Tough To Find Bright Side Roy Cummings, The Tampa Tribune, published 1 November 2005 Sunday's game between the Bucs and 49ers was billed as a battle between the team with the NFC's best record and the team with the NFC's worst. When it was over, it was hard to tell which was which. Against a team that was on pace to give up more yards and points than any in NFL history, the Bucs on Sunday gained a season-low 43 yards rushing. Against a quarterback who had never taken an NFL snap, the Bucs couldn't get off the field and gave up a late, game-clinching field goal. Against a team whose 19 giveaways were the second-most in the league this year, the Bucs lost the turnover battle by three. Not surprisingly, the Bucs lost the game, too, dropping a 15-10 decision that left them at 5-2 for the season. The 49ers improved to 2-5. "It was just one of those days," cornerback Ronde Barber said. "We just couldn't generate anything on either side of the ball." The side that generated the least was the offense. It did produce a touchdown, that coming on a 78-yard pass play to Joey Galloway. But with Chris Simms at quarterback in place of the injured Brian Griese, the Bucs struggled to move the ball. Their offense converted just three of 14 first-down tries, and while Simms did manage to produce 232 passing yards in his first start of the season, he also took five sacks and fumbled on a late Bucs drive. "I've been around long enough to know that the first performance by a young quarterback isn't a real good gauge of where he can go or what he can become," Jon Gruden said. "He can learn from this. There are things he has to learn from it." Simms will get the opportunity to learn under fire. Though clearly unhappy with the third-year pro's performance Sunday, Gruden said Simms will start next week's game against the Carolina Panthers. Gruden made it clear, though, that Simms will have to clean up several areas of his play. In particular, he wants Simms to display a better understanding of his offense. "He has to understand our protections better; he has to know where our hot receivers are [on blitzes] and he has to know when it's best to just throw the ball away," Gruden said. "When we were in striking distance [of the goal line], he took two critical sacks and that hurt us. It's things like that that he has to do a much better job of." Simms didn't disagree. He said he made some critical errors, including taking an 8-yard sack on a second-and-7 play from the 49ers' 27 early in the fourth quarter. That decision, which came with the Bucs trailing 12-3, forced them to attempt a 52-yard field goal. Matt Bryant, who had never made a kick longer than the 47-yarder he made earlier in the game, was short by several yards. "I should have thrown that ball out of bounds," Simms said of the play that resulted in the sack. "That was a costly play. But overall I felt good out there. I did miss some throws that I normally hit, but they played good defense and did some things that made it hard on me early. I was getting hit as I threw the ball a lot, too." Simms, who also had two interceptions converted into scores by the 49ers, wasn't the only Buc getting hit by the 49ers defense. After taking a month off to rest a sore left foot, running back Cadillac Williams also took a pounding. He gained 15 yards on one third-down play early in the game, but he finished with just 20 yards on 13 carries. Michael Pittman had a similar afternoon, gaining just 5 yards on four carries. "I don't know exactly what it was but their defense gave us a lot of trouble," Williams said. "I had some holes but they closed up quickly. I'd say [my performance] was below average." Gruden gave the same grade to his offensive line. "We didn't come off the ball and San Francisco did," he said. "[49ers defensive lineman] Bryant Young is still one of the game's best interior players. They run blitzed very well, had a lot of eight-man fronts." The eight-man fronts came as no surprise to the Bucs. Simms said they prepared all week for them, but he could only take advantage once, that on the quick hitter he threw to Galloway. "We were able to single him up against one of their safeties on that one, and fortunately I was able to get the ball to him," Simms said. "But overall they did a very good job of executing their assignments." The same could not be said of the Bucs defense. Though they were ranked first in the league against the rush coming into the game, the Bucs gave up 158 yards rushing Sunday, including 29 on the next-to-last play of the first half. That allowed the 49ers to take a 6-3 lead on the second of Joe Nedney's five field goals. The Bucs also gave up some key rushing yards on a late fourth-quarter drive that resulted in Nedney's fifth field goal. "Face it, we didn't tackle well," said tackle Anthony McFarland, whose defense was without the deactivated Simeon Rice on Sunday. "It wasn't one player or any one thing. I mean, you could have brought Jack Lambert and Joe Greene in here [Sunday], and it wouldn't have mattered. If you don't tackle well you're usually not going to win. You're going to lose."