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Roy Cummings, The Tampa Tribune , published 19 November 2001
It's not as bad as Keyshawn Johnson would have you believe. But it's close. Although Johnson said Saturday that a loss to Chicago would knock the Bucs out of the playoffs, Tampa Bay's hopes for a postseason berth remain alive today - just Bearly. The Bucs' 27-24 loss to the 7-2 Bears at Raymond James Stadium left the NFC Central title chase a two-team affair, with the 4-5 Bucs also two games behind the Packers and one game behind three teams tied at 5-4 for the final NFC wild-card spot. With seven games to play, though, the Bucs have plenty of time to make up ground. But doing that won't be easy. Not with the comeback trek beginning on the road Monday night at St. Louis. And not with the Bucs blowing opportunities as they did Sunday.
Start where this one ended, with Martin "Semi-Automatica" Gramatica hitting the right upright as he tried to push this one into overtime with a 48- yard field goal attempt in the final seconds. "A lot of us around here would have bet our lives that he would have made that," Warren Sapp said. "The little fella usually doesn't miss."
The Bucs usually don't miss the opportunity to gather up a fumble when the ball is within reach either, but that's what Marcus Jones and Shelton Quarles did when Bears quarterback Jim Miller fumbled at the Bucs 30 just six plays prior to Gramatica trying his game- tying field goal. "We had a ball on the ground and couldn't get it," Tony Dungy said. "It was that kind of a day."
Indeed it was. For this one started with the Bucs wasting a big opportunity, one presented them by Ronde Barber, who picked off Miller on the first play from scrimmage, giving the Bucs the ball at the Chicago 30. Two plays later, though, Chicago had the ball back, the result of a fumble by Warrick Dunn, who was part of a Bucs rushing attack that produced just 19 yards, the fifth-fewest in team history and the worst ever in the Dungy era. "I took at least three points off the board with that fumble," Dunn said afterward, perhaps not realizing how true his words were. For this was a day in which three points were, for a while, all the Bucs could squeeze out of their scoring drives.
It certainly was that way the first three times the Bucs moved into scoring position, and the Bears ability to match those field goals with Miller touchdown passes of 28, 46 and 66 yards to Marty Booker gave Chicago a 21-9 lead four minutes into the third quarter. The TDs were the first the Bears had scored against the Bucs in Tampa in 65 possessions, and the last two seemed to catch the Bucs' secondary by surprise as Booker blew by Ronde Barber on the second and Brian Kelly on the third. "We knew they were going to bring their safety up [to stop the run and short passing plays] and that we would have a chance to beat them deep," said Booker, who exposed the one area of the Buc defense that, at least until Sunday, had been playing up to its usual standards this year. "We had little breakdowns that led to us giving up big plays," Dungy said. "You can't do that against Chicago. They're too good a team."
Before Sunday, lucky was the adjective used most often to describe the Bears. Perhaps it will stay that way. After all, it's not like Gramatica, who was 11-of-11 on field goal tries of 50 yards or less this season, to miss from that range. And they also survived 399 yards passing by Bucs quarterback Brad Johnson. As John Lynch said afterward, good teams create their own good luck, and the Bears, who didn't give up a touchdown pass, seemed to do that Sunday. As for teams like the Bucs, well, they tend to create something else, and that was the case Sunday. In addition to Dunn's fumble and two Johnson interceptions, there was a muffed punt return by Karl Williams and a pair of personal foul penalties that aided the Bears.
There also was a communications breakdown on a fake punt play that went awry, and allowed the Bears to produce a Paul Edinger field goal that accounted for the game-deciding points. "It was another good effort by our guys, but everybody gives a good effort in this league," offensive coordinator Clyde Christensen said. "To win here you have to play good football; you've got to convert when you get the chance and when you get an opportunity to put the ball in the end zone you have to finish it off."
The Bucs have had trouble doing that all year, and Dungy acknowledged as much afterward, saying this game was a microcosm of his team's entire season. He refused to count his team out, though, and when pressed on the matter later Keyshawn Johnson recanted his earlier comments as well. But he probably didn't have to. The last time the Bucs were 4-5 under Dungy was 1998. They rallied to finish 8-8 that year but missed the playoffs, which is why Derrick Brooks suddenly feels so trapped. "I've had my back against the wall many times before," he said. "But now I feel like I'm in the wall."
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