One reason the Bucs had a prayer of winning this game despite four Josh Freeman interceptions (!) was the play of the defense. In particular, the play of Lavonte David.

It seemed like David, the rookie linebacker from Nebraska who calls the defensive plays, was spying underrated Rams running back Steven Jackson.

That’s a heavy workload. Jackson, who has run for over 1,000 yards each of the last eight years in St. Louis, and who incredibly has yet to play on winning team, was held to 81 yards today, largely due to David.

Sure, Jackson did get off on a 19-yard run, his longest of the afternoon, but he did little else. Oh, Jackson had room to run. There were holes for him to run through on occasion, but those holes quickly evaporated when David, who led the Bucs with nine tackles, came shooting through.

Yes, it may have been the Bucs best defensive effort of the season. A large part of the credit goes to David for all but shutting a stud running back down for the day.

After a strong start to the season, Mason Foster has regressed along with a big handful of his teammates.

Early this season, Joe envisioned Mason Foster eating pineapple in late January.

The second-year linebacker was playing that well, delivering bone-crushing hits, looking reasonably solid in coverage and racking up tackles.

But Foster has really fallen off. Joe has studied Foster a lot lately and Foster clearly looks slower and like less of a downhill force.

It’s almost like the second-year Foster has hit a rookie wall, while Lavonte David has run through it. Foster had four tackles today.

Looking ahead to next season is about the only thing that soothes Joe right now (outside of Rachel Watson in a Santa suit). And thinking about next season and the near certainty that Quincy Black won’t return, Joe has a feeling the Bucs might look to move Foster to the strong side and look for a bigger, more versatile force in the middle.

If Bucs fans think players don’t care that much if they lose so long as the check cashes, then they don’t know Michael Bennett.

The Bucs defensive end was outraged after the Bucs lost their fifth straight game Sunday, this time to the Rams, squandering perhaps the team’s best defensive effort.

Joe had his recorder rolling for part of Bennett’s emotional venting.

“We didn’t win the game. It can’t be the best of the season if we didn’t win the game; we’re here to win the game. That’s all we care about, to win the game. No matter what we did on defense, no matter what we did on offense, we have to win the game. That’s the biggest thing we have to do.

On the Rams 80-yard touchdown pass to open the second quarter:

“It was a breakdown but as a team, those things happen. We have a lot of veterans playing and things happen but you have to keep playing. You can’t let one play define you. We had many opportunities to change the game. But we didn’t step up.

“The coaches who came up with this game plan, it isn’t up to the coaches. People say coaches this and coaches that, it’s not up to the coaches. It’s the players. We have to execute what the coaches do at a high level. This is the NFL so we have to execute on Sundays, not Mondays, not not Wednesdays, not Fridays not Saturdays.

“Maybe we need to score a touchdown?”

How bout those sad Panthers, winners of three straight after smothering Oakland 17-6 today.

Carolina moves to 6-9, tied with the Bucs for third place in the NFC South. New Orleans won in Dallas to move to 7-9, and with a tiebreaker edge on the Bucs, the Bucs have assured themselves a third-place or fourth-place finish.

In addition to likely saving Ron Rivera’s job this month, Carolina entered today’s game with the NFL’s 10th-ranked defense and probably went up a notch after Oakland only managed about 150 yards of offense.

Again, the NFC South has proven itself to be a very tough division top to bottom.

Nothing should get easier for the Bucs next season.

Yet another loss, yet another frustrating outing for Bucs quarterback Josh Freeman.

It was early in the fourth quarter and the game was still in doubt at a two-score margin, 28-13 Rams. The Bucs had a legitimate scoring threat in the making.

The Bucs had driven deep in Rams territory with just over 12 minutes to go and on fourth down at the Rams-7, the Bucs went for broke, needing seven points.

From a shotgun, Freeman checked down to Doug Martin who was well-covered but caught the ball and managed to get three yards, far short of six points.

Why?

 Why in the world are you throwing to a guy who has nearly zero chance of scoring? More important, Joe cannot fathom why a play was called where every blanketty-blank receiver wasn’t in the end zone.

You needed more than a catch, you needed six to stay alive!

No, Freeman shouldn’t have checked down to an option that had minimal chance of scoring. Worse, Freeman was sort of hung out to dry by not having all receivers in a position to score a touchdown with a ball, not tackled short.

The freefall of Josh Freeman is out of control. No Bucs fan can deny it.

Yeah, fans can blame today’s slippery feet of Mike Williams all they want, but Freeman has turned into an inconsistent, turnover machine over the past five games. Speaking on 98.7 FM this morning, former Bucs quarterback Jeff Carlson talked about how Freeman has revived the “deer-in-the-headlights look” he sported early this season. And today’s debacle against the Rams brought much more of the same.

Fans have been debating for days about whether the Bucs should press on with Freeman as their starting quarterback. But Joe’s not interested fans’ take right now.

Joe wants to know what’s in Greg Schiano’s head.

Schiano is not married to Freeman. And if the head coach, who called himself a “win-now coach” last week, starts to doubt Freeman, then Joe would not be shocked if Schiano looks to make a bold move at the position.

In fact, Schiano said on his radio show this month that things would change significantly if he ever reached the point where he wasn’t confident in Freeman.

Considering what a stickler for ball security Schiano is, Joe can’t imagine that Schiano’s confidence in Freeman isn’t eroding quickly. What that will mean to a “win-now coach” is a mystery?

Ronde Barber and the Bucs defense may have had their best game of the season.

Say what you will about the Bucs today — and Joe believes it is safe to assume fans will have an inordinate amount to say — the Bucs defense came to play.

Saddled with Josh Freeman throwing four picks (for those scoring at home — Joe is jealous — that’s eight interceptions in the last two games for the Bucs’ first pick in the 2009 draft), the defense may have played its best game of the season.

And when the Bucs needed the defense most, it turned in a performance that likely left Warren Sapp, Derrick Brooks and John Lynch nodding their heads in approval.

On six consecutive drives in the second half, the Bucs defense forced the Rams to punt.

And the offense didn’t do squat with the opportunities.

Joe knows Freeman will get killed in the comments on this very website and will be crucified on sports radio likely until draft chatter starts heating up in April. Joe just wishes people would also give the defense the props it deserved today.

Yes, the Bucs lost their fifth in a row. You can’t hang that on the defense.

Once upon a time — actually seven afternoons ago — the leader of the New Schiano Order boldly told media, “I’ve been here before” and “I know what to do” about fixing the Bucs’ losing streak.

Well, Coach Schiano, you didn’t know what to do.

Your team didn’t respond.

Your team lost its fifth consecutive game and third straight at home.

Your team was punched in the face by an average Rams club.

Chucky lost four straight in December 2008 and got fired with years remaining on his contract. Raheem Morris failed completely a year ago and got canned.

Joe’s not saying Schiano is on a hot seat, but the Bucs are no longer responding. They’ve taken a huge step backward since halftime in Denver.

Before today’s dump against St. Louis, Rams coach Jeff Fisher told the Buccaneers Radio Network that snapping a losing streak like the Bucs’ is really about preparation during the week, not about performance on Sunday.

Joe suspects Schiano believed the same thing when he said, “I know what to do.” But the problem is Schiano didn’t deliver.

Now what, Coach?

The Bucs have lost five straight.

Josh Freeman is 23-32 as a starter.

The New Schiano Order has lost so much of what it accomplished earlier this season.

Joe doesn’t want to hear the “culture change” chatter and all that Schiano has done. The Bucs are playing dreadful football when it matters most. There’s no home field advantage. There’s little in the tank right now. Opposing coaches have caught up to the Bucs.

On the other side of the football, the Rams and their new regime have won four out of five games playing a lot of young players and not much in their receiving corps. It was immortal tight end Lance Kendricks’ turn to torch the Bucs pass defense and have a career day.

The Rams are yungry. The Bucs are just ugly.

OK boys and girls, we have the final 2012 home game for the Bucs as they host the Rams, fittingly blacked out locally because the Bucs are out of the playoffs.

Feel free to bang on your keyboard here during the game. As always, do not post a URL of an illegal, pirated video feed of the game but you are welcome to share the link with other of Joe’s readers via e-mail.

Enjoy!

The Bucs have posted their Michael Smith List for the Rams game and the inactives are as follows (topped by the list’s namesake):

RB Michael Smith

CB LeQuan Lewis

G Roger Allen

WR Chris Owusu

WR David Douglas

DT Corvey Irvin

DT Matthew Masifilo

Inactives for the Rams include QB Austin Davis, WR Steve Smith, RB Terrance Ganaway, TE Cory Harkey, LB Sammy Brown, T Joe Barksdale and DT Matt Conrath.

Week 16

Rams at Bucs

Kickoff: 1 p.m.

TV: Blacked out locally. Game will be available free on NFL.com’s Game Rewind at midnight. DirecTV Channel 713.

Radio: Buccaneers Radio Network (in Tampa WFUS-FM, 103.5 and WDAE-AM, 620); SiriusXM Channel 148.

Weather: Per AccuWeather.com, a bit chilly but a nice, sunny day. Kickoff temperature will be 64 and will gradually hover around the expected high for the day, 66, the rest of the game. Virtually no wind.

Odds: Per Sportsbook.com, Bucs -3.

Outlook: The playoff dream is gone. Now it’s just for pride. Joe believes Bucs coach Greg Schiano won’t let up whatsoever and part of that is to weed out the non-Buccaneer Men still on the roster. As with most games, the Bucs will go as far as embattled quarterback Josh Freeman takes them. Part of the twisted fun of following the Bucs is trying to decide which Josh Freeman shows up: The good Josh or the bad Josh? The past month, the bad Josh has shown up, worse by the week in fact. Joe the Bucs’ pass defense will make Sam Bradford look like Kurt Warner, which is what the Bucs pass defense does so well. They turned Nick Foles, a third round draft pick rookie, into Donovan McNabb. Fear not Bucs fans, a loss is as good as a win. Of course, Joe wants to see the Bucs win. But if the Bucs lose, that’s just a higher draft pick in April.

Look, the Bucs are out of the playoffs. Joe knows this comes as news to Bucs fans about as much as next Tuesday is Christmas.

There is a fair debate on the merits of the final two games of the season. Normally, in Joe’s mind, once a team can’t make the playoffs, it is actually beneficial to lose games rather than to win. The NFL is built on the draft and the better the draft position, the better odds of turning an NFL ship around.

But this year’s Bucs team is a bit different. This subject came up in an ESPN South chat recently.

CC (Atlanta)

You honestly think winning 2 meaningless games in late December will translate into momentum for the Bucs next Aug/Sept? That’s just silly. I expect more from you Pat. Too much egg nog?

Pat Yasinskas

Yes, I do. They’ve lost four in a row. If it turns into six, they go into the offseason with a really bad taste in their mouths. Might undo all the progress they made earlier this season.

Here’s the thing: As evidenced by a mole in the Bucs locker room to the creator, curator and overall guru of ProFootballTalk.com Mike Florio, there is a non-Buccaneer man still on the roster; likely more than one.

Bucs coach Greg Schiano is going to use the final two games to weed out the non-Buccaneer Men for what clearly will be a second round of player purging. So winning the final two games, in that respect, is important.

Those who don’t play hard will show up on tape. The eye in the sky doesn’t lie.

Coaches and players alike consider tanking games for a better draft position to be sheer heresy. Joe understands this, but there is no question five or six spots up the draft ladder is better.

This season though, Joe gets why the Bucs would want to win the next two games. Better proof of who is and who isn’t a Buccaneer Man.

Why doesn’t Josh Freeman run more?

Why isn’t he extending plays with his feet and freelancing and scrambling like he did during his stud 2010 season?

Mike Williams says the new Mike Sullivan playbook doesn’t leave much room for that. 

“I think in this offense it’s hard to like get a breakdown and scramble because you’ve got your breakdown rules with this offense, too,” Williams said on the Buccaneers Radio Network. “He gotta hit the checkdown right away and things like that. So in this offense I think it’s harder for to scramble as in other offenses where it was easy for him, if it broke down, he could get out of there and run like he’d been doing.”

“Breakdown rules,” like the ones Williams referenced, also keep quarterbacks from getting clobbered repeatedly like Jay Cutler and others that play in a more liberal system.

Joe only likes to see Freeman run a little more because it seems, based on Freeman’s body language, to give him confidence, in addition to the fact that Freeman is a good runner.

The arrival of the New Schiano Order brought a whip-cracking in key football areas: penalties and turnovers.

Greg Schiano explained that while he delegates plenty to his assistant coaches, he personally obsesses over all fumbles and penalties. And eliminating mistakes and turnovers is a constant priority of the regime.

Well, the Bucs have bumbled their way to become one of the most penalized teams in the NFL, in the bottom 25 percent of league.

However, the Bucs are on the verge of at least tying an NFL record when it comes to turnovers. Not once has a Buccaneer fumbled this season after catching a pass. And the one rushing fumble this season from Doug Martin should have been a touchdown in Carolina. (For those wondering, the fumbled away LeGarrette Blount-Josh Freeman exchange was not awarded to Blount by league statisticians.)

The ball security numbers are a real feather in Schiano’s cap. And Joe must give a big nod to departing wide receivers coach P.J. Fleck, the new head coach at Western Michigan. “Psychotic” is the only word Joe can think of to describe Fleck’s constant drilling of ball security from the day he arrived. “Chin! Chin! Chin!” and “Bite the football” was pounded into the offense, and Fleck routinely is seen physically chasing receivers or diving on top of them and trying to strip them — even long after a practice play is over.

Joe’s not sure how Schiano will fix the penalties, but Joe’s confident that will a huge priority this offseason.

Veteran Ch. 10 sportscaster Dave Wirth checks in with his weekly take for JoeBucsFan.com readers. Wirth dives into the Josh Freeman chatter and more.