Flagging effort humbles Bucs John Romano, The St.Petersburg Times, published 21 October 1996 The Bucs worked them to exhaustion. They made them run, they forced them to stay alert, they made sure they earned every penny of their paychecks. Yes, sir, that officiating crew knew it had been in a game when the Bucs were finished with it. Tampa Bay may as well have waved a white flag at the Cardinals on Sunday. Their collection of yellow penalty flags was the equivalent of an unconditional surrender. "That's called stinking up the house," said defensive tackle Warren Sapp, who was called for an offside penalty. "We were undisciplined." That would be putting it mildly. This Bucs team, the team that was averaging five penalties for 33 yards, was flagged 14 times for a total of 114 yards against Arizona. It wasn't even the amount of penalties that was so devastating, but the timing. Three times, the Bucs were called for offside when Arizona failed to convert a third down - and all three penalties eventually were turned into first downs. "Embarrassing" was how Tony Dungy described it. When asked if maybe the officials were a little trigger happy, Dungy instead took a shot at his own team. "The officiating was not the problem. We were the problem today. We weren't prepared and I have to take full responsibility for that." While the Bucs have come up with a number of ways to squander victories this season, penalties have not been among them. Through six games, the offensive line had been called for a total of two holding penalties. Yet three linemen and fullback Mike Alstott were flagged for holding on Sunday. "I thought we should have scored more points against that team. We shot ourselves in the foot," guard Ian Beckles said. "It's hard when you're playing physical, you're playing hard, you're driving down the field and the next thing you know you're first and 20. It takes you out of what you normally do." The other side of the Bucs line did not fare any better. Five times, Tampa Bay's defense was called for offside. Sapp said the Bucs knew that Arizona quarterback Kent Graham had a history of drawing teams offside with his signal count. "That's what's so embarrassing about it. We knew he was going to come with a hard count; we've seen it on film," Sapp said. "We worked on it all week. The defensive line takes the blame for this one." Graham credited his offensive line for staying cool. "We came into the game thinking we could getthem offside at least five times," Graham said. "I saved them for critical situations." The Bucs also had problems controlling themselves after the whistle. Safety Melvin Johnson was handed a personal foul for a late hit on a receiver, and defensive end Regan Upshaw got one for pushing tackle Ernest Dye after a play. Upshaw said Dye initiated the skirmish with a late hit on another Bucs lineman. "It's just one of those penalties when you see a guy come in and you think he's trying to take out one of your players and injure somebody," Upshaw said. "I felt like it was a cheap shot, so I gave him a little push in the back. I shouldn't have done it. But when somebody hits someone next to me like that, it gets me a little upset."