Morris, Dominik running out of scapegoats for Bucs' failures

Here's a simple question for Raheem Morris and Mark Dominik: Who's left to blame now?

You ran the offensive coordinator away before the season even started. And now, you stripped defensive coordinator Jim Bates of his duties after the Tampa Bay Buccaneers defense fell to the bottom of the National Football League.

So who's left to blame?

How about you guys?

Reasonable people understood that this was going to be a rebuilding season at One Buc, but any evidence of actual building has been well hidden. The general consensus was that Cleveland Browns had the worst team in the NFL but I think this move just helped the Bucs shoot by them on the final turn toward the checkered flag in the Chase for the Chumpionship.

About the only ones left to fire out there are the head coach and the general manager.

If the initial news reports are true - and there are enough confirmations to make you believe they are - then later this morning we'll learn officially that Raheem is taking over Bates' job calling defenses and will switch the Bucs back to their familiar Tampa 2 scheme.

Cue the balloons. Cue the circus elephants.

Cue the parade floats.

The Tampa 2 is back!

It won't help.

If anyone wants to take the time to recall, the Bucs had basically these same players last year on defense but went winless in December and were run over top of by everyone they faced. And the sainted Monte Kiffin was calling the defensive shots back then.

They lose because they don't have enough good players, and that falls on ownership and management.

They lose because they are poorly coached. Management hired the coaches.

They lose because this organization has become a cuckoo's nest.

They're running out of fingers to point with.

When this wasted season ends six weeks from now, what will have been accomplished?

I didn't have a problem with firing Jon Gruden and Bruce Allen because I thought the Bucs had become a treadmill team - an old, patched-up, mishmash that could never seriously contend again. Here we are 10 games into this season though and they're still patched-up, still a mishmash, and the notion of contending seems ludicrous.

Morris has been all over the board. He wasted the entire training camp on a useless quarterback "competition" between Luke McCown (traded) and Byron Leftwich (benched after three games). He wasted four weeks on Josh Johnson. Premier free agent signing Derrick Ward has been an afterthought. Earnest Graham has been wasted as a blocking back when he could be gaining yards.

Dominik squandered money on Mike Nugent (cut) and Michael Clayton. I'll give him a thumbs-up on Kellen Winslow and a cautious thumbs-up on Josh Freeman, but that's about it. His fingerprints were on the Jeff Jagodzinski disaster at offensive coordinator, and when they're done investigating the chalk outline of Jim Bates it will lead to Dominik's door instead.

The Bucs wanted a more aggressive, attacking defense. That's why Bates was hired.

The only problem was, he never had the players to run that scheme.

You want the Tampa 2? You think that will solve the problem?

This just in: The Bucs have been running a lot of the ol' Tampa 2 during this season anyway.

It's not the X's.

It's not the O's.

Last Sunday, Raymond James Stadium was three-quarters empty by early in the fourth quarter of a 38-7 loss against the New Orleans Saints. As an organization, the Bucs have lost 13 of their last 14 games. Ticket sales are plummeting, interest is withering.

There's good reason for that.

At least something positive has come out of this, though: After 10 weeks of uncertainty and misdirection, they have finally run out of people to blame.