Joe — and earlier his hcckey crazed sister Amanda— are getting stylish today about the Bucs uniform.

Seems as though someone named Ken Carbone writing for something called FastCompany.com has a problem with the Bucs helmets. So he decided to tinker with them.

Carbone is a fashion designer by trade, so he likely is not a football fan. So Carbone decides to go high school and redesign the Bucs helmet.

Joe can sum this up in one quick four-letter word: Fail.

I amplified the “Jolly Roger” feature of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers helmet to make it more telegenic while retaining the overall team color scheme.

Too much white on a potential illegal logo. Please remember that when the Bucs redesigned the helmet logo, Al Davis and the Raiders freaked out claiming copyright infringement.

Besides, when Joe looks at that logo that Carbone came up with, he can’t help but think of the Boca Ciega Pirates which the helmet is a virtual carbon copy of.

Last week, the gorgeous Jenny Dell of BSPN was wrong in her prediction the Bucs would lose. In Joe’s eyes, there’s not a damned thing wrong with Jenny. Click below to hear (and more importantly, see) what Jenny has to say about the Bucs this week.

Joe’s never liked orange more than when he saw it somewhat covering the Bucs cheerleaders on Sunday. So much so that Joe even has a slide show of pictures for you on the JoeBucsFan.com Features page! 

To complement the photos, Joe’s hockey-crazed sister Amanda Harris, has stepped away from the ice and offered her take on the Bucs (and the lovely Bucs cheerleaders) breaking out the creamsicles.

Enjoy Amanda’s offering, and you will be quite remiss to miss her intelligent, best-in-the-business Lightning coverage at JoeBoltsFan.com.

Joe hopes Roy Miller can duplicate his performance against the Packers when the Bucs play at Miami this weekend.

Joe was geeked to see the Bucs rack up six sacks Sunday against the Packers.

Joe was also giddy to see the Bucs get two interceptions, one for a pick-six.

Joe was even more excited that the Bucs won. As often is the case, winning masks ills and the win Sunday hides the fact the Bucs defense still sucks, as pointed out by eye-RAH! Kaufman of the Tampa Tribune via TBO.com’s Bucs Twitter account.

For the first time since the 2-14 debacle of 1986, the Bucs have allowed at least 28 points in four consecutive games.

In fact, to further Kaufman’s point, only once this season have the Bucs not given up at least 28 points, and that was to the worthless Redskins.

Sorry, but a team — or defense — that should be improving as some suggest is happening, doesn’t record a stat like that. Think about it: The Bucs has six sacks and two interceptions yet the defense still gave up 28 points.

How the Bucs handle a team like Miami that likes to run the ball more that it passes will say a lot about how the Bucs defense may be developing (or not).

Once again, the Bucs gave up monsterous chunks on the ground Sunday to the Packers who don’t have near the talent at running back as the Dolphins do.

On Sunday, Joe chatted with Associated Press sportswriter Mark Didtler, who offered an interesting take on Bucs head coach Raheem The Dream.

Many Bucs fans suggest Raheem The Dream should be replaced. Others, including a number of Tampa Tribune scribes, are of the belief that even if the Bucs finish 1-15, Raheem the Dream is on very thin ice.

Still, others believe that so long as Chucky is still on the Bucs payroll, Raheem the Dream will keep his gig.

Didtler is of the belief that Raheem the Dream is safe for at least the 2010 season. Why?

Didtler is confident that until the NFL owners and the NFLPA reach a settlement and agree to terms, Raheem the Dream needs not worry about his job.

“Why would the Glazers pay for a big-name coach if there’s a lockout?” Didtler rhetorically asked.

In short, Didler is expecting a lockout or some sort of labor impasse in 2011. Didtler makes a good point: What owner, including the Glazer Family, would hire a big-salaried, big-name coach if there is a chance said coach will do nothing more to collect his salary than play golf, fish and pick his nose?

Joey Porter missed practice Wednesday and is among the many injured Dolphins

The Bucs head across the state Sunday to play those nasty fish from Miami, led by their godfather in the front office: Bill Parcells.

The Tuna’s Dolphins are extraordinarily banged up, writes David J. Neal of the Miami Herald.

The wounded list is highlighted by top defensive players, including linebackers Joey Porter and Channing Crowder, plus nose tackle Jason Ferguson.  

After ambling to his locker, cornerback Vontae Davis insisted that the hip he injured in Sunday’s game was fine.

“The team we played last week didn’t have their starting left tackle out there, didn’t have a couple of [running] backs out there,” Sparano said. “Everybody loses somebody; it is not an excuse. We were fortunate last year that we didn’t have too many of those, and right now we have a couple of them.

“We are at the halfway point of the season, so you are going to have a few bumps.”

If the Bucs can somehow keep the Dolphins’ clock-chewing, down-your-throat rushing attack off the field — and it’s a big if — Josh Freeman and company will have a lot of opportunities against the Miami defense.

The Dolphins are allowing more than 25 points a game, practically an amazing feat of defensive ineptitude considering how they move the chains on offense.

Former Bucs QB Jeff Carlson

By JEFF CARLSON
JoeBucsFan.com analyst

Former Bucs quarterback Jeff Carlson writes the weekly QB Blast column here at JoeBucsFan.com. Joe is ecstatic to have him firing away. Carlson has TV gigs in the Bay area and trains quarterbacks of all ages via his company, America’s Best Quarterback.

A hearty congratulations to all involved in getting the “W” Sunday for the Bucs, no doubt.

Some things of note that point to good things ahead: Raheem Morris is maturing. He did not dare the media to write a story about why the Bucs drafted Josh Freeman, unlike earlier in the year when he got worked up over a good game from Michael Clayton, only to see Clayton fade back once again.

Morris also kept the win in perspective, knowing his Bucs must go back out there Sunday and they might not get quite as much help from the defense or special teams in the scoring column.

Did you see Freeman rolling out and making positive plays — by design?

Josh Johnson is slightly more mobile than No. 5, but couldn’t get movement from the pocket unless he was chased out. Good to know that Greg Olson is evolving as a play designer.

And speaking of evolving this offense, the Bucs need to bring Josh Johnson back into it on a regular basis and develop the most dynamic form of the “Wildcat” that the NFL has seen thus far.

The Philadelphia Eagles are losing games by leaving Michael Vick out of their offense and Johnson could bring a dimension to the Bucs that could help everyone.

ESPN The Magazine’s current issue has a long story about the amazing New Orleans Saints offense, but suffice it to say the entire point of the article is to show that if you get the other team’s linebackers to take one step in the wrong direction, you have a chance at success.

When teams have equal talent, which is what the draft and salary cap are supposed to create, deception and personnel mismatches become the biggest determinants for success.

If the Bucs put Johnson in motion from a receiver position (i.e. Ricky Williams), Freeman then has the option to give it to him or fake it to him. Either way it makes the linebackers take a step that way because of Johnson’s running ability, but what he has that no other player has (except Vick) is real passing ability. This piece of the puzzle unleashes mayhem on the defense, not to mention if Freeman takes off in the opposite direction of the motion with the run/pass option as well.

I don’t know how long it will take Olson to read this blog for the idea, but look for it somewhere down the road as other teams get a feel for Freeman’s assets and liabilities and start to take advantage.

When Tanard Jackson picked off Aaron Rodgers to end the game with his pick-six Sunday, Joe thought right away he should have taken a knee. The game was over.

Joe even saw roughly half of Jackson’s teammates waving frantically and pointing to the ground just after he caught the interception for him to hit the dirt.

It wasn’t a wise play, but Joe would hardly call that the stupidest play of the week like Jason Cole of Yahoo! Sports did.

There were many candidates this week, including Giants coach Tom Coughlin for his decision to run on third-and-goal late in the fourth quarter instead of passing (subsequently settling for a field goal) in New York’s eventual 21-20 loss to San Diego. Then there was Philadelphia coach Andy Reid’s decision to kick a field goal late in his team’s 20-16 loss to Dallas. New England escaped consideration by one second when Tom Brady’s last-second pass in the first half against Miami fell incomplete with the narrowest amount of time left to get a field goal. Perhaps one of those should win based on the fact that all of them involved people who are paid to break down situational football. However, Tampa Bay safety Tanard Jackson wins the dubious honor because he is the latest player to screw up an end-of-game interception situation. With the Bucs up by 3 points with 52 seconds remaining and Green Bay out of timeouts, Jackson intercepted Green Bay’s Aaron Rodgers and returned the ball 35 yards for a touchdown. Fun play, no doubt. However, if Jackson had simply fallen to the ground, the Bucs could have run one play, taken a knee and walked away from the game. Because Jackson scored, the Bucs had to go back out on the field for six more plays by the Packers. While some people will defend the move by saying Tampa Bay could have messed up the exchange as it was trying to take a knee, that’s less likely as Green Bay scoring twice. Further, Jackson exposed his teammates to unnecessary injury.

It was an exciting play to Joe and of course the crowd went crazy. Should Jackson had gone down to end the game? Sure. But hell, the Bucs were 0-7. What was the big harm?

The Web-only Bucs fan message boards and news Web site, Pewter Report.com, had one of its writers listen to the radio last night.

Andrew Scavelli tuned into Total Access on 620 WDAE-AM, a proud partner of JoeBucsFan.com, and heard Ronde Barber interviewed on the Buccaneers Radio Network program.

It seems Barber’s return for a touchdown after Geno Hayes’ blocked punt Sunday put Barber six TDs away from an NFL record he covets.

“I’ve been pretty closed about some of my goals, but one of my goals has been to be the all-time return leader in defensive touchdowns, and I’m two behind Rod Woodson and Darren Sharper,” Barber said. “It would be nice. I’ve just got to get on more punt blocks and I definitely have to have some more fortuitous bounces to get to 20 scores.”

The 13-year pro would surpass Deion Sanders’ NFL record of 19 for defensive and return game touchdowns, if he were to accomplish his goal.

Joe wishes Barber luck, although he probably doesn’t have enough years left in the game to break the record.

Joe finds it interesting that Barber says he’s “been closed about some of my goals.”

Is this the same guy who whined about negative media coverage toward him and the Buccaneers?

Ronde, just open up about your goals. Tops on your list likely is to make the Hall of Fame. Surely any talk from you about Bucs and the Hall of Fame would generate some feel-good media.

“The Professor,” John Clayton of BSPN hands out grades for NFC South teams. Not really surprising, he flunks the Bucs. Clayton explains.

Yesterday Joe noted how Raheem the Dream should insert Maurice Stovall into the lineup because we pretty much already know what Michael Clayton can do — or to be more exact, what he can’t do — but we’re still learning about Stovall.

In his Tuesday column on SI.com, King all but wrote the same thing. He didn’t mention Clayton or Stovall but he noted that the rest of the season should be one long tryout for younger players for the 2010 season.

Raheem Morris has his Bucs in perspective. It’s way too early to say they’ve turned their team around, but the one thing Morris knows in the wake of Tampa Bay’s 38-28 upset of the Packers is it’s too early to draw any conclusions.

This is a nice building block,” he told me, “but we’ve got a long way to go. A long way to go. The thing about this team is, they practice passionately. I’ve told them excuses won’t be tolerated, and they haven’t given any.”

I asked him if he’d started looking at the standings, and feared being another 1976 Bucs team — or the 2008 Lions. Tampa Bay was the last winless team in football before Sunday. “Never,” he said. “I didn’t worry about that. I worried about our effort, and it was always there.”

The Bucs now have to make sure they protect rookie quarterback Josh Freeman, who showed confidence and a live arm despite having a couple of frenetic plays against Green Bay. He’s the future. Tampa’s gone from being the third-oldest team in football to the fifth-youngest in one year, and the record shouldn’t be the goal. Player development should be.

It humbles Joe to know Peter King is on the same wavelength as Joe.

Josh Freeman's numbers passing from a shotgun formation were significantly better than his numbers taking the snap from center.

Joe is still geeked about the way rookie quarterback Josh Freeman played Sunday.

But Vacation Man of BSPN.com did some number crunching, well, a stat geek did it for him, and he came up with some alarming numbers on Freeman that Joe is confident Tony Sporano (“com’on Carm, I’ve been working with Sil at The Bing all day!”) will try to take advantage of.

Taking a snap from a shotgun formation, Freeman’s numbers were solid. He was 13 of 21 for 188 yards and three touchdowns without an interception.

Taking a snap from center, Freeman was Dilferesque, completing just 1 of 10 passes for 17 yards and an interception.

With three wideouts, Freeman was 7 of 12 for 121 yards. With just two wideouts, Freeman completed just 1 of 9 passes.

What’s this tell Joe? That Sporano (“I don’t know what you mean that I’m in the mafia Meadow? What are you trying to tell me little girl?”) will absolutely load up with eight or nine in the box to force the Bucs to max protect, which would force the Bucs to use just two receivers.

In case you haven’t noticed, today is Veteran’s Day. If you happen to be working today, please take a brief moment to think of those whose deeds have allowed us to bitch, moan and cheer about the Bucs, and remember those who are fighting for our right to drink beer at the CITS putting their lives on the line against those animals that behead people, fly planes into skyscrapers and shoot up army bases.

Today at One Buc Palace, Lt. Brian Brennan will be a special guest of Bucs general manager Mark Dominik and the Bucs. Brennan will have VIP status today, get to sit in on film sessions and watch practice.

Here’s Brennan’s story, courtesy of CBS News. Pretty inspiring.

Thanks to all the vets out there. Why not do as Joe does? Joe walks in each Veteran’s Day to his local VFW or American Legion hall and buys a round for the vets.

It’s a tradition Joe’s fond of.

It’s a tradition that doesn’t quite pay back the vets… but it’s a start.

Watch CBS News Videos Online

Chucky claims he hates being negative.

Joe ears are still ringing from listening to– and watching — last night’s game between the Steelers and Broncos.

Joe generally goes to a local watering hole where he can watch the game but not hear the audio, which wasn’t the case last night.

With Chucky laying the syrup thick on Monday Night Football broadcasts, every player is great. Every play is fantastic. Every coach is the next Vince Lombardi. Rarely does a player make a mistake.

And Chucky tells you this in loud decibels. That is, when he’s not slurping for a new job.

It seems eye-RAH! Kaufman of the Tampa Tribune caught up with Chucky, the Bride of Chucky, and his new co-workers at BSPN to see how Chucky has made the transition from coaching to broadcasting.

For three hours every Monday evening, Gruden’s passion flows from a broadcast booth hanging above the 50-yard line instead of the NFL sidelines he roamed for 11 years as coach of the Bucs and Oakland Raiders.

In the 10 months since he and general manager Bruce Allen were fired by Tampa Bay, Gruden has reinvented himself, both in the workplace and in the home.

“The wound is still open, man,” said the new sensation of ESPN’s “Monday Night Football” telecast. “I have to admit it — I miss preparing, I miss the opportunity to help a player get better. I miss the fans, I miss the feeling in your stomach when you wake up on game day. But this is close.”

It’s an interesting piece Kaufman has, with a number of examples of what seems to be contradictions to Chucky’s reign in Tampa. Among them:

* He hates “negativity.”

* He claims he cares deeply for former players John Lynch, Warren Sapp and Meshawn Johnson, each left under less than cordial circumstances.

* He claims he’s not going back into coaching right away.

Joe can’t blame him. Joe wouldn’t be in a rush to get another job either so long as Bryan and Joel were paying Joe $5 million a year to fish and loaf at high school track meets.

Joe is among the legions of Bucs fans who wonder how 24-year-old Maurice Stovall would fare if he could stay healthy and get some starts.

It’s time to find out.

Stovall is averaging 20 yards a catch this season. And his three grabs for 46 yards against Green Bay on Sunday would lead anyone to believe he’s got some chemistry working with Josh Freeman.

Finally healthy and coming off a big game, Joe sees absolutlely no reason to keep him out of the starting lineup.

Michael Clayton — like him or not — is a known commodity. He blocks. He drops passes. He doesn’t catch touchdowns. He’s not a No. 1 receiver or a No. 2 on any good team in the NFL. This is his fifth consecutive disappointing season.

These are facts.

If Antonio Bryant returns on Sunday, which Joe wholeheartedly expects, it’s time to sit Clayton and go with Stovall. If Clayton is the team player his coaches and he say he is, he’ll deal with it professionally.

This season is supposed to be all about developing young talent, expecially now at 1-7. No reason to keep the leash on Stovall.

Let him start, and if he can’t hack it, at least the Bucs will know for sure.

Last week, “The Football Moron” of BSPN encouraged the Packers to throw at Aqib Talib. Gee, that worked out OK, huh? Let’s see what other pearls of wisdom “The Football Moron” has for the Bucs game at Miami.

Most of the Bucs players loved them.

The vast majority of the fans were wild over them.

The Bucs cheerleaders looked especially hot in them.

TV viewers with HD enjoyed them.

But the NFL suits aren’t as won over by them.

“Them” is the Bucs creamsicle uniforms. Sadly, writes Tom Balog of the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, the creamsicle uniforms won’t be seen again, not this year anyway.

An e-mail response from an NFL spokesman on Monday stated that all 32 teams must declare far in advance, by July 1, whether they wish to wear a throwback jerseys that season.

All teams can wear throwbacks for a maximum of two games per season, according to NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy.

The Buccaneers, according to McCarthy, requested to wear throwbacks only once this season, Sunday against the Green Bay Packers.

Kevin O’Donnell of WTVT-TV Channel 13 reported via his Twitter account that Bucs co-chairman Ed Glazer told him the creamsicles could return for two games next season.

The TBO.com twins of Woody Cummings of the Tampa Tribune and Dan Lucas of WFLA-TV Channel 8 discuss the Bucs win over the Packers Sunday.

Cummings goes so far as to suggest it was the best the Bucs have played “since the middle of last season.” The duo also take a brief glimpse as to the near-future fortunes of the Bucs.

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.

Dominant.

That’s the one word that kept coming to my mind watching the Buccaneers’ defensive line Sunday, particularly in the second half. It’s a word that hasn’t been generally associated with them at all during this season, and yet here they were dominating what most people thought was a far superior team.

For me it wasn’t all that much of a surprise, honestly. In my scouting report last week, I wrote that most of the matchups would favor the Bucs. Still, you have to get excited when you finally see guys performing at a level that you know they can. And this was truly a collective effort by the whole unit.

Its funny because just last week I had a back and forth with a JoeBucsFan commenter about whether we have enough talent on the defensive line to be successful. Somehow I don’t think we will be having that same conversation this week.

Greg (Stylez) White and Chris Hovan were both particularly dominant pass rushing the Green Bay offensive line.They were good beating guys one on one, and they also worked great as a tandem running some really nice pass rush games. Remember when I suggested that an EX game would be open for them? They ran, by my count, two of them yesterday, and as a team we got sacks out of both of them. One of them by Ryan Sims who benefited from Hovan making Aaron Rodgers step up. And they just about came home with a safety on a sack just after the start of the second half.

Hovan was a monster in the middle, getting great push and working hands moves, even forcing a holding call which denied the Packers a first down. White was physical all day in his rushes, but he found the time to work in a spin move off his speed rush, almost collecting yet another sack.

But Hovan and White had plenty of company getting after Rodgers. When you get six sacks all from the defensive line in the second half, then you know those guys have it going. I was particularly impressed with the rookie Michael Bennett who totally PWNED Packers tight end Donald Lee on a bull rush to get Rodgers on the ground. But this kid also had great get off all game and made some nice plays in the running game, as well.

Sims set the tone early in the game wrapping around Wilkerson on kind of a natural EX game and busting Rodgers in his mouth to force an incomplete pass. Roy Miller showed just incredible “want to” rushing past three guys (yes THREE guys) to get in on the action.

Tim Crowder also got into the act by hustling to bring Rodgers down after he had scrambled out of the pocket. Even though Jimmy Wilkerson didn’t get on the board yesterday for a sack, he also made some really nice moves and brought a lot of pressure.

We got our first win of the season, the defensive line led the way, and much of what I said in my scouting report came to fruition. I couldn’t possibly have any complaints right?

Meh.

There has yet to be a perfect game played and until that day I will still look for where we can improve.

In short order, we didn’t run enough pass rush games particularly on our left side, which could have led to an even bigger sack day. I also think we went to a three-man rush a little too much yesterday, as well.I was happy, however, to see Wilkerson FINALLY get a chance to stay in the game in that situation.

And finally I still have a problem with us never putting our weak tackle over the center. The touchdown run yesterday by Ryan Grant looked eerily similar to the touchdown run earlier in the year by Brian Westbrook and the Eagles. It’s just too easy to block when you never have someone keeping the center off your middle linebacker.

Having said that, hell, a win is a win and our defensive line stood up yesterday.

Go out and enjoy it, fellas. You have definitely earned it!

Sam Rosen and Tim Ryan of Fox Sports look at why the Bucs beat the Packers. Hint: It has something to do with the quarterbacks.

<a href="http://video.msn.com/?mkt=en-us&#038;brand=foxsports&#038;playlist=videoByUuids:uuids:89ebd7da-0041-465d-8d94-121712166157&#038;showPlaylist=true&#038;from=IV2_en-us_foxsports_videosearch&#038;fg=everyzing" target="_new" title="NFL on FOX: Bucs win!">Video: NFL on FOX: Bucs win!</a>