A gut-wrenching, 29-28 loss to the Falcons only has those who follow and cover the Bucs less optimistic about the team’s chances for the rest of the season. At 7-7 after dropping six of its past eight games, there are increasing discussions about what is next for Tampa Bay on multiple fronts.

There is still hope if they can sweep the Panthers and beat the Dolphins. That would make them a 10-win team heading into the playoffs. It should not be ignored, though, that after many believed in the Bucs’ chances to do something this year, a harsh reality check has been administered. Legendary Hall of Fame cornerback Rondé Barber spent this past Wednesday going over the state of affairs on The Rondé Barber Show. Airing even before Tampa Bay lost to Atlanta, many of his words echo the same ongoing theme of this season, one where the charted course has quickly turned into a destination with an unknown outcome.

Rondé Barber Is Running Out Of Answers To Fix Bucs’ Defense

Even for someone as accomplished with a vast knowledge of the ins and outs of the game of football as Rondé Barber, he is running out of answers to cure the Bucs’ defense after once providing a three-part treatment plan. Barber first aired out his grievances for having a defensive scheme that is complex to the point various players, seemingly a different group every game, make costly blunders that have cost the team games.

Bucs legendary CB Ronde Barber – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

“The defense is just not good right now, especially when it really matters,” Barber said. “How do I fix that? I don’t know, complexity is confusion and wide-open receivers – I don’t know, they’re just bad right now. So, there are too many categories to say where they’ve been bad the past five weeks. Points, yards, passing yards, red zone efficiency. I’m just going to leave this at this, personnel aside, this doesn’t look like a team that has any answers to the questions that have been presented to them on Sundays. They got four weeks to figure that out.”

The past five weeks has now turned into six weeks, with Tampa Bay only getting a three-point win over the Cardinals in that span. To many, Barber included, this no longer has the makings of a team that can do anything even if they scrap for a postseason appearance.

“They just don’t look like contenders, man,” Barber added.

It is not just that they have found ways to lose instead of ways to win but falling to the 2-10 Saints and 4-9 Falcons in recent games. It is one thing for the Bucs to head up to Buffalo and fall short, or travel across the country to Los Angeles and put up a dud against the Rams. To an extent, those were expected outcomes. But falling short to a lowly New Orleans team and an Atlanta team playing spoiler came completely out of left field to many. It begs the question whether or not Tampa Bay was ever really an above .500 squad to begin with.

Bucs HC Todd Bowles – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

“You know what it is after this loss that just hurts you?” Barber questioned to his co-host J.B. Biunno. “You realize that every game earlier in the year could have been this. We were just buoyed by Baker [Mayfield] heroics earlier in the year.”

Mayfield’s heroics have not been enough since a hot start, and as the gunslinger’s lower variance of play has come into play, there has proven to be no one capable of raising this team to put together wins. A six-catch, 132-yard day for a returning Mike Evans was not enough. Putting up 28 points on the Falcons still led them to falling short. Head coach Todd Bowles has come under fire, with the flames only making his seat warmer. Despite the confidence the organization has in him, that has surely waned in recent weeks. In Barber’s mind, the defense’s struggles are a product of not having a package they can turn to.

“This team does not have a base defense that we can rely on and watch,” Barber said. “We had base defense back in my day, played Cover 2. Anything was going wrong, we were like, ‘Let’s just go to Cover 2.’ We had any doubt, ‘Just go to Cover 2.’ Did we do a whole bunch of other stuff? Yes, we played 3 Deep, we played Quarters, we blitzed a ton. But we had a base defense; this team does not have a base defense…”

It’s Truly Now Or Never For This Bucs Team

All of the Bucs’ recent shortcomings aside, there is still a sliver of hope.

Wins over the final three weeks would get Tampa Bay into the postseason and they would enter on a run. Once you get in, there is no telling what could happen. That is the nature of sports, but it really is now or never. After possessing a margin for error after the bye week, it has lessened and lessened to the point where everyone’s back against the wall.

The only option remaining is to fight and do whatever it takes to win once again.

Legendary Bucs CB Ronde Barber – Photo by: USA Today

“It’s December, man,” Rondé Barber said of the urgency the Bucs must start playing with. “December matters. You have to be resilient, you have to find ways to make adjustments, but most importantly, you got to finish strong. That’s what this team needs to figure out how to do. I’m not going to emphasize hope but here’s why… the NFC is just a packed group, man. Despite what has been a malaise, if you will, over the past month and a half, they’re squarely in the playoff picture. Every loss has been competitive minus Detroit and the Los Angeles Rams, they’ve all been a one-score game.

“If you roll it back to the beginning of this season, we won all those one-score games. We should have lost to the Jets, dude, but we found a way to make plays at the end of that game, Baker [Mayfield] did, to win that game. We could have lost to Atlanta… that is what this team has been all year… December is 100% about momentum. If you don’t have it, if you’re not able to hit your stride in December, you’re going nowhere, right? It’s laid out for the Bucs. We should be excited about this finish, this ability to know you are what you are but find a way to overcome it.”

Even though Rondé Barber is still trying to paint a picture of how the Bucs can get over this hump, he, like Todd Bowles, is not sugarcoating anything anymore.

Bucs WR Mike Evans – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

“Every year, you come into the season, you all have expectations,” Barber said. “Part of the joy of sports is that you have expectations for your team. It’s funny, because it is always predicated on feelings and whatnot, but there is a reality. It’s hard to be good year in and year out. We haven’t been great this year… we’re a pretty average team, but there’s a lot of pretty average teams in the league. At this point, just have to realize that’s who this team is, man. Try to find the best version of ourselves.”

It would take a drastic turn of events to change what is increasingly becoming a likely scenario of missing the playoffs altogether or getting in and going one-and-done. The feelings, as Barber puts it, are of the Bucs being an average team. A 17th-ranked scoring offense and a 23rd-ranked scoring defense with even worse statistical rankings reflect that. There is still time left to win and get in, but the grains in the hourglass are falling to the bottom and nearing their end.

The time is now or never.

Watch Bucs Hall Of Famer Rondé Barber On The Pewter Report Podcast

There is perhaps no better time to hear what is on Bucs Hall of Famer Rondé Barber’s mind with how things have played out as of late. Pewter Report is excited to have Barber on as a special guest for Monday’s Pewter Report Podcast at 4:00 PM ET. Be sure to tune in, as it will make for quite an entertaining show.