Dilfer takes his shots, and hits them Gary Shelton, The St.Petersburg Times, published 27 November 1995 Once upon a time, there was a beleaguered quarterback. He threw it, and the wrong team caught it, and the fans said boo. Once upon a time, a lot of people wanted to see him run out of town. This is the Brett Favre story. Maybe, just maybe, it someday will be the Trent Dilfer story. It is getting harder and harder to find bright spots as the slide of the Tampa Bay Bucs continues. Sunday's loss was the team's fourth in five games, and a 5-2 start has turned into a 6-6 record three-quarters of the way through the season. If little else, however, the Bucs can look to the first 300-yard passing day by Dilfer and hope it is the start of something big. With the team's running game shut down - Errict Rhett was held to minus-1 yard after gaining 244 the two previous games - the Bucs' only hope was Dilfer. He threw 49 times, hitting 28 for 324 yards. Counting his four sacks and one scramble, the Bucs attempted 54 passes to only 17 running plays. It was all enough to make coach Sam Wyche draw parallels to Favre, one of the NFL's best, and Dilfer. "I hope Trent follows (Favre's) course," Wyche said. "I can remember a couple of years ago when everyone was complaining about Brett Favre. He throws too many interceptions, he's this, he's that, angry at a quarterback developing. I can foresee that with Trent. He's gone through some of the hard knocks, the learning process that Brett went through. We saw some of the things he can do." Two weeks after Dilfer was pulled from his fourth game of the season, he threw the ball well. He found tight end Jackie Harris 10 times (122 yards) and wide receiver Alvin Harper six (68 yards). Almost as significant, the Bucs finally were able to dump the ball on screens and short passes. Rhett and fellow running back Jerry Ellison each caught two passes. "Trent did a hell of a job," wide receiver Alvin Harper said. "He was poised, and he was making the right check-offs, and he was throwing the ball to the right people." Something he didn't do, however, was throw a touchdown. The Bucs do not have a passing TD in eight games, or 236 attempts by Dilfer. Not that he didn't come close. He hit Harper for what would have been a 43-yard bomb to the corner, but Harper dropped it. "No excuses," Harper said. "It happens to the best of us." Dilfer also had a pass dropped by Lawrence Dawsey at the 5 that Wyche surmised could have been a touchdown pass. Dilfer said his yardage did not impress him. "I've said before, I've given up on the stats," he said. "I'm more interested in winning the game."