So ends the season, one of the most disappointing in team history.

THE GOOD

It’s over.  It’s blessedly, mercifully over.  Ten straight losses, five straight blowouts, and the end of a sixteen week torture session.  Rejoice fans, you get a whole eight months without having to watch Jeremy Trueblood whiff on blocks, Kellen Winslow draw offensive pass interference flags, Tanard Jackson bounce off opposing running backs like a rubber bullet against a refrigerator door, and Roy Miller drop back into coverage.

The Buccaneers didn’t finish with the worst record — hell, they claim victories over the Saints and Falcons — but their early season success betrays their late-season ineptitude.  They were the worst team in the 2011 National Football League, and for the first time in years, the season’s final gun brought more relief than remorse.

THE BAD

The house Raheem Morris and company built in 2010 has crumbled.  It needs to be demolished — the walls, the floors, everything.  Those building blocks we thought we had in players like Mike Williams, Gerald McCoy, and LeGarrette Blount may not survive the purge.  No one from this regime is safe, not Josh Freeman, not Mason Foster… and after the performance they gave to close the season, it’s no wonder.

A new coach brings a new philosophy, and if (when) Morris and Greg Olson are fired, it marks a complete removal from the Jon Gruden and Monte Kiffin era.  Farewell to the horizontal West Coast offense, so long to the Cover-2 (though Raheem claims to have abandoned it already).  And say goodbye to the players who fit those schemes: your Tanard Jacksons, Geno Hayeses, and…

… and…

You know, no one on the offense really fits that short-throwing West Coast scheme that Greg Olson employs.  No wonder it doesn’t work.

THE UGLY

Has a team ever so blatantly surrendered halfway through a season?  What happened out there?  The Buccaneers were run ragged through the gauntlet of NFL elites — six consecutive games against San Francisco, New Orleans, Chicago (with Jay Cutler), New Orleans, Houston (with Matt Schaub), and Green Bay — and came out, understandably, 1-5.

The turning point came in Week 12.  They rolled into Tennessee a respectable 4-6, showed some serious fight, but lost a close one to the Titans late in the fourth quarter.  The team left their vigor and energy in Nashville, because they were destroyed in the following five weeks.  The Buccaneers didn’t even bother showing up after their loss to the Titans.  They bristled at comments attacking their effort, and every week, we got a new chant about how things were turning around, but come game day, the team fell flat.  Deflated.  Exhausted.  Disinterested.

It’s like no one told them they were accountable.  No one told them they were professionals.  The only man in the building who seemed to care was the head coach, and their apathy will cost him his job.

The Good

General manager Mark Dominik has absolutely nailed some rookie acquisitions over the last couple seasons.  Mike Williams in the fourth round has already paid for itself; ditto Preston Parker.  Undrafted running back LeGarrette Blount is on his way to being one of the greatest Buccaneer runners ever, and Cody Grimm is proving to be the team’s best run-stopper.

But Adrian Clayborn has a chance to outshine them all.  The 20th pick in the 2011 draft has come just as advertised: he’s relentless, angry, motivated, and unshakeable.  He leads the team with 7.5 sacks (the most of any Buccaneer since 2007), and is 2.5 quarterback takedowns away from tying the franchise’s rookie record.

He beat the snot out of Dallas left tackle Doug Free on Saturday night, bull rushing the big blocker into the backfield whilst playing the run and the pass.  Clayborn’s upper body strength — an alleged weakness prior to the draft — has been his best weapon so far in his young career, and his outright tenacity has already made him Tampa’s best defensive lineman.  If Da’Quan Bowers can focus the potential he flashed earlier this season, then, in a few seasons, the Buccaneers might have a defensive line to rival the Spires/Sapp/McFarland/Rice quartet that helped win a Super Bowl.

The Bad

Did anyone — besides NFL Network analyst Marshall Faulk — expect a Buccaneer victory?

Yeah, me neither.  Initially, I took some solace in the team’s weak comeback attempt, and I found myself oddly comforted by the fact that the Buccaneers lost by only 16 points. “It sure beats losing by three scores to bad teams,” I thought, and the more I considered the game, the more depressed I became.  Losing by 16 points is never a good thing.  Right?

Well, Raheem Morris found reason for optimism. “Fortunately, for us, the team didn’t die on us like last week,” he told The Tampa Tribune after the game. “They fought back, they came back in the second half, they didn’t surrender…”

How nice.  The bright side to losing by two scores at home.

The Ugly

Earlier in the week, Kellen Winslow told the media that the Buccaneers would play the Cowboys tough, in defense of their head coach.  Several players agreed, and after a 31-15 beatdown, one thing seems clear: the Tampa Bay Buccaneers hate their head coach.  The team laid down for the third straight week, led in their apathy by right tackle Jeremy Trueblood.  He was abused all night by Cowboy pass rushers, and on a key third-and-short early in the game, he completely whiffed on the defensive lineman eight inches in front of him.  I’m not even sure he got a hand on him.

Trueblood was one of several Buccaneers who left their effort in the locker room, but his mistakes were magnified; Josh Freeman spent most of the night running for his life, and LeGarrette Blount averaged a paltry 2.3 yards per carry behind his overmatched offensive line.

Tampa Bay wanted to show the country how much they cared for their coach.

Mission accomplished.

Blain Gabbert?  Jarett Dillard?  A 41-14 loss to the Jaguars?  Really?

The Good

It took 13 games, 12 plays, and a fourth down conversion, but the Buccaneers finally recorded a first quarter offensive touchdown.  Greg Olson’s fourth down call — a playaction option bootleg — was what Tampa fans have been screaming for all season; it gave Josh Freeman the opportunity to utilize his ridiculous athleticism (and run for the first if he needed to), survey the deep field, and fire a pass down field while the defense flooded toward the scrambling passer.

The offense — “simplified” according to Olson — looked downright proficient on that initial drive.  But nothing gold can stay.  A quarter later, the Buccaneers were back to their old, inefficient ways.

The Bad

Five fumbles.  Three interceptions.  Seven turnovers.  12 penalties.  Why isn’t this team improving?  The level of competition is down — the Panthers and Jaguars certainly can’t match swords with the Saints and Packers — so why do the Buccaneers look worse than they have all season?  In back-to-back weeks, they’ve been annihilated by bad teams, substituting easy victories for demoralizing blowouts.

The players can say whatever they’d like to the media.  They can talk about effort, and discipline, and perseverance in their post game conferences, but the product doesn’t lie: the Buccaneers have surrendered their season, and none of them look like they care anymore.

The Ugly

It’s been a nightmare season.  Coming into 2011, the Buccaneers felt certain they employed a trio of Pro Bowlers in Josh Freeman, Mike Williams, and LeGarrette Blount.  They had a young, athletic defense on the rise, and after two seasons, Raheem Morris‘s Buccaneers evolved into the team that no one wanted to play.

Eleven months later, as we approach the exit to the 2011 season, only one thing is certain: the Bucs have a ton of work to do, and — judging by their dispirited play — Morris and company might not be around to oversee it.

Freeman, Williams, Blount, Aqib Talib, Gerald McCoy, and Kellen Winslow — all potential cornerstones a year ago — are huge question marks going into 2012.  The Buccaneers can’t stop the run, can’t stop the pass, can’t hope to move the ball offensively, and might be the worst team in the NFC.

What else is there to say?

It’s official.  The Buccaneers are the worst team in the division, and after a 38-19 blowout loss to the Panthers, they might be the worst team in the conference.  They’re losers of six straight, and outside of a few flashes of competence, are a shell of the near-playoff team we saw a year ago.

The Good

If the Buccaneers keep losing (no problems so far), they’ll land a top-10 draft pick, and with Stanford quarterback Andrew Luck being a consensus first- or second-overall selection, Tampa Bay is bound to land an impact player.  Justin Blackmon would relegate Mike Williams to the number two target, but — with a new offensive coordinator — the Oklahoma State wide receiver could immediately improve the offense.  Notre Dame’s Manti Te’o would provide the defense with a fundamentally sound, strong-tackling playmaker.  Morris Claiborne, the draft’s top defensive back, would replace Ronde Barber and — if Aqib Talib isn’t in jail — create one of the league’s most formidable corner tandems.

As bad as the team has performed in 2011, the Buccaneers are set at several positions.  It allows the management a little more freedom in their draft choices, and it’ll be exciting to see which way they decide to take the team.  The 2012 first-round pick — speed receiver?  power back?  defensive playmaker? — will go a long way toward establishing a team identity.

The Bad

The Panthers haven’t had a convincing win all year, but after that initial touchdown drive, I rolled my eyes, exhaled noisily, and braced myself for the beatdown.  The Bucs looked disinterested out there.  Sloppy.  For the second consecutive week, the offense scored only one touchdown, and the defense got ripped apart by the run.

And the schedule isn’t an excuse anymore.  If the Raheem Morris era had any type of trend or consistency, it was that the Tampa Bay Buccaneers beat the teams they were expected to beat.  Since 2010, Tampa Bay has an 11-1 record versus losing teams.  The single loss was the result of a blown call against the Detroit Lions.

After Sunday, Carolina made it 11-2.  The Pewter Pirates were educated by the 3-8 Panthers.  Blown out.  At home.  By a losing team.

Sheesh.

The Ugly

Raheem Morris has built a reputation on charisma.  He’s forever the optimist, perpetually relaxed, with a smirk plastered to his face.

Scratch that image.  Defensive tackle Brian Price was sent home from the football game after committing a 15-yard personal foul.  Morris, ahem, “discussed” it in his post-game press conference:

“Yes, I sent him to the locker room. I told him go home. F***. Yeah. Because it’s foolish, it’s selfish to your teammates, to everybody in your organization, to your fans. That’s terrible. That’s just selfish behavior to get a 15-yard penalty, in that situation, when that’s all we talk about, when that’s all we discuss. You just can’t do that to your team.”

The normally-reserved Morris seems to have thrown his hands up.  He indirectly acknowledged that he has lost the locker room.

“You know, they’re not listening. They’ve got to listen and we’ve got to do a better job of coaching. That’s all.”

Morris’s job depends on a lot of things.  It’ll depend on how the players — especially Brian Price — respond in the coming days.  It’ll depend on Morris’s contingency plan.  It’ll depend on how the team plays against the Jaguars.  Because as it stands, the players aren’t competing for their head coach.  They’re playing slow, uninspired football, and getting stomped on by every opponent.  Things are ugly in Tampa.  Let’s hope the worst of it is over.

No excuses.

The Titans aren’t the Packers.  They aren’t the Saints, or the Texans, or the 49ers.  They’re not a Super Bowl contender, an elite offense, or a stifling defense.  They’re a team with problems: no offensive playmakers, an underachieving defense, and a crippling inconsistency that threatens their chances at the division crown.

They are, essentially, Tampa’s doppelganger in mediocrity.  And that’s appropriate, because on the road, in the rain, with four fumbles and five turnovers, the Buccaneers beat themselves.

The Good

LeGarrette Blount is an animal.

For the second consecutive week, Tampa’s high-hurdling wrecking ball averaged over five yards per carry en route to eclipsing triple digits on the ground.  And that’s no surprise: entering the contest, Blount was averaging a carry of 10+ yards every 10 attempts, and with runs of 14, 16, and 14 on Sunday, he exceeded that average against the Titans.  His receiving numbers were a bit less expected; Blount finished with a career-high five receptions for a career-high 56 yards, including a game-breaking 35-yarder in the opening quarter.

It begs the question… why isn’t Blount in the lineup on third downs?  Can his pass blocking be that much worse than Kregg Lumpkin’s?  The only thing stopping Tampa’s 240-pound runner from becoming an every-down back, so far, has been the lack of opportunity.

The Bad

The Josh Freeman – Kellen Winslow connection has been toxic this season.  Winslow is on pace for 76 receptions and 768 yards this season (both measures are right on schedule for the prolific tight end), but eight of Freeman’s 16 interceptions have been forced to Winslow in pressure situations.  It’s not a matter of miscommunication, or poor blocking, or double coverage… they’re just bad decisions.

Exhibit A: on second-and-10, in the midst of another fourth-quarter comeback, Freeman tosses a pick to Tennessee’s Colin McCarthy.  The pass was into tight coverage and thrown behind Winslow, who wasn’t looking for the ball.  McCarthy looked surprised by the throw, but held on, and effectively ended the game for the Buccaneers.

It’s been a problem all season, and it’s a major reason why Tampa Bay ranks 31st in red zone efficiency in 2011.  If I’m Greg Olson, I’d consider leaving Winslow on the sidelines in sensitive situations, if only to encourage Freeman to finish his reads before lofting his passes to the opposing team.

The Ugly

No matter what Michael Clayton tells you, talent doesn’t disappear.  It fades with age, injuries, and poor work ethic, but it’s always there, and Tennessee’s Chris Johnson proved it.  Two seasons ago, Johnson strung together 11-consecutive 100-yard rushing games, culminating in 2,006 rushing yards — fifth most all time.  He’s been quiet in 2011, recording only 509 yards in the ten games leading up to Sunday, and I think the Buccaneer defense shrugged him off as a non-issue.

They paid for it.  Johnson ran for a season-high 190 yards (30% of his season total) against Tampa’s struggling defense, and averaged 8.3 yards per carry despite losing yards on five carries.  Raheem Morris’s defense has been the cure-all for opposing offenses this season, whether it be Jacoby Jones’s troubles at receiver, Curtis Painter’s problems under center, or Roy Williams’s big-play inability.  It’s like the Jim Bates experiment all over again.

And that’s a problem.

It wasn’t a game they were supposed to win.  And pundits relax – they didn’t.  The Buccaneers fell 35-26 to Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay machine, but Tampa left Lambeau with more than a tally in the loss column; they played with more confidence and passion than they had all year, and delivered a performance that would’ve beaten any other team in the NFL.

The Good

Effort.

Twice this season, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers had been accused of giving up during a game.  Surrendering.  Rolling over and submitting.  Against the Texans, it took Albert Haynesworth to provide the voice of reason for the young Buccaneer defense, despite having been signed only six days prior.  Raheem Morris called the team out after the blowout loss to Houston, and — if only for a game — it worked.

And their energy was encapsulated in a single, frantic play.  LeGarrette Blount secured a hand off, met two tacklers in the heart of the Packer defense, churned his legs, and broke through into the secondary.  He was met by Morgan Burnett and Tramon Williams but powered immediately through them, burned down the sideline, juked Sam Shields, and stiff armed a Green Bay linebacker as he charged into the end zone.

The Bad

They forewent the free agent rush, and now, the Bucs are paying for it.  They decided to pass on Johnathan Joseph and, thankfully, Nnamdi Asomugha, and because of their reluctance, the rest of the league is passing on the Tampa defense.

The lack of depth in the defensive backfield is horrifying.  E.J. Biggers has held his own for most of his brief career, but it doesn’t change the fact that the Buccaneers are deploying Biggers — a young, seventh-round draft pick — against superstar receivers every week.  Biggers’s backup?  Undrafted Elbert Mack and second-year underperformer Myron Lewis, who left the field with scorch marks on his uniform last Sunday.

The safety position is only slightly better, and it’s a concern that must be addressed in the 2012 NFL Draft.  The Buccaneers are a retirement announcement and a guilty verdict away from fielding the worst set of cornerbacks in the league.

The Ugly

Fourth-and-three.  Six minutes remaining.  The Buccaneers trail by two scores near midfield, and…

… and they punt?

I can understand the onside kicks (even the ill-advised second attempt), but the punt completely contradicted Morris’s aggressive approach to the game.  Luckily, Elbert Mack recorded an interception off Aaron Rodgers — a rarity for both parties — and awarded the Bucs new life.  But punting the ball to the NFL’s top offense in the waning minutes of the contest is not a key to victory.

When the Tampa Bay offense was rolling like it was (the game marked the third time in team history where Tampa fielded a 300-yard passer, 100-yard receiver, and 100-yard rusher), earning three yards with the game on the line should be a no-brainer.  If you’re going to throw the game away with onside kicks, Morris, lace your aggression with a little consistency.

Go for it next time.

The Good

Head coach Raheem Morris promised “changes” in his post-game press conference.  Believe it when you see it, but it’s something.  The normally level-headed Buccaneer figurehead seemed visibly perturbed by the 37-9 loss to Houston — which was appropriate — but it was a far deviation from his normal, cliched, passive responses to reporters and media.  Maybe, for the first time in ten weeks — scratch that, the first time in his career — he’s not telling the media what they want to hear?

Hey, it’s a start.

The Bad

NFL teams don’t spend much time on tackling.  It’s a basic skill, learned in youth football, practiced in high school, and — usually — perfected in college.  It’s a bread-and-butter element to the sport, and many times, professional teams forgo the tackling drills in favor of more cerebral practices.

Tampa Bay might consider revising that practice schedule.  They surrendered an 80-yard score on the first play of the game — Houston’s Jacoby Jones broke two down-field tackles and raced the distance with, at best, apathetic pursuit — and then gave up a 78-yard touchdown, in which Arian Foster caught a screen, broke three sad tackle attempts by Buccaneer defenders, and scored easily from 234 feet.

There’s no discipline on defense, and it’s killing this team.  They’re on pace to surrender a franchise-worst in total yards, and haven’t even feigned competency through the last few weeks.  That being said, they’re still not the worst unit on this team…

The Ugly

A first down is not a victory, but in Greg Olson’s offense, it sure feels like one.  It’s almost a religious experience when Freeman and company move the chains; every completion seems punctuated with a collective exhale from the fans, and the players — from quarterback, to tight end, to receiver, to lineman — don’t look comfortable employing the scheme.  Each throw is born of hesitation and timidity.  Each receiver is running his routes thoughtfully instead of reactively.

They exude confusion instead of confidence, and the most frustrating thing about Tampa’s offensive struggles?  They don’t seem to be going away.  These Buccaneers — the same team that stormed to 10-6 a season ago — is on the verge of becoming the first team in franchise history without a first-quarter offensive touchdown.  The 1976 squad, one of the worst offenses ever, managed two first-quarter touchdowns in 14 games.

Greg Olson needs to make changes before he makes history.

It’s getting ridiculous.  All of it.  The interceptions, the dropped passes, the offensive predictability… One week, the Buccaneers need a 17-point comeback to overtake the 1-6 Vikings; the next, they’re smashing the Saints and breaking Sean Payton’s legs.

They have no identity.  The team exists somewhere in between the 48-3 West Coast beatdown and the 24-17 handling of the Colts, but after watching almost half the season, I’m thinking they’re closer to the squad we saw in San Francisco.

The only constant from week-to-week has been Josh Freeman’s interceptions.  Sometimes the Buccaneers can run the ball, sometimes they can’t.  One week, Aqib Talib erases Reggie Wayne from the game, and the next he’s being burnt to ashes by Josh Morgan.  Against the Lions and the Vikings, Mike Williams makes two ridiculous touchdown catches — stretching his body and dragging his feet for the receptions — but now, he couldn’t catch a fuzzy football in a velcro suit.

Who are the Buccaneers?  We’ll find out in the second half of 2011.  And I don’t think we’ll be happy about it.

THE GOOD

Michael Koenen wasn’t a scatback, or a franchise tackle, or a shutdown corner, but he’s been one of the best free agent pickups in the NFL.  I don’t know if it’s really awesome or embarrassingly terrible, but the 29-year-old punter might be Tampa’s best player halfway through this season.

He’s dropped a league-leading 15 punts inside the opponents’ 20-yard line, and has, inexplicably, zero touchbacks.  He’s the directional kicker that Tampa sought when they drafted Brent Bowden, but has the power to drive the ball down field when the Buccaneers are backed up, effectively denying field position to the opposing team.

Kickoffs have been a strength, too.  He’s averaging a touchback on nearly half of his kicks, and together with the coverage unit, is allowing only 18.8 yards per return — 0.2 yards behind Washington for the best average in the league.

But his best position might be his most unheralded: Koenen has been as masterful a holder as we’ve had in the last decade.  He’s been the pivotal joint between long snapper and kicker, and the process has been one of the smoothest examples of execution on the entire team.  Connor Barth is on pace to make 30 field goals in 2011 — easily the best mark of his career — and is only inches from a perfect 15 for 15 on the season.

Koenen had his best game against the Bears and the incomparable Devin Hester.  His punts totaled almost 400 yards, and Chicago’s all-star punt returner averaged a pedestrian 6.6 yards per return.  Koenen is on pace to average an all-time Buccaneer best 46.34 yards per punt, and might be Tampa’s only representative in the 2011 Pro Bowl.

THE BAD

I wish Luke Stocker had been give an opportunity to run the football.  Not that I think he’d be especially good at it, but only for my own vindictive pleasure.  It would’ve perfectly punctuated Tampa’s stupidity for deploying only two healthy halfbacks for the Chicago game.  You can not play a game with only two runners, especially when one of them is your backup fullback.  They should’ve spent the week in London prepping a practice squad running back — Mossis Madu maybe? — for an emergency role.  And really, they had the room on the sideline.  Did Jacob Cutrera add that much to the roster on Sunday?  Or Zac Diles?

Whatever their reasoning, Josh Freeman isn’t a player who’s going to outmaneuver a defense without the help of a running game.  When Earnest Graham went down, the Buccaneers lost a hard-nosed rushing attack, a third-down safety valve, and premier pass protection.  All the Bears had to do was blitz six men, and someone was bound to break through.

Poor planning by the coaches, and it might’ve cost them the game.

THE UGLY

I’d single out Freeman, or Greg Olson, or Mike Williams, or Jeremy Trueblood, or Kellen Winslow, but honestly, they’ve been collectively mediocre this season.  And the thing that troubles me the most — by far — is the organization’s failure to come up with an answer.

I think the coaches and the fans share the same affliction: they have no idea what the hell is wrong.  That’s the only explanation, or they would’ve fixed the problem by now.  Why isn’t Mike Williams hanging on to passes?  No one knows.  Mike probably doesn’t know, either.  Why isn’t Freeman hitting open targets?  We don’t have any idea.

What happened to the versatile, explosive offense from a season ago?  We don’t know, and I’m convinced: neither does anyone else.  It’s a problem — with no apparent solution — that will spoil the 2011 season for this team.  For seven weeks — give or take a couple — the offense has taken the field and looked rigid.  Hesitant.  Lost.  Bumbling.  Something needs to be done.  Bench Williams, fire Olson, do anything.  If the cancer is spreading and you can’t find it, it’s time to start hacking off some limbs.

(Chris C. — a contributor to BuccaneersGab.com — has a few poignant thoughts on the matter.  It’s a lengthy and thoughtful column, and makes more sense than Greg Olson’s play calls.  Give it a read.)

What a difference a week makes.  Seven days after the worst loss in team history, the Buccaneers defended Raymond James Stadium against the surging Saints.  They sent the fleur-de-lis back to New Orleans with a division loss and a maimed coach, earning the first quality win of the Raheem Morris era.

THE GOOD

Welcome back, Josh Freeman!  The much-maligned 23-year-old passer put together the four best quarters of the season.  He stood tall against Gregg Williams’s blitz packages and survived the game without surrendering a sack.  He was also the model of efficiency, posting the second 300-yard game of his career and a 95.9 passer rating which was easily his best of the season.

Greg Olson’s offense looks halfway competent when the quarterback isn’t missing wide open receivers.  If Freeman doesn’t fall back into a statistical stasis that plagued him through the first third of the season, then Tampa’s playoff hopes are stronger than ever.  When Freeman is on target — when Tampa’s six-foot-six, 260-pound mega-athlete is shrugging off sacks, dropping bombs, and running for first downs –  the Buccaneers can beat anyone.

Other standouts: It’s like Tanard Jackson never left; the ballhawk was back in the secondary, laying big hits, picking off passes, and supercharging the defensive backfield.  And kudos to the defensive line: there were no sacks, but they kept Drew Brees, Mark Ingram, and Pierre Thomas frustrated for most of the game.

THE BAD

What do Mike Williams and Michael Clayton have in common?  Too much, as of now.  Tampa’s sophomore receiver is on pace to catch 66 balls — one more than his rookie total — but his yardage and touchdowns are suffering horribly.  Mike is on schedule for a pedestrian 645 yards and 3 touchdowns, about five games worth of production less than his record-breaking inaugural season.

He’s been dropping passes at a ridiculous rate (including two drive-killers on third down), and is battling through tight coverage for every reception.  Defenses are paying him extra attention this season — deservedly so, after being torched by him in 2010 — but Williams isn’t finding openings in the coverage.  Most of his receptions this season have been on slants or screens, and he is averaging fewer yards per reception than Jahvid Best, Jonathan Stewart, Matt Forte, Fred Jackson, and Ryan Mathews — all running backs, catching passes from the backfield.

The extra focus on Williams has opened things up for Arrelious Benn and Preston Parker, and the offense is moving well, but a team’s primary wide receiver needs to find openings down the field, and Williams has shown himself incapable through the first six games of 2011.

Other off-days: Jeff Faine.  Your bicep?  Again?

THE UGLY

By all accounts, Kellen Winslow has been the model teammate in Tampa Bay.  And, to be fair, he’s done nothing to show otherwise.

Save for his childish display against the Saints.

The tight end was visibly frustrated after Freeman missed a wide-open throw in the second quarter.  The next play — also to Winslow — was off-target, and Winslow shook his head in contempt.  The third play, another pass to the star tight end, also missed, and Winslow waved dismissively — and condescendingly — at Freeman before heading toward the sideline.

It’s been the only sign of dissension — so far — from a teammate regarding Freeman’s poor throws.  And it’s odd, because Winslow has been one of Freeman’s most outspoken supporters.  But regardless of his feelings, Kellen needs to save his criticism for the locker room.  It’s completely unprofessional and inexcusable, and a throwback to Winslow’s delinquency in Cleveland.

Others worth noting: God bless Sean Payton.  The New Orleans signal-caller spent the first half on the sidelines, calling plays and grimacing sternly… with a broken freaking leg.  Atlanta coach Mike Smith’s appearance is built around his tough-guy persona, but after Sunday, I’m not sure I’d bet on Smith in a back-alley brawl between the two.

The Ugly

Oh boy.  The foundation is cracking.  The sky is falling.  The walls are closing in.  The Buccaneers weren’t as good as their 3-1 record (and the numbers showed as much), but surely they’re not this bad.  This soft.  This slow.  This inept.

Not bad enough to lose 48-3?  Are they?

It’ll go down as the worst loss of the Raheem Morris era and one of the least inspired, least disciplined games in the history of the franchise.

The trudged into the locker room down three touchdowns at halftime, and there was no sense of magic — none of that Josh Freeman electricity — in the air.  From the opening kickoff, it felt like an old-fashioned, behind-the-woodshed, man-versus-boy ass-whooping; it was Joe Calzaghe vs. Jeff Lacy; it was Olajuwon vs. Robinson; it was Scott Stevens obliterating Eric Lindros.

But, most simply, it was hard to watch.

Freeman couldn’t throw.  Mike Williams couldn’t catch.  Morris left his defense in Tampa; the front four couldn’t rush, the back four couldn’t cover, and the three in between looked lost and hesitant.  There were no throwing windows, no running lanes, and really, no hope for victory after Freeman’s pick-six.

The offensive struggles continue (read: intensify), and our star players from 2010 have yet to flash this season.  The future looks bleak, with games against the Saints, Bears, Texans, and Packers occupying the next five slots on the schedule, and Tampa’s coaching staff needs to find a quick-fix for the plethora of issues that plague this team before they fall to 3-7 and out of contention.

All in all, it was a miserable, nauseating, painful way to lose.  But the season is far from over.  When we see Mike Williams parading around One Buc in his fur coat — a la Michael Clayton — it might be a sign of coming disaster.  But until then, the Buccaneers will take the game in stride and (hopefully) use it as a learning experience.

And there is a bright side buried in the loss: Tampa should be extra-prepared for New Orleans next Sunday, after their Week Five bye in San Francisco.