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>

Former Bucs defensive end Steve White will have much more on this later, but despite the play of rookie quarterback Josh Freeman and his three touchdowns, one could argue the main element in the Bucs win over the Packers was the awakening of the Bucs defensive line.

The Bucs registered six sacks Sunday, channeling the old days. Maybe Lee Roy Selmon was an inspiration? Cool cat Rick Brown of the Lakeland Ledger (aka “Backwards Hat”), who shames his sportswriting brethren with his stylish attire, wrote how it was the Bucs defensive line, not so much Freeman, that enabled the Bucs to record their first win of the season.

“It was very positive,” Morris said. “That’s the plan. That’s where you want to go and how you want to do it. We don’t have a dominant edge rusher or a dominant up-the-middle rusher. Those guys in tandem, however, are pretty good.”

Morris said he noticed the rush starting to get more active in the 35-7 loss to New England in London.

“They caused a couple of interceptions against a very good quarterback,” Morris said. “And it carried over to this game.”

Brown notes that the six sacks was the most the Bucs had in one game since the Bucs racked up seven in 2004 against the Saints.

The old saying about how it all begins in the trenches was very evident to Joe Sunday. Freeman had time to throw, the Bucs were doing OK with the run, and the defensive line hounded Aaron Rodgers in the second half.

That usually adds up to a solid game.

While Joe can totally understand fans wanting to jump on the Josh Freeman bandwagon, Joe hates to throw cold water in the face, but people need to check themselves.

Sure, Joe was giddy over the win. And Freeman showed a lot of potential to Joe. Enough that Joe is no longer wrestling with his pillow during sleepless nights over the 0-7 start to the 2009 season.

But Joe also knows this is only Freeman’s first start. After all, Tony Banks himself also had a three-touchdown game in his first start.

Vacation Man of BSPN.com, a former Bucs beat writer and current Tampa resident, must be hanging out with too many Bucs cheerleaders — not that that’s a bad thing. Because Vacation Man has already declared that Freeman’s win over the Packers Sunday has saved Raheem the Dream’s career.

Well, guess what? Freeman’s not a bust. He got his first start Sunday and the Bucs got their first win. I’m not saying it’s going to be all clear sailing and Freeman’s going to the Hall of Fame. But he showed some really good things in his first start.

Mark Sunday as a turning point for the Morris regime. As the Bucs were losing their first seven games, all their fans wanted to talk about was the past.

Now, they can start focusing on the future — because Freeman has shown there really is a future.

Whoa, hold up. Look, Joe’s happy as the next Bucs fan. But Joe’s not quite ready to start buying tickets to various Pro Bowls to see Freeman play based on one game.

Did Freeman give Joe pause to get excited about the future? Damned right he did. That written, it was one lone game. Let’s see what the kid can do now that Tony Sporano (“Hey, Paulie, meet me at The Bing, and bring the gabagool, will ya?”) has a full NFL game tape of Freeman to study.

Joe is known to frequent a watering hole a short walking distance from his abode for Monday Night Football.

Virtually every person, including the manager of said establishment (named for a certain very famous Bucs player — Joe knows executives of said establishment read Joe, so let’s talk turkey and Joe will pimp your place heavily for a modest reimbursement), thought the Bucs creamsicles looked cool in person, and great in HD.

Seems quite clear Bucs fans would like to see the creamsicles again.

Seems the feeling is mutual with quite a few Bucs players not named Jeff Faine. eye-RAH! Kaufman of the Tampa Tribune documented how a number of players were fond of the creamsicles.

“I wouldn’t mind wearing them again at all,” said linebacker Geno Hayes, whose blocked punt contributed to Tampa Bay’s 38-28 triumph against Green Bay at Raymond James Stadium.

For defensive end Jimmy Wilkerson, the retro-jerseys were both comfortable and stylish.

“I like ’em,” he said. “We’ll see what they have in store for us down the line. I thought it was a good fit and the colors to me actually made it feel like a lighter weight. It was like you stepped into a secretary’s office here and saw all the pictures from the early days of the franchise. It felt like we were part of old-school Sundays.”

Joes hopes wearing the creamsicle throwbacks was not just a one-game deal, not to be brought out again for a decade. If nothing else, the Bucs cheerleaders looked especially hot in their swashbuckler attire.

It’s official! The Bucs orange uniforms helped them win.

Yes, It’s true. A group of professional football players care so much about their appearences that jersey color has an impact.

Raheem The Dream told the world this was the case during his news conference at One Buc Palace today.

“I’m thinking it was a big effect. It definitely created some excitement about the game. More people talking about how they’re going to look, how they’re going to do,” Raheem The Dream told the media with a straight face.

After this admission of the orange’s impact, Raheem The Dream shockingly said he wasn’t sure he’d try to influence his bosses to have the throwback uniforms worn again.

 “I don’t know about push to use them. I got other problems to worry about to be honest with you,” Raheem The Dream said. “I leave that to, Mark Dominik can make that decision. I leave that stuff to Mark and our ownership, and things of that nature.”

C’mon, Rah. You just said the uniforms helped. Now you don’t want to ask Dominik to use them?

Crap, you checked in with him on nearly everthing else, a fact you’ve defended on many occassions.

Man up, Rah. Get on that sideline phone as ask for orange.

It was the wiseass moment of Raheem The Dream’s news conference today at One Buc Palace. Joe would wager 10 bucks that it doesn’t find its way to the official quotes released by the team.

Reporters wanted to know how Raheem The Dream celebrated his first win as a head coach and who called to congratulate him.

The head coach said he didn’t throw any parties but did enjoy time with family take in lots of congratulatory text messages and phone calls.

“Derrick Brooks, Some of the guys you know. Warren Sapp. I took Sapp’s phone call. Because if I didn’t take his phone call, he’d yell at me,” Raheem The Dream said. “Got all the texts, responded to them about 4 o’clock this morning.”

Then someone in the throng of scribes and talking heads apparently asked Raheem The Dream if one Bill Cowher, the guy many Bucs fans fantasize will be the next Tampa Bay head coach, contacted him to send his good wishes.

Raheem The Dream replied quickly, “I didn’t get a text from Bill Cowher. No.”

Joe was really most wondering if Chucky called. After all, Raheem The Dream is the fruit ripening on Chucky’s coaching tree.

Former Bucs tight end and extremely tough critic Dave Moore said he was impressed by Josh Freeman’s “intangibles,” speaking after the game on the Buccaneers Radio Network.

Moore raved about how Freeman was “able to elude rushers and keep his eyes down the field.”

“He kept his eyes on that 2-point conversion on Michael Clayton when he easily could have pulled the ball down,” Moore said. 

Moore also said the Bucs’ two fumbled snaps were a result of an “exchange issue [from the] low stance of Jeff Faine’s squat” and Freeman’s tall stature. “That will come with comfort. It’s correctable,” Moore said. 

The exchange issue is the easiest thing for Freeman to correct. And, of course, critical to be rectified immediately.

Yesterday was a great day to be a Bucs fan. The creamsicles came back (as did the hot swashbuckler unis). Lee Roy Selmon was given a long-overdue honor of being inducted into the new ring of honor. Many Bucs alumni showed up as well.

Oh, yeah. And the Bucs won. With their rookie, first round draft pick Josh Freeman scoring three touchdowns, including two in the fourth quarter to rally from an 11-point deficit for the win.

Joe isn’t crazy enough to expect that every day from Freeman. There likely will be further peaks and valleys. Unlike the Packers, the Dolphins now have a full NFL game tape to go on.

Still, as former Bucs beat writer and current SI.com columnist Don Banks points out, Freeman’s play gives the Bucs hope in a hopeless season.

Tampa Bay isn’t going anywhere this season, but at least the Bucs now have some honest-to-goodness hope with rookie first-round quarterback Josh Freeman making some big plays in his first NFL start. After a shaky beginning, the 21-year-old Freeman — the Bucs’ youngest starting QB ever — got better as the game wore on and finished with 205 yards passing, three touchdowns and just one interception. He also showed he can make plays on the move, and wound up as Tampa Bay’s second-leading rusher with four carries for 20 yards.

For a team that has looked completely overmatched on offense this season, the dawn of the Freeman era was a start.

Granted, any prayer for a playoff spot has long since expired. Even though the Bucs may still lose a ton of games, seeing how Freeman progresses will give Bucs fans reason to turn the Bucs on each Sunday.

Watching the game from the CITS yesterday with Freeman at quarterback, Joe had the feeling that the Bucs had a shot at moving the ball.

Lost amid the giddy feeling of a Bucs win yesterday — first one in almost an entire year — may be a small fact the Bucs helped people realize: the Packers aren’t that good.

Maoist Michael Silver of Yahoo! Sports went so far as to call the Packers a “fraud,” thanks to the Bucs.

Last week, I told you the Green Bay Packers weren’t ready for prime time. On Sunday, they looked like a bunch of miscast actors on a low-rated show headed for cancellation. Playing the previously winless Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Green Bay (4-4) allowed the Bucs (1-7) to stay in the game via a blocked punt for touchdown, an 83-yard kickoff return and an Aaron Rodgers interception that set up an early TD – and, in the end, let Josh Freeman, a rookie quarterback making his first NFL start, produce the big plays in a 38-28 victory. “[Expletive] that was rough,” inside linebacker Nick Barnett(notes) wrote via text message Sunday night. Yeah it was. Conversely, it was a great day for the home team and rookie coach Raheem Morris, who got his first career victory. Wearing their retro Creamsicle jerseys, the Bucs and their frustrated fans partied like it was 1979, as they should have. The Packers, meanwhile, flew back to Titletown wondering if they can regroup, with the Cowboys coming to Lambeau Field next Sunday. This embarrassing defeat will either go down as the game that compelled the Packers to break out of their funk, or as the moment it officially sunk in that this team is a fraud.

Could the Bucs — and Freeman — maybe expose the Dolphins as a fraud this weekend as well?

One can call Joe a boring guy. He’s not into fantasy sports (Joe’s fantasies have zero to do with sports) and he doesn’t like to gamble, save for an NCAA basketball pool.

Joe is even of the mind that gambling takes away from the enjoyment of watching games, not an enhancement as some gamblers would suggest.

So the fate of gamblers is not forefront in Joe’s mind when he watches games. So Joe became curious when he began receiving frantic texts while at the CITS yesterday in the fourth quarter of the Bucs win over the Packers.

Joe has a good friend, Vitto, who is a highly successful high school football coach up north. Vitto, a hardcore football fan if there is one, is known to dabble on a weekly basis with his short-term investment broker over games.

So while Joe was at the CITS yesterday, Joe started receiving a flood of texts from Vitto early in the fourth quarter. The first raised Joe’s eyebrow:

“Is Green Bay playing that bad or is TB playing that good?”

Joe knows Vitto is a Steelers fan, so right away Joe knew Vitto had money on the game. Joe just didn’t know how much Vitto had riding on the game. Joe found out a few texts later when Vitto wrote:

“I have GB in a survivor pool for $277k. Now I am going to commit suicide.”

Browsing around the interwebs today, Joe has learned quite a few people took a bath on the Bucs, specifically those who had the Packers in a survivor pool.

While Joe is happy today, he admits he hasn’t heard from Vitto yet this morning.

The always eye-catching Jaime Hanna, "friend" of Evan Longoria, looked especially sharp in her swashbuckler attire Sunday. Joe can understand how this could move someone to streak.

Joe was geeked yesterday with the Bucs win. The creamsicles, the ceremony honoring Lee Roy Selmon and the Ring of Honor, the 1979 Bucs alumni, the hot swashbuckler unis, the field painting… oh yeah, and the win too!

Naturally, Joe was not the only one who was happy. It seems one Bucs fan may have had a few too many Caybrews and, thus, was too happy.

A Bucs fan was caught streaking at the game. Disgustingly, it was some dude, notes Kim Wilmath of the St. Petersburg Times.

Officers say he disrobed in the south end zone and jumped onto the field in a streak attempt before an officer immediately arrested him. Levengood, 33, was charged with disorderly conduct and trespassing.

Travis Levengood of Bradenton bared it all for the Bucs during Sunday afternoon’s game, but not for long, authorities say.

Wilmath goes on to write that the streaker was rewarded by police with a Bucs throwback-matching orange jail jumpsuit. He was released on $750 bond.

Just a brief update for those who share Joe’s unhealthy obsession with the NFL Draft.

Five teams, including the Bucs, are tied in the NFL cellar with 1-7 records: Cleveland, Detroit, Kansas City and the Rams are the others.

The horrendous Browns have games at Detroit and in Kansas City. Both of those contests should go a long way toward determining who gets the No. 1 pick.

St. Louis has a tough remaining schedule, as do the Bucs. The Rams’ best chances at another win seem to be a home game against Seattle and a season-ending home game against San Francisco.

Sitting with two wins are the Titans, Redskins and Raiders.

The Titans should win at least a few more games, but the Skins and Raiders are horrendous. They face off in Oakland on Dec. 13.

The Raiders also host K.C. on Sunday and head to Cleveland later in the year. The Skins have no such patsies on their remaning schedule.

While Bucs safety Sabby Piscitelli was trying to keep Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers out of the end zone, dirtbags cleaned out Piscitelli's home.

Yesterday was a great day in Tampa Bay.

Not so for Bucs safety Sabby Piscitelli.

Seems while most of the area was watching and enjoying the Bucs win over the Packers, some scumbag(s) decided to clean out Piscitelli’s home, reports Kim Wilmath of the St. Petersburg Times.

At about 2:25 p.m., someone broke into the South Tampa home of Sabby Piscitelli, a safety from Boca Raton.

A lawn crew at the house noticed the rear doors had been forced open, and told a neighbor to call police.

Officers found the home ransacked and a flat-screen TV stolen. The burglar was already gone, and no arrests have been made.

Joe hopes the jerks are caught and as a penance, have to clean Piscitelli’s bathroom for a year.

Hard to believe the Bucs could allow 404 yards to the Packers and get pounded by Green Bay in the running game, plus allow two big plays for touchdowns in passing game, yet still look like they’re improving on the defensive side of the ball.

Joe’s not sure what that all means. But it’s got to get better.

At least the Bucs had some 3-and-outs and interceptions in the second half to build on going into Sunday’s game in Miami.

The pass rush has improved for two consecutive games and more splash plays are happening. But the run defense, the linebacker play and the man coverage has to rise above the level of horrendous. Even just a little bit to spare Josh Freeman playing from a first-quarter hole every week.

Joe’s hopeful, but Miami pounds the ball big time.

The Dolphins are ranked fourth in the NFL in rushing, and they’re offensive coaches are probably salivating in the film room about now.

It seems the Packers have gained respect for Josh Freeman.

Tom Silverstein, of the Journal Sentinel, penned a story out of yesterday’s game about Freeman that included various Packers speaking well of the rookie. Those kind of comments are quite rare to dig out of a losing NFL locker room.

Joe found it quite interesting that Packers linebacker Nick Barnett said Freeman’s size makes him an immediate beneficiary of the Brady rule.

When it was over, Freeman was sacked just once.

“We had guys around him, we were doing some things,” Barnett said. “He kind of got out of the pocket and scrambled a little bit. He’s a tough guy. With the new rules you can’t knock his feet out, you have to tackle him a certain way.

“But we’ve got to make that play. . . . Personally, I think you can only take it so far running the ball as a quarterback, but this game he was able to execute and make it happen.”

Joe wants to give a belated pat on the back to the offensive line for their tremendous pass protection yesterday (minus Donald Penn putting his whole mitt on the face of that defensive end under his face mask).

Like Joe’s favorite series of TV commercials, “Messin’ with Sasquatch,” former Bucs beat writer and current SI.com columnist Don Banks thought the Bucs toying with the creamsicle uniforms would not end well.

Alas Banks, and virtually every Bucs fans, was pleasantly surprised that a rookie quarterback would rally the Bucs from an 11-point deficit in the fourth quarter for the first win of the season.

It’s the power of the creamsicle!

As one who grew up in the Tampa Bay area and suffered through the Bucs’ orange-uniform era, I’m not sure I would have messed with losing karma like that. But the Bucs trotted out the throwback creamsicle uniforms Sunday at home against Green Bay, in part to celebrate their 1979 playoff team, and it worked. They finally gave rookie head coach Raheem Morris his first NFL win, upsetting the humiliated Packers 38-28 on the strength of a 21-point fourth quarter.

Joe thought the whole scene yesterday was so cool — Joe always liked the creamsicle uniforms — that the Bucs should keep them for home games until they lose. And the creamsicles should be brought back once a year.

Cris Carter and Jon Anik of BSPN discuss the Bucs win over the Packers yesterday.

Ronde Barber established himself as a sick ball hawk in the NFL with 10 interceptions in 2001, a single-season team record that still stands.

But Joe believes Aqib Talib just might dethrone Barber this season. Halfway through the 2009 campaign, Talib has five picks.

And considering Talib is playing on a defense and a team much, much worse than that 2001 club, Joe believes him tying or breaking the record would be a bigger accomplishment than Barber had. It’s an interesting argument.

Looking back to 2001, Barber picked off young Saints quarterback Aaron Brooks three times in a late December game to jack up his total, including his one and only “pick 6” of that season. Barber also had a two-interception games against Kordell Stewart and a strong Steelers team, and two picks of Charlie Batch who was leading a then 0-8 Lions team.

Talib has yet to score this season, and he racked up a three-interception game in Washington.