Pressure on quarterback puts pressure on McRae Don Banks, The St.Petersburg Times, published 28 October 1991 As another disappointing autumn unfolds in Tampa Bay, it's open season on a young Buc named Charles McRae. Midway through his rookie year, the Bucs' first-round draft pick is an easy target. Along with that of his teammates, McRae's season bottomed out Sunday in a humiliating 27-0 loss to Green Bay. Beaten for at least two of the Packers' six sacks and several of their quarterback pressures, McRae was lifted at the start of the fourth quarter in favor of veteran right tackle Rob Taylor. It was the first time since the season's third week that Taylor had taken over McRae's spot for any other reason than injury. "I have no complaints. I was having a bad day," McRae said Monday when asked about the demotion. "Coach Mauck (offensive line coach Carl Mauck) just came up and told me that Rob had me for the next series. I didn't think I was playing so terrible that I had to be pulled out right then, but Rob's a good player, and it was to a point where the team would be better served with him blocking." Inconsistent in his first three National Football League starts, McRae helped put his team in an early hole against the Packers. On the first play of Tampa Bay's second series, which started at its 10-yard line, McRae was hit with a 5-yard false start penalty. Two plays later, Packers left end Matt Brock stunted inside, got past Bucs center Tony Mayberry and jarred the ball loose from quarterback Chris Chandler. Green Bay linebacker Brian Noble recovered at the Bucs' 1 and rolled in for the game's first score. McRae's day went from bad to worse in the second half. On the first play from scrimmage, Brock beat McRae to the outside, arriving at quarterback Jeff Carlson just in time to assist Green Bay nose tackle Esera Tuaolo on an 8-yard sack. Following another looping Packers sack around McRae's side, this one by end Lester Archambeau late in the third quarter, the Bucs' prized pick was given an excused absence for the remainder of the game. "He was struggling and having some problems with protection, so I put Rob in," said Bucs coach Richard Williamson, whose line has endured successive six-sack Sundays. "The whole unit is obviously not playing as well as they can play. A young guy who comes out is going to have some problems sometimes. You have to work through those things. I think there's some other young ones in the league somewhere else having some of the same problems." Indeed, McRae is not alone. Antone Davis, his fellow tackle and former teammate at Tennessee, was benched earlier this season in Philadelphia, news that is of little consolation to the draft's seventh overall selection. "I did some bad things Sunday, but the biggest thing is I got beat around the corner a couple times," McRae said. "I caught myself leaning on the guy a couple times. Instead of hitting with my hands, I was hitting him with my head. We just got ourselves in some bad situations where we didn't get the job done. I can't let them turn the corner on me." As a whole or individually, McRae and the Bucs did nothing to turn the corner offensively against Green Bay. Averaging just 10 points per game (27th in the league), Tampa Bay's offense is grasping at anything, and coming up empty. "It's hard on us (rookies), but it's hard on the veterans, too, the guys who've been here playing all this time and are used to having things going better. All of a sudden, it's chaos out there," McRae said. "It's just hard on everybody all the way around. Coach has said we've got nowhere else to go but up. I mean, we can't get any worse." But McRae's nosedive could steepen from a personal standpoint. He waited four games into the season for his first start, and a return trip to the sideline would be a huge step backward in terms of development. It's a move that neither McRae nor Taylor anticipated. "To be honest, I'm not sure why they put me in there," Taylor said. "Because when I went in there, it was pretty much over (20-0 Green Bay). If they would've started me in the second half, I could've understood that. But I don't think anything's going to change." While admitting to disappointment with McRae's play, Williamson sidestepped for now the issue of who his starting right tackle will be this week at Minnesota. McRae is eager for redemption, and Sunday can't come soon enough. "I think he's probably disappointed in me, because I know I am," McRae said. "I expect to be out there. There's something I've got to prove to myself, and prove to the coaches in practice this week. I can play better, and I've got to play better. So that's what I'm planning on doing."