You know you’re having a bad season when your team had the worst weekend in the NFL and they were on a bye week.
To steal a line from ESPN.com’s Bill Simmons: Ladies and Gentlemen, the 2009 Tampa Bay Buccaneers!
Week 8 saw the Tennessee Titans drop the Jacksonville Jaguars 30-13 behind new quarterback Vince Young and the St. Louis Rams gave coach Steve Spagnuolo his first career victory with a 17-10 win over the Detroit Lions.
At least with the 2008-09 Lions, who went 0-16, you still had the opportunity to watch Calvin Johnson, one of the best wide receivers in the league. With Johnson, you had some hope that maybe he can get hot, break free and score a few touchdowns to get the win.
It didn’t happen, but still, there was some hope.
Not in Tampa. They have absolutely no running game, their receivers act like there’s a bonus in their contract for leading the league in dropped passes, the defense doesn’t like to pressure the quarterback and the secondary forgets they’re supposed to NOT allow opponents to catch the ball.
Bucs' head coach Raheem Morris, QB Josh Freeman, and GM Mark Dominik at the 2009 NFL Draft
That’s what happens when you hire a puppet head coach. Raheem Morris literally had to call the owners to see if it was ok to put in rookie quarterback Josh Freeman, the 17th overall selection in last years draft.
Are you kidding me?
Why does the coach have to call the owner for anything? And when you’re getting stomped in London by the New England, why would you have to get approval to put in a new quarterback?
Watching this team week in-week out has been especially brutal. Once they go down by 10, there’s no hope. The defense won’t make a stand and there’s no way the offense is going to pile up any points.
If you go to NFL.com and click on the team page, on the top of the screen it shows you the teams rankings in four different offensive and defensive categories.
Here’s a quick breakdown for Tampa Bay.
Offense:
Points-13.7 (28th in the NFL)
Yards- 272.3 (28th in the NFL)
Pass Yards-174.3 (23rd in the NFL)
Rush Yards-98 (24th in the NFL)
Defense:
Points-29 (30th in the NFL)
Yards-376.4 (29th in the NFL)
Pass Yards-214 (15th in the NFL)
Rush Yards-162.4 (30th in the NFL)
Um, there’s only 32 teams in the entire league, they in the bottom three in two major defensive categories and fourth to last in another. On offense they are the third worst team in two major categories.
The only reason they rank as high as 15th in passing yards against per game is because their run defense is so terrible that by the third quarter, opponents don’t even need to draw up plays for their quarterback anymore.
Bucs' Raymond James Stadium at full capacity.
Opponents are trying to flee Raymond James Stadium faster than the season ticket holders. After three quarters, they get bored and see what else they can do.
The Giants pulled Eli Manning in the third quarter and turned it over to David Carr.
The rest of the way doesn’t get any easier.
Next week Tampa will be wearing their original orange jerseys for the first time since switching 12 years ago.
Here’s the rest of the Buccaneers schedule, leave a note in the comment section for which game you think is the most winnable for Tampa.
Green Bay at Tampa Bay
Tampa Bay at Miami
New Orleans at Tampa Bay
Tampa Bay at Atlanta
Tampa Bay at Carolina
New York Jets at Tampa Bay
Tampa Bay at Seattle
Tampa Bay at New Orleans
Atlanta at Tampa Bay
What makes it even better is there is no clear-cut choice for the No. 1 pick in the upcoming draft and the Bucs just selected a quarterback, so what do you try and target?
Personally, I like Eric Berry, the safety from Tennessee. A player in the secondary has never been taken number 1 overall, but are you telling me that you wouldn’t take someone that could potentially be the next Troy Polamalu first?
Either way, the only thing the Buccaneers have to look forward to is seeing their first pick shake hands with Roger Goodell next April.
-11 to go- (Click here to see why we are keeping count.)
