Joe must commend Raheem Morris for sitting in front of the microphone Monday night on his WDAE-AM radio show to talk about the historic debacle in San Francisco and take live calls from fans.

That type of fan interaction was far beneath Chucky, though Father Dungy embraced the ritual, even going so far as to do his show at a local sports bars as part of a radio station promotion. (Think Father Dungy sitting near scantily-clad waitresses, with blue collar fan types insisting on buying him adult beverages.)

Anyway, Raheem faced the music Monday and graciously fieled a call from a fan who wanted to know when the Bucs would wise up and bring Barrett Ruud, or a Derrick Brooks-type, back to the roster, as well as an inquiry from a guy who offered an intricate Discovery Channel analogy of the Bucs and the largest lions eating the heartiest part of a jungle kill.

But amidst the ridiculousness, Raheem explained that he painfully watched the 49ers game twice and saw a slow and injured Bucs team.

“We had a bunch of nicks and a bunch of bruises, nothing longterm so we’re very fortunate as far as people that are going to be hurt and people are going to miss a couple of things, but there’s nothing long term to stop this team from doing what their ultimate goal is. But we gotta get those guys back. And that’s what their job was [Monday,] to get their bodies right in order to be ready to play, because we got certainly a tough division opponent coming in here.

“For me, it was about coming here looking at [the film,] finding out what went wrong and how we looked. And we looked hurt. We looked slow. We didn’t look as good as we normally look. And we gotta find a way to practice to get those things out of us. And we gotta find a way to do different things this week to get ready for this battle. So I wanted to watch it a couple of times, give myself that ultimate headache that you get when you are a coach. And I got it, and then you gotta get it outta your system.”

It’ll be interesting to see how Raheem practices this week to rid the team of sluggish play.

Historically, Raheem’s Bucs always have rebounded following a big loss, including after clubbings last year at the hands of the Saints and Steelers. So Joe’s optimistic.