If you are a fan of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, you probably had to turn your television to another station Sunday.

The Bucs didn’t just lose their fourth straight game, but were shut out by NFC South foe, the New Orleans Saints 41-0. The Bucs were never competitive in the game, and couldn’t generate any offense. The ground game didn’t work for Doug Martin, while quarterback Josh Freeman threw four passes to players on the other team.

Perhaps even more disheartening was the failure of the Bucs to generate a pass rush to throw Drew Brees off his game, and the Buccaneer secondary was just taken apart by Brees and the Saints receivers.

The Bucs (6-8) have blown any chance of making the playoffs, and have allowed the two teams that were beneath them in the NFC South, the Saints and the Carolina Panthers, to gain ground and maybe put them in the basement of the NFC South. Sunday’s shutout loss was the fourth in the team’s history, and assures everyone that the Bucs must take next year’s draft seriously and address problems on both sides of the ball.

Remaining for the Bucs are a Sunday contest at home against the St. Louis Rams, then their season finale on the road against the NFC South champs, Atlanta Falcons. Both games are at 1 p. m.

Player Shoves Coach

If things weren’t bad enough on the field, they also took a turn for the worse on the sideline.

With the Bucs trailing 10-0, defensive coach, Bryan Cox became irate on the sideline after a flag was thrown on a play. He started yelling, and walking out onto the field. As he ventured onto the field, linebacker Adam Hayward met Cox, and put his arms up to keep the coach from walking onto the field any further. That resulted in Cox knocking away Hayward’s arms, and Hayward retaliating by shoving Cox. The two exchanged words on the sideline, and Buccaneer linebacker, Jacob Cutrera, stepped between the two men to calm things down.

According to insiders, the incident is not likely to cause an ongoing problem between Hayward and Cox.