Now Joe can’t speak for the black market swirling along the sidewalks of Himes Avenue and around the stadium tonight, but you can still head to StubHub.com and instantly buy and download tickets for the Bucs-Colts matchup.

Joe has used the Stub Hub instant downloads before and found them very reliable. Check out the above link.

Interestingly, no tickets were released late via TicketMaster.

For the sake of the Bucs building their fan base, Joe sincerely hopes Team Glazer and the Tampa Sports Authority folks have eliminated the ridiculous challenges seen during previous home games. It can’t be that hard to get overstocked with food, drink and ice, and have enough people to serve them.

Chucky joins his Monday Night Football brethren to talk about tonight’s matchup in this BSPN video below. Chucky rattles of some names and says the Colts are “not a bare cupboard.”

"Raheem's a good kid, man. It was easy to be nice to those guys on D. I didn't mess with the freakin' defense. I told Monte, 'I'm here at 3 a.m. trying to make Griese look like an NFL quarterback.' That's a fuc*n full-time job in itself."

It seems the Raheem Morris, while on Chucky’s staff, wasn’t one of the “angry workers” he wants on his football team.

Numerous times over the past week Raheem has glowed with love for his old boss. On his radio show, Raheem said of Gruden “noboby knows how hard he worked,”and Raheem has paid incredible homage to “Coach Gru” since.

eye-RAH! Kaufman of The Tampa Tribune served up more love today with Raheem sharing how his mentor let him address the Bucs when he was way down on the totem pole.

“To me, he’s boss. I’m not surprised he shut it down this week, because Jon has never wanted to be the story. He likes it to be about the team, the people around him. He’s always been a guy who pushed people into the light. He nurtured all of us. He was the first guy who gave me an opportunity to speak in front of an NFL team as a quality control coach. Who does that?’ Raheem said.

Now Joe’s not sure what Raheem meant when he said Chucky “shut it down this week.” It’s probably, in part, an answer to a question about Chucky seeking the spotlight for his return.

To his credit, Chucky has not. It would have been one wild buildup over the last few days if Chucky had lashed out at Team Glazer in some way for his suprise firing.

Then again, Joe’s not ready to grant Saint status to Chucky. There’s a darn good chance he reached some  form of contract settlement agreement that forbids him from speaking his mind.

Regular readers of Joe know how much he’s rails against the practices of the Bristol Bolsheviks of BSPN.

As spectacular as that outfit is in covering college football — and Joe is quite sincere about that comment — the four-letter is equally dreadful in the rest of its programming.

The four-letter slurps Mark “Sanchise” as if he’s the second coming of Joe Namath, yet Joe is pretty sure Namath, old as he is, would have better accuracy on his passes than “Sanchise.”

Of course, the Bucs are not deemed one of the worthy teams by the four-letter, thus like many other teams, they are only afforded second-class status.

That changes tonight but Dolts defensive end Dwight Feeney, whose teammate Peyton Manning the four-letter cannot stroke enough, tried to explain to Woody Cummings of the Tampa Tribune why the Bucs are strangers to Monday Night Football.

Despite their recent success, that youthful makeup is one reason the Bucs have been overlooked.

“You have to understand how this league is,” Colts veteran defensive end Dwight Freeney said. “It’s like a rookie that has a good year. Everybody wants to know, ‘Can you make it two years?’ That’s why you rarely see a rookie make the Pro Bowl, because people wonder if they’re really legit or did he just dominate that year.

“So, I can see how they might feel underappreciated. But I definitely respect them. They’re a team to be reckoned with. We see that.”

Joe understands why the Bucs have not been on Monday Night Football and Feeney is on the right track. That’s not what bothers Joe about BSPN.

What irks Joe to no end is, the Cowboys could have a garbage record and there is Ed Werder doing a standup at Valley Ranch, trying his best to convince an innocent public that Tony Romo is the reincarnation of Roger Staubach. Then, no matter how awful the Beagles may be, there is SalPal at Lincoln Financial Field.

And of course, never-blinking Rachel Nichols will describe in breathless tones about how Tom Brady has cut his hair, and ever-squinting Suzy Kolber will prattle on about Eli Manning.

BSPN can have its pet players and teams. Joe will curl up on his leather couch and 42-inch HDTV and soak in all the NFL Network has to offer like real men do.

Joe’s not discounting Indianapolis and the glory of the Bucs returning to Monday Night Football tonight, but it’s hard not to overanalyze the schedule and other teams after a Sunday of watching the rest of the league perform.

If the Bucs take care of business and move to 3-1, this is what follows in October and November:

@ S.F. (3-1)
SAINTS (3-1)
BEARS  (2-2) in London
@ Saints (3-1)
TEXANS (3-1)
@ G.B. (4-0)
@ Titans (3-1)

That’s a brutal stretch, especially with the 49ers game across the country on short rest no longer looking like the easy “W” many projected before the season. Plus the Texans and Titans appear to be having breakthrough years. (How about Barrett Ruud in the middle of the stingiest (fewest points) defense in the NFL?)

Can the Bucs win tonight and then manage a 4-3 record against that bunch? That would put them at 7-4 entering the final five games: two against Carolina, home for Dallas, and on the road in Jacksonville and at Altanta to close the season.

Yeah, it’s one game at a time and things change fast, but the Bucs have serious work ahead to set themselves up for a December run.

BSPN suits are upset Peyton Manning won't play Monday night. The Bucs aren't.

One thing that drives Joe crazy is when — often New York types — try to belittle or brag about a sporting event based on TV ratings.

Unmitigated feces is what that is. If sports were based on TV ratings, there would be only two or three sports in existence with roughly about eight teams total.

There is nothing, not one thing, that is more overblown in sports than TV ratings. Guess who cares about TV ratings? Maybe the 32 owners in the NFL, Roger Goodell, and perhaps a dozen suits at TV networks. That’s it. Joe doubts there are 50 people walking the face of the earth whose jobs are on the line based on TV ratings.

Look, in the age of 500 channels via satellite, if Joe wants to watch a football game and few others do, Joe will just whip out his credit card and buy the damn game, real simple.

Joe just knows the suits at BSPN are crying their eyes out because hyper, happy-footed, impatient Peyton Manning is not playing Monday night and Joe just can’t be happier.

First, if it’s bad for BSPN, it’s good for sports fans. Second, there is no quarterback Joe cannot stand to watch more than Manning and his constant jumping around and his histrionics. JUST CALL THE DAMN PLAY AND RUN IT! All this jumping around. All this pointing. All this hollering. JUST STOP IT!

But of course, the main reason Joe is happy Manning is not playing is the fact that it gives the Bucs a much better chance of winning the game with Curtis Painter behind center for the Dolts.

It seems the Bucs are of the same frame of mind, so writes Rick Stroud of the St. Petersburg Times.

On the surface, it’s a big break for the Bucs. But Barber knows that kind of thinking can get a young team in trouble.

“We’re going to prepare for them as if they’re the team that dominated the NFL for so many years,” Barber said. “(Painter), obviously, is green somewhat. But the offense is still the Colts offense. You just don’t want him to get hot against us.”

The Colts are having a tough time adjusting to life without Manning, 35. No surprise there. The four-time league MVP never missed a game until this season and had a savant-like ability to call plays and dissect defenses.

Barber is correct. The Dolts will not go winless. Some team at some point this season will get tripped up by the Dolts. They do have talent.

Simply put, though it sounds like a broken record it bears repeating: Stop the run. If the Bucs can stop the run, the Dolts and Painter will not beat the Bucs. It’s that simple.

Meanwhile, Joe is so happy the BSPN executives are upset that Manning is not playing, he hopes they have have to seek counseling. Maybe that will change things at the four-letter, though very doubtful.

The chuckleheads of NFL Today, James Brown, Dan Marino, Bill Cowher, Shannon Sharpe and Boomer Esiason, discuss the Bucs game Monday night with the Dolts in this CBS Sports video.

NFL.com offers a peek at some of what earned Ronde Barber NFC Defensive Player of the Week honors last week.

In the NFL.com video linked here, Brian Baldinger and Joe Theismann break down some game film of the Bucs and Colts. 

Joe loves this kind of stuff where you get that “coach’s tape” film unavailable to fans, though routinely viewed by all who watch the Man Channel, NFL Network.

Baldinger takes a great look at Ronde Barber in coverage, and the Bucs’ pass rush. 

Theismann dares to show the world why he things Colts no-name quarterback Curtis Painter has some game. Yes, Theismann picks the Colts to win.

Joe thinks Theismann is out of his mind.

If the Bucs truly have taken a major step with their win against Atlanta, a second-rate quarterback with little experience playing on the road on Monday Night Football should be fresh meat.

Joe thought this Mike Williams non-issue was history last week after reporting Josh Freeman’s take on Williams drawing heavy coverage and even getting triple-teamed at times this season.

But it seems that Pat Yasinskas, NFC South blogger for ESPN.com, doesn’t have Joe on his daily reading list. During a live chat Friday, Yaskinskas wrote he buys in to the notion that Williams is somehow experiencing a bit of a sophomore slump.

redzonejones (New York): Is it safe to say Mike Williams is experiencing a sophomore slump?

Pat Yasinskas: Somewhat, but I think part of it can be blamed on them not having a lot else at WR. He’s been drawing a lot of coverage.

Joe’s not on board with Williams slumping at all. The Bucs finally decided throw slant passes to Williams last week, which were a big part of his game in 2010. A motion penalty by Arrellious Benn also nullified a Williams touchdown on a deep throw in Minnesota. For Joe, there’s no evidence of Williams falling off.

Wednesday on The Josh Freeman Show, on WDAE-AM 620, Freeman took issue with the whole topic.

“They rotated coverage to Mike. They ran a coverage where they doubled Mike and doubled Kellen. … They’re not stupid. They do their homework,” Freeman said of the Falcons and other teams. “They know where we’re trying to go with the ball. They know who are playmakers are. They’re going to do everthing they can to limit the amount of touches that our gamechangers can get.”

Expect plenty more smothering coverage of Williams from the Colts. Unless Benn can prove reliable and consistently dangerous downfield, it’ll be that way all season.

The last time Chucky was in One Buc Palace was on a fateful Friday night in January 2009, when he was told by Team Glazer to pack his bags and leave the premises, in so many words.

Saturday, Chucky returned One Buc Palace, not as a coach, but as a see-no-evil, hear-no-evil, everyone-is-a-Pro-Bowler-that-Chucky-loves type of TV analyst.

Tampa Tribune reporter eye-RAH! Kaufman documented the scene.

After the ESPN crew taped interviews with an array of Bucs players Saturday afternoon, Gruden stopped in the media room for a brief chat.

“I’ve got a lot of friends here and I was fired up,” Gruden said of his first visit to Bucs headquarters since his dismissal. “You get a little emotional.”

Unlike prior published stories, Monday night will not be Chucky’s first trip back to the stadium Warren Sapp and Derrick Brooks built , known in some circles as “The CITS.” Chucky returned in January to broadcast the Outback Bowl when Penn State played Florida.

Also in Kaufman’s story is how Raheem Morris feels about his old “boss.”

For Joe, hearing what platitudes Chucky talks about the Bucs will almost be as fun as the game itself.

Joe can’t resist tossing some Saturday afternoon fodder out here to feed the conspiracy theorists among Bucs fans.

In the latest “Buccaneers Insider” video on Buccaneers.com, Larry Asante is interviewed about possibly starting at free safety Monday, and Asante responded by saying the usual team-first stuff but also said about the starting call, “That’s up to Raheem and Mark.”

While it’s probably just a stray comment from Asante, it was a little odd to hear a Mark Dominik reference there, and some might surely wonder whether rockstar general manager Dominik is involved in who starts for the Buccaneers.

Of course, GMs around the league have a heavy hand in preseason games, when talent evaluation is paramount. But in a regular season game?

Joe’s not buying it, but look what happened to Joe Maddon last night.

Ex-Bucs QB Jeff Carlson

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

By JEFF CARLSON
JoeBucsFan.com analyst

They won’t be wearing throwback uniforms on Monday Night, but a few things will feel like the “good ol’ days” of the Buccaneers.

Jon Gruden will be in the broadcast booth remembering his time leading the Bucs to division championships and a Super Bowl, while the play on the field will look eerily similar to the Dungy-led, mid 90’s version of Buc Ball.

I fully expect specific references to Sapp, Alstott, Derrick Brooks, Simeon Rice, Ronde Barber and an early self-deprecating point about the last time these two teams got together at RJS.  Taking a swig every time Gruden references his era in some way would probably be a fun drinking game, but that may lead to an epidemic of absenteeism the following day across America.

This year’s version of defense hasn’t grown into the elite unit that Dungy and Kiffin built by the end of the 90’s, but they are a “youngry” group, and by the looks against the Falcons, they may be getting that swagger back pretty soon.

On the offensive side of the ball, I keep getting reminded of Mike Shula’s days calling plays (and that is not an insult). They are regularly running out of a standard Pro-I set, with the big back LeGarrette Blount deep at tailback, ala Mike Alstott. Alstott used to drop his shoulders and run over people, Blount literally runs over people, also by hurdling them with regularity.

Shula’s (and Dungy’s) offenses scored 20.3, 19.6 and 17.75 points from 97-99 respectively. They were 11-5 in 1997 and again in ’99 when they scored their fewest.

The 2010 Bucs scored 21.3 per game while going 10-6, but a smaller scoring differential than their predecessors. In the three games this year they are at exactly 20 points per game.

The scoring differential was higher in ’97 than in ’99 or 2010, while this year they have scored 60 and given up 60. So the run, play-action game that the Bucs are currently winning with is a trip back to the future of teams Dungy built almost 15 years ago that started a string of sellouts and waiting lists for season tickets, a good sign for all of us, especially those that will be watching our big-screens Monday night.

The offensive results haven’t changed much over the years regardless whether Shula, Gruden or Olson is designing and calling the plays, but the big difference between then and now is that the face of the Bucs was its defense (and Mike Alstott) and now it is its quarterback.

That was not the case for Dungy (Trent Dilfer) or Gruden (Brad Johnson), and I can’t wait to hear the accolades that Gruden has stored up for “No. 5” and how he might not be in the “FFCA” (Fired Football Coaches Association) if he had a guy like that.

Where can you watch the Rays and college football, play poker, savor adult beverages, win $500 for doing nothing and watch live greyhound racing all at the same time tonight?

The answer is Derby Lane on Gandy Boulevard in St. Pete, one of Joe’s favorite hangouts.

The track is open right now, and live greyhound racing begins at 7:30 p.m. And don’t forget to enjoy the stunning buffet at the world famous Derby Club. Plus you can keep the action going all night with the smoke-free poker room open until 6 a.m.

Joe hasn’t written much about the ridiculous NFL not fining the Falcons’ William Moore for launching his helmet into Josh Freeman’s late in the fourth quarter Sunday.

Even the casual observer of the nonsensical NFL discipline policy knows that ugly, potential decapitation was worthy of a fine. Yet nothing came down from hatchetman Roger Goodell and every thinking person in the United States knows a massive fine would have come if the quarterback was Tom Brady, Mark Sanchez, or any other QBs turned into demigods by BSPN and the league itself.

To Freeman’s manly credit, he said on his radio show this week that he thinks the NFL should let guys play and he loves the physical side of the game.

Brian Price, however, did feel the wrath of NFL fine collectors, so reports Woody Cummings of The Tampa Tribune. Price was whacked $7,500 for head-slapping a guard and he didn’t mince words when asked about it. 

“It’s football, not patty-cake,” Price said. “I don’t know what they want us to do – play two-hand touch or something? I’m always going to play the same and play tenacious. I’m not sorry for what I did. That’s just the way I play.”

Kudos to Price for talking the talk. How refreshing is that.

It always mystifies Joe what the NFL accomplishes fining a guy $7,500 anyway. It’s not enough cash to change most players’ behavior.

In the case of Freeman, hopefully the Bucs will dish out their own punishment during the next Bucs-Falcons game.

No blackout on Monday night!

It’s official. Locals across the Tampa Bay and Orlando markets will get to watch the Bucs take center stage on Monday Night Football next week.

The Bucs-Colts game officially is sold out and will be televised.

Whether or not Team Glazer gobbled up tickets to get the game on the tube is a mystery, but it doesn’t really matter. The Bucs will be on TV before hundreds of thousands local football fans.

As long as “Yungry” doesn’t look “Yugly,” a win against Indianapolis should go a long way toward growing the Bucs’ ticket-buying fan base.

If you need tickets, as of Friday night at 9:30 p.m., there are more than 1,200 available on StubHub.com for what seem to be reasonable prices. Not much “scalping” going on there. And while Ticketmaster.com shows “sold out,” Joe suggests you keep checking there for tickets, as well, as sometimes seats are released at the last minute.

For Rays fans coming to see the Bucs on Monday, Joe has learned that gates will open at 7 p.m. for the Bucs game and the Rays-Rangers Game 3 of their playoff series will be broadcast on the JumboTron for as long as possible before kickoff.

Phillip B. Wilson of the Indianapolis Star gives his take on the current status of the Dolts.

Some fans reading the quote below from Josh Freeman might take it the wrong way and want to tell the Bucs’ QB to jump in a lake.

But Joe could hear the raw honesty in Freeman’s voice saying it and, well, sometimes the truth hurts. It’s been years since the Bucs had a big-time home field advantage, and Freeman was just calling it straight after feeling what a great crowd can do against the Falcons.

“It was pretty amazing. That’s really the first time that I’ve been here playing at Raymond James that the crowd was a huge factor,” Freeman said on The Josh Freeman Show on WDAE-AM 620 on Wednesday night. “That place was rocking. It was deafening. You could tell that the Falcons were have some communication issues. … It was a great experience.”

Immediately after the Bucs-Falcons game, Joe wrote that Sunday’s crowd was the most intense he had heard in years.

Of course, it helps to have fans excited about a strong team and have your defense on the field instead of the offense (relative quiet time) trying to launch yet another comeback.

Hopefully, the Bucs won’t need a 12th man to take out their inferior opponent on Monday night.