Bucs become what we feared Gary Shelton, The St.Petersburg Times, published 29 October 2007 Suddenly, the line cannot protect the quarterback, and the quarterback cannot protect the ball, and the team cannot protect its turf. And just like that, the Bucs have become the team you feared they would be all along. Suddenly, the linebacker cannot make a key tackle, and the receiver cannot make a key reception, and the team cannot make the best of an opportunity. And just like that, the Bucs are only good enough to break your heart. Tampa Bay left another football game unclaimed Sunday afternoon. Given every advantage, given every incentive, the Bucs managed to flub yet another winnable game. All in all, it was the most vexing, most puzzling defeat by the Bucs in, oh, about seven days. At the halfway point, the Bucs are 4-4 and moving backward. A little bit more, and they might slide all the way back into what you originally thought of them. This is what happens when a team keeps tripping over its own feet. Perceptions change by the week in the NFL, and when a team turns as charitable as the Bucs, what it gives away is the regard it had earned with a 4-2 start. Admit it. There was a time, back before the season started, back when the world agreed there was not too much to be expected from these Bucs, when none of these struggles would have surprised anyone. In those days, no one expected the Bucs to finish drives or force turnovers or make highlight plays. In those days, no one would have been disappointed at the thought of a 4-4 record at the turn. Once a team proves it is better than everyone thought, however, the standards keep raising. Yours. Mine. Theirs. That said, man, the Bucs should have won this game. How much more can the Bucs expect the deck to be stacked? The Bucs were playing at home, and the Jaguars were playing with a quarterback whose job, basically, was to stay out of the way. The Bucs were playing for first place in their division, and the Jaguars were playing in a short week after a Monday night game. And the Bucs still couldn't win. Again. Quinn Gray? The Bucs lost to a team playing Quinn Gray at quarterback? Mind you, we are not talking about Quinn, Brown, as in Cleveland's Brady Quinn. We are talking about a guy who completed seven passes. The Jaguars would have been better playing Maurice Jones-Drew at quarterback and Fred Taylor at tailback, or vice versa. A good NFL team eats up an opponent that can only get seven completions from its quarterback. The Bucs? They couldn't. Then there is the Tampa Bay offense. If you have watched the Bucs for any length of time, the sight of the past two weeks must be confounding to you. After all, the Bucs have never had much of an offense, and as a result, they have never gained a lot of yards. For three decades, the presumption had been that if the Bucs ever gained them, sure enough, then points would follow. Yet, in the past two weeks, the Bucs have piled up 807 yards ... and only four touchdowns. That's a long way to not much. Of course, the mistakes haven't helped. Jeff Garcia threw his first interception of the season Sunday. And his second. And his third. Even more bothersome, however, was that Garcia had his worst day as a Buc on other situations, too. For instance, Garcia missed on several chances to make big throws against a blitz-happy Jaguars defense. Then, in absolutely the worst situation imaginable, he got greedy. When you talk about plays the Bucs should have made, you probably will talk about the fourth-down pass that bounded off Ike Hilliard's hands. Hilliard certainly did in his blame-it-on-me comments at the end of the game. But for the life of me, can anyone explain the play before that one? The Bucs were on the Jaguars 45 with 37 seconds to play. They needed 15 yards, preferably 20, to give Matt Bryant a chance to win the game with a field goal. Just that. And instead, the Bucs tried a low-percentage throw down the right sideline, and Garcia overthrew Hilliard. "If I had thrown it a little shorter," Garcia said, "Ike would have been celebrating in the end zone." Perhaps. But why take the chance? As difficult as touchdowns have been, as solid as Bryant has been, why not take two shots at getting into field goal position? Imagine a play here, and the Bucs could be 5-3. Imagine a play there, and you can even picture them at 6-2. Instead, they are 4-4, one step forward and one step back. From here, it's hard to tell just what they are. Except for this: They are less than they could be. Again.