As an organization, the Bucs have done such a good job celebrating their 50th season. From their top 50 players and moments countdowns over the summer and the unveiling of their white 1976 throwback uniforms to their photo exhibit at the Tampa Museum of Art in October and the upcoming release of their 10-part “Raise the Flags” documentary, they’ve had plenty to offer their fans in celebration of a major milestone year.

It’s just a shame that right now, the team on the field is barreling toward a reality where the 50th season of football in Tampa Bay ends in crushing, disappointing and embarrassing fashion.

Cynically speaking, there’s something fitting about that given the Bucs’ history. Even if you don’t think that way, though, there’s no getting around how much of a letdown it is for the organization and its fans that all of celebrating that has been done for this 50th season milestone is in the process of being overshadowed by a 2025 team that is woefully underachieving.

Bucs QB Baker Mayfield, OC Josh Grizzard and HC Todd Bowles – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

Yes, the Bucs can still make the playoffs. They’re 7-6 with four games to play and sit tied atop the NFC South with the Panthers, a team they will see twice over the final three weeks of the season. Tampa Bay is very much still in play for a fifth straight division title and a sixth consecutive playoff appearance to continue what has inarguably been the most successful stretch in franchise history.

But right now, after Sunday’s 24-20 loss – at home – to a Saints that came in at 2-10 with the worst offense in the league, it feels like a massive stretch to believe that Todd Bowles and Co. are suddenly going to pull it all together, finish strong and retain its spot atop the division for another year. Because as embarrassing and frustrating as it might’ve been for Tampa Bay to lose this game to New Orleans, it’s not like this performance came from out of nowhere.

The Bucs Haven’t Been A Playoff Team For Nearly Two Months

Think about this for a minute: When was the last time you felt good about the football that this Bucs team has been playing?

More than likely, the answer is going to be somewhere along the lines of two months ago. Because by the time Tampa Bay takes the field again this Thursday night to host Atlanta in primetime, it will have been two full months since the Buccaneers last felt like a real threat.

On Oct. 12, the Bucs beat the 49ers, 30-19, to get to 5-1 on the year. That came a week after Tampa Bay went on the road and beat Seattle in a 38-35 thriller. At that time, it felt like the 5-1 Bucs, despite their injuries, were a legitimate contender, one who you could see getting healthy and hot at the right time on their way to making a run in the playoffs.

This team will next take the field on Dec. 11, two months after that Oct. 12 win, having lost five of its seven games since then. It may feel like this season went downhill with four losses in five games since the bye, but it really started in Week 7.

The Bucs were completely outclassed by the Lions, 24-9, on Monday Night Football, and they lost legendary wide receiver Mike Evans in the process. They then rebounded by beating a bad Saints team, 23-3, at the Superdome in Week 8. But even in that game, the offense looked disjointed, and it took a dominant defensive performance to make the score look as lopsided as it was.

That kind of dominant performance from the defense was a flash in the pan, too, because after the Week 9 bye, the Bucs came back to Raymond James Stadium and gave up explosive play after explosive play in a 28-23 loss to the Patriots, a loss in which the score looked closer than the game really was.

After that, the offense regained some of its early-season juice against the Bills, only for the defensive woes to continue in a 44-32 loss at Buffalo. Things only got worse the next week with a 34-7 beatdown at the hands of the Rams on Sunday Night Football.

Bucs OLB Yaya Diaby – Photo by: USA Today

Even then, the road map was pretty simple for the Bucs, even with the Panthers hanging around in the NFC South race. Following the Rams game in Week 12, the schedule from Weeks 13-18 was much more favorable. Tampa Bay could pick it back up, finish strong like it always does under Todd Bowles and capture another division crown.

Only that now looks unlikely. The team’s Week 13 win over the 3-8 Cardinals, 20-17, was unconvincing. But that was okay, because despite their record, the Cardinals play everyone close and the Bucs had the 2-10 Saints coming to town in Week 14.

And now, with their performance in Week 14, the Bucs are 7-6. This isn’t the same Buccaneers team that was once 5-1. That team, somehow, feels like it no longer exists within the locker room at One Buc Place or at Raymond James Stadium.

So, yes, the Bucs have a chance to pull it together over the next four weeks and make sure their reign atop the division and their playoff appearance streak both survive. But considering how this team has looked for two months now, how likely is that?

Even If The Bucs Do Win The NFC South Again, Then What?

For many, this sinking reality has been setting in since the loss to the Rams in Week 12: Even if the Bucs do win the NFC South again, then what? The streaks live on, which beats the alternative of a season without making the playoffs, right? But when it actually comes time for the playoffs, what reason is there to believe this team isn’t a one-and-done like it was last year?

Winning a mediocre NFC South would surely net the Bucs the No. 4 seed again, which would give them a home game on Wild Card Weekend. But with the strength of the NFC this year, that game would almost certainly come against a team with a better record. Right now, it would be the 10-3 Seahawks. Tampa Bay did beat Seattle back in Week 5, but you’d be hard-pressed to find a sportsbook that will favor Todd Bowles’ team in the rematch.

Seattle just thrashed Tampa Bay’s next opponent, Atlanta, on the road on Sunday, winning 37-9.

Bucs GM Jason Licht – Photo by: USA Today

The wider point is this: The goal coming into this season for the Bucs was to make a deeper run in the playoffs, and there were plenty of reasons to believe they could accomplish that goal. But that belief has dried up week by week, and now this season looks like, at best, it’ll be the 2022, 2023 and 2024 seasons all over again. And that will rightfully lead to questions about the future for Tampa Bay in terms of Todd Bowles, his coaching staff and the way the roster is constructed.

And compared to where things were coming into the year, that’s a hard pill to swallow.

Maybe this is a whole lot of overreaction to a four-point loss in nasty conditions on the first Sunday in December and these 1,200+ words will age like milk and be looked back on with laughter when the Bucs are one of the last teams playing in the playoffs.

Yet with the team’s track record over the last two months, it’s hard to believe that such will be the case. Conversely, this felt like the beginning of the end in some ways.

And for a 50th season that started with so much promise and has been so full of celebration, that’s a real shame.