TAMPA, Fla. — The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are not good at situational football late in games, to say the very least.

That, as much as any other reason, is why coach Lovie Smith’s team is 2-10 and has not won a game at home this season.

In a 14-13 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday, the Bucs were caught with 12 men on the field, negating a possible game-winning field goal try in the final seconds. That was only the latest — and worst — example.

“I wish I could give you a good answer,” Smith said Monday, but he tried anyway. “Everyone has been different, but it’s been the same result a little bit, which is we haven’t handled the situations well. It’s kind of as simple as that.

“You can live with Johnthan Banks’ (penalty against the New Orleans Saints) — I mean that’s playing ball. But how we’ve handled some of the situations at the end, we’ve had a lot of leads throughout. You kind of name it, we’ve had it at the end.”

Obviously he was right. He could not give a good answer.

“Growing pains, learning situations, normally it doesn’t take this many games to get the point across,” Smith added. “But (Sunday), that one hurt as much as anything to have 12 guys on the field. It’s a sin. Kind of as simple as that. Can’t do it.”

There were several examples of late-game breakdowns:

–Wide receiver Mike Evans unable to get off the field after an injury against the St. Louis Rams, causing a game-ending 10-second runoff;

–Banks committing a hands-to-the-face penalty on a crucial third-down play at New Orleans;

–Tight end Austin Seferian-Jenkins fumbling on the first play of overtime against the Minnesota Vikings;

–Second-and-1 failures in the fourth quarter at Cleveland and Chicago.

Penalties are also a big problem. The Bucs are hearing more whistles than Olivia Munn. Tampa Bay has 102 penalties, tied with the Seattle Seahawks for the most in the NFL. In five games, they were in double digits, including Sunday’s 13-flag affair. In two other games, they had nine.

After running back Bobby Rainey went 29-yards with a screen pass and an encroachment penalty moved the ball to the Cincinnati 31 with 43 seconds left Sunday, center Garrett Gilkey was called for a holding penalty.

“I haven’t been in this situation before,” Smith said. “Normally I preach turnover ratio and if you win that, you’re going to win the football game. What I found out this year, that many penalties can offset anything you do with the turnover ratio.”

The biggest blunder of the year came Sunday when the Bucs had 12 men on field, erasing a 21-yard completion from quarterback Josh McCown to wide receiver Louis Murphy that would have moved the ball to the Bengals’ 20-yard line with 26 seconds remaining. Tampa Bay had no timeouts left.

Tackle Oniel Cousins checked into the game as an eligible receiver at tight end and thought he communicated that to rookie Robert Herron, the fourth receiver who was supposed to come off the field.

“We communicated it clearly. I guess the receivers didn’t hear it or whatever happened,” Cousins said.

Herron said he and Murphy knew immediately something might be wrong prior to the snap.

“We never ran that play out of that formation, so me and Murph knew it wasn’t right,” Herron said. “You can see in the TV copy, we’re looking at each other like, ‘What do we got?’ He looked like a lineman on the field, so we didn’t even know.”

REPORT CARD VS. THE BENGALS

–PASSING OFFENSE: F — The Bucs entered the fourth quarter having attempted only 13 passes. QB Josh McCown was under duress, even though he was only sacked once. WR Mike Evans was targeted nine times, and he caught four for 49 yards. WR Vincent Jackson was only targeted four times, and he caught two for 24 yards.

–RUSHING OFFENSE: D — RB Doug Martin returned to his old form in the first half, rushing for a season-high 55 yards on 12 carries and a touchdown. However, he was totally ineffective in the second half, rushing six times for 2 yards.

–PASSING DEFENSE: B — The Bucs intercepted Bengals QB Andy Dalton three times in the first half, including once in the end zone. They also sacked Dalton twice and kept pressure on him throughout the game. Dalton passed for 176 yards and a touchdown to WR A.J. Green.

–RUSHING DEFENSE: C — The Bucs really never shut down the Bengals’ rushing attack. RBs Gio Bernard and Jeremy Hill combined to rush 23 times for 89 yards. Dalton had the team’s only rushing touchdown. Tampa Bay didn’t do a terrible job considering it was without LB Lavonte David.

–SPECIAL TEAMS: C — The Bucs did a nice job of covering punts, hitting Pacman Jones on several occasions and forcing a rare fair catch. Tampa Bay didn’t get much in the return game, but Bobby Rainey fielded the ball well and made good decisions. PK Patrick Murray made both field-goal tries.

–COACHING: F — Too many men on the field. Really? Also, too many losses at 2-12. The Bucs don’t handle late-game situations.