Tampa Bay Buccaners vs. Jaguars: Despair Meets Downtrodden

And so it has come down to this.

On Sunday in Jacksonville, Despair meets Downtrodden.

Tampa Bay plays Jacksonville in an NFL contest that, to be perfectly blunt, is a meaningless meeting of two very bad football teams.

It wasn't supposed to be this way for the Buccaneers. Coming off a 10-6 season last year and off to a 3-1 start, there was optimism and hope.

Now there is nothing more than humiliation, despair, excuses, apathy and the rest of the symptoms that come with losing.

Since that first quarter of the 2011 season, these Bucs have wallowed in the mire of 1-7. There have been six straight losses and a game that was supposed to be a forgone conclusion of a win this Sunday; well, what right does a 4-8 team have to look down on a 3-9 team?

First, consider the state of the Jacksonville Jaguars. They have no head coach, they will soon have a new owner, and if you watched them play on Monday Night Football, they have a quarterback named Blaine Gabbert who apparently cannot throw a football accurately for more than 15 yards. Even worse for the fans, that team could end up in St. Louis one day, with the Rams perhaps returning to L.A.

Yes, the Jaguars looked every bit of awful against the San Diego Chargers, who haven't exactly lit it up this year—in fact, Norv Turner's time there may likely be over after this season.

Meanwhile, back in Tampa, after the embarrassing beatdown at the hands of Carolina and rookie quarterback Cam Newton last week, there is no buzz, no talk, no enthusiasm—there's simply nothing left in the tank for the fans.

The talk this week came from the LeGarrette Blount "incident." Other than that, no one seems to care if Josh Freeman plays on Sunday or not. Freeman sat out that sorry excuse for a contest at Raymond James last week. He's on track to play Sunday but head coach Raheem Morris still has him "day-to-day."

Speaking of Morris, when he lists Freeman as "day-to-day" he might want to include himself on that list. If the Glazer family ownership is evaluating Morris over the final five games the scoreboard already reads:

"Find a new coach—1."

"Let's keep Raheem—0."

You would think Morris desperately needs to win this one Sunday. Really, he does. With Dallas, Atlanta and then finally Carolina again down the stretch, how's it looking if they drop this one to Jacksonville?

How can the Glazers expect to sell a single season ticket with an 0-5 finish and a 4-12 record? In fact, how much better than 4-12 is 5-11?

This team going to Jacksonville has two mighty weaknesses. It has no defense and it cannot score touchdowns from the red zone. As far as weaknesses go, this team is chock full.

We saw Morris reach the boiling point last week when he made defensive tackle Brian Price the whipping boy. After Price's personal foul at the end of the third quarter, he was pulled from the game by Morris, sent to the locker room and basically told to "go home."

Let's leave Morris and the Bucs with this suggestion:

If you can't beat the Jaguars on Sunday, cancel the return charter flight back to Tampa.

Everyone should take the bus home.