If indeed these are growing pains for a young team, I hope they are over soon.  It has been a tough year thus far, but it stems from more than the lack of wins to this point.  Coming into the year, we knew a few things.  We had a young coach, young team, new systems, and new direction.  I'm sure most of us thought we would struggle, but didn't see a goose egg in the win column happening through 7 games.   Particularly after how we opened the Dallas game.

What has been hard to watch and hard to swallow is the way the "0-fer" has happened.  I've maintained from day one that when a team is failing like this, it's the entire organization from top to bottom failing. There may be certain instances where one play call or performance can swing the game one way or another, but with these blowout losses (save the Redskins game), it has been a failure of 2008 Lions proportions.

The easy place to point the finger is at Raheem Morris, and he surely does deserve some of the blame.  But if are gonna cast the first stone at him, we better follow up with stones at Dominik, Jags, Olson, Bates, Glazer boys, players, towel boys, stadium attendants, and well, everyone short of the cheerleaders.

Offense

This has been largely swept under the rug for numerous reasons; Jeff Faine had been out of action, Jags we hired and fired before we played a meaningful game, we are paying a glorified tight end big bucks, Bryant has had knee issues, the list goes on for miles.  But lets look at the facts.  After Week 7, the offense is averaging 11.71 points a game.  That is with the defensive and special team points (except field goals) removed.  That is awful.  The run game has been abandoned in 5 of the 7 games, the passing game lacks a deep threat or any consistency, dropped passes are the norm, there just isn't much bright side right now on the offensive side.

We hired Jags to install and run a zone blocking scheme and a new passing game that would supposedly open the field up.  When it was discovered that he just wasn't that capable of doing what we hired him to do, we let him go.  Since then Olson has come in and delivered on none of the promise.  Raheem said Jags didn't have the vertical component of the passing game installed, but that Olson would.  I think we all are still waiting to see it.  The average yards per pass play is 5.5 yards.  To give you a measure, our defense is allowing an average of 8.7 yards per pass play.

The players have figured into this group fail as well.  We've seen the dropped passes, the missed blocks, the wrong routes, bad reads, overthrows, underthrows, fumbles and sacks.  The execution has been lacking.  For every big run play Caddy or Ward breaks, they have another where they are hit 5 yards in the backfield.

Defense

This has been the most talked about failure of the Bucs.  Jim Bates was brought in to run a scheme that we all questioned how it would work with existing players.  The simple answer is, it doesn't work.  That's been very evident.  Things have gotten better with Tanard Jackson returning, but we still lack the effectiveness to shut down any phase of the opponent's game.  I still see very little game planning on the defensive side.  To throw a number at you, the Bucs D is allowing 26.71 points per game (with special teams and pick 6's removed).  I don't know of too many games you will win giving up an average of almost 27 points, particularly when your offense gives you 11 a game.

Special Teams

Nugent.  Dirk Johnson.  That is all that needs to be said here.

Coaching

This goes to all the coaches.  The players don't seem prepared.  Josh Johnson looked like he had little to no preparation for the many blitzes he saw against Philly.  Our defense doesn't seem to understand a wrap up tackle nor do they understand an assignment or coverage responsibility.  Penalties mount up, discipline isn't there, these are all player mistakes but the coaches are accountable. 

And then we get to the double speak.  We apparently are going to be a fast, ferocious, fearless team.  Then why do we not go for the tie at Washington and why are we punting on 4th and 7 from the Patriot 35 as opposed to going for it or kicking a field goal?  I'm not quite sure I understand.

Personnel

It's very obvious we don't have the personnel on either side to run the schemes we want.  We may have the players in time, and we certainly do have some good players now, but the team is made up of guys that couldn't make most other teams second string.  I'm completely on board with rebuilding and understand that it takes multiple years, but I'd like to at least be able to see the groundwork.  Right now, I see a bad conglomeration of players and systems, almost like the Glazers and Dominik closed their eyes and used the ole Jump to Conclusions mat. 

Stadium Attendants

Look, I know you are doing your job, but you don't need to check my ticket every single time I come back from getting a beer, food or the restroom. 

I could go on for days with this list, but the point is, as over matched as everyone says Raheem is, as bad of a coach as they say he is and will be, this is the hand we've been dealt, and he's been dealt as a coach.  Could he and the entire organization have done things better?  Absolutely.  But to single out any one player and/or coach and place the blame on them, outside of Dominik or the Glazers is ridiculous.  The reason I single them out is they (the Glazers) could control all of this.  It's their money, they could pull a Snyder or Jones and be in on every decision.  They have seemingly deferred to Doug Williams and Dominik, so they should bear the brunt of this if anyone is going to.

I'm still on the fence with Raheem Morris.  But when he has to take phone calls to tell him to start Freeman, you wonder how much latitude he has.  This doesn;t forgive his mistakes, but if you are going to point fingers and antagonize people, at least do it with both eyes wide open.  You only see Morris on the sidelines.  The TV crews don't point out the other 10+ people involved in the decisions.

There is no conclusion to this problem at this point.  It takes an entire organization to win or lose.  The growing pains will continue and we may end up with a 1 or 2 win season (I hope).  If those few wins, or moral victories along the way pave the road for something greater, than I'm onboard.  If we are just blindly wandering through this season, then get me a new regime, from top to bottom.  Rebuilding has to have a purpose and a goal, and right now, I know the goal (Super Bowl in 201X), but I don't see the purpose or the driving force right now.  Let's hope I feel differently in 10 weeks.