As Usual, It's A Season On The Brink Martin Fennelly, The Tampa Tribune , published 22 October 2001 It ended in mass confusion, fitting given the largest mass of confusion of them all. The home team. The onside kick landed in a pile of bodies near midfield at Raymond James Stadium. The Bucs joyously pronounced the football theirs, as if they deserved it, as if they deserve anything. Buc after Buc tomahawked their arms into possession arrows, a pathetic sight, while the referee lingered at the replay monitor as if it was a peep show. There was no getting around the dirty little secret: The Bucs had no right to win. The referee agreed. He reversed the call, giving the Pittsburgh Steelers the ball and the game, 17-10, a deceivingly close margin. Some Bucs desperately kept pointing the other way, as if to fight the opposite direction: another season on the brink. They know their way to the cliff all too well. Isn't it time they shoved off? It is hard to believe that there is a waiting list of 30,000 people who actually want to pay for season tickets to watch this tripe. Playmakers who don't make plays. An offense without a clue. An offensive line that generated 64 rushing yards while giving up 69 yards in sacks. That's Bucs math. It is the same show, game after game, season after season, Clyde after Les after Mike. Now even the defense is getting the hang of being overrated. It has stopped turning the tide. It's just part of the whirlpool, one big downward spiral. The Bucs are 2-3 and soon could be 2-5, which would end this playoff talk. This season is that close to coming apart. It's ready to blow. All it would take is a loss to Minnesota next week and a loss at Green Bay the week after that. Is that so improbable? If there was any doubt that the Bucs can live down to those expectations, Sunday backed it up like a septic tank can back up. They were beaten by the legs and arm of Steelers running back Jerome Bettis. They lost on third down, whether they had the ball or Pittsburgh did. Brad Johnson's DNA can be found on any number of Steelers after he was sacked 10 times, twice as much as he had ever been pillaged in one day. And there was Keyshawn Johnson. The Bucs have the leading receiver in the NFC and can't figure out a way to get him the ball in the end zone. This explains all the boos, not to mention the empty seats late in the fourth quarter and the vacant Buc stares after it. They were stunned. They were testy. We wonder why. They have done this before. We have seen this before. When we bothered to watch it again, the Pittsburgh pass rush acted like the Steel Curtain against Bucs blockers as solid as a shower curtain. We saw Brad Johnson crumpled in the sod at the end of another Steeler malleability experiment. Coming soon: lab mice mail Clyde Christensen plays. We saw Bettis trampling Bucs defenders in the third quarter (the Steelers rushed for 118 yards in those 15 minutes), but only after the battering ram threw for a TD on an option pass. Pittsburgh tight end Jerame Tuman hadn't even crossed the goal line when Bucs defenders trudged toward the bench. And there was a play earlier on that drive, when officials waved off an apparent holding penalty against the Steelers that would have wiped out a 22-yard pass play that gave Pittsburgh a first down. Warren Sapp, sackless for the fourth time in five games, remained on the ground pointing at the penalty flag. The play stood. "When have you ever seen a holding call waved off?" Monte Kiffin asked. We see strange things when we watch these Bucs. We see sleepwalkers instead of fire-breathers. We see stars not shining like ones. We see guys pointing at penalty flags and onside kicks. Don't just do something - stand there. There will be talk this week. Talk of focus and a sense of urgency. There should be. This Sunday, against the Vikings, is for the season. Believe it. Do the Bucs? "When you really look at it, we're only two games back of the division leader," Jacquez Green said. Five games in, two games back. Bucs math. A tired equation.