Bears bring Bucs back to earth John Luttermoser, The St.Petersburg Times ,published 1987 Anyone who thought the Tampa Bay Buccaneers wouldn't have a chance was wrong. They had four chances Sunday against the Chicago Bears. They had the ball four times inside the Chicago 30-yard line. They fumbled twice, kicked a field goal and missed a field goal. So they lost 20-3. ``We've got a lot of work to do, got a lot of growing to do,`` head coach Ray Perkins said. ``That's where we are right now.`` And that's where they will be indefinitely. These Bucs will have a 1-1 record until the NFL Players Association and the NFL Management Council reach a new collective-bargaining agreement. Some other Bucs, a group of free agents hired to resume the season during a strike, may start adding to that record with an Oct. 4 game at Detroit. These Bucs flew home Sunday night and will spend a normal Monday at the office while waiting to see if a strike is called Tuesday. They spent a normal Sunday in Chicago, for a visiting team at Soldier Field, which is to say they got stuffed. The same passing attack that flattened Atlanta last week landed some jabs against Chicago but couldn't do any damage. After converting on 14 of 16 third-down plays last week, the Bucs were 4-for-15 this week. Steve DeBerg was sacked three times and finally was knocked out of the game late in the fourth quarter after suffering a strained medial collateral knee ligament. ``We do not think it's serious,`` Perkins said. ``Certainly hope not.`` So it was that Vinny Testaverde, the first pick in the NFL draft and the man with the six-year, $8.2-million contract, made his regular-season NFL debut. Testaverde got to throw desperate passes in a lost cause against the league's most feared pass rush while a crowd of 63,551 chanted ``Pizza, pizza, pizza.`` A pizza chain was offering a free pie to anyone with a ticket stub if the Bucs failed to score a touchdown, and an announcement to that effect at the two-minute warning produced as much intensity as anything else that happened all afternoon. The game wasn't much to get excited about, and not just because of the imminent strike. The Bears put the Bucs on the ropes with 8:31 left in the first half, when former Florida Gator Neal Anderson raced 27 yards on a third-down draw play out of a shotgun formation, giving Chicago a 14-3 lead. ``It was a quick trap,`` said Anderson, who gained 115 yards on 16 carries. ``We had the right play at the right time. They had a blitz on. I got through the hole and it was a race to the end zone.`` That's the way it stayed, with the Bucs hanging on the ropes and the Bears unable to finish them off, until Walter Payton scored on a 9-yard pass from Mike Tomczak with just 3:20 left in the game. Payton also scored the first Chicago points on his 107th rushing touchdown, which broke a tie with Jim Brown and gave Payton the NFL record. For 35 minutes and 31 seconds it was 14-3, and it was a lot like the labor-management negotiations. Both sides were in a posture to get something accomplished, but there was no real movement. On the fifth play after Anderson's touchdown, Dennis McKinnon returned a punt 29 yards to the Tampa Bay 39. But on the next play Tomczak overthrew Payton on the sideline and the ball sailed to Bucs strong safety Bobby Kemp, who intercepted. With 32 seconds left in the half the Bucs got a break, as a third-down holding penalty against cornerback Mike Richardson gave Tampa Bay a first down at the Chicago 14. But on the next play DeBerg was sacked by defensive end Richard Dent and fumbled. Dent picked up the ball, took off, and would have scored if DeBerg hadn't tripped him up by the ankles at the Chicago 46. Midway through the third quarter Tomczak dropped the ball while setting up to pass, and Bucs defensive end Ron Holmes recovered at the Chicago 27. But three plays later DeBerg was sacked by tackle William ``The Refrigerator`` Perry, who landed on him at the 29. Donald Igwebuike's 46-yard field-goal attempt was wide to the right. Chicago came right back with a drive that reached the Tampa Bay 25 before Payton fumbled after being hit by Kemp. Bucs free safety Rick Woods recovered at the 20. The Bucs had one more chance. In the first minute of the fourth quarter they were on the Chicago 39 with a third-and-1 situation. But James Wilder, who had 80 yards on 17 carries, was stopped for no gain up the middle. On fourth down, DeBerg was stopped on a keeper off left guard. ``That was a poor call on my part,`` Perkins said, referring to the fourth-down play. When asked if DeBerg had done what he was supposed to do, Perkins said: ``You want to get technical? You can watch films with me. We might have several weeks to do so.``