Here's to the dumbest call of all Gary Shelton, The St.Petersburg Times, published 13 November 1995 If you are looking for precisely the moment when the panic set in, it happened with 2 minutes and 34 seconds to go in the third period Sunday. That was when Sam Wyche looked at Trent Dilfer and pointed to the bench. Twelve years of double-digit losses is good for little else, but it does teach a community a thing or three about recognizing desperation. This, then, was the same sad, familiar territory blazed by Steve Young and Vinny Testaverde and Chris Chandler. This was a coach who knows nothing else to do doing the absolutely incorrect thing. In a day where the Bucs made one mistake after another, this was the worst of all. It was horribly, drastically, to-the-bone wrong. And the only thing worse would be if Wyche compounds it by keeping Dilfer on the bench during next week's game against Jacksonville. How do you take the bad and make it worse? This is what Wyche did with his musical quarterbacks in Sunday's 27-24 loss to the Detroit Lions. He took a three-game losing streak, and he threw a quarterback controversy on top of it. He took a reeling team and added a dash of confusion. Frankly, there was no reason to replace Dilfer with Casey Weldon Sunday. Frankly, there is less reason to replace him this week. But here we are, wondering along with the quarterbacks as to what comes next. Where is this team going? And who is leading it? Who knows? Not after this. If you were out buying club seats in the new stadium and missed the game, here's what happened. The score was tied at 17, and Dilfer took a hit from Henry Thomas in the throat and was forced from the game. Weldon, on third and 20, hit a nice crossing pattern to Lawrence Dawsey for 22. Hmmmm, Wyche said. Never mind that Weldon fumbled two plays later when his handoff to Errict Rhett hit Dave Moore instead. Dilfer came back for one play in the next series, but he failed to read a blitz - his responsibility, he admitted. He was crunched by Antonio London from the blind side and fumbled. And that was it. What other quarterback in the league is benched in that situation? Third quarter, score tied, having hit his only pass of the half for 31 yards? What other team in the league looks at the player who has started for 10 games, and at the player who doesn't even get snaps in practice, and goes for the latter? Put it this way: Which of the two gave the Bucs the chance to pull out victory, against the worst defense in the conference, in the fourth period? If it is Dilfer, then Wyche made a mistake Sunday. If it is Weldon, he has made one all season long. Look, this is no knock on Weldon, who is a competitive cuss who aches every day to start. But what has he done to win the job? Look at his game Sunday. He had two fumbles and an interception, and it took a blocked punt and a 38-yard pass interference penalty for the Bucs to score. Is that all it takes to replace a starter around here? Yet, there are hints that might happen. At one point in the locker room, Wyche was asked about the security of kicker Michael Husted. "I don't ever walk off the field and evaluate anything, or make decisions on who is going to be quarterback next week, those kinds of things." All together: Huh? Dilfer wondered, too. "I was pulled from a game in the third quarter with the score tied," he said. "I'm sure there will be some thought to starting Casey. I think he has as much confidence in Case as he does in me." Two questions: Why? And why now? All season, Wyche has had a short leash on Dilfer. It was easy to understand why he was pulled from the Chicago game with four interceptions. And from Carolina, when a concussion left him disoriented. But no one has sufficiently explained replacing him against Cincinnati. And no one can sufficiently explain this one, either. After a while, you have to wonder how much confidence Wyche has in his young quarterback. Why make a change with six games (five division games) to go? In the NFL, there are usually three reasons why quarterbacks are changed in Week 11. One is injury, and Dilfer has none. One is spark, and Weldon has provided little. And another is a coach trying to say, "Hey, don't blame me. Blame him." Today, it is impossible not to wonder if there is some of that going on. Frankly, this Bucs offense has been a mess most of the year. (What do you get on third and 8? You get Jerry Ellison around right end.) So Dilfer makes a convenient target. But consider this. If the Bucs made a mistake drafting Dilfer, it was because Wyche was sold on him. If Dilfer has not come along as fast as, say, Kerry Collins, doesn't Wyche as coach bear responsibility? Answer: Of course he does. Good or bad, Wyche cannot distance himself from Dilfer. Not even if he makes Dilfer sit behind him.