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Rick Stroud, The St.Petersburg Times, published 20 September 1993
Craig Erickson stumbled trying to rise to his feet, his legs as wobbly as a newborn colt's. He was held up on both sides by teammates.
He had been blindsided so violently by Chicago linebacker Ron Cox that blood dripped from Erickson's nose, and he knew his day was over when he reached the sideline with 11 minutes left in the game.
As Erickson was being turned into one giant welt, the Bucs' hopes for this season began to wilt.
Despite playing a team that was toothless in its first two games, Tampa Bay took its worst beating since 1989 by losing 47-17 Sunday at Soldier Field.
It was so bad that three Bucs quarterbacks combined to throw four interceptions, the offense fumbled four times and lost three, the special teams muffed three kickoffs, and the revamped defense - which had six lineup changes Sunday - let wounded, old Bear Neal Anderson claw his way for 104 yards and a touchdown.
That does not begin to mention another blown coverage in the secondary that resulted in a touchdown or that Reggie Cobb's rushing average sounded more like a bingo number - O-seven.
"You can talk all you want about X's and O's and coaching and all that bull----," Bucs defensive coordinator Floyd Peters said. "But somehow they have to find a way to come back and fight their way out of this hellhole we're in right now. Ballplayers have got to make plays to get out of the hellhole."
Here's how deep the Bucs dug themselves in Sunday. They went up against an equally winless team that had struggled to average 205 total yards, and the Bucs gave up 337. They tried to run against a defense that had given up 113 yards per game on the ground, and the Bucs eked out 36 yards rushing.
Cobb, who was a 1,000-yard ballcarrier in what seems like years ago, carried 11 times for minus-6 yards Sunday until he ripped off a 14-yard gain on the Bucs' next-to-last play. He finished with 12 rushes for 8 yards and a 0.7 average.
"We got a lot of work to do," Bucs coach Sam Wyche said. "I hope we're not as far behind as I failed to see. This one shocks me a little bit because we did so many things poorly."
It all started innocently enough.
The Bucs had an extra week to prepare for Chicago and pulled off a surprise on the first play of the game when fullback Anthony McDowell took a handoff and pitched the ball back to Erickson, who unloaded a flea-flicker to Courtney Hawkins for 67 yards.
But even that silver lining had its cloud.
The Bucs failed to reach the end zone after three plays from the 13. Even after the Bears gave them three more chances from the 3-yard line after jumping offside on a field-goal attempt, the Bucs were forced to settle for Michael Husted's 20-yarder and a 3-0 lead.
Erickson struggled to complete 13 of 32 passes for 240 yards and was intercepted twice.
Things would have looked much worse had the Bucs not gotten a 62-yard pass from Erickson that was tipped by rookie Horace Copeland and caught for a touchdown by his former Miami teammate, Lamar Thomas, as the first half ended.
Erickson was victimized by too many dropped passes and too little pass protection, which allowed defenders to whack him after every attempt.
Cox's sack took the collective breath away from the crowd of 58,329 - to say nothing of Erickson, who never saw it coming.
Bears tackle Myron Baker scooped up the fumble and returned it 8 yards for a touchdown and a 41-10 lead.
"I could theorize what happened," Erickson said. "It was a blitz situation and we audibled, and I guess we had some miscommunication and let one guy come free and he made the play."
Veteran Steve DeBerg replaced Erickson on the next possession and was intercepted on his first pass to set up one of Kevin Butler's four field goals.
DeBerg engineered the Bucs' best drive of the day by completing seven straight passes - including a 3-yarder to McDowell for a touchdown.
Even newcomer Casey Weldon got some playing time, but, alas, his first pass also was intercepted.
Erickson tried to remain diplomatic after taking the worst beating of his young career.
"It's part of it," Erickson said. "You take your drops, and you've got to throw the football in time. Quarterbacks get hit all over the league after the ball is thrown. Day in and day out. Sometimes you get knocked down a little more than others. We honestly have to step back and take a good, hard look at ourselves. There's obviously some things that have to be done better and at this level should be done better."
Wyche, who had been buoyed by the productive week in practice, was mystified by the collapse Sunday.
"I don't even know how to answer the obvious question: `What happened?' " Wyche said. "When you can't field a kickoff, not once but three times that's starting to get under your skin a little bit. The thing you find out is if you've got a coward on your team, somebody who really doesn't have the fight back."
Peters promised to make more changes if the Bucs continue to be the worst-ranked defense in the league.
"I've been here before and it's not hopeless," he said. "Sometimes your team has to be slapped down so hard before they decide they're not going to take it anymore."
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