You know the story, fellow BUCS fans. You know the history.

Our Tampa Bay Buccaneers will be making their first appearance in the NFL Playoffs for the first time since 2007 when, quite interestingly enough, the Team faced an NFC East opponent in the New York Giants in the Wild Card game. As of this writing, the Giants are one of three NFC East teams that the BUCS may end up facing. Along with them are the Dallas Cowboys and that team from Washington.

There’s some lively debate going around social media and other forums as to who would be the tougher opponent in that matchup.

A much bigger and more fiery debate surrounds the level of excitement or appreciation some fans have for a playoff appearance. There are those that feel the playoff drought coming to an end warrants high levels of praise with no room for criticism of any kind. And there are others who feel that the appearance in the playoffs was a bare minimum, to begin with. While I most definitely understand the former, I’m most definitely in the camp of the latter.

Waiting for over a decade to appear in the postseason has been disheartening for many a fan. Plenty of fans have gone from being ever the optimists to being scorned pessimists. Some have bowed out of fandom completely while waiting for this Team to get itself together. And it’s all understandable. In the past 20 years, this Team has taken us from being a contender to being a Super Bowl champion, to a complete loss of identity, to an experimental coaching farm and a faux “win-now mode”.

That’s a whole lot of trauma. There’s a lot of lowering of expectations in the name of progress that got embedded into this fan base. And, again, it’s understandable to a degree. But, there needs to be an end to the baby steps. The caveats and the excuses have to subside. And that should time should’ve long before now. Because once you take everything into account, this Team was assembled with short term/immediate success in mind and to compete for a Super Bowl ring THIS year.

With this current roster and experienced coaching staff, this Team should’ve been expected to reach the playoffs. That should’ve been the baseline. It should’ve been the lowest standard to meet. That should be the expectation after acquiring Tom Brady for $50M for 2yrs. That should be the minimum when you trade away 4 years of a cheap contract for the opportunity to pay Rob Gronkowski $10M for 1 year. That has to be a damn near certainty when you risk tearing a team apart and/or stunting its growth by sitting its young, up-and-coming talent for Antonio Brown. Those “win now” moves had to have some bare minimum. And a playoff appearance is it for some fans.

So, yes. There should be some excitement for meeting that expectation. No doubt about it.

However, a playoff appearance isn’t enough for some of us.

Some of us are demanding a deep playoff run to be taken seriously. A Divisional Round win.

Some of us need to see the BUCS, specifically, the offense, to look vastly different than it’s looked in the regular season as to not look like bottom-feeders.

Some of us aren’t comfortable waiting until next year to become a legit contender. Again.

Some of us aren’t buying the “no training camp, no preseason” excuses. That expired around Week 3.

Some of us realize that culture change, a term that’s been thrown around in BUCS fandom the moment anything looks slightly above average, starts with changing the expectation level, and raising the bar. None of the above means fans can’t or won’t be excited watching our BUCS play in the playoffs whatsoever. Personally, I intend to enjoy every second of every minute the Team looks like they’re in the game. Just like I do every game. And I’ll be critical every time they don’t meet the expectation of looking competitive and/or competent. If that makes this fan a “complainer” or a “hater” or “unrealistic”, so be it. Other fans and people that cover the BUCS will likely catch on to similar talking points and “complaints” months or even years later. And it’ll be written and talked about as if it was a revelation or, even worse, like they saw it all along. Check the receipts.

Bottom line…the BUCS have met the expectation of making the playoffs and there’s reason to be happy about it. But there’s really no reason to celebrate yet. That’s reserved for exceeding expectations.

Where you set your level of expectations is on you as a fan. If you continue to make and accept baby steps as your expectation, you’re gonna spend a lifetime trying to get anywhere.

Raise the bar.

Raise the Flags.