he was afflicted with MRSA twice.

Joseph says he’s 100 percent, and the team has deemed him healthy. But Joseph is playing ugly football at right guard. Either the Bucs were wrong in their assessment of his readiness or the Bucs’ captain is on the down side of his career. Joseph turns 30 in a few weeks.

Revis has played well, but not like a $16 million-per-game cornerback should. He’s not quite 100 percent, and the debate rages on about whether he’s been used properly.

Again, Joe knows the Bucs planned on getting all these guys back at 100 percent. Before the season, Joe said on the radio that the Bucs would be lucky to have three out of four of them healthy.

Now, it seems like the Bucs haven’t even got half of what they expected from these team cornerstones. The gamble didn’t pay off.

Update 12:09 p.m. Fox Sports is reporting Martin has a torn labrum that likely will shelve him for the remainder of the season.

Bad news keeps piling up for the New Schiano Order. Per NFL Network reporter Ian Rapoport, Pro Bowl running back Doug Martin could be sidelined for much of the season. The sad note moved on Twitter late this morning.

@RapSheet – As if the #Bucs needed more bad news: I’m told the shoulder injury to RB Doug Martin is serious. Could be out several weeks or longer.

Joe hopes the Bucs just shut down Martin completely if he does, in fact, have a serious problem. There is ZERO reason to mess around.

This injury steams Joe particularly because it was on a play that never should have happened, as Joe wrote about earlier.

A hopeful stat for the Bucs before yesterday’s beating by the Falcons was that Atlanta had the NFL’s worst defense on third down.

How bad were the Falcons? Teams were converting against them on third down at a 50 percent clip. Teams were even getting it done at better than 40 percent at 3rd-and-8 or longer.

But in came the Bucs offense. Tampa Bay was a flimsy 5-for-17 on third down yesterday. That just shouldn’t happen to an offense that has Vincent Jackson and Mike Williams.

Interestingly, Buccaneers staff member Scott Smith Twittered during the game that Jackson made his first third-down catch in a Bucs uniform without converting it for a first down. And then it happened again.

Of course, all those third downs are troubling on their own. It lets you know the Bucs aren’t moving the chains enough on first and second downs.

Xs and Os man Dave Moore, the Bucs radio analyst and former tight end, says one struggle of the Bucs offense doesn’t fall on the quarterback or the offensive line.

Receivers aren’t getting open easily, Moore explained this morning on the Ron and Ian show on WDAE-AM 620.

“If you freeze [game film] three seconds in to the play, not too many guys open,” Moore said. It seems like “tight coverage all the time,” he continued.

The same issues plagued Josh Freeman, Moore said, “especially in some of the play-actions when you’re leaving the tight ends and running backs in and its a two-man route.”

Not freeing receivers is usually one part speed, one part route running and two parts coaching. The opposition seems a little too dialed into what the Bucs are doing.

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A month ago after the New England game, Joe wrote that taking a deep shot to Doug Martin is the “wrong route” for a variety of reasons. Reason No. 1 would be Martin has not shown good hands on much easier catches all season, let alone catching the ball on a dead run with a bigger defender fighting him for the ball.

Reason No. 2 is that Martin can get beheaded and/or severely banged up on a play like that — one he’s not used to making.

And that’s what happened Sunday.

The same deep route Martin ran in New England got him free near the corner of the end zone in Atlanta in very tight space. Martin couldn’t hold the pass (again) and he got drilled and left the game with a bum shoulder.

Dear New Schiano Order, please don’t let this play become the new Benn’d Around. By Joe’s count this is the third time for the “Martin Mess” and that should be enough to send the play to the recycle bin.

The Bucs have speedy deep threats in Tiquan Underwood and Chris Owusu, guys with more speed than Martin. If these are NFL-caliber receivers, then Mike Sullivan and friends should find a way to get them in the mix. That’s got to be better than senselessly putting Martin’s career on the line.

This Bucs season has been shameful in so many ways it is difficult to point to the biggest embarrassment.

Perhaps it happened after the loss to the Dixie Chicks yesterday? Per WTVT-TV sports reporter Kevin O’Donnell, when the Bucs exited their locker room at the Georgia Dome, a hazmat crew entered and deloused the joint, so O’Donnell Twittered.

@ODonnellFox13: As soon as Bucs left their lockeroom at the Georgia Dome cleaning crews came in dressed in hazmat suits. Told not to risk catching MRSA. … Georgia Dome cleaning crews in hazmat suits going into Bucs lockeroom. Crew told me they had special cleaner.

Has it really come to this? Reports that Johnthan Banks had MRSA sparked a hazmat team to come in as if someone left a dirty bomb to explode? Banks was given clearance by the NFLPA and the league to play last week for goodness sakes.

Besides, the other two affected parties, Carl Nicks and Lawrence Tynes were not there. Only Banks.

Joe is starting to wonder whether this was an overreaction or a directive from the league?

Yes, you read that headline correctly. Joe doesn’t think it is prudent to fire the Bucs commander today, despite the ugliest of ugly tailspins the franchise is in, losing 11 of 12 games and One Buc Palace enveloped in drama and controversy.

Just what good would it do to release Schiano this week? You mean the Bucs might be propelled to win three games? Oh, good! Kiss goodbye to Jake Matthews or Jadeveon Clowney or Teddy Bridgewater.

It seems ESPN’s Pat Yasinskas is of the same mind, sort of. He doesn’t think it is smart at all to let the embattled Bucs commander loose.

But the alternative that so many fans want — an interim coach — isn’t the answer. Sure, the Bucs could make special teams coordinator Dave Wannstedt their interim coach. He has been an NFL head coach before. Or the Bucs could turn to Butch Davis, who is a special adviser to Schiano. Davis also has been an NFL head coach.

What good would either of those moves do the Bucs, who have to turn around and play a Thursday night game against Carolina? Firing Schiano and replacing him with Wannstedt or Davis would only throw this team into more disarray — and, yes, that is possible.

Going the interim route never is the answer. You only do that when things are totally out of control and you’re only prolonging the inevitable — the arrival of a new coach.

Now to be fair, Joe and Yasinskas want Schiano to stay for far different reasons. Joe wants a damned good draft slot. Winning games for the Bucs at this point is like going to a clothing optional establishment where you can’t touch the hired hands. I mean, what’s the point?

Yasinskas thinks there is a chance — albeit, a very, slim chance — that Schiano, with three years left on his contract, can still turn the Bucs around.

Either way, bouncing Schiano now just for the sake of doing something accomplishes nothing except to pacify AngryFan. If anything, it could scare away potential coaching candidates thinking Team Glazer will not support them through tough times.

In three days the Bucs host the Stinking Panthers. Does anyone expect the Bucs to win?

Last Sunday, immediately following the Bucs’ loss to the Beagles, Joe went on the field to get a sense of how the crowd reacted to Bucs coach Greg Schiano as he left the field. Joe was shocked by the brutality. The crowd was somewhat quiet until a guy barked at Schiano and then the mob joined in.

Last year Joe did the same to see how the crowd reacted to then-Bucs franchise quarterback Josh Freeman after one of his worst games of his career, when the Bucs lost to the brutal Beagles (again) and rookie quarterback Nick Foles. Oh, it was nasty, no question. But it paled in comparison to the response Schiano got a little over a week ago.

This could get worse. Since it is a night game, you just know the fans will be well-lubricated. It could get ugly. If Team Glazer is not embarrassed enough now, this potential debacle will be on NFL Network, who has a makeshift studio desk on field level. They will get to hear the crowd up close and personal.

Quarterbacking: Joe has nothing against Mike Glennon. Great guy. Has some talent at quarterback. But if you think Glennon can get the Bucs to the Promised Land, either you are looking at the world through pewter and red glasses or you are a card-carrying member of the Mike Glennon Mob.

Glennon is a nice quarterback. A backup quarterback right now. With so many stud quarterbacks coming out of the draft next year, Joe would be a little surprised if the Bucs did not draft another QB to groom as the franchise guy next year. Imagine the possibilities if you are the new Bucs coach. You get to pick the quarterback you want to grow with. Not too many teams will afford a coach that opportunity.

Schiano may not have lost Bucs publicly: The Bucs are still playing hard. Still in games. But Schiano said a few things yesterday that made Joe believe the players have, for the most part, tuned him out. He talked about how he keeps repeating the same things week after week in order to stop the sloppy play and the penalties. Yet they continue to happen week after week.

That tells Joe Schiano and his 73 1/2 assistants are either talking to a bunch of wooden heads and/or they aren’t listening. If they intentionally are not listening, then Schiano’s words go in one ear and out the other.

Listless endorsement: Reporters approached candid Mike Williams, asking about Schiano’s decision to go for a field goal with five minutes left in the game and the Bucs down 14 points. It was controversial at the time. Rather than saying, “Yeah, I was good with what coach did,” Williams said in so many words, he doesn’t make those decisions and that is why Team Glazer hires coaches.

Williams routinely is quick to defend his teammates. So Williams’ less than giddy endorsement of Schiano kicking the field goal made Joe’s eyebrows raise.

Implosion: Former Bucs guard Jorge Diaz called the Bucs’ sloppy playyesterday a “total implosion.” It’s hard to argue.

This is what drives Joe crazy about the New Schiano Order. He is supposed to be such a disciplinarian yet his team plays so ill-disciplined. To Joe, that is another sign the Bucs aren’t exactly giving Schiano and his 69 coaches their full attention. In other words, they are starting to check out.

Another back: Some Bucs fans believe Schiano is running stud running back Doug Martin into the ground. That’s not an absurd theory. Running backs have limited tread on the tires.

So when Martin hurt his shoulder trying to haul in a pass near the goal line, Joe, and likely many Bucs fans, were pleasantly surprised to see backup Mike James run with some authority and speed and a little shiftiness. If anything else, it makes one wonder why James doesn’t get the ball more in order to spell Martin a few times a game to keep him fresh.

What was also neat was James locking up a blitzing defender in order for Glennon to make a key completion. Perhaps if and when Martin comes back (no, he should not play Thursday night with a bum shoulder), James will still earn more snaps, thus keeping some tread on Martin’s tires.

Going for three: Initially, Joe was beside himself when Schiano, with five minutes left and down by 14, decided to go for a field goal. Sure, players with their heads up their arses committing penalties pushed the Bucs to a 4th-and-23 corner, but at the time, Joe was lobbying for a Hail Mary. The Bucs needed seven.

But Schiano’s reasoning was sound on second thought. He noted that the Bucs had a 10 percent chance of getting six. So kick the field goal, hold the Dixie Chicks, score and recover an onside kick. It nearly played out the way Schiano envisioned. Except for recovering the onside kick — another field goal and the late touchdown.

Doing it right: Schiano said after the game he believes he and his coaching staff do things right. Well, if that is the case, how do losses mount week after week after week after week for nearly a full three months of NFL play?

The definition of insanity is going the same thing over and over while expecting a different result.

No return: The way a No. 3 receiver burned the Bucs, and how the Bucs (with a week to prepare) facing an injury-ravaged Dixie Chicks, got completely taken out of the game in the first half. It was as if the Bucs were playing the 1978 Steelers. Joe would have thought without Julio Jones and without Roddy White, the Dixie Chicks would be stymied offensively. Instead, the Dixie Chicks offense sliced through the Bucs defense like a butcher.

If ever the Bucs were facing a winnable game, it was yesterday. Instead of winning, they got spanked. Joe’s going to guess that game sealed the fate of Schiano.

What’s up with the penalties?: Joe will ask again, how can a man like Schiano, who preaches discipline like a priest trumpets abstinence, lead a team that plays so sloppy and undisciplined? Yesterday, the Bucs committed 11 penalties. That simply is unacceptable and suggests to Joe some Bucs are tuning out Coach Toes-On-The-Line.

Sackless: The Dixie Chicks had a makeshift offensive line as well. What can Joe say when a team is so desperate, human turnstile Jeremy Trueblood started? And how many sacks did the Bucs defensive linemen tally yesterday? Big fat goose egg. None. The Bucs’ defensive line has a grand total of six sacks through six games. That is inexcusable, especially playing what the Dixie Chicks called an offensive line yesterday.

It is high time someone issues an Amber Alert for Da’Quan Bowers.

Around the NFL

Colts: Well, well, well. In a big game, Peyton Manning watched his opposing quarterback win. This time it was rising star Andrew Luck and his ugly neckbeard. Luck really is the complete package. He’s almost as good as Aaron Rodgers. Almost.

Seahawks: They just keep on rolling. If it isn’t Russell Wilson it is Marshawn Lynch or Richard Sherman. Studs all up and down the lineup. Is there a better team in the NFC? The Bucs head to Seattle in two weeks.

Carolina: Simply crushed a lesser team in the Rams. That’s what good team do. Steve Smith isn’t yet over the hill, and damn those linebackers. If Cam Newton gets rolling Thursday night against the Bucs, look out.

Bengals: Mock Andy Dalton all you want. He is in the process of leading the Bengals to the playoffs for the third time in his three-year career. Meanwhile Josh Freeman will be playoff-less as he finishes his fifth year as a pro.

Chargers: No surprise the Bolts beat the lowly Jags, but man, Ken Whisenhunt has really turned around Philip Rivers’ career.

Bills: Could Buffalo, with a rookie quarterback, make a run at the playoffs? Still pretty early but still pretty impressive what the Bills are doing.

Jets: Man, there just is no figuring out the Jets. A strong team one week, a weak kitten the next. Joe had to laugh how the Jets beat Belicheat in overtime and the gall Belicheat had to scream his team was hosed by the zebras. The nerve!

Cowboys: So Tony Romo has the Cowboys in first place in perhaps the worst division in the NFL? Color Joe unimpressed.

Redskins: You can tell Rod Marinelli is nowhere near Chicago any longer if the beat up Redskins can hang 45 on the Bears. RGIII just had a lights out day.

49ers: After a hiccup earlier this season, they are rolling again. This despite Colin Kaepernick really have a few pedestrian games of late. Wonder if Jim Harbaugh allows Kaepernick to kiss his biceps if he doesn’t throw for 200 yards?

Packers: The team to beat in the NFC North, it really is that simple, especially now that the Packers offense is a more diverse. Oh, and the Packers are winning despite not having Clay Matthews available with an injury. Impressive.

Chiefs: Local guy Dexter McCluster (former Largo High teammate of Leonard Johnson’s) had a great game and the Chiefs’ strong defense came up big when they needed it. The Bucs could very well be the 2014 version of the Chiefs with the right coach.

Steelers: The demise of the Steelers was greatly exaggerated. The Men of Steel disposed of Joe Flacco and the Crows yesterday. The Steelers won’t make the playoffs, but Joe loves how a hardarse like Mike Tomlin knows how to push the right buttons unlike some other self-professed disciplinarian locally.

Non-NFL thoughts:

1) Not sure how Bucs rock star general manager Mark Dominik or anyone could pull this off, but Joe would be willing to do whatever it takes to get the first pick in the 2015 draft to land Jameis Winston. This guy is unreal. Imagine Dominik crafting a savvy plan to start loading up on draft picks to build up ammunition to make such a move. Pull a Mike Ditka if you have to.

2) Speaking of quarterbacks in the draft, there will be loads of them in 2014. Joe can see the Bucs, if a new head coach gives his blessing, drafting, say, Jake Matthews in the first round (the Bucs’ offensive line truly needs an upgrade) and then trading back into late in the first round (i.e. Doug Martin) and nabbing Johnny Football.

3) Joe had recently stated Florida State’s defense is overrated. Mea culpa. They are not. How they thrashed Clemson Saturday was a thing of beauty. It was like the old Florida State when Derrick Brooks and Chris Weinke and Deion Sanders played.

4) Before the season if someone would have told Joe that Missouri would beat Florida and Vandy would beat Georgia on the same day, Joe would have thought that person was on drugs.

5) Johnny Football damned near pulled off another miracle. Had to leave the game with a banged up shoulder but came back to run in the go-ahead touchdown for the Aggies. Then that sieve of a defense allowed Auburn to win the game. Damn, Johnny Football is fun to watch.

6) Remember the name “Jordan Lynch.”

7) OK you draftniks, Joe has a homework assignment for you. Study up on a guy named Jimmy Garoppolo. Google is your friend. Now go!

8) Joe is simply exhausted more than happy that the Cardinals advanced to yet another World Series. As much as Joe hates the BlowSux and this nonsense of stepping out of the batter’s box each and every pitch, Joe isn’t sure he can bear watching the Fall Classic.

9) Joe promises he will never make fun of Lance Lynn again. Joe’s target of wrath and scorn, Lynn may have pitched the game of his life in winning Game 3 of the NLCS. He (finally) did something to advance the Redbirds to four wins from a title. So Joe will shut up about the guy. For good.

10) Casual baseball fans, in about a week, there is a 25 percent chance Michael Wacha will be a household name.

Mike Glennon looks like a solid football player. He’s performing admirably after being placed in a brutally tough spot. Glennon’s a third-round pick with limited talent, but he’s maximizing that talent pretty well. The weekly rookie mistakes are understandable.

But the Bucs have a serious crisis at quarterback. You can’t win a Super Bowl with the fourth best quarterback in the division. (Forget for a moment the Bucs have the fourth-best head coach in the NFC South.)

Cam Newton is 24. Matt Ryan is 28. Drew Brees is a healthy 34.

If the Bucs want to win anytime soon, then they need to bag a true franchise quarterback or a rookie with that kind of potential.

Team Glazer could approach that goal in various ways. Joe’s pretty darn sure Greg Schiano will not get a crack at a third QB. Team Glazer could woo a head coach with the promise that the new chief can pick his own QB on his terms. Not every job opening around the league brings that kind of power.

The thing that really annoys Joe, and what will be the noose around the neck of Bucs commander Greg Schiano is that for a guy who preaches, demands discipline, his team plays so undisciplined.

Schiano, on the Buccaneers Radio Network, spoke about “self-inflicted” penalties that killed a drive that could have pulled the Bucs within seven points late in the game. Disciplined teams don’t do this. Pat Yasinskas of ESPN.com cobbled together some of Schiano’s postgame words.

“It’s been a long time since a team I coached had that same issue,’’ Schiano said. “Put it on me to get that fixed. We had 11 penalties, six of them in Atlanta territory and four in the red zone. I think we do all the right things and it’s worked over the years, yet it’s not working right now. We’ve got to re-examine that.’’

Re-examine? You have, what, 86 coaches on staff and had since the last week of July to figure out how to cut down on penalties and now, in late October, you may have to revisit this? Didn’t you have any time during the bye week to re-examine?

“When teams are having penalties, that’s a collective coaching and playing issue,” Schiano said. “We’ve got to get it fixed. I’m frustrated because I’ve said that standing at this [microphone] before.”

Sadly, both for Bucs fans and Schiano, if you say you are going to correct things, yet those things still occur, yes, it is both a coaches issue and a players issue. One, the coaches, for whatever reason, aren’t getting through players’ thick skulls that they need to use their heads, or, the players can’t figure this out because of aforementioned thick skulls.

Again, Joe can’t see a scenario where Schiano returns for the 2014 season, barring a six-game winning streak. But just as Team Glazer may have a housecleaning of the coaching staff, there may be a third purge of players in the past five seasons.

Imagine you are Team Glazer and you just spent a quarter of a billion dollars — enough to buy an NHL team — on players’ salaries over the past couple of season, and what you get for your massive investment is zero wins in 2013.

Zero!

One of the coolest cats in the Bucs locker room, Mike Williams, is always open and frank with reporters. He’s often one of the first to come to the defense of teammates.

Joe remembers last year how Williams came to the passionate defense of Bucs then-franchise quarterback Josh Freeman and his less than stellar completion percentage. Williams said wide receivers deserved plenty of blame because they had to make sure they were on the same page as Freeman on each and every pass play.

Williams even took heat off of Bucs quarterback Mike Glennon when the Bucs rookie was named starter, saying, “It’s not like [Glennon] has never practiced with the first team.”

After today”s game, recounted by Pat Yasinskas of ESPN, Williams seemed evasive when asked about Bucs commander Greg Schiano not going for a touchdown on four-and-23 with five minutes left and the Bucs trailing by two touchdowns.

Don’t ask me: None of Schiano’s players questioned the call to kick the field goal, but wide receiver Mike Williams had the best quote: “I just block, catch balls and try to get touchdowns. That’s my job. I can’t make the calls. That was his call and that was the right call for him at that time.’’

It sure seems like Williams wanted to go for the touchdown, but for the same of harmony in the locker room and perhaps to protect Schiano, he’s biting his tongue.

Sooner or later there will be more chirping from within the locker room is the losses mount. From what Joe understands, there already are frayed nerves. Not yet publicly, at least, not at the coaching staff.

Former Buccaneer Jorge Diaz saw little silver lining in the Bucs’ performance in Atlanta

“Matty Ice” Ryan was extraordinarily efficient today against the Bucs’ high-paid secondary. Joe’s certain the Falcons’ signal caller hasn’t had many 20-for-26 days in his career like he did this afternoon.

The sackless Bucs barely breathed on Ryan, as Joe noted earlier.

But the Bucs also beat themselves with 11 penalties and stupid mistakes and blunders. Former Bucs guard Jorge Diaz called it a “total implosion” by Tampa Bay on the FOX local postgame.  

Yes, it was an implosion, but Joe thinks it’s important to not pretend the Bucs beat themselves. The Falcons were efficient early and dominated the first half with a decimated offense.

These are very sad times.

Mike James tries to power his way to a touchdown in the second half of the Bucs’ loss to the Dixie Chicks today.

The word in the inner circles of the NFL is that the Bucs don’t have a quality running back other than Doug Martin. Bucs fans won’t necessarily disagree. That’s why Bucs fans were quickly pulling up their Bucs rosters on their smartphones to find out just who this mysterious No. 25 was.

Surely it couldn’t have been troubled Aqib Talib?

No, it was Mike James, you know, the running back from Miami that was a third-day draft pick? (Damn that Bucs rock star general manager Mark Dominik and his draft picks.)

With Martin suffering a shoulder injury deep in Dixie Chicks territory in the third quarter, James came in and got some needed yards up the middle to set up a one-yard pass to Vincent Jackson that gave the Bucs their first touchdown recorded in the second half this season (!).

James would finish with 45 yards on 14 carries, including a strong run for three yards on a critical 4th-and-1 inside the Dixie Chicks-5. Until the status of Martin for Thursday is known, it appears James very well could be the Bucs starting tailback against Carolina.

“I just wanted to do a solid job on pass protection and moving the ball and put something together and get us a win,” James said. He did just that; James had a key block on a blitz that kept a drive alive in the fourth quarter.

Bucs quarterback Mike Glennon seemed happy with how James took over for Martin.

“Mike James really stepped up,” Glennon told the Buccaneers Radio Network. “I’m not sure what happened with Doug, but Mike did a great job. He did a lot of things that were unnoticed. He picked up blitzes or we never would have had a touchdown from Vincent Jackson.”

James’ play didn’t come as a surprise to Schiano, also speaking on the Buccaneers Radio Network.

“Mike has been showing in the last few weeks that he is ready to be an NFL running back,” Schiano said. “We needed him today.”

Joe was outraged when Bucs coach Greg Schiano decided to play percentages and go for a late field goal when the Bucs needed 14 points to tie the game with five minutes left in the final quarter in today’s gut-punching loss to the Dixie Chicks.

At first, Joe hit the ceiling and could not believe that Schiano would suddenly go all French Army on the Dixie Chicks, especially since his job is on the line. The Tampa Bay voice of reason, columnist Joe Henderson of the Tampa Tribune, took to Twitter and believed that move signaled the end of the Greg Schiano Era in Tampa Bay.

@JHendersonTBO: IMO, whatever belief remained in Schiano by this town vanished with a FG that left #Bucs still needing 2 possessions in 5 minutes

This Joe was right with Henderson until he heard Schiano explain his position on the Buccaneers Radio Network.

“We were going for a score to make it one-score game,” Schiano said. “Then we self-inflict. Twice on fourth down. The odds of us doing anything [scoring a touchdown] is maybe 10 percent. If we could make it an 11-point game, we can score and get an onside kick which is what we did. Unfortunately, we didn’t get the onside kick.”

Joe will have more on the self-infliction a bit later. Schiano, Joe must admit, has a point. The Bucs needed 23 yards and the Dixie Chicks would have just put everyone in the end zone or on the goal line to defend against a touchdown. Not good odds.

Rather than being PO’ed at the decision, in retrospect, Joe is more than PO’ed at the sloppy play coming from a team coached by a self-proclaimed toes-on-the-line disciplinarian.

Joe shook his head when Greg Schiano expressed his frustration during his post-debacle news conference this afternoon.

Schiano talked about how he has to thoroughly evaluate the Bucs’ woes and make adjustments but “I think we do all the right things,” Schiano said of his coaching staff’s preparation.

Joe knows it’s irrelevant what Schiano says about the mess of 0-6. But c’mon, Coach. Please don’t embarrass yourself and the franchise and say, “I think we do all the right things.”

Schiano just led a complete re-evaluation of the entire operation out of the bye week and got roasted in back-to-back games by losing football teams.

Joe’s comfortable stating the Bucs are doing all the wrong things.