The Cold, Hard Football Facts once again rip into the week’s biggest NFL issues with the same harsh, inevitable melancholy that a North Atlantic iceberg rips into the Titanic.

Icy Issue: Who suffered the worst Pro Bowl snub?

Icier Response: Tampa Bay middle linebacker Barrett Ruud.

Have you heard of the Buccaneers? Probably not. They're this little team that plays in Tampa and generates all the national television exposure of the Ron Paul campaign.

Here's a Bucs primer: They’ve already clinched the NFC South title, with two games to play. At 9-5, they have the third best record in the NFC. They may be the No. 3 seed in the conference and very well could represent the NFC in the Super Bowl. And their defensive accomplishments this year are legion. Tampa ranks:

No. 1 in the NFL (tied with Pittsburgh) in scoring defense (15.6 PPG)

No. 3 in the NFL and No. 1 in the NFC in total defense (278.0 YPG)

No. 3 in the NFL and No. 1 in the NFC in pass defense (5.53 YPA)

No. 4 in the NFL and No. 3 in the NFC in rush defense (allowing 3.73 YPA)

No. 5 in the NFL and No. 4 in the NFC in the Cold, Hard Football Facts Bendability Index (17.85 Yard Per Point Allowed), a measure of defensive efficiency.

No. 7 in the NFL and No. 3 in the NFC in Defensive Passer Rating (74.7)

And for all these accomplishments as the undisputed defensive class of the NFL’s senior circuit? Tampa earns not a single Pro Bowler.

If you were to cite one Bucs player who deserves the honor, it’s Ruud, a third year middle linebacker out of Nebraska.

He’s the heart of Tampa’s classic 4-3 defense and among the league leaders in tackles (108). He’s tied for the league lead in turnovers by a linebacker (two INT, two fumble recoveries) and is among the league leaders with three forced fumbles. Bottom line: he’s the best player on the best defense in the NFC and among the league's top tacklers and defensive playmakers.

Nobody left off the Pro Bowl roster is more deserving of a trip to Honolulu in February. Of course, we're sure that he'd settle for a trip to Glendale.

Icy Issue: Is this the year the Chargers finally win a playoff game?

Icier Response: Only if they face the Browns.

San Diego’s playoff woes weigh on the franchise like Santa’s rosy rotund bottom weighs on a one-horse open sleigh. The Chargers have not won a playoff game since their Super Bowl season of 1994. And it’s this futility in the postseason that caused GM A.J. Smith to panic and fire head coach Marty Schottenheimer after a one-and-done playoff performance last year, on the heels of a 14-2 season, the best mark in franchise history. No coach has ever been canned after such an amazing regular-season record, proving that the organization is obsessed with some semblance of postseason success.

For San Diego it’s pretty easy: win its remaining games against Denver (Christmas Eve) and Oakland, and they capture the No. 3 seed and, in all likelihood, host a defensively challenged Cleveland team. It would be a game the Chargers should win. Of course, the Chargers were also favored at home over the Jets in the 2004 playoffs and at home over the Patriots in the 2006 playoffs. They lost both games.

Should San Diego stumble somewhere over its final two games and fall to the No. 4 seed, that first playoff opponent would probably be a scary Jacksonville club that just rolled the Steelers in Pittsburgh.

A game against the Jaguars would spell trouble for the Chargers and, in all likelihood, another disappointing home playoff loss.

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