Nothing is ever easy for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, another hard lesson we learned on Sunday afternoon. A two-win Saints team came to town and gave the Bucs more than they could handle -- which is embarrassing on more levels than it's worth admitting.
The mere fact that the Bucs were in a slugfest with the Saints is bad enough, even though it's a rivalry game, but it's how they got to that point that is cause for serious concern moving forward.
Sloppy play, inconsistency, and massive mistakes on special teams are good ways to play yourself out of the playoff picture. Tampa Bay isn't quite there yet, but for the first time all season their season is officially on life support and it's unclear if the team will be capable of staying out of its own way long enough to avoid something fatal.
Buccaneers margin for error in NFL Playoff Picture is officially gone after loss to Saints
Coming into Sunday the Bucs' path to the postseason was both crystal clear and fully in their control. Even after the disaster against New Orleans, Tampa Bay still controls its own destiny, but the lead over Carolina has completely evaporated.
All the Bucs needed to do was win their next three games and the NFC South would be clinched. There are still scenarios where that can happen with a Week 16 win over the Panthers but things got complicated in a big way.
Here's how things stack up in the playoff picture after Week 14:
Seed | Team | Record |
|---|---|---|
No. 1 | Los Angeles Rams | 10-3 |
No. 2 | Green Bay Packers | 9-3-1 |
No. 3 | Philadelphia Eagles | 8-4 |
No. 4 | Tampa Bay Buccaneers | 7-6 |
No. 5 | Seattle Seahawks | 10-3 |
No. 6 | San Francisco 49ers | 9-4 |
No. 7 | Chicago Bears | 9-4 |
The bad news is there's still enough time for the Bucs to play themselves out of contention. That's been the unfortunate theme of the season, as Tampa Bay has been its own worst enemy and simply cannot say out of its own way long enough for good things to happen.
Case in point was the pitiful performance on Sunday. The only thing that stood in Tampa Bay's way was beating a two-win Saints team, something that proved too difficult. At the risk of sounding overly defeatist, it's worth wondering if a playoff conversation is even worth it at this point. What about this team suggests it'd be anything more than canon fodder in the Wild Card?
With Carolina on a bye, the loss doesn't drop the Bucs out of first place, but has them in a dead heat with the Panthers. Tampa Bay has the easier schedule from here on out, but it's starting to feel like another season where the best-case scenario is backing into the playoffs with a limp, or outright missing the postseason after one of the more embarrassing collapses we've seen in recent history.