"You know Mr. Glazer, maybe if we gave Chris Hovan some more facepaint to use, he could have played the two-gap system better? I dunno."

Let this be known as the second time in the history of JoeBucsFan.com that Joe has linked to a John Romano column.

The columnist for the St. Petersburg Times came out firing last night (Joe was awake when the column was posted) at the Bucs hierarchy, namely general manager Mark Dominik and coach Raheem the Dream as the problem with the Bucs, not deposed defensive coordinator Jim Bates.

Romano even dares to suggest that the move to demote Bates smacks of hypocrisy.

Have Morris and Dominik done better in their jobs than Bates did in his?

Even if you say the problem with Bates was more philosophy than performance, the hiring was still a mistake. You don’t hand a guy a roster that was built for the Tampa 2, and then tell him he’s free to run a completely different scheme. And then have the audacity to blame him when it doesn’t work.

The issue today is credibility. Because of their youth and inexperience, Dominik and Morris started with very little. And 10 months later, they have even less.

Whoa!

As readers will notice later this morning, Joe too finds the timing of the move a bit curious if not a desperate move. While two coordinators never making it past Thanksgiving is bad, at least Dominik and Raheem the Dream had the common sense to cut their losses and get rid of both Bates and previously, offensive coordinator Jeff Jagodzinski.

The too-long nightmare of Bucs fans has come to an end.

Disgusted with how the Bucs rush defense — dead last in the NFL — was getting lit up game after game after game and seeing zero improvement since the season began, Bucs coach Raheem Morris and general manager Mark Dominik decided to “relieve” defensive coordinator Jim Bates of his duties, so reports the Mad Twitterer Rick Stroud of the St. Petersburg Times.

Bates, 63, will remain with the team at least through the end of the season in a consulting role, breaking down film and helping Morris on game day from the coaching box.

Morris is expected to immediately return the Bucs’ to their Tampa Two scheme, which will allow their undersized defensive linemen to take advantage of their quickness rather than penalize them for a lack of size.

Morris and general manager Mark Dominik met until late Monday to discuss the organizational shift, one day after the Bucs were routed by the unbeaten New Orleans Saints 38-7, one of the worst home defeats in club history.

Joe has been clamoring for this for the past few weeks. Long before the season began, NFL people with far more knowledge of football than Joe, including Warren Sapp and Pat Kirwan, banged the drum long and loud that Jim Bates’s system would not work with the personel he had.

Kirwan and Sapp’s words proved to be prophetic. As the stylish “Backwards Hat,” aka Rick Brown of the Lakeland Ledger pointed out, the Bucs were putrid beyond words against the run and there was no hope in sight of them getting any better.

The Bucs have held a team to fewer than 100 yards just once this year. That was the Philadelphia game, when the Eagles passed their way to a 33-14 victory.

The past three weeks have been the worst for the Bucs. Green Bay, Miami and New Orleans averaged 184 yards on the ground.

As Joe noted several times, if Warren Sapp knew this wouldn’t work, if Pat Kirwan knew this wouldn’t work, if Joe could see it was a freaking disaster, how come Bates couldn’t?

Former Bucs DE Steve White

By STEVE WHITE
JoeBucsFan.com analyst

Steve White spent every season of the Tony Dungy era playing defensive end for the Bucs. He’s spent countless hours in the film room with the likes of Warren Sapp, Rod Marinelli and more. Joe is humbled to now have White, also a published author and blogger, as part of the JoeBucsFan.com team. Below is White’s weekly Bull Rush column that breaks down all things defensive line. It’s simply a can’t-miss read for the hardcore Bucs fan.

This is going to be a post about perception versus reality.

Let’s start off with the perception that our defensive line was “tossed around like rag dolls” yesterday because the Saints had success running the ball. Well, the reality is that’s a crock of crap.

You want to know who was to blame for the Saints running the ball down our throats in the second half yesterday? Then go check out my other post where I name names on each and every big run.

Next up is the perception that we regressed up front yesterday. Once again that was a crock.

Now I am sure many Bucs fans who have been hearing BS analysis of our defense all year will just assume this to be the case when our defense doesn’t perform well. But the reality is that Jimmy Wilkerson had a good day yesterday, Roy Miller improved yesterday (especially on his pass rush), Greg (Stylez) White was pass rushing his ass off in limited reps and hit Brees several times, Hovan played at least as well as he has played all year, and even Ryan Sims had a couple of good pass rushes.

Uhmmm, NewsFlash folks, this WAS the Saints and Drew Brees we were playing yesterday, not a bunch of slappys.

I think a lot of people started buying into a narrative not grounded in reality. That our team was all of a sudden resurgent with Josh Freeman at quarterback.

The truth is we beat the Packers and were close to beating the Dolphins largely because our special teams had several big plays in both of those games. Without those big plays in the kicking game, what you saw yesterday is pretty much who we are as a team when we play somebody like the Saints. Love it or hate it, doesn’t change that fact.

Were there things we could have done better? Of course. That’s true after every game. But our guys weren’t quote unquote “bitch slapped” upfront by any means. We just had guys in the wrong gaps and, as usual, some missed tackles.

Another perception is that we need to start playing our young players to give us a spark or to see what they have.

The reality is that our young players have already been playing a lot most of the season. Tim Crowder, Michael Bennett and Roy Miller have all logged plenty of playing time and Kyle Moore, now that he is healthy ,is getting his fair share, too. And let me tell you something folks, I don’t see any of those guys as a major upgrade to the people they are behind.

But now comes a time in this season where the question is,’Where do we want to go from here?’ Does the coaching staff want to do their best to win the final games? Or are they going to focus on just giving the young guys work.

Hell, how about doing both?

Here are the things we need to do up front going forward to improve as a defense and also to get a look at our young guys:

1. Put our weak tackle over the center at least some of the time during the game. I have called for this repeatedly and it makes no sense not to at least do it on some of our snaps to see if it works. For the record, I KNOW it works.

2. Leave Jimmy Wilkerson at left end on 3rd-and-long situations. And Let Roy Miller and Kyle Moore alternate inside as pass rushers on third down. Look, our starting defensive ends have the majority of our sacks this year. It makes no sense to waste Wilkerson rushing inside on every third down when Bennett and Crowder are not as good as rushing the right tackle as he is. On the other hand, it’s obvious that both Miller and Moore are part of the Bucs long term plans. So stick those guys in there and see what they can give you as pass rushers.

3. Throw the defensive alignment with three D-linemen on one side of the center in pass rushing situations out of the playbook. It doesn’t work. And even the pass rush games we try to run off that look take too damn long to come home.

4. Call more pass rush games on 3rd-and-medium. That way you not only give our guys more game time experience running these games, which should help them get better at setting them up, but it also helps to guard against a team trying to run a draw.

5. Blitz on first down. We have guys that can rush the passer. And I realize that everybody thinks that the Packers game was a fluke, but once again that is perception vs. reality. If we can get teams in 2nd-and-long and 3rd-and-long situations, then it will play to the strengths of our defensive line. It’s a lot harder to get to the quarterback on 3rd-and-4 than it is when it’s 3rd-and-12, that much is for sure.

Now the rest of our schedule features only one team that has a winning record, that being the Saints (Part 2). To me that means most of those games are legitimate opportunities for a win.

The question in my mind will be whether our coaching staff makes adjustments and goes for the wins, or just throws in the towel in an effort to keep the heat off themselves and point the fingers at the players. I am certainly hoping for the former.

Sam Rosen and Tim Ryan explain why the Bucs sucked yesterday.

If you’re up for some more depression, courtesy of your favorite football team, you can click on this link from the Times-Picayune, the main newspaper out of New Orleans.

The story is largely about how Saints fans are traveling with their undefeated team. And they filled plenty of good seats yesterday at the CITS.

“It felt like a home game out there,” Saints defensive back Usama Young said.

Yuck!

For those who cannot get enough misery… from FoxSports.com.

Already this morning Joe brought you the news about the brutal Bucs defense and its disgusting new franchise record.

At the rate the Bucs allow offenses to manhandle them up front, the Bucs are approaching another putrid record, so notes eye-RAH! Kaufman of the Tampa Tribune via the TBO Bucs Twitter account.

The Bucs have already allowed 22 TD passes, seven less than the team record of 29 set in 1989, when Ray Perkins stalked the sidelines.

It would help the Bucs pass defense if the front line could flush a quarterback, say, once a game. With the exception of the win over the Packers (and the worst offensive line in football), opposing quarterbacks have so much time against the Bucs’ weak defensive line, they can order a pizza and still have a clean uniform when the delivery guy shows up.

Antonio Bryant, fresh off his three-catch return to the Bucs starting lineup against the Saints yesterday, is not a happy guy when it comes to the Bucs playcalling.

Tom Balog, beat writer for the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, had a post-game chat with Bryant, where the Bucs franchise player was frustrated by the lack of balls thrown downfield against a depleted Saints secondary.

Bucs wide receivers caught just four balls.

“He’s developing. Right now it just seems that’s what we’re going out there doing _ developing Josh more than really trying to compete,” Bryant said. …

”For the two weeks I sat out, it was like ‘Bombs away,’ ” Bryant said. “Then today it’s kind of like very, very conservative.

 ”I never felt like we made the adjustments we could have made, to go there and make the plays down the field to beat them deep. Especially with the situation given. They weren’t even in their first team completely. That was kind of weird to me. But it is, what it is.”

Joe can’t disagree completely with Bryant, but it’s just way over the line to come out and say your offensive coordinator and coaching staff might not be doing all they can to win.

Bryant’s got six games left in his Bucs contract. It’s hard to imagine a scenario that has him returning to Tampa Bay.

Joe has absolutely nothing against Chris Hovan. Nothing. He’s a standup guy.

The few times Joe has spoken with Hovan, the Bucs defensive tackle has always been pleasant and kind to Joe. So this is not a jab at Hovan, the person.

Joe, as he is wont to do first-thing to start the week, is to read Peter King’s Monday Morning Quarterback column on SI.com. King had an interesting nugget on Hovan.

Nice camera work, FOX, at Tampa Bay, showing professional-wrestler-lookalike Chris Hovan putting eye-black on his young son on the field before Bucs-Saints.

Isn’t this facepaint nonsense getting a bit juvenile? Look, it’s one thing if Hovan and his teammates were competing or dominating. Then putting on the facepaint and pretending to be Animal or Chief Osceola would be kind of cool in a weird way.

But the way the Bucs defensive line is getting bitchslapped, well, this facepaint stunt is a joke.

“Yeah, man. I’m going to put the warpaint on and go to battle! This facepaint really brings out the warrior in me! Instead of getting thrown back five yards, I’ll only get blasted off the line three yards play after play after play after play like a ragdoll that’s been chewed up by the neighbor’s mongrel. Oh, YEAH!!!”

Stop! STOP IT! Stop it now! Enough with the facepaint. Worry about your job first and when you start doing that properly, then you can go all Ultimate Warrior on the NFL.

Until then, leave the makeup to the lady who got her face eaten by a monkey.

Alex Loeb and Cris Carter break down the Bucs ugly loss to the Saints. In short, Carter says, do not blame Josh Freeman.

Geno Hayes had some rough moments against the Saints

Former Bucs defensive end Steve White, a JoeBucsFan.com analyst, is not one for sound bites and sweeping generalizations.

He’s an Xs and Os guy, which meands he studies great plays and blown plays in full detail before assigning blame and heaping praise.

On his personal blog, White takes a deep look inside six Saints running plays that racked up 104 yards and a touchdown against the Bucs. If you crave Xs and Os, you’re going to love it. 

Here’s a snippet from a Saints third-quarter run:

Defensively our defensive line was in a strong right call which meant that our right end, Crowder, was in a head up position initially on the tight end. The right defensive tackle, Chris Hovan, was in the B gap outside of the left guard, the weak tackle, Ryan Sims was head up on the right guard, and Jimmy Wilkerson was lined up outside of the right tackle. The defensive call told both Crowder and Hovan to slant inside. We were in nickel defense with Ronde Barber on the inside receiver on the defensive right side of the formation and Torrie Cox lined up at corner to that side. And we were in some form of cover 2 with both safeties deep.

On the snap of the football the receivers on the right side of the formation both blocked the Cox and Barber. The tight end blocked down on the slanting Crowder. The left tackle pulled outside of the tight end. The left guard and center double teamed the slanting Hovan, the right guard blocked inside on Sims and the right tackle went up to the safety.

Now on this play when the tackle pulls Barrett Ruud has to spill that block which he did a good job of. But then Geno Hayes has to be fast over the top of that block in order to make the tackle. He took a bad angle and missed the tackle so instead of holding the running back, Pierre Thomas to about a 3 or 4 yard gain it ended up being an 18-yard gain.

Culprit: Geno Hayes

Fans can enjoy White’s weekly Bull Rush column, a breakdown of all things defensive line, tonight or tomorrow right here at JoeBucsFan.com.

While the Bucs defensive line looking more like a team Joe sees on a Friday night than he expects to see on a Sunday afternoon, there were teams helping out the Bucs in the long run.

No, they weren’t offering their castoffs as Bucs starters up front. But they were winning.

With the Lions and Raiders pulling out wins yesterday, it left the Bucs tied with Cleveland and St. Louis for the worst record in the NFL and the coveted spot of possessing the first pick in next spring’s NFL draft.

Even, with tiebreakers, the Bucs finished tied with Cleveland and St. Louis and have the third pick in the draft, the Bucs have a good shot of landing a defensive lineman.

The Browns really have no talent at the offensive skill position spots while St. Louis has drafted defense the past couple of years with their first pick, including a defensive lineman.

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Embattled Bucs defensive coordinator Jim Bates watches his dismal defense set a Bucs franchise record yesterday.

The Bucs defensive front line slept well last night Joe is confident. Because they helped set a Bucs franchise record.

The Bucs have had some miserable teams. The original Bucs lost their first 26 games.

There was the memorable Leeman Bennett era.

There was the equally wretched Ray Perkins era.

And who could forget the vaunted Richard Williamson regime?

Yet none of these Bucs teams — none! — allowed 25 or more points in six consecutive games. Six!!!

Job well done my friends, well done. Hope the brutal Bucs are happy, specifically that defensive front. The Saints were blowing those clowns off the ball as if the Saints were playing Armwood High School.

While Joe is on the subject of the dismal defense, where the hell have the fundamentals gone? Too many times Joe witnessed Bucs “defenders,” often defensive backs, just hit a ballcarrier and never trying to wrap up, never attempting to put their arms around the ballcarrier.

Hell, even Joe learned in the fourth grade the proper technique of tackling: A would-be tackler must wrap his arms around the ballcarrier as if it’s a scantily-clad Rachel Watson trying to run away.

Too many clowns trying to get on “All Jacked Up” or whatever the hell that is on BSPN. Instead, the only ones getting jacked are the guys who don’t even know what most grade school football players know how to do: tackle.

No need to wait up to see a fraction of Saints-Bucs lowlights from the local news that the NFL Network brings you long before it’s time to go to bed.

Naturally, Joe serves them up for you.

First up are the lowlights replete with the calls of Gene Deckerhoff. Also, the lone bright spot for the Bucs: Michael Clayton’s touchdown catch.

Here’s a video of Josh Freeman’s plays, and another of his nasty fumble that seemed to open the floodgates. Freeman talks about his game in his press conference, courtesy of Buccaneers.com.

Also from Buccaneers.com, the press conference of Raheem the Dream.

Joe likes and respects Cadillac Williams. So it’s with a heavy heart Joe types this post.

Caddy’s got 450 yards through 10 games, averaging just 3.8 yards per carry, plus 18 catches. Since opening day (97 yards on 13 carries) the guy’s been a below average running back.

For a little perspective, Warrick Dunn — the guy the Bucs and apparently every NFL team thinks is washed up — racked up 786 yards on the ground last year (4.2 yards per carry) and 47 catches. There’s a good chance Cadillac won’t hit those numbers this season.

Given Cadillac’s history of injury and the Bucs’ rebuilding, maybe it’s time to move on.

Joe’s not 100 percent sure. But Joe would like to really see much more of what Derrick Ward can do, maybe even Kareem Huggins, and get a clearer picture of the Bucs’ needs in the backfield entering the 2010 draft and free agency. 

For all you sadistic negaholics expecting Joe to unload on Josh Freeman for a horrendous outing against the Saints, it’s not going to happen.

All the mistakes he’s making are to be expected. Just because the kid displayed Superman qualities in his first two games, that doesn’t mean he’s not a 21-year-old rookie who is sure to stink up the field at times.

The real thing to watch is whether Freeman keeps repeating the same errors over and over. Some of that’s on him; some of that’s on coaching.

Freeman’s fumble today on the scramble deep in the Bucs’ end is something he should have corrected by now. Tuck the damn ball or throw it away. Joe’s sure Freeman would be the first to admit that, considering his poor ball protection in Miami.

The interceptions? Joe can live with them, as long as he improves over the final six games.

Yes, Freeman was the heralded “bust-in-waiting,” as Joe called him before in the weeks leading up to draft day until about July 1. But that’s an outdated moniker.

Now he’s the rookie starter. And Joe’s just watching and waiting like every other Bucs fan.

There won’t be many, if any, answers until after next season.

Joe’s was lobbying for Maurice Stovall to get the start against the Saints all week. The guy was proving himself to be dangerous, reliable — at least more reliable than Michael Clayton — and developing chemistry with Josh Freeman.

Stovall had no receptions today and really didn’t seem to be in the game plan, despite his athleticism and inexperienced cornerbacks lining up for the Saints.

Why?

Raheem The Dream himself has said this season (especially the second half) is about giving young guys a chance to play and evaluating what they can do. The head coach also has said repeatedly that players would be rewarded for their performance.

Congrats to Clayton today for his third touchdown in his last 39 games. …But it’s time he be sat in favor of Stovall.

All-around good guy Earnest Graham spoke to the Buccaneers Radio Network after the game and claimed the offense let the defense and,in turn, the Bucs down in the pasting by the Saints.

“We had to control the ball and not let our defense back on the field,” Graham said. “That’s the NFL for you. e had a chance to go into halftime with momentum and we didn’t. We can’t let a team like [New Orleans] have momentum.”

Graham all but said the Bucs had to play a perfect game to beat New Orleans.

“We played a great team today,” Graham said. “We needed to make a lot of plays. I’ve seen quarterbacks who have been in this league for a few years turn the ball over on this team.

“We have to try to keep trying to get better. We are not allowed to lay down.”

Joe believes someone has forgotten to tell the defensive line that.