Hapless Raiders upset Tampa Bay at home to deny Bucs playoff bid

The old cliché about the NFL is that “on any given Sunday any team can beat any other team”.  That’s a testimony to the parity in professional football, and a concrete example of this axiom was on display in Tampa on Sunday as the hapless Oakland Raiders stunned the Bucs 31-24 to eliminate them from playoff contention.

Although the Raiders provided the dénouement to the Bucs once promising season, the Tampa Bay downward spiral began much earlier.  When the month of December began, Tampa Bay was 9-3 and appeared almost a lock for a playoff spot.  Four straight losses left them at 9-7 and on the outside looking in as the playoff fixtures were set without them.  Most problematic was their season ending collapse at home, where they’d been 6-0 until their recent struggles began.

Their collapse was demonstrated in microcosm on Sunday, as Tampa was in complete control early in the fourth quarter after a Cadillac Williams rushing TD put the Bucs up by 10 with just over ten minutes to play.  Their historically stout defense then completely fell apart from that point forward, however, as one of the least productive offenses on one of the worst road teams in the NFL rolled off 17 unanswered points to take the victory.

Interim Raiders’ coach Tom Cable praised the team for their best (some would say only) effort of the season, and then dismissed suggestions that it was a final “audition” for the permanent coaching job:

“We went after the game that whole way. Our goal was to match the intensity of a team trying to get into the playoffs. It's all I can do. It's the best I can do. I want to be the head coach of the Raiders, but it's not in my hands. But I certainly know I put this team together and got it going in the right direction, and today proved that."

Tampa coach Jon Gruden didn’t have as much to say as his Raiders’ counterpart:

"It's very disappointing. ... I'm sick for our players, and our fans, more than anything”

Bucs QB Jeff Garcia sounded an apologetic note:

"I know we let down a lot of people ... and we apologize for that. We, as a team, are better than what we have put on the field in the last four weeks."

Tampa running back Warrick Dunn instead sounded like he was a “victim” and blamed external circumstances not realizing that, perhaps, that attitude was part of the problem:

"To be 9-3, and you lose four in a row when all you have to do is win one and you're in, it's tough to swallow. The guys in this locker room have prepared hard, played hard. Things haven't gone our way.”

Garcia, meanwhile, summarized the disappointing end to the season thusly:

"This collapse in this last month of the season is something that none of us ever would have expected. It definitely hurts. It's going to stick with us for a long time after this day."

The Bucs finished at 9-7, while Oakland improved to 5-11 on the year.