Typical start for the 1994 Bucs Rick Stroud, The St.Petersburg Times, published 5 September 1994 Stop us if you've heard this before, but the Tampa Bay Bucs dominated defensively for large portions of Sunday's season opener at Chicago. Except for three or four plays. Which all but resulted in three Bears scoring drives. Which resulted in 21 points. Which resulted in a Chicago victory. All of which produced a familiar refrain in the Bucs' locker room. Different team, different year, same old dearth-of-big-play Bucs. "Teamwise it's just frustrating, because we showed that we're a better football team (than the Bears)," linebacker Hardy Nickerson said. "But on the other hand, they made the big plays that you have to make to win every Sunday. Our expectations are a lot higher than past Bucs teams, and we're expecting to make those plays. But we didn't today." Which helps explain how a team with nine new offensive starters and coming off a dead-last ranking in total offense a year ago can still win comfortably despite trailing in time of possession (26:33 to 33:27) and rushing yards (66-123), and making just one first down in the second half's opening 22 minutes. "Were it not for a couple big plays they got, I think we could have won the game," linebacker/safety Barney Bussey said. "You just don't account for those kind of mistakes. Today they cost us. This one hurt; it hurt deep." On Chicago's first offensive snap, Bucs cornerback Martin Mayhew was called for pass interference on Bears receiver Curtis Conway. The 37-yard play gave Chicago a first down at the Tampa Bay 31, and set up the Bears' first touchdown - Erik Kramer's 10-yard pass to tight end Chris Gedney - three plays later. The secondary struck again on Chicago's final possession of the first half, almost immediately after Tampa Bay had cut it to 7-3 with a 21-play, 10:05 field-goal drive. Right corner Charles Dimry was turned around by receiver Jeff Graham, who hauled in a 40-yard bomb to give Chicago a first and goal at the 1. "He just went deep and I just didn't make the play," Dimry said. "You take away those three plays and I think we played very well. But we can't give up those plays. You just can't win that way." Tampa Bay's big-play misery worsened a play later, when Nickerson picked off Kramer in the end zone, only to have the interception negated by an offside call against linebacker Jeff Brady. The Bears scored the game-winning points on the next snap, a 1-yard Lewis Tillman plunge. Finally, down 14-9 with just under six minutes remaining, Tampa Bay strong-side linebacker Lonnie Marts blew a coverage on third and 2 from the Bucs' 37, allowing tight end Gedney to roam free in the secondary and haul in the game-breaking touchdown. "It was man coverage and we dropped coverage," Sam Wyche said.