This victory is no cause to celebrate Jack Sheppard, The St.Petersburg Times, published 1988 You'll have to excuse Ray Perkins for not joining in the post-game celebration after Sunday's 13-10 Bottom-Of-The-Barrel Bowl victory over Green Bay. Part of it is Perkins' hard-line, perfectionist personality. But mostly it's because Perkins saw reality through the recklessness. He had to suffer through the same mistake-filled, error-prone football exhibition as the rest of us, watching the Bucs need a last-second field goal to end a game they should have won by three touchdowns. Sunday's game may have proved Tampa Bay is not the worst team in the NFL. But it also proved the Bucs can't be far from it. “We're not a great team yet, by any means,” Perkins admitted in a Lambeau Field hallway minutes after Donald Igwebuike's 28-yard kick on the game's final play that mercifully saved us from overtime. “We had a very poor pass rush from where I stood. We can't expect to compete defensively if we can't rush any better than we did today.” The pass rush was one of Tampa Bay's most glaring weaknesses, allowing quarterback Randy Wright to complete 22 of 27 passes without a sack. Remember, if you will, that Wright was the 27th-rated quarterback in the NFL last year and was sacked six times in last week's 34-7 loss to the Rams. But forget the pass rush (as Tampa Bay did). Remember instead all the other developments that should have turned this game into a rout. Remember that the Packers were without their best defensive lineman, Alphonso Carreker (injured knee); that they lost backup lineman Shawn Patterson last week to a hamstring injury and lost starting nose tackle Jerry Boyarsky on Sunday with a fractured arm. Yet against a frontline consisting of a starting left end, a backup nose tackle, and a third-string right end, the Bucs still managed just 266 total yards - 96 fewer than in last week's 41-14 loss to the Eagles. Remember that the Packers helped set up Tampa Bay's only touchdown, losing a fumble at the Green Bay 49, then watched cornerback Mark Lee drop an easy interception on the drive's third play. Remember that the Packers lost a fumble on the first play of the second half, giving the Bucs possession at the Green Bay 41. Igwebuike made a 54-yard field goal four plays later, but Ron Hall was called for holding and Tampa Bay punted. Remember that the Packers, facing fourth-and-2 at the Bucs' 37 midway through the third quarter, gained enough yards for the first down on a 3-yard pass. But they were flagged for having too many receivers off the line of scrimmage, negating the play and forcing a punt. Remember that Packers kicker Max Zendejas, who hit a 50-yard field goal in the first quarter, had a 48-yard kick blocked with 9:15 left in the game and missed a 52-yarder with 4:32 remaining. And remember, this is a Packers team playing only its second game under a new coach, who brought in completely new offensive and defensive schemes. All told, a bad performance by a bad team. A good football team would have won going away. Even a mediocre team should have scored 24 to 28 points. But Tampa Bay pulled a Green Bay. A 15-yard personal foul helped set up the Pack's only touchdown, scored when Brent Fullwood turned a 6-yard pass into a 30-yard touchdown thanks to a Keystone Cops routine in the Buccaneer secondary. That was just the beginning. A sack of Vinny Testaverde and a holding penalty cost Tampa Bay two field-goal opportunities in the second and third quarters. Another drive stalled when receiver Mark Carrier, after an 11-yard gain, fumbled at the Green Bay 35. A fourth-quarter drive was killed when Testaverde fumbled at his own 41. Put 'em all in white jerseys and you couldn't tell one player from another. That's why Ray Perkins wasn't celebrating Sunday. He's smart enough to know his team needs lots of work. He understands another performance like Sunday's won't beat Phoenix next week, or New Orleans the following week, and probably not the Packers the week after that. Somebody asked Perkins if it mattered how he won. He gave a curious answer. “It used to and it still does to a degree but we'll take a win any way we can get it.” A hard admission for a perfectionist. But 17 games into his Buccaneer reign (12 of them defeats), reality is starting to slap Perkins across the face. And it's surely nothing to celebrate.