|
|
 |
Roy Cummings, The Tampa Tribune , published 15 October 2001
Feel free to say what became painfully apparent Sunday. To say the word out loud. To refer to the 2-2 Bucs by using the adjective their record conjures in your mind. Why not? Their coach did. As he stood in the middle of a silent locker room in the aftermath of his team's 31-28 overtime loss to the Tennessee Titans at Adelphia Coliseum, Bucs coach Tony Dungy laid it on the line. "We're an average football team," Dungy said. "I didn't say that when I [initially] addressed [the media], but I said it when I addressed the team because that's what we are. We're average."
It was hard to argue the point Sunday. After all, it wasn't just the Bucs' record that wound up in that netherworld between good and bad. Their quarterback, the one who had completed 70 percent of his passes through three games this season, threw downfield more often but completed less than 50 percent of his throws against the Titans.
And their defense, the one that talked all preseason long about maybe setting a new sack record, recorded all of two, which roughly matched the league's per-game team average from last year. But it really wasn't the average performances that prompted first the Titans and then Dungy to drop the Bucs into the ranks of the mediocre. What allowed for that, in particular, was one very below- average defensive effort.
As they have all season, the Bucs failed again Sunday to devise a way to stop their opponent on third down. Last in the league in that department prior to Sunday by allowing opponents 50 percent success, the Bucs maintained their place and pace by letting Tennessee convert 50 percent of its third-down tries. "It's killing us, just killing us," Warren Sapp said of the defense's third-down struggles. "We had the running game under control, but then we let the quarterback out of the pocket and he's running all over the damn place. Right now third-and-long looks like our nemesis."
It sure was Sunday, but it wasn't only quarterback Steve McNair's running that hurt the Bucs. His passing played an equally devastating role, especially early on. The Titans converted each of their first three third-down tries, including a third-and-13 and a third-and-11, on passing plays, gaining 81 yards and a 7-0 lead in the process. A Derrick Brooks interception broke that string of conversions and allowed the Bucs to tie the game early in the second quarter. But on its next possession, Tennessee converted three of four third downs en route to taking a 17-7 halftime lead.
The Bucs tightened up in the second half, holding the Titans on three of their first four conversion attempts, including one in which an apparent touchdown was erased by replay officials who ruled that Kevin Dyson's foot hit the out-of-bounds pylon while he made a diving catch in the end zone.
The Bucs also refused to allow the Titans to convert any of their last three third-down tries. But not before allowing a 7-yard gain on third-and-six that helped give Tennessee a 28-14 lead. "It's disheartening, because we do the job on first and second down and then along comes third down and we don't get it done," Sapp said. "I mean, we used to live off that, off getting it done on third down. We just have to find ourselves."
The offense appears to have found itself. After averaging just one touchdown per game through the first three this year, it reached the end zone four times against the Titans. It did have help, though. The Titans, who were flagged an average of nine times through their first three games, committed at least one critical, drive-prolonging penalty on each of the Bucs' scoring drives.
On a day when the Bucs gained just 24 yards rushing and Johnson completed less than 50 percent of his passes for only the fourth time in his career, those penalties came in handy. "We shot ourselves in the foot on several occasions and that's been our trademark all year," Titans tackle Jason Fisk said. "We pulled this one out, but it could have easily gone the other way."
For a while it looked as though it might. After falling behind 28-14, the Bucs gained 42 yards through the air and 27 more on Titans penalties and made it 28-21 on a Brad Johnson-to-Warrick Dunn pass with 5:09 left in regulation. Then, after Joe Nedney's attempt to put the game out reach with a 47-yard field goal sailed wide right with 2:08 to play, the Bucs used three passing plays to Keyshawn Johnson and a 5-yard toss into the end zone to tight end Dave Moore to tie it with 54 seconds left.
The Bucs got the ball first in overtime, but their only possession was hindered by a holding penalty during the kickoff return that forced them to begin operations from their own 9. "We put ourselves in a position to win but didn't get the job done," Dungy said. "Penalties hurt us. We just didn't play well."
The Titans didn't play all that well either. But by starting with a 14-yard pass to Drew Bennett, they moved the ball just far enough to get a game- deciding 49-yard field goal from Nedney with 12:22 to play. "They scored at will on us," Sapp said.
"It's basically guys trying to do too much," John Lynch said. "And for a lot of teams, what we're doing would be all right. But we set a higher standard for ourselves. We expect to do more. To be better. Right now we're not. Right now, we're like Coach Dungy said. We're an average football team."
|
|
|
| |
| |
|