Doug Martin (22) and his Bucs teammates celebrate a touchdown yesterday in the win over the Jags. (Photo courtesy of Buccaneers.com.)

Welcome to Victory Monday, Tampa Bay!

And what a huge victory it was for Lovie Smith, who may have saved his job yesterday. For now.

The embattled Bucs coach (4-17, 1-10 at home) chased away the wolves at his door at the most opportune time.

Not only would Lovie have suffered a(nother) shameful loss to a garbage team, and a(nother) home defeat, but fans would have been fueled with two weeks of rage between now and the next Bucs game after the bye, at Washington.

It doesn’t mean Lovie is a cinch to return next year. It doesn’t mean he is out of the woods. It’s a start.

But a loss yesterday would have been so damning, Joe he isn’t sure how Lovie could have crawled out of that hole.

Lovie has the second-worst start of any coach in Bucs history – which is a mouthful on face value – but has a whole lot of defenders who wouldn’t have dared to defend Leeman Bennett or Richard Williamson or Raheem Morris or even Greg Schiano, despite the fact all had as good (Bennett) or better starts than Lovie, and none had the personnel clout Lovie has. It is very odd to Joe that Lovie has many staunch, vocal defenders.

One reason, the Lovie apologists argue, he’ll return is that Team Glazer doesn’t want to pay a coach who isn’t working.

Well, it’s time to debunk that theory.

This past spring, the NFL distributed to each team some $226 million, its share of national revenue earned in fiscal year 2014. Again, this is national revenue, not including local revenue, which is not public record, and one can only take an uneducated stab in the dark to guess what the Bucs pulled in from local revenue streams.

Per ESPN, Lovie signed a four-year contract in January 2014, with a team option for a fifth year, at a cool $5 million a year. So Lovie’s salary is 2.21 percent of the Bucs’ gross national revenue stream. If you factor in local revenue, that figure surely slips to under 2 percent.

So if Team Glazer is not convinced Lovie is the answer to get the team back to the Super Bowl (and frankly, what evidence is there?), would they let a tiny fraction of their gross revenue tie their hands?

Think again.

Shoot, Team Glazer (on the insistence of Lovie) flushed a whole lot more loot on Ghost Johnson, Josh McClown, Anthony Collins and Alterraun Verner than Lovie’s contract is worth.

So, don’t be gullible when a Lovie defender tries to say Lovie’s contact is too expensive for Team Glazer to eat. It isn’t.

Impressive Running Backs

Doug Martin and Charles Sims had a one-two punch for the Bucs yesterday that may not have been seen in these parts since the days of Warrick Dunn and Mike Alstott. The two accounted for 294 yards of total offense, on the ground and in the air.

If was the perfect elixir for a rookie quarterback: let the running backs take over. Yesterday, Sims showed why the Bucs coveted his versatility. And at this point in the season, you could argue Martin is having his best year of his career. It looks like Martin will cash in with some team in a few months.

Hidden Gems

When it comes to finding pass rushers off the street, Bucs AC/DC-loving general manage Jason Licht sure has an eye for talent.

Last year, he pulled Jacquies Smith off the scrap heap and he is the best edge rusher for the Bucs. Now, Licht finds the immortal Howard Jones (who?), who had two sacks in the first half yesterday. The defensive end/linebacker from Shepherd (Shepherd? Joe hardly knew her.) got two sacks in the first half yesterday, something he told Joe he has never done in his life.

Props to Licht for continuing to mine the waiver wire for dudes who might be able to put heat on quarterbacks.

The Bucs put mobile quarterback Blake Bortles on the ground six times. Impressive.

Settle Down Jameis!

Jameis had an efficient game yesterday. Nothing flashy. No turnovers. Just solid, smart decisions. Except one garish boneheaded mistake where he was rescued by the zebras.

Early in the second quarter, the Bucs had a 2nd-and-8 from the Jags-19. As Roy Miller (remember him?) was pulling Jameis down for a sack, Jameis tried to throw the ball out of bounds. Instead, it was a backwards pass/fumble recovered by the Jags.

Jameis was bailed out when a replay review showed Miller brought Jameis down before he released the ball. For a guy supposed to be so intelligent, a guy who accepted to Stanford on academics, that was sure a dumb@ss play by Jameis.

Look, Joe makes no secrets he’s a big Jameis fan. But after so many turnovers recently, to pull a stunt like that, someone should have read the riot act to Jameis telling him in no uncertain terms if he ever tried that again he would be benched. It was inexcusable. The Bucs were in field goal range, even with the sack, and Connor Barth booted it two plays later.

Joe asked a couple of offensive players if anyone in the huddle pulled Jameis aside and said, in so many words, ‘Hey rookie, you do that again you’re getting taped to the goal post!’ Joe was told, No, scolding is left up to the coaching staff.

Something Special Brewing Up Front

Joe was among the vast majority of Bucs fans who thought, starting two rookies on the offensive line would be a huge, huge issue this season.

And yesterday without left guard Logan Mankins, who is left tackle Donovan Smith’s security blanket, Joe thought a perfect storm was setting up against a good Jags run defense.

But the Bucs’ offensive line, down three original starters up front (center Evan Smith, right tackle Demar Dotson and Mankins) may have had its best game of the season. And the offensive line may be the strongest unit now on the team.

Now just look at the depth: Kevin Pamphile, a tackle, played guard rather well yesterday (first time he played guard since his sophomore year at Purdue). Hardly perfect, but the Bucs hardly missed Mankins. And both Smith and Dotson are scheduled to return from injuries soon. At worst, you now have a solid offensive line with serious depth if injuries pile up (again).

Aside from Lovie’s bad losses, the development of the offensive line is Joe’s story of the season thus far.

NFL Thoughts:

Colts: Joe is happy for Colts fans but that game Thursday night was so dreadful, Joe couldn’t watch. Yes, it is the NFL and it is football, but Joe just can’t watch slop for football just because it is on TV,

Dixie Chicks: You need to be patient with first-year coach Dan Quinn! He needs time to find his players and for those players to buy in so they can start winning.

Browns: So the Browns beat the reeling Crows and Josh McClown put up stats. Whoop-tee-do.

Bengals: All Andy Dalton does is win. Down 17 points to Seattle in the fourth quarter, Dalton put together four scoring drives in which he threw for a touchdown or ran for a touchdown as the Bengals won in overtime.

Packers: The Packers had an awful game. Aaron Rodgers throws two picks at home and they still win easily over the Sybil-like Rams.

Bears: Bratty Jay Cutler threw two fourth-quarter touchdowns in Kansas City. The Bears have now won two straight since the fire sale.

Eagles: Just when it looked like EagleFan was about to have a complete and total meltdown, the Eagles stomp the Saints. Guess Chip Kelly isn’t going to USC. This week.

Bills: So Capt. Lou Albano cut down the Bills’ penalties to a svelte seven yesterday? That is progress. Marcus Mariota couldn’t muster more than 13 points.

Cardinals: The win by The Flock is overshadowed by the fact the Lions benched Matthew Stafford. Joe honestly never saw this coming.

Patriots: Tom Brady yada… yada… yada…

Broncos: Peyton Manning yada… yada… yada…

Giants: Man, the 49ers picked off Eli Manning with seconds to go and Joe turned the game off. Only later did Joe realize it wasn’t a pick and the Giants won. #FacePalm

Non-NFL Thoughts

* Joe just loves the Oklahoma-Texas rivalry. It’s not as intense as it once was, especially with Texas sucking wind this year. But it is so unpredictable. Couple of years ago, Oklahoma throttled Texas when Texas was still considered good. Saturday, it was the Longhorns who did the arse-kicking to an undefeated Sooners squad. Joe just loves how it is a neutral site; half the field Texas, half Oklahoma, with the Texas State Fair in the background in Dallas. May be the coolest off-campus site for such a huge rivalry in the nation. One of these days Joe has to go there. #BucketList

* Joe noticed this a couple of weeks ago at Oklahoma, and then just this past weekend at West Virginia. Props to schools that require (?) fans to wear one of the two dominant school colors depending on the seat location. The crowd shots with perfect solid colors for each section looks cool as hell.

* After seeing what happened to Nick Chubb over the weekend, Joe has no issue whatsoever if LSU running back Leonard Fournette sits out his junior year. No need to eff up your leg and your career and throw away millions of dollars. Likewise Dalvin Cook. If Florida State loses a game (Joe cannot imagine the Seminoles being playoff bound again this year), then Cook should use his gimpy hamstring as an excuse to coast until the end of the season. No position gets beat up like a running back. Those guys have such short shelf lives. If you are just a handful of games away from a lottery ticket and your college team isn’t in the playoffs, then you have to look out for yourself. And less wear and tear on the body now will allow a guy to extend his NFL career even longer, which means more cash.

* Geez, noticed Randy Edsall got all tough guy in his press conference after getting beat by Ohio State. He is now Maryland’s former coach. It’s one thing to play tough guy if you are Bobby Knight or Bill Parcells or Nick Saban. But if you constantly get your head handed to you, pulling the tough-guy stunt makes you look even more like a fool.

* Is Al Golden done at Miami? Hard to see him coming back.

* Saw that the quarterback flavor of the week, Cal’s Jared Goff, threw five picks against Utah. Waiting for Mike Mayock to say at the NFL Scouting Combine this winter that he should have thrown 40.

* After losing to Tennessee, are Bulldogs fans starting to tire of Mark Richt?

* Nebraska has just about hit rock bottom and it reinforces why they fired nutcase Bo Pelini. The guy couldn’t recruit for s(p)it. Pelini might have been a decent coach, but players don’t want to play for a complete mental patient. The fact the Cornhuskers are getting drilled by teams they used to stomp before breaking a sweat is ample evidence the cupboard is bare.

* So Steve Sarkisian was alleged to have been drunk on the sidelines during USC’s win over Arizona State, and players claim to have photos of him passed out after the game? Cool!

* Joe was asked about the Cardinals-Cubs series. Haven’t watched one play. Too friggin’ depressed to. Watched other games but cannot bear to watch the Cardinals now. Injuries finally caught up with them at the worst possible time.

* So now Donald Trump claims that Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl should have been executed. This dude Trump is never boring.