Tampa Bay Buccaneers vs. Atlanta Falcons: This Disaster Comes to a Merciful End

It is so very hard to believe that 14 weeks ago, these same Tampa Bay Buccaneers slugged out a 16-13 victory over the Atlanta Falcons at Raymond James Stadium.

It seems more like 14 years since those 2-1 Bucs actually held a team to 13 points, much less a high-powered offense like the Falcons.

This disaster of a season comes to a merciful end on New Year's Day 2012, and you would hope this team will let it all hang out, go for broke, play a game when nothing is expected and simply give the Falcons fits.

Hope, however, has been drained from this fanbase, week after pitiful week. A young team you would expect to get better once it got into a routine, once it could settle in with its coaching staff on a weekly basis, would learn. Sure, there would be losses, but surely head coach Raheem Morris and his staff would be able to coach up their players, get the most out of them, get them competitive.

Instead, the Buccaneer faithful have had to digest the sour gruel of a team that not only cannot compete, it seemingly refuses to compete. This team that says it is playing for the future of its head coach only seems disinterested.

Disinterested, undisciplined and more, and that's what has the football following population of Tampa Bay mad, damn mad, and they don't want to take it any longer.

This team has embarrassed itself nationally. "Right now they (Bucs) are the most undisciplined team in the league, more so than the Raiders," is how Fox radio NFL and college analyst Chris Landry put it during his interview time Friday on 620 WDAE.

Landry is an NFL scout and puts a sharp eye on every team, including the Buccaneers.

Sadly, it doesn't take Landry's trained eye to tell us what we already know. Teams with good discipline don't surrender 41 points to the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Sunday in the Georgia Dome seems so far away from Sept. 25. These playoff-bound Falcons are 9-6 while the vacation-bound Bucs are 4-11. What we have here is a meaningless game with a capital "M."

However meaningless, it's not without implications for the Buccaneers.

Speculation on the immediate future of Coach Morris is at a fever pitch nationally.

There are players in uniform for the Bucs on Sunday who will be playing their last game as members of the Tampa Bay roster. Who and how many is no doubt tied to Morris' future as well.

Sadly, there is potential history on the line for the Bucs as well. Twenty-five points from the Falcons will tab this Buccaneer defense as the worst ever.

Just another sad footnote of a season that started with promise and now ends in futility.

Happy New Year.