Agony Of Victory Roy Cummings, The Tampa Tribune, published 25 October 2004 It's just one of those years. You wanted to cheer Sunday. You wanted to let loose and celebrate. You couldn't. The Bucs wouldn't let you. Not even in victory. The Bucs won Sunday for the second time this season. They won for the second time in three games by beating the Chicago Bears, 19-7. It felt like a loss. It did inside the Bucs' locker room, anyway. Long faces dotted every corner. The reason was Mike Alstott, who injured his right knee on a carry in the third quarter. There's no telling when - or if - he'll be back. The Bucs are calling the injury a sprained MCL, but an MRI today may reveal more severe damage. ``I am not going to fear anything, other than the next day,'' Jon Gruden said. ``It is obviously very disappointing. We just hope it is not a severe injury.'' If Alstott's season is over, the loss came at the worst possible time - just when everyone thought it was safe to start feeling good again. That's what Sunday was proving to be - a feel-good day. Joe Jurevicius came back after missing almost a year and caught two passes. The Panthers and Falcons lost. Combined with their win, the Bucs moved out of last place in the NFC South and gained a game on the division leader (5-2 Atlanta). Things were looking up. So why were so many heads looking down? ``Every week we've lost somebody for the season [because of injury],'' Brian Griese said. ``It's very frustrating. It's very tough. I've never seen so many injuries, and it's all over the league.'' The Bucs have had their share. When they put defensive tackles Ellis Wyms and Damian Gregory on injured reserve last week, it brought to 10 the number of players lost for the season. Alstott could make it 11. ``Whatever Coach Gruden said about being snake-bit is true,'' Ronde Barber said. ``I mean, we can't even seem to run out the clock without somebody getting hurt.'' Not on Sunday they couldn't. Michael Pittman, who racked up 164 yards of offense and helped mitigate the controversial offseason decision to not re-sign Thomas Jones, twisted his knee while trying to close out the game. Unlike Alstott, though, he was able to walk off the field without aid and there's a good chance he'll be ready to go when the Bucs line up again in two weeks against the Chiefs. Pittman's effort - despite suffering from back spasms throughout the game - left the impression the Bucs finally had found a way to run the ball effectively. After running for an average of 76.7 yards through six games, the Bucs ran for 138 yards against the Bears, with Pittman accounting for 109 yards and a touchdown. ``We emphasized [running the ball in practice] all week and then we came out and ran it real well,'' Pittman said. ``The offensive line really blocked great for me. The holes were there.'' At times the pass protection was there, too. Griese was only sacked once, but he had to deliver the ball under pressure on several occasions, including once to Pittman in the second quarter. That play, in which Pittman got behind Bears linebacker Brian Urlacher, resulted in a 46-yard reception and set up the Bucs' first score, a 22-yard Martin Gramatica field goal. The 93-yard drive was the longest field-goal drive in Bucs history. One series later, the Bucs did one better by going 93 yards and scoring a touchdown. Rookie Michael Clayton, who led the Bucs with six catches, caught the touchdown pass that made it 10-0, but it was mostly the play of Pittman, Griese and Jurevicius that got the Bucs in position. Pittman had runs of 4, 8, 9 and 19 yards during the drive, and Griese and Jurevicius teamed up for receptions of 13 and 8 yards. There also was a 14-yard pass to Tim Brown. But those were the only two drives in which the offense excelled. They went three-and- out on three other occasions and gave the ball away on fumbles twice in succession in the third quarter. Those turnovers gave the Bears a chance to get back into the game, and Chicago capitalized on one of the chances, scoring a touchdown to make it 13-7 with 3:45 to play in the third quarter. But with the Bucs holding the Bears' rushing attack in check - they surrendered 76 yards on 20 carries - and harassing their quarterbacks into throwaways and mistakes, their lead was never really in grave danger. ``We knew that if we could stop their running game and put them into some passing situations that we'd be all right,'' said Barber, who had the Bucs' lone interception. ``We felt like we could play some ball against them.'' The kind of ball the defense played included four sacks against quarterbacks Jonathan Quinn and Craig Krenzel, and limiting the passing game to 116 yards. ``But you've got to give credit to the offense,'' Barber said. ``They got their defense out there for a long time in that heat and everybody knows how tough that can be. They won this game as much as we did. So now we have to rest up and hopefully get a little better and a little healthier during the bye week and prepare for Kansas City and see if we can get our third win.'' Maybe everybody can feel good about that one.