Tampa Bay Buccaneers Blown Out, Raheem Morris Blows Up

This was supposed to be the throwback game.

It turned out to be the throw-up game.

The beyond-ugly beatdown at the hands of the Carolina Panthers on Sunday was something that could simply induce mass vomiting for the 50,000-some folks who showed up to witness a contest that turned out to be no contest. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers got doubled-up, 38-19, by a team that came in 3-8 with a rookie quarterback.

This one was over early, and once again this Tampa Bay team was defenseless, as it has been during this losing streak that has now extended to six straight games.

Carolina probably couldn't believe its good fortune—two possessions, two first-quarter scoring drives. First possession of the game went 83 yards in seven plays. Seven-zip. Second possession 43 yards, eight plays, 14-nothing and done.

It only got worse from there, suffice to say. No one wants to remember the gory details. The Buc game plan was simple: Counter Carolina's touchdowns with field goals.

There will now be serious speculation as to the future of head coach Raheem Morris, who did something unprecedented in Buccaneer history.

At the end of the third quarter, defensive tackle Brian Price was flagged for a personal foul, another one of those really stupid penalties the Bucs have specialized in this year. Morris was beyond enraged. He then did what he should do to his entire defense. He sent Price to the locker room and told him to "go home."

When Morris explained it to the media afterword, he basically dropped an F-bomb. Yeah, the F-word.

Can you blame him?

You have to think he knows what's happening. He's the defensive coordinator of this very uncoordinated defense. That defense is defenseless and it is striving toward Buccaneer history. This defense is making its play toward becoming the worst ever in Buc history, and if you're old enough to remember all these Bucs teams, that's something very ugly.

Morris' problem is that this team is showing no signs of improvement. In fact, it is so very apparent that it is regressing, mightily.

When John McKay took over the expansion franchise in 1976, the Bucs were pretty miserable. But they had Lee Roy Selmon.

In his second year, the Bucs were better—they finally won a game and there was hope.

Then came Doug Williams and Jimmie Giles, who was inducted Sunday into the team's Ring of Honor. And there was Lee Roy. By 1979, McKay's fourth season, those orange-clad Bucs won the NFC Central and ended up a game short of the Super Bowl.

There were leaders, they were young, they were hungry.

This 2011 version of the Bucs is young, but it is without leadership and there is no defense to be seen. Hungry has been replaced by undisciplined.

There is not a player on this current team who could carry the lunchbox of Lee Roy Selmon, Doug Williams or Jimmie Giles. Ronde Barber included.

This team has fallen to 4-8 and it's an ugly 4-8.

Carolina is 4-8 and clearly a superior team to Tampa Bay. This Panther team is fun, exciting and Cam Newton shows us what a first-round draft pick should look like. Hopefully Josh Freeman got an eyeful of Newton on the sideline Sunday. Freeman's in his third year, as Doug Williams was when he showed us what a franchise quarterback looked like.

Josh Freeman is as far from Doug Williams as it gets—he's not even in on the same planet as Newton.

This entire team is one giant mess.

Ira Kaufman of the Tampa Tribune suggested last week that the ownership will be using the last five games of the season as a stern evaluation for Morris, his staff and their future as the leaders of this team. You would think they'd expect a 3-2 finish, at the very least.

Now it's hard to see where any wins will come from, although Jacksonville is pretty rotten and that's the next opponent.

In the midst of all of this, I couldn't help going back in time to a John McKay postgame press conference, back in the days when losing was a given. We stood there in front of him and he was asked about his team's execution.

"I'm in favor of it," McKay replied, without hesitation, keeping a very straight face.

The execution of these 2011 Buccaneers?

No one has to execute them. They have committed suicide virtually every Sunday, save four.

They have killed themselves and killed this season in the process.

And they may also have killed Raheem Morris' future as head coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.