Offense's best Sunday drive was the players' trip home Hubert Mizell, The St.Petersburg Times, published 27 October 1997 It's a countdown to disaster: 31-19-16-9-6. Those are Tampa Bay's regressive, more-and-more-disastrous point totals for the past five games. First two? Good enough for happy, victorious Sundays against Miami and Arizona. Last three? Plenty bad to assure Bucs losses against Green Bay, Detroit and now Minnesota. A suicidal trend. September's jollies have become October's follies. America's early-season darlings have become the NFL's mid-schedule messups. Making the playoffs for the first time since the 1982 season seems more fantasy than likelihood. Michael Husted can't even make extra points. But the biggest of Bucs villains is down-down-downhill offensive potency. Now down to a 6-pack. Trent Dilfer put the latest low-voltage episode, a big Big Sombrero flameout against the Vikings, into words of disappointed rage: "I'm the quarterback and, in my opinion, we suck offensively." Amen!!!!! Tampa Bay's defense played well enough to win, but the Bucs again were failures because their offense was so sorry. It's good to ration Minnesota's gifted offense to 10 points, but that's aplenty when the Bucs can manage just six. It wasn't until the fourth quarter that the Bucs achieved their fourth first down. Fourth! Even that took a fourth-and-1 gamble/sneak by Dilfer. At that juncture, Tampa Bay's "drives" had covered 5, 3, 3, 25, 16, 18 and 1 yards. They resembled an out-of-synch chorus line. You know, 1-2-3-kick! Mike Alstott, who in September was the league's premier fullback, has shriveled into an October non-factor. His opportunities keep withering. Opposing defenses are stacking seven and eight ruffians up close to the line of scrimmage, making life hairy for Alstott as well as tailback Warrick Dunn. Until the Bucs scare somebody with their passing game, it's going to be horribly difficult to make yardage on the ground. Big holes from Alstott and Dunn are history. Only thing that'll make it good again is an air force with more bombers and fewer crashes. It's the fault of Dilfer, but also 10 others. Receivers are erratic. The offensive line, according to the quarterback, needs to be "more physical." Maybe he meant that for the entire offense. Trent must look at least one other place: in the mirror. Sunday's crowd booed more and more. There was justification. At the time of Dilfer's sneak, Minnesota had controlled the football 30:14 to Tampa Bay's 16:20. Bucs defenders were ridiculously overworked. After his first-down sneak, Dilfer would trigger a little 11th-hour flurry. He passed 30 yards to Reidel Anthony, then 26 to Dave Moore and eventually threw to Anthony in the end zone. Bucs were within a field goal. Almost. Until Husted chili-dipped his point-after kick. Bucs would get a couple more chances. Didn't matter. Their two-minute offense was a lot like their 45-minute offense during the first three quarters. A hit here and there, but too much ineptitude. There was nothing close to a Tampa Bay knockout punch. Tony Dungy doesn't like to talk about "must" games. Tampa Bay's coach, being a cool psychologist, hesitates to put so much weight on a single Sunday. He probably worries, if his Bucs then lose, they might wonder, "Is that all there is?" Even so, in the coming two weeks, the Bucs must win against punching bags Indianapolis and Atlanta. Even though both are on the road. I mean, if Tampa Bay is serious about making any kind of run at making the playoffs. Brad Johnson, the Vikings' quarterback, was unspectacular but marvelously effective. Quietly, methodically and especially in the clutch, the onetime Florida State University backup completed 20 of 29 passes for 230 yards. No interceptions. Winning pitcher. "Brad made the plays when they counted," Dungy mused. You knew what Tampa Bay's coach was thinking; his guys didn't pull off positive plays when it was most vital. For the first time, there was a trace of doubt in his 1997 voice. "That's the kind of game you have to win," Dungy said. "We're close to being in the upper echelon, but we're not quite there." Especially his offense.