Tampa Bay Buccaneers: The Cowboys Are Coming and the Inmates Are Finally Talking

It has to be pretty clear to anyone with any degree of sanity that here, in Week 15 of the NFL season, the inmates are clearly in control of the One Buc Asylum.

They've taken over.

It also has to be pretty clear to anyone who watched last week's horror show in Jacksonville that this team is playing with no heart, no soul, no nothing. If it were, how could it possibly yield 41 points to a team that hadn't scored more than 20 all season? And to make matters worse, that 41 could easily have been 56.

Our pal Mike Florio at ProFootballTalk.com commented: "Giving up 41 points to the Jaguars is like giving up 100 to an average NFL team."

Amen.

Where was the heart and soul when these players stood by and watched the mighty Jags put up 41 unanswered points?

Few, if any of the players were talking after that fiasco, some were hiding, including the league's most over-paid tight end—Kellen Winslow Jr., who Raheem Morris likes to call "K2."

You'd figure a guy who is the highest paid tight end in the NFL would provide some heart and soul or at least a decent quote now and then. But no, the once self-declared "soldah" hid from the writers last Sunday.

Now Winslow, one of the chief inmates, is speaking up for Morris as related by the Tampa Tribune:

"Rah is the heart and soul of this team. If something were to happen to him our hearts (would) be broken. We're playing for him."

To which we ask Winslow: What hearts?

One thing is for certain, this team will never have any need for a cardiologist.

While Winslow is worrying about broken hearts in the locker room, perhaps, he should consider what he and the rest of the inmates have accomplished with their "takeover" this season. If any hearts have been broken, it's the collective hearts of the Tampa Bay fans.

Now, there are some broken hearts.

If Morris, as Winslow declares, is the "heart and soul" of this team, then it's no wonder the Jags came so very close to putting up more than 50 last week. Last we checked, Morris is the defensive coordinator of this team. Can we call him the "offensive defensive coordinator?" Can we call him that because his defense is, well, flat-out offensive to anyone who has to watch it?

If the team is, as Winslow indicates, "playing for him" well then it's perfectly obvious that these players want to get rid of Raheem. They've done nothing the last seven weeks to help him.

Now come the Dallas Cowboys.

Quarterback Josh Freeman, who is now the most intercepted signal-caller in the NFL, came up with a brilliant idea.

How about the Bucs trying to play the role of spoilers? Wow, what a great idea, let's ruin the Dallas Cowboys' playoff hopes.

You ask where Freeman came up with such a brainstorm? No, he didn't talk to Aaron Rodgers or anyone of that calibre. He spoke to the greatness that is Jeff Garcia.

Wow.

Donald Penn is down with it. Penn wants to "put on a show for our fans and play the spoiler" when the Bucs play Dallas here Saturday night.

Play the spoiler?

The Bucs have already played the spoiler. They have flat-out spoiled their own season. They killed it, squashed it, threw it right on the trash heap. You want spoilers? These Buccaneer inmates are wonderful spoilers—of themselves.

While Penn is wanting to put on a show for "our fans" perhaps someone should break the bad news:

There's a good chance that most of the folks in the stands at Ray-Jay on Saturday night will be wearing Dallas Cowboy jerseys.

Sorry Donald.

Now, let's not let this be just another negative rant on these 4-9 Buccaneers.

This is the season for miracles, isn't it?

There was the Miracle on 34th St.

How about a Miracle on Dale Mabry for Saturday night?

We'll leave you with this piece of history.

Back in 1977, the Dallas Cowboys were on their way to winning the Super Bowl XII. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers traveled to the Big D on Sunday, Oct. 2 of that year, and I was in the press box, part of the Tribune's coverage team.

Those 1977 Bucs went winless the season before and were 0-2 to start 1977. Still, they hung in there and gave Dallas a pretty good game. It was 23-7, Dallas.

Those 1977 Bucs played with a lot of heart and soul, and they played solid defense.

So what are the chances these 2011 Bucs can hold this mediocre 7-6 Dallas team to 23 points on Saturday night?

You tell me.