Technically, the Bucs still can call themselves the world champions. But that Super Bowl win seems like a looooong time ago, doesn't it? Even before Sunday night's kickoff, the guys in the ESPN broadcast booth thought so, too.
To listen to Mike Patrick, Joe Theismann and Paul Maguire, Jacksonville was the better team, with the better quarterback, with the better running game.
And this was before the Jaguars started kicking the Bucs' tails.
The fact the Jaguars entered 2-9 seemed irrelevant to the threesome, which heaped on the praise early and often.
Tampa Bay's struggles with injuries and penalties and the unraveling of its once-proud defense simply no longer are interesting to a national audience, as evidenced when the broadcasters spent almost all their time talking about the Jaguars, rookie quarterback Byron Leftwich and their bright future with first-year coach Jack Del Rio.
Did we mention the Jags still were 2-9 when Theismann noted: "As this Jacksonville team plays more and more together, I think you might see them become more of a dominant group"?
Or when Patrick pointed out: "Boy, Jack Del Rio is going to have a really good defense"?
At least they were 3-9 by the time Patrick got in the last words: "To the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, this looks like the death knell," he said. "They lost to the only rookie starting quarterback in the NFL. But he certainly didn't play like a rookie."
As if we needed to be reminded one last time.
POINT(S) WELL TAKEN: While her colleagues were praising the Jags, sideline reporter Suzy Kolber took a moment early in the fourth (score: 10-10) to point out the Bucs' former No.1 defense has been giving games away. She noted that in five of their six losses, the Bucs were tied or leading in the fourth.
Seconds later, as if on cue, Leftwich connected with Jimmy Smith on a diving 48-yard touchdown.
GOOD CALL: Theismann, who loves to blurt out observations and loves being right even more, deserves credit for pointing out Thomas Jones' 5-yard touchdown run in the second quarter actually fell short of the goal line. "He is not in," Theismann said immediately. "That is not a touchdown." The replay after the commercial corroborated his statement. Jones' knee clearly was down before the ball reached the end zone.
GOOD CALL II: Clearly on a roll, Theismann predicted the officials would overturn Ronde Barber's potential game-saving interception with three minutes left in the fourth. After getting snarky with Maguire, who said Barber's effort on the play was "a miracle," Theismann was vindicated when the officials ruled Barber didn't have possession.
THE RIGHT ANGLE: Kudos to ESPN for using SkyCam sparingly and appropriately instead of every few minutes for no reason. It came in handy after the Jags kicked off in the closing seconds of the first half.
The line-drive kick knocked over the Bucs' David Gibson and bounced away, only to be recovered by Jacksonville. It was hard to see the play live because the sideline camera was pulled back for the kickoff, but SkyCam came up with the perfect angle for the replay.
