Actually, I'd use stronger words, but this is a family news service. Actually actually, I did use stronger words, but that was a long time ago (Saturday night, 7:38 p.m., to be exact). But I was provoked. By an inept offense. Or more precisely, by two inept offenses. The Bucs offense was inept enough, but they were ten times better than the completely worthless Redskins offense that ended up playing more "keep-away" than football. 120 yards of total Redskins offense? Are you kidding me? Maybe Coach Gibbs learned something from his stock car racing gig and decided if you go around and around enough, you can win without actually getting anywhere.

And that wasn't the worst of it. Way up in the upper upper deck (we lovingly refer to it as "three rows from God"), we were surrounded by Redskins fans.

Apparently the Bucs season ticket holders didn't want to pony up the $198 for a pair of first round tickets, so the Washington faithful snapped up the seats and came out in full force. It was a little unnerving, harkening back to the days of the Big Sombrero, when the stadium would be 2/3 full of Packer/Vikings/Bear fans wearing cheese, horned helmets, and, um, fur? (don't remember what Bears fans wore.maybe I was too drunk those games). In any case, I thought those days were long gone. And for the most part, they are...despite the Redskin contingent, there were many many more Bucs fans waving the red and white polyester flags provided to each and every fan for the game.

(Sidenote: during the 1st quarter, the stadium announcer told the crowd that the league said that the Jumbotron could not tell the fans when to wave the flags. Talk about No Fun League. Do they really think we need a scoreboard for direction? "hey, fans, we scored a touchdown.insert your cheer now"). So the fans were stoked, the sun was shining, the crisp winter season in the air (that's a nice way of saying it's freaking cold when it's 43 degrees and you're three rows from God). It was time for some playoff football. And then it was 14-0. What the?!!?!? Two turnovers turned into two touchdowns which put the Bucs in too deep of a hole to dig out of.

Sure, the team stuck around, got within a touchdown, made it pretty interesting. But some stalled drives, a failed fourth down try, and a questionable call put Tampa Bay on winter break way too early.

(sidevent: wearing my fair, impartial journalistic hat-Edell Shepard lost control of the ball when he hit the ground, and after the head referee wasted five minutes of my life by giving us the unabridged, twelve page rule interpretation of whatever the heck he was talking about (the boos drowned most of it out), I begrudingly acknowledge that the officials had grounds to make the call that they did. Of course, wearing my unfair, very partial Bucs Pirate hat-we wuz robbed).

But before we let this season go, let's look at the silver (well, pewter) linings:

An 11-5 regular season. If you told me we'd have that at the beginning of the year, I would have believed Gasparilla was a small backyard picnic. A strong defense. Sometimes, when something is so good for so long, you can tend to overlook it (are you listening, Atlanta Braves fans?) A quarterback contraversy. Yes, trying to decide between two decent quarterbacks next year can create a distraction, but I'd rather have that then having just crap to pick through (how's it going, Detroit!).

A young nucleus. It's a young team that will likely be together for a couple more years at least, and they will remember this defeat and put the experience to good use next time (next year?).

Some gas left in the tank. The veterans are on the downsides of their careers, but everyone still has a season or two of production while the youngsters still learn.

And lastly, I now have my Sundays back to mow the lawn and clean out the gutters (if I have them.never checked.guess I should get out more). Ok, fine, I'll still watch. Gotta see if Dungy can close the deal. I'm fairly sure he will. And you can trust me on this.I spent all season three rows from God.