The way Matt Bryant has kicked in the preseason, he may be carried out of One Buc Palace... by security guards.

Joe is not a stat geek. Rather, Joe is a results geek.

For example, 7 of 12 can mean far different things. In baseball, if a hitter has seven hits in 12 at-bats, why, he’s the next Albert Pujols. In hockey, if a goalie lets seven pucks past him in 12 shots, he’s the next John Grahame and deserves to be run out of town.

Those same set of numbers aren’t exactly great for kickers either. Yet that’s exactly what Matt Bryant’s stats were this preseason: He made seven field goals in 12 attempts.

In short, that’s unacceptable.

Matt Bryant has been good for the Bucs. Very good. He’s even Gene Deckerhoff’s hero. And if you believe Bryant, he had his best training camp of his career.

But unless Bryant quickly snaps out of his slump, he won’t be wearing Pewter and Red much longer. Bryant seems to be aware of this and told Stephen F. Holder of the St. Petersburg Times the new season is time to turn the page.

“It still seems to be giving me fits for whatever reason,” Bryant, 33, said. “Starting with the New Orleans game (season opener), I’m back to 0-for-0. This has been the best camp of my career, minus these couple of games. I almost wish I hadn’t done so good in camp. But I’ll be fine and help this team any way I can.”

Chucky doesn’t seem too concerned, but are his quotes the kiss of death?

“I don’t know if I was disappointed or just shocked because Matt doesn’t miss field goals and I just feel it’s unbelievable, so I was shocked and I was disappointed,” Gruden said after the game. “But again, I was happy to see him bang those last three field goals through the uprights and hopefully that catapults him into another great season.”

Are we witnessing the final few days of Bryant on the Bucs, or he is just going through a short slump?

In an effort not to be a complete worry wart, how about some happier times for Bucs fans and Bryant?