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Roy Cummings, The Tampa Tribune, published 20 October 2003
The distance between the site of the Bucs' victory in Super Bowl XXXVII in San Diego last January and their game Sunday at 3Com Park is only a few hundred miles. All of a sudden, though, it seems as if the team that won that Super Bowl title and the one that has been asked to defend it are worlds apart. ``We certainly don't look like the best team in the league right now,'' Ronde Barber said in the wake of the Bucs' 24-7 loss to the 49ers. ``To tell you the truth, we look pretty darned average.''
Not that he needs it, but Barber has the standings to support his claim. They say the Bucs are 3-3, which means they have been bad as often as good this season. Sunday's performance epitomized the mediocrity. For every 75-yard touchdown pass the Bucs offense produced, there was a 75-yard touchdown pass surrendered by their defense. For every takeaway there was at least one giveaway.
John Lynch chalked it up to a bad day, not unlike the one the Bucs had in 1999 when a trip to the Bay area resulted in a 45-0 loss to Oakland. Derrick Brooks did the same. He talked of missed tackles, missed assignments and missed opportunities on both sides of the ball. But the words coming from Brooks' mouth didn't match the look in his eyes.
Those eyes evoked a sense of concern. So did Lynch's. ``We've got to get on a roll,'' Lynch said. ``We've got to put together a winning streak. And I know we can do that. There's a lot of character on this team and we've got to lean on that now. I mean, this is still a football team. And we've been through this before.''
The Bucs have been through worse. They went 3-4 to start the 2000 and 2001 seasons and still made the playoffs each of those years. But they didn't face the adversity they do now. Starting left cornerback Brian Kelly's season may be over. He tried to play with a torn pectoral muscle Sunday but re-injured himself and couldn't finish. Surgery seems a virtual necessity. Lynch, meanwhile, aggravated a shoulder/neck injury, and after sitting out for nearly two quarters, he finished the game only because backup John Howell couldn't play after suffering a concussion. And now Simeon Rice is hurt. The right defensive end, who has been the only lineman to produce an effective pass rush this year, injured his back intercepting a Jeff Garcia pass and did not finish.
And questions resurfaced about the Bucs' run defense. Doing nothing to dispel the ever-growing belief that they can be beaten if opponents commit to running up the middle, the Bucs surrendered 212 yards rushing Sunday, including 117 to Garrison Hearst. ``I told them, `Man, keep running right at them. Run it down their throat,' '' said former Buc Chidi Ahanotu, a 49ers defensive end. ``They want to dance. They want to look pretty. When you run it right at them, you really get into their psyche and take them out of everything they want to do.``
The Bucs are now 1-11 the last four seasons in games in which they have allowed a single back to run for more than 100 yards. And they let that happen Sunday despite facing a line that had reserves starting at left guard and tackle. ``The big boys up front were able to get a good push today and create some holes for me to run through,'' Hearst said.
But stopping the run wasn't the only problem the Bucs had. They struggled to put pressure on Garcia (Barber produced the only sack on a blitz) and that allowed the 49ers to make several big plays in the passing game. The biggest was the 75-yard pass play to Terrell Owens, who truly did something remarkable in eluding several would-be Bucs tacklers while weaving his way to the end zone. In slipping by Barber at the line and then cutting between Quarles and safety Dwight Smith as he headed toward the end zone, Owens didn't make the Bucs defense look bad, he simply made them look slow. ``You've got to give Owens credit,'' Barber said. ``He's one of the best receivers in the league and he showed it again today. And Garcia played like an All-Pro today.''
With pressure from a pass rush virtually nonexistent, Garcia completed 10 of 15 passes for 196 yards and a two touchdown passes in the first half and finished having 15 of 29 for 253 yards. Though he faced a lot more pressure, Brad Johnson of the Bucs had a similar day, completing 21 of 34 passes for 241 yards and a touchdown, that coming on his 75-yard toss to Keenan McCardell. McCardell also made a 40- yard catch during a fourth- quarter drive in which the Bucs were attempting to rally from a 21-7 deficit. Three plays later, though, 49ers linebacker Julian Peterson intercepted a tipped Johnson pass and killed what little hope the Bucs had of coming back. ``It was over long before that,'' Ahanotu said. ``In the second quarter we could see they were defeated.''
Four turnovers contributed greatly to that defeat, with 10 San Francisco points coming off a Thomas Jones fumble and three Johnson interceptions. ``Every time we got something going, got a drive going, and looked like we were threatening to put some points on the board, we continually shot ourselves in the foot,'' guard Cosey Coleman said.
It could have been worse. The 49ers missed three field- goal attempts, including one that came after a Bucs giveaway. They also turned the ball over on an interception after taking it away from the Bucs. ``The turnovers just killed us,'' Michael Pittman said. ``Any time you have turnovers like that you won't win. I mean, we came out ready to play, but we didn't play up to our potential. We didn't play the\ way everyone knows the Bucs can play.''
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