Lucky Bucs survive seven Cincy Bruce Lowitt, The St.Petersburg Times, published 9 October 1995 Seven. How lucky can you get? Seven sacks allowed (not to mention what NFL coaches euphemistically call "hurries") and the Bucs still manage to defeat Cincinnati 19-16. "There's no part of our game, not one, that we can sit back and tell ourselves, `We're doing okay,' " said center Mike Sullivan, who took over in the fourth quarter when the pain of a broken thumb finally proved too much for starter Tony Mayberry. "Every week we go in saying, `The D has been great; now it's our turn,' " Mayberry said. "And every week we still don't do it. The difference this year is, we don't go into every game saying, `Jeez, I hope the defense can keep them under 10 points.' We're winning, but we're not satisfied. We're 4-2 and listen to this place," Mayberry said with a nod toward the rest of the offensive linemen in a locker room remarkably subdued for a team that had just claimed first place. "We've set a high standard for ourselves and we're not reaching it." They'd allowed 15 sacks coming into Sunday's game (the Bucs were 27th in the league in protecting their passers before the kickoff; goodness knows where they'll be when this weekend's games come to a close) and seven more by the Bengals, who had managed only four in their previous three games. That's 139 yards in the Bucs' minus column. And still Tampa Bay sits atop the NFC Central at 4-2. "Trent (Dilfer, the quarterback) has been pretty positive about all of this," Mayberry said. "He's taking a lot of it upon himself, almost as if he's covering for us. We appreciate that." Sullivan said the defense has been carrying the Bucs all season. "We keep shooting ourselves in the foot," he said. "But y'know, we can look at that as a positive." Oh? "Yeah. I mean, we haven't done what we're supposed to do and we're still winning. We're supposed to be one of the strong parts of this team. Think what might happen when we finally show up." It was the little things that went wrong. "Little breakdowns," guard Jim Pyne said. "Nothing to worry about. We can still look the quarterback in the eye." Dilfer has said Mayberry would be the toughest guy to lose. Sunday, they lost him for the fourth quarter. Wednesday he broke his right thumb in three places. Still, he played - without pain-killers. Early in the fourth quarter he took a hit that had him in what he called "unbelievable pain." Coach Sam Wyche sent in Sullivan. Mayberry winced as one of the trainer's assistants cut the tape off his wrists. "I'll be back in there next week," he said. "Trust me." Wyche made a point of praising his offensive line in its latest moment of misery. "If things aren't working like they weren't working today and you don't have these kind of people, then you have to worry. But when you've made the right choice in the beginning, they'll take care of business." Still, Wyche cautioned, "We can't keep winning (this way). Eventually it'll catch up to us."