You stare at the standings as if they were printed in a foreign language. Any minute, you are certain, someone will rearrange them into their proper order.
You watch the highlights in disbelief, though you have seen them before. Surely, this time, someone finally will cover Ricky Proehl. Won't they?
You listen to the talk about the Bucs, losers again. There are a thousand voices with a thousand reasons for the collapse. The thing of it is, none of them sounds right.
It is strange stuff, following these confusing, confounding and consistently conquered Bucs. They are a question without an answer, a riddle without solution. Nothing makes sense.
And now, for the harshest suggestion of all:
What if it isn't a fluke?
What if this Bucs season isn't just one of those years? What if it isn't a collection of bad breaks and bad bounces and unfortunate injuries? What if this isn't a routine downswing in the fabric of all that is logical?
What if this is merely a new reality?
Welcome to the last thing anyone wants to believe. Even in times as difficult as these, it is easier to talk about rotten luck and hobbled players and Super Bowl hangovers than it is to accept wounds that will not heal. As long as fleeting things can be blamed, it is easy to believe this team can turn things around merely by willing them to do so.
Ah, but what if things don't change? What if the offense continues to sleepwalk for three quarters of every game and, at the precise moment it awakens, the defense nods off? What if the special teams play as if they mistakenly have the game plan for the marching band? What if the Bucs keep on their present pace and finish somewhere around 8-8 and out of the playoffs?
What happens then?
It's not an easy question. Only two players, Warren Sapp and Cosey Coleman, are in the final years of their contracts. There are easier reconstruction jobs.
Regardless, this season has proved the Bucs have holes. Also, gaps. Also, needs.
Give me a new left tackle, for instance. Give me an anchor, a rock. Give me someone who doesn't think he's supposed to cling to face masks as if they were briefcase handles? Give me someone who doesn't eat up half a football field in penalties?
Give me a real kick returner with real possibilities. Give me someone with sizzle, someone with juice. When is the last time you've leaned forward when the Bucs receive a kick? That's right, never. It's time that happened. Give me the best returner in college football and, hey, let him bring his coach along.
Give me another running back. Give me someone with balance, someone with vision. Look, Michael Pittman is having the best season he is capable of having, and still, he's the 16th best running back in the NFL. The Bucs can do better.
Give me a tight end. Give me someone with a little speed, someone with a lot of toughness. Hey, the Bucs love to throw to tight ends, especially deep down the middle. That's why Ricky Dudley is back.
Give me a deep threat. Give me someone who can hit a home run, someone who can stretch a defense. Oh, Gruden loves to isolate bigger receivers. But who says you can't have at least one guy who can get on the other side of a safety?
Look, you can go on if you wish. But what this list tells you is this: The Bucs are a flawed team. They were a flawed team last season, too.
In a strange, bamboo-shoots-under-your-eyelids sort of way, this team is a testament as to just what a great job Bucs coaches did in winning a Super Bowl with this team.
Consider: This season, the offense has been held back because it has lost a) Mike Alstott, a fullback the team never gives the ball to; b) Joe Jurevicius, the No. 3 wide receiver; c) Roman Oben, a journeyman tackle; and d) Dudley, a journeyman tight end.
Those guys aren't exactly the Four Horsemen. Yet, the offense has spun its wheels in their absence. Could it be that maybe, just maybe, the Bucs didn't address their weaknesses as much as they should have in the offseason?
Next question: If the Bucs need so much, where is the money going to come from?
The easy target is Sapp, as always. He's had a loud year off the field, and he doesn't sack the quarterback as often as he once did, and he figures to command a lot of money.
It isn't as easy as that, however. Sapp has played well this season. No, he doesn't flash past the guards as quickly as he did in the old days, but whether you like him or not, he remains one of the top defensive tackles in the game. On a team built on defense, it isn't easy to turn loose of that.
So is this season an anomaly? Or have the Bucs entered a down cycle?
Yes, it's easy to buy the anomaly argument. The Bucs are sixth in the league in offense, sixth in defense. They're in good shape as far as turnover ratio. They've outgained teams by almost 500 yards from scrimmage (penalties and special teams have given it back). Maybe they can find life out of this season yet. Hey, part of me still thinks the Bucs win their next six. Silly me.
On the other hand, other teams have had runs at excellence end, too. They all thought it was a fluke, too. They went down believing it was going to change at any minute.
After seven more games, we'll know. We'll know if this team needs retuning or reconstruction.
After seven more games, we'll know just how much help it needs.
