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Rome wasn’t destroyed in a day. It didn’t come crashing down in tremendous chunks of marble. No, it decayed.

Which brings us to the Buccaneers. They remain capable of beating any team in the league at any site. Their pass rush is world class. The resourcefulness that won them a championship last January remains evident.

But as was the case with Rome, decay is all around.

The Bucs haven’t had the muscle to back up their heart, blowing fourth-quarter leads in two of their five losses, including one to the Panthers, their most bitter rival, last Sunday. They also had a late meltdown against the Colts and could have defeated Carolina in Week 2 by kicking an extra point. It was blocked, and the Bucs lost in overtime.

The Bucs have been run on by every opponent that has committed to the rushing game, with the exception of the Panthers on Sunday. Going into Week 10, 16 defenses had held their opponents to a better average gain per rush than the Bucs, who had allowed 4.1 yards. Last season, only two teams were better in this category than Tampa Bay, which held opponents to 3.8 yards per carry.

It’s no mystery why the Bucs’ defense has been slightly out of sync. Gone from last year are strongside linebacker Al Singleton and free safety Dexter Jackson. Significant players who have missed blocks of time with injuries include linebacker Shelton Quarles, strong safety John Lynch, backup safety Jermaine Phillips and cornerback Brian Kelly. The Bucs subsequently have been lining up players who otherwise would be saloon doormen or insurance salesmen. Dwight Smith was forced to start at four different positions in four games.

“Kelly was a big loss because he was their cover corner,” Panthers receiver Muhsin Muhammad said after lake Delhomme passed for 277 yards against the Bucs. “He was in all their coverage schemes and allowed them to do a lot of different things coveragewise. In their scheme, they didn’t rely on Ronde (Barber) to cover a lot. Now he’s got to cover. Now they’re limited.”

Without ideal personnel, the Bucs were forced to rely on Lynch in man-to-man coverage on the Panthers’ game-winning drive. Lynch was trying to cover Muhammad when he made a 22-yard catch to the Tampa Bay 5.

At times, the secondary tackling has been inefficient. I counted five missed tackles by defensive backs in the open field Sunday. There have been games in which tackles Warren Sapp and Anthony McFarland have been driven back, allowing running backs to get past them before linebackers could reach their gaps. And when the Bucs have had to play from behind, opposing offenses have gone big and created mismatches against Tampa’s smallish front.

The “new car” smell is long gone from the bus that Sapp is driving. The Bucs have played their “Tampa 2,” or cover 2 defense so well, that virtually everyone in the NFL has copied it. That hasn’t helped the Bucs because offenses have become much more familiar with it. “We’ve seen it so much that we feel we have an idea of what to do against it,” one NFC head coach says.

The Bucs’ running game actually is better than it was a year ago because Michael Pittman has improved and coach Jon Gruden has gotten more mileage, or at least yardage, out of a nice package of misdirection plays.

But there are issues with the passing game, despite the numbers the Bucs have put up. The Bucs’ blocking always has had holes, and injuries have made those holes wider. Right tackle Kenyatta Walker has been forced to play left tackle, and he committed two personal fouls and one unsportsmanlike conduct penalty against Carolina (a fourth penalty, for holding, was declined). “He’s garbage, he’s horrible,” said Carolina defensive tackle Kris Jenkins, who still was spitting fire after the game.

Last year, many of the Bucs’ big plays in the passing game came against the blitz. This year, opponents aren’t blitzing the Bucs as much because they don’t have to. Defenses are able to get to quarterback Brad Johnson with four men. He even was sacked by a three-man rush against San Francisco. “If you can cover at all, you can beat their offensive line with four,” says one defensive coordinator.

Offensive linemen who can’t keep pass rushers away from the quarterback and receivers who struggle to get open are a dangerous combination, like a ventilation system that’s sucking smoke into a room in which the windows and doors are locked.

Aside from Keenan McCardell, who has played very well, the Bucs’ receivers have been heard more than seen. Keyshawn Johnson actually has had a couple of decent games recently, but three coaches and two personnel men used the same two words when asked about him: “Can’t run.” At 31, “he’s a step slower,” one personnel man says. Before Sunday, Johnson averaged 2.7 yards after the catch, which ranked 160th among receivers with at least 10 receptions, according to STATS Inc.

Quarterback Brad Johnson has done a nice job of making the most out of the situation. But he has had to come off his receivers and check down frequently. That explains why 39 percent of the Bucs’ passes have been caught by running backs, compared with 32 percent a year ago.

Alone, none of these problems is insurmountable. And we should point out the Bucs had some problems at this point a year ago.

But decay is growing, and opportunity is shrinking.