Tampa Bay Buccaneers' Playoff Hopes Go Down the Secondary Drain

Time to throw in the towel on all this playoff talk for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Time to drop the subject, time to move on—time to fess up to the fact that this team has the absolute worst pass defense in the world, all countries included.

Time to admit that this time, the guys back there let rookie Nick Foles direct two long touchdown drives with less than seven-and-a-half minutes left to ruin a perfectly good Sunday afternoon at Raymond James Stadium.

The overflow crowd that witnessed the horror won't be back anytime soon this season. Seriously, you expect anyone wants to watch the Bucs version of the Keystone Cops back there trying aimlessly to make a nice lead hold up?

Those guys ruined it for everyone, including the heroes of the 2002 Super Bowl team, who won't want to come back anytime soon after watching those horrendous final seven minutes.

How bad do you have to be to blow a 21-10 lead late in the game and lose 23-21?

How bad do you have to be to let Foles shake off six sacks and conduct drives of 72 and 64 yards to emerge as Philly's present and probably future hero?

How bad do you have to be to ruin a perfectly good afternoon by Doug Martin, who ran for 100 second-half yards, 128 overall, to become the franchise's most prolific rookie ball-carrier?

How bad do you have to be to ruin a six-catch, 131-yard game by Vincent Jackson?

As bad as the first half was for the offense, the last seven minutes were beyond that for the secondary.

Horrible? Horrendous? Pathetic? Grossly inadequate?

There's simply no way to put into words how bad this pass defense really is.

Even head coach Greg Schiano's voice turned soft afterward, at his post-game presser.

"At the end of the day," he said, "we just made too many mistakes to win an NFL football game."