TAMPA, Fla. — The Tampa Bay Buccaneers enter the final month of the season with a 2-10 record and closer to owning the top pick in the draft than they are to first place in the lowly NFC South.

Being the worst team in the worst division in the NFL is tough enough. But having to wrap up the season with games at the Detroit Lions and Carolina Panthers before coming home to face the Green Bay Packers and New Orleans Saints is even more brutal.

That said, the Bucs have a long history with the Lions and upset will be on their minds again when they face them at Ford Field on Sunday. Both Tampa Bay victories this season have come on the road, and a year ago the Bucs used six turnovers to steal a game in Detroit.

The Bucs have improved in every area over the past six games on defense and should have linebacker Lavonte David, who missed the past two games with a hamstring strain.

A week ago, the Bucs’ defense forced three first-half interceptions by Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Andy Dalton but still managed to lose the game, 14-13.

The problem has been the offense, which still is searching for an identity under offensive coordinator Marcus Arroyo.

Quarterback Josh McCown, who has thrown only seven touchdown passes and nine interceptions in seven starts this season, hasn’t played the kind of football the Bucs hoped when they signed him to a two-year, $10 million contract.

“I’m not going to put it all on Josh,” head coach Lovie Smith said. “As a quarterback and him playing, no, it hasn’t been good enough. I think that’s been documented. But when a quarterback doesn’t play well, there’s a lot that goes into that. The front, protection that he’s getting, decision-making… the play overall has not been good enough, but I’m going to bring all of us into that again.”

Smith is right. While his Tampa 2 defense has finally improved over the past six games, the Bucs’ offense still is among the NFL’s worst and lacks an identity.

“That’s what the tape says,” McCown said Wednesday. “That’s what our season says. We’re not there yet. I’d like to say that we are. But you just look at the tape. We’re close and we feel that way but we certainly have not accomplished that.”

As a result, the Bucs are ranked 29th in the league in rushing offense and 18th in passing.

Smith’s vision sort of went out the window two weeks before the season opener when his hand-picked offensive coordinator, former California coach Jeff Tedford, underwent a surgical procedure to have two stents placed in an artery near his heart. A few weeks later, Tedford reached an agreement on an indefinite medical leave of absence.

That thrust the 34-year-old Arroyo, who was hired as quarterback coach, into the role of play-caller that he was unprepared for.

“Given the circumstances and things that we’ve gone through and trying to put it together the best we can, I’m proud of the effort the coaches have put in and the guys to try to find that,” McCown said. “It’s certainly an unfortunate situation. That being said, we’ve still got to keep chasing that and finding out who we are and (finding) that balance.”

Following the bye week, the Bucs appeared to have settled on spreading teams out and throwing the football on the perimeter to receivers Mike Evans and Vincent Jackson. In fact, during a four-game stretch from Oct. 26-Nov. 15, Evans averaged 134 yards per game and scored five touchdowns.

But last week against the Bengals, the Bucs spent the first half trying to get their running game going with Doug Martin, who responded with 55 yards on 12 carries in the first half. Unfortunately, the Bengals moved a safety down in the box to form an eight-man front in the second half and held Martin to 3 yards on six carries.

“Yeah, no doubt, they’re a very good run defense,” McCown said of the Lions. “So we’ll have our hands full, but you can’t go in going, ‘Well, hey, we’re just not going to run it.’ We’ll still have the same number of runs that we always carry and go into the game with the same type of plan and see where that fits in. But again, you find out more as you get into a game and we’ll see how that game dictates. But we always feel good about our guys and our ability to try to go out and run it as well.”

It’s important for the Bucs to continue to show some progress the final month of the season. It may be even more important that McCown play well if he wants to return next year.

“Finish well. Finish going like this: We’ve got a tough four games, but man, how good would we feel finishing the year winning these games and playing well and kind of playing the type of football that we’ve talked about all year,” he said. “That’s my goal. That’s my desire and I feel like it is the rest of the locker room as well. Nobody’s given up. Everybody’s going to come to work and work hard and it reflects our coaches and our leadership and I think, for us, that’s where we are as a program is we’ve gone through, we’ve taken some lumps and it’s been hard, but I think it’s made us stronger, and then go out and finish this last quarter well and see what happens and build on that.”

SERIES HISTORY: 56th regular season meeting. The Lions lead the all-time series 29-26. Tampa Bay has won eight of the past 12 meetings. Last season, the Bucs broke a two-game losing streak by the Lions, winning 24-21.

NOTES: LB Lavonte David, who missed the last two games with a hamstring strain, returned to full padded practice Wednesday and has a good chance to play vs. the Lions. … TE Austin Seferian-Jenkins, who missed last Sunday’s game with a back injury, did not practice Wednesday. … RB Bobby Rainey suffered a right ankle sprain late in Sunday’s game and had a walking boot on Wednesday. He did not practice. … DT Clinton McDonald, who did not play in Sunday’s game due to a hamstring strain, did not practice Wednesday. … TE Brandon Myers has an ankle injury that forced him to miss Sunday’s game against the Bengals. He did not practice Wednesday.