For Tampa Bay Buccaneers fans—and even everyone living in the Tampa area—Sunday was as miserable as miserable gets.

Residents awoke to dreary, overcast skies with a promise of rain for nearly the entire afternoon. What they were supposed to be able to take solace in was the fact that their home Buccaneers were playing one of the worst teams in the NFL: the New Orleans Saints, who were toting a measly 2-10 record into the Bay Area.

The skies opened up before kickoff, and pouring rain swallowed Raymond James Stadium for nearly the entire game. The rain was, at times, almost laughably hard to see through—and it set a single-day Tampa record for December rainfall. Through it, Waterlogged fans tried to maintain a baseline of stadium energy as they watched the God-awful Saints strip their Bucs of all dignity.

The dust has now settled, and after the Saints left town with a 24-20 victory, Tampa, which was once the top team in the NFC, finds itself tied for the NFC South lead with the 7-6 Panthers. Oh, how the mighty have fallen.

Since being at the conference’s pinnacle, the Bucs have now lost five of their last seven. First, the excuse was injuries. Then, people were pinning the slide on their gauntlet of a schedule.

Well now, it may just be time to admit that the team has incompetent coaching and a low effort level. Those are not ways to rationalize a midseason skid—they are descriptors for a poor football team. These days, it is difficult for anyone to argue that the Bucs do not fall into that category.

Today’s Hottest Take: The Bucs Coaching Staff Will See an Offseason Overhaul

A terrible division is the only thing that has kept head coach Todd Bowles employed, but the restlessness has reached a new high. For multiple years of mediocrity, competent offensive coordinators have kept Bowles’ head above water—coordinators who are now leading two teams to winning records as head coaches—and the Bucs haven’t missed the playoffs since the turn of the decade.

Well now, the jig is up with current OC Josh Grizzard, and without a dynamic offense to bandage Bowles’ defense’s blemishes, the team just looks disgusting. Quarterback Baker Mayfield has been criminally inefficient since the team’s bye, including going 14-for-30 in the Saints loss. He is averaging just 160.6 passing yards per game over his last five games.

Without the firepower that allowed the Bucs to drop 38 on a premier Seattle Seahawks defense earlier this season, Bowles has run out of smoke and mirrors. He is the proud leader of a defense that just allowed a 26-year-old rookie pro-style quarterback to achieve his best quarterback rating of the year—and tack on a pair of rushing touchdowns.

Barring an extremely unlikely deep playoff run for the Bucs, not much can separate Bowles from the fanbase’s restlessness at this point. Grizzard’s offense has hit the freezer, so he is on the hot seat, as well. This is the kind of season that gets coaches fired, and unless the team whips a 180, expect Bowles and Grizzard to head that way.

What You Need to Know: This Fanbase Had Super Bowl Hopes Less Than Two Months Ago

Two months seems like a long time for a Bucs fan right now. Two months prior to today, the Bucs were coming off a 38-35 road victory over Seattle—the team that is now 10-3 and leads the best division in football. Tampa was looking ahead to a matchup with San Francisco, who now holds a 9-4 record. The Bucs beat them comfortably.

Fast-forward to now, and if Tampa fans don’t feel like they’re at rock bottom, they feel close. When a season is derailed to this extent, two things are usually true:

In the pouring rain, onlookers saw what could be described as a poor effort this past Sunday.

And of course, when questioned about the team’s poor effort for all four quarters, Bowles hit the media with the usual placation.

“We lost yesterday and we’ve got to get over it,” coach Todd Bowles said Monday. "We’ve got be big boys, we’ve got to get over it and own what we did, and we’ve got to get better at things we need to get better at. ... We understand that as a group we’ve been through this before, but it’s different every single year and every time (we) do it. Nobody likes to lose, and you’re coming on a short week, (we have) a chance to get the bad taste out of your mouth, but they should be upset. They should own what they do. We as coaches own what we do, and as a team own what we do, and we’ve got to come out Thursday and we’ve got to correct them.”

That keep-it-pushing attitude would work after one loss, maybe even two. But after five of seven? The product has to be better, and that falls largely on Bowles and Grizzard.

Before You Go: 3-1 is The Floor, But Winning Out Should Be The Expectation

A split with the Panthers, who the Bucs square off with in Weeks 16 and 18, would not be the end of the world. However, with the talent discrepancy between those two rosters, the only explanation for a Bucs loss would be coaching incompetence—and that’s another notch in the strike column for Bowles and Grizzard.

Bucs fans, the team has officially reached crunch time. They’re tied for the division lead with four games left, and they control their own destiny. But with what has happened thus far this season, and with the roster this team has on paper, you should want coaching changes if this squad fails to reach the divisional round.

The coaching staff has a substantial part of the blame. Each loss makes the team’s self-belief and effort level more difficult to maintain.