It is going to get worse, before it gets better.

Watching the Bucs-Giants playoff game, it was hard to believe that this Buccaneer team could have ended the season with 12 wins.  When the Bucs limped home down the stretch, they handed back victories to San Francisco and Carolina.  And, the Bucs should have turned around one of the losses to the Lions, Jaguars or Texans.  That's easily 12 wins and that would have meant an opening round playoff game at home against Todd Collins and the Washington Redskins.  Who would you have rather played...the Giants or Redskins??

I understand that Jon Gruden believes he had no choice but to pull back over the final weeks and get healthy for the playoffs.  But, both the Bucs and Giants stood at 9-5 in mid-December. At that point, the Buccaneers felt good about themselves...yet, they still dropped back-to-back games to bad Niner and Panther teams.  You can't tell me...that didn't have a bearing on the Bucs' playoff performance.  On the other hand, the Giants were all puffed up after nearly handing the Patriots their first loss.  That momentum even helped the Giants keep their cool after a horrible first quarter.

Should Gruden pay for pulling back late in the season?  Probably not.  He was in a no-win situation -- literally.  If Garcia had been injured again, we all would have been all over him.  Still, with this schedule he could have led this team to a 12 or 13 win season.  Buc fans won't see that kind of season anytime soon.

Think about the roster...what do you see that says the Bucs can even get to 9 wins next year against a tougher schedule?  Everybody wants to talk about having more money under the salary cap, but everybody has more money next season!  The Bucs need another explosive wide receiver.  The Bucs have to make decisions about their run game.  Earnest Graham has been a great story, but will a backfield of Graham and a recovering Cadillac Williams be enough?  And let's not forget about adding more youth and talent to this aging defense.  The draft and free agency don't have that kind of talent to help the Bucs that much.

And, is it worth handing everything over to Jeff Garcia?  Yes, Jeff had a great season.  But he is 37 and we saw against the Giants that even Garcia can do only so much with lack of weapons around him.  Who quarterbacks this team in 2 or 3 years?

Next year, the Bucs get to play a first-place schedule. That means showdowns against Green Bay, San Diego, Seattle and Dallas.  And don't expect the NFC South to be this bad again.  The Saints could be dangerous.  If the Bucs have half the injuries they had this season, they still could be looking at a double-digit loss season. 

Al Keck