Not-ready-for-prime-time players Tom Zucco, The St.Petersburg Times, published 16 October 1989 It was the great philosopher Plato (that's Fuzzy Plato, of Plato Bros. Auto Body in Brooksville) who once said, “A playoff team is one that wins some of the games it shouldn't, and nearly all of the games it should.” Maybe it was a bit of an over-reaction, but until Sunday, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers were thought of, in some circles anyway, as being a possible playoff team. They had, after all, just knocked off the mighty Chicago Bears and had thereby won a game they weren't expected to. And they were at home playing the hapless Detroit Lions - a team they were favored to beat by at least a touchdown. Plus the Bucs were 3-2, in second place in the NFC Central Division, and when they flashed the Chicago score on the message board (the Bears had lost to Houston), the crowd let out a roar. If the Bucs could hang on for two more plays, they'd be tied for first. The moon was full. The stars were aligned. Everything in the universe was right. Alas, after the Bucs beat a team that hadn't lost a game, they went out and lost to a team that hadn't won a game. Go figure. It was 17-16, but when you think about it, it shouldn't have been that close. The Lions finished the afternoon with 13 penalties, four turnovers, a dropped touchdown pass, a fumble near the Tampa Bay goal line, much sweatier uniforms - and they still won the game. “This was one of the ugliest games I've ever been associated with,” Bucs coach Ray Perkins remarked. “I think their team wanted it just a little more than we did.” Well, he got the ugly part right. If the game was a work of art, it'd be a velvet portrait of Elvis. Riding a surfboard. In a tutu. But “wanting it a little more”? I seriously doubt if the Bucs were standing around thinking, “Gee, I don't wanna win this game that much. I mean, we won last week. And we can always win next week. I mean, too much winning, you know it might be bad or something.” The Bucs were flat as week-old beer. Of that, there is no question. But there was more to it than Detroit wanted it more. Both teams were flat. And bad. What we had Sunday was the bland leading the bland. Of course, you had the usual assortment of punts (10), incomplete passes (27), and penalties (20 for 185 yards). But you also had several fascinating replay delays, a large number of television timeouts, and some lengthy discussions by the officials that were ocasionally punctuated by (shudder) actual play. Then there was the time Joe Ferguson hit Al Conway over the middle. It was a nifty pass, perfectly thrown. Only Conway was an official - the umpire, actually - and the ball hit him squarely on the head. Conway dropped it. The klutz. You blame Ferguson, who was substituting for Vinny Testaverde. But there wasn't a huge drop in talent at quarterback. So what if nearly every member of the team was in second, third or fourth grade when Joe broke into the pros in 1973? Or was it 1963? For a 39-year-old guy, he played pretty well, bless his heart. And unless Testaverde gets hurt again, this was probably the last game ol' Joe ever plays. And it's really not fair to fault the Tampa Bay defense, either. They gave up two touchdowns and a field goal, but they also scored seven points on Rickey Reynolds' interception return. What's more, two of the turnovers they caused led directly to Tampa Bay field goals. In fact, the Bucs defense was responsible for 13 of Tampa Bay's 16 points. They just couldn't stop Lions quarterback Rodney Peete from engineering a magnificent drive on the Lions' final series. But you can point at least a few accusing fingers at the offensive coordinator, who in this case is also the quarterbacks coach, the head coach and the vice president of the club. Under Perkins' direction, the offense went into a shell in the second half, particularly in the fourth quarter. William F. Buckley isn't as conservative as the Bucs were in the final two periods. What counts, however, is that the Bucs were knocked down a peg or two Sunday afternoon. And maybe it's good that it's happening now. Because the season is only six games old and the Bucs, if they're smart, should've learned a valuable lesson. “Maybe we read too much press last week,” said nose tackle Curt Jarvis. “Maybe we patted ourselves on the back too much. It should've never come down to the last drive.” “To be a playoff-caliber team,” Ferguson added, “you have to win games like this.”