Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Checking Predictions at Midseason

Mired in the middle.

That's about where the Tampa Bay Buccaneers find themselves at this midway point in the 2011 season.

For your own gratification, something to file in the worthless information category, here's how the league looks today:

There are 15 teams with winning records—eight in the AFC, seven in the NFC.

There are 12 teams with losing records—five in the AFC, seven in the NFC.

There are six teams with 4-4 records—four in the AFC, two in the NFC.

So you see, things could be a lot worse, couldn't they? Thank goodness for Minnesota and Indy.

But we digress.

Time for the midseason look at our own preseason predictions.

At this halfway point, our predictions had the Buccaneers at 5-3. Missed by a game.

Here's how we had them looking for the final eight games:

Sunday, Houston at home:  L

At Green Bay:   L

At Tennessee: L

Carolina at home: W

At Jacksonville: W

Dallas at home: L

At Carolina: W

At Atlanta: W

Add those up and they equal 4-4.

So what are these 4-4 Buccaneers? Are they overachievers, underachievers or are they right where they probably should be?

Who are these Bucs? Well, the other 4-4 team in the NFC is Dallas. So the Bucs are equal to Dallas? That would be a good thing most years, wouldn't it?

In the AFC, Tennessee, San Diego, Kansas City and Oakland are all 4-4.

A lot of teams would love to be 4-4.

We just don't love the 4-4 Bucs, do we?

Have we expected too much, too soon?

If you had to put your finger on the most disappointing things this season, there are two:

1. Poor starts.

2. A ridiculous amount of stupid penalties.

The Bucs begins the last half of the season Sunday against a really good Houston team.

What do you expect for these final eight games?

Seems like 4-4 wouldn't be all that bad, would it?

No losing season, but not a winner.

Something about that 10-6 mark last year spoiled us, didn't it?