Joe was doing a bit of research last night and noticed that the Bucs are on the cusp of an alarming record:

At no time in the Bucs history has the team given up 25 or more points in six consecutive games.

With the gutless collapse of the Bucs defense in the final 70 seconds Sunday, allowing the Dolphins to reach 25 points, it marked the fifth straight game the Bucs have allowed 25 or more points.

Up next is the high-octane New Orleans Saints and Drew Brees.

Think about it: The Bucs have had some of the most godawful teams in NFL history, at one point losing 26 straight games. But at no point did the Bucs cough up 25 points in six consecutive games.

At what point does someone, anyone, not start pointing a finger at defensive coordinator Jim Bates? To not at least lay partial blame for this atrocious defense on Bates is to be dishonest.

Joe doesn’t buy this nonsense that Bates doesn’t have the players. Arguably, the Bucs have one of the best secondaries, talent-wise, in the NFL. Aqib Talib and Tanard Jackson are playing Pro Bowl-level. Ronde Barber still has gas in the tank.

So the problems lie in the front seven. And Jim Bates is still using that g-damned two-gap system.

Far wiser football minds than Joe, including Warren Sapp and Pat Kirwan, said from Day One that Bates’ two-gap system would not work with the players he has.

Yet stubbornly, Bates continues to try to force feed this system onto the Bucs.

Uh, Jim, news flash: It ain’t working.

Now Joe has noticed how Bates has incorporated the Tampa-2 pass coverage to better utilize his secondary. Smart move.

If Bates can do this with the defensive backs, why the hell cannot he adapt to his players with the front seven?

Joe also found this quote from Raheem the Dream a little disturbing yesterday.

“We’re just not made right now to knock people back. That’s not how we’re cut,” Raheem The Dream said. “We don’t have big intimidating linebackers or big intimidating linemen. We gotta hit you. We gotta be perfect. …We don’t have the big people, the big personnel that you need to knock out runs. The physical person up front who just absolutely dominates the block and gets a tackle for a loss for a 3rd and 13. Which we’ll get there. We’ll find them guys. We’ll go out there and get them.”

Uh, Rah, you had all offseason to find guys walking the streets who could play a two-gap system. They may not have been All Pros but could they have been worse in a two-gap system than the guys you have now?

Local scribes noted earlier this year it would have been hard for a number of reasons for the Glazer Family to retain Raheem the Dream had the Bucs had gone winless. The same writers suggest Raheem the Dream would still be on thin ice if the Bucs only win one game (Joe doesn’t neccesarily agree, but that’s another story).

If that premise is accurate, Joe simply asks how you can bring a defensive coordinator back whose defense sets a putrid franchise record yet, like Captain Edward John Smith of the Titanic, barrels full steam ahead with his defensive front scheme that fails game after game after game yet doesn’t try to mold another scheme that might get the best out of the players he currently has?

Joe thinks that’s a fair question.

Again, to ignore Bates’ responsibility at some level in what very likely will be a terrible franchise record, is being dishonest.