That was an ugly, ugly loss for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

The defense looked good in stretches, but that may be the only part of the team today worth hanging a hat on.

In truth, this team looked just like the one that disappointed in a major way last year, and one has to ask where the ceiling for this team truly is if the problems of tonight persist over the coming weeks.

The old saying of "defense wins championships" has died in modern football. Year-in and year-out, the best offenses in the NFL make it to the Super Bowl. 

Teams with good offenses and bad defenses win often. Teams with bad offenses and good defenses win far less.

This isn't to say defense isn't important at all-it's just not as important as having a good offense. 

The Buccaneers showed this clearly tonight. The defense played well at times-at least in the box score. Holding the Lions to 20 is excellent, even if they were able to move the ball at will and convert on third down constantly. However, that wasn't enough.

The offense was terrible, and that was enough to put this game out of reach from early on in the ugly affair.

While the players certainly didn't help, a huge part of the blame tonight falls on the head coach and the offensive coordinator. Where have we heard that before?

If a Buccaneer team led by Tom Brady and more talent couldn't overcome a bad head coach and OC, why could this team? And, for the record, Dave Canales isn't a bad OC, but he did have a pretty bad night.

Tampa was simply far too conservative. Punting with the game on the line and needing to score, running on first and second and long for no gain, fades in the end zone while only needing one yard. The list goes on.

For all intents and purposes, this is the offense from last year that got Byron Leftwich fired, and the biggest difference here is that the talent has fallen off. 

That is the worst combination of those two things.

If the Buccaneers want to win football games against teams that aren't amongst the worst in the league, setting up a scheme that looks as far away from tonight's as possible is the only place to start.

If a change doesn't come, Todd Bowles is going to start feeling his seat heat up again very soon.

Buccaneers starter keeps struggling with same problem

A change needs to happen.