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Roy Cummings, The Tampa Tribune, published 4 December 2006
There's no way of knowing how the Bucs' 2007 season will end. We know already, though, that it will begin with Coach Jon Gruden sitting on the hot seat. That much was assured Sunday when the struggling Steelers guaranteed that this will be the Bucs' third losing season in four years under Gruden, whose offense is the reason he's sure to be under fire.
On a crisp day at Heinz Field, where his young quarterback once won one of the biggest games of his life, Gruden's offense produced nothing more than a last-minute face-saving field goal.
"I'm sure I'll be criticized for that [field goal], but I wanted our young quarterback [Pittsburgh native Bruce Gradkowski] to leave Pittsburgh with something," Gruden said in the dour aftermath of the Bucs' 20-3 loss. So we left here with a field goal. But whether we kicked a field goal or went for it is really beside the point. We've obviously got a lot of things we need to address here."
Most of those are things the Bucs supposedly have been addressing all season long, such as dropped passes, turnovers and a defense that can't seem to get to the quarterback.
All of that played a factor in a setback that was the fifth in six games for the Bucs and marked the sixth time this year they have scored 10 points or less. What stood out the most, though, were the dropped passes.
Joey Galloway had one and so too did Cadillac Williams, his coming on a crucial third-and-2 play just two series into the game. The one that epitomized the Bucs' struggles, though, was dropped by Michael Clayton.
With the Steelers leading 10-0 late in the third quarter, Gradkowski threw deep for Clayton, who was streaking down the right sideline and had run so far away from his defenders that they were no longer visible on TV. As has happened so many times the past two years, though, Clayton let the ball slip through his hands. Six plays later, Gradkowski overthrew Maurice Stovall in the end zone, where Pittsburgh's Bryant McFadden intercepted him.
"A couple of weeks ago I might miss the guy," Gradkowski said, referring to his struggles throwing deep balls. "But today I hit him and he drops it. We just have to find a way to get it done."
That's pretty much what Williams said. Like many others inside the Bucs locker room, he refused to offer excuses for what happened on a day in which the final stats looked like something from an exhibition game. Though the Bucs ran for 110 yards, their leading ground gainer was Earnest Graham, who got 35 yards on four carries in the final series of the game. Williams, meanwhile, ran for just 27 yards on 11 carries.
Williams also caught four passes for 30 yards, but it was his lost fumble early in the second half and the fact he was twice whistled for false-start penalties that defined his outing.
"It was a tough game for me all the way around," Williams said. "My performance was very, very poor. But that's kind of how things have gone for us all year. There's plays to be made, but at crucial times we drop the ball or we miss an assignment or have a penalty. I mean, one minute we look like we're a good offense. Then we look like we don't know what the heck we're doing out there."
The defense has looked that way at times, too, this year. Not Sunday, though. The Bucs shut down the Steelers' rushing attack, limiting them to just 76 yards on 31 carries.
They also intercepted a Ben Roethlisberger pass and limited Pittsburgh's passing attack to less than 200 yards. What they couldn't do, though, was take Roethlisberger down or keep him from hitting on big plays.
The Bucs finished with just one sack, and their lack of a pass rush allowed Roethlisberger to break free and connect 12 times on passes that gained the Steelers an average of 16.5 yards per catch. "He worked hard and made some plays," Bucs cornerback Ronde Barber said of Roethlisberger, who had been sacked 36 times in 10 games before Sunday. "We just didn't get the guy on the ground."
They paid for it, too. A team that went into the game having allowed a league-high 21 passing touchdowns gave up two more Sunday, as Roethlisberger and the Steelers took advantage of all those Bucs errors. The run started early, when Gradkowski threw the first of his three interceptions. Five plays later, Roethlisberger threw a 2-yard pass to tight end Jerame Tuman to give the Steelers a 7-0 lead.
A 50-yard Jeff Reed field goal allowed Pittsburgh to pad its lead before halftime, and like the first score, this one was set up by Pittsburgh's defense. The key play this time was a sack, the third of four allowed by the Bucs in the first half, and it created a six-point swing on the scoreboard. Coming on a third-and-7 play at the Pittsburgh 32, the sack knocked the Bucs out of field-goal range and gave Pittsburgh the ball with time to spare. The Steelers didn't need much time. Thanks to 25- and 18-yard pass plays, they moved into position to score after just six plays to make it 10-0.
The Bucs kept it that way through the third quarter, but Gradkowski's second pick, the one recorded by McFadden, set up Pittsburgh's third score, which came on a 16-yard pass from Roethlisberger to tight end Heath Miller. Gradkowski's third pick set up the Steelers' final score, which came late in the fourth quarter when Reed hit on a 39-yard field goal to finish off a four-play drive. "We're going through a tough time right now," said Gradkowski, who won a prep title game at Heinz Field a few years ago. "But I know this. We'll get better and we'll get through it."
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