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Rick Stroud, The St.Petersburg Times, published 24 November 1997
It is the cold truth. Throw away all the records. Change coaches or even the doggone uniforms.
The Buccaneers simply can't seem to march out of Soldier Field with a victory.
Winning a game against the Bears in Chicago is a monumental task as tall as the Sears Tower.
Weird stuff happens. A leg whip here. A fumble or two there. The first-down chains are always a link or two short. Flags for pass interference are picked up.
For the Bucs, it is the Bears that should be ruled uncatchable.
"I have no idea, man. It's a curse or something," Bucs defensive end Chidi Ahanotu said. "I don't know. I haven't won (in Chicago) since I've been here, and that's five years. I don't know what it is about this place. We just can't seem to win here for whatever reason. It's really painful for me. I'm going to keep coming up here until we get it right."
Who knows how many more trips that will take. Despite playing a team tied with Indianapolis for the worst record in the NFL, Tampa Bay was clubbed again 13-7 by the Bears Sunday at Soldier Field.
Bulldozing running back Raymont Harris rushed a career-high 33 times for 116 yards and a touchdown, helping the Bears (2-10) capitalize on two Tampa Bay fumbles on the Bucs' first three plays of the game.
The loss dropped the Bucs to 8-4 and into a second-place NFC Central tie with Minnesota, which lost to the New York Jets 23-21. Green Bay reclaimed sole possession of the division lead with a 45-17 rout of Dallas.
But the Bucs likely lost all hope of winning a title when their record within the division dropped to 2-4.
"Maybe that 1-10 kind of snuck up on us and we took them lightly. I don't know," Ahanotu said. "Deep down or maybe in the back of our minds we did that. Maybe it's the Chicago jinx."
With a temperature of 29 degrees at kickoff and a wind-chill factor of 6, it probably should have been no surprise the Bears were the hotter team Sunday.
The Bucs, who never have won a game in 17 tries when the mercury is 42 or below, held true to form. The two early turnovers helped spot the Bears a 13-0 halftime lead.
Fullback Mike Alstott lost the ball on the first play from scrimmage, a fumble recovered by Walt Harris at the Tampa Bay 41.
The play set up the Bears' only touchdown, a 2-yard run by Harris.
On the Bucs' third snap from scrimmage, Horace Copeland caught a 6-yard pass and lost the ball to linebacker Barry Minter at the Bucs 30. It led to Jeff Jaeger's 32-yard field goal.
"This particular game, it was right from the start," Bucs safety John Lynch said. "The first play, they got the momentum going. When you do that to a team that's been struggling, it gives them a little confidence and they just basically hung around."
The Bears' game plan was no secret. They were without starting receivers Curtis Conway and Bobby Engram, and the only real weapon left on offense was Harris, who had a 118-yard game in the Bears' 13-10 win over the Bucs at Soldier Field a year ago.
But even with the Bucs loading up against the run, Harris was able to move the pile and the chains.
The Bucs had just nine plays in the first quarter and did not get a first down.
"Last week they threw the ball 60 times and (Bears coach Dave) Wannstedt was quoted as saying that turned his stomach," Bucs linebacker Hardy Nickerson said. "That's not what he believes in. We knew they were going to come out and run the ball, run the ball and run the ball."
It also should have been the Bucs' strategy, but they were held to a season-low 35 yards rushing.
A few plays that could have won the game for the Bucs highlighted what was wrong with their offense.
Trailing 13-0 late in the second quarter, Alstott took a pass from Trent Dilfer on third and 6 from the Bears' 19 and rumbled out of bounds at the Chicago 5.
But the play was nullified when tackle Jason Odom was penalized for trying to trip linebacker Ron Cox with a leg whip. Dilfer was sacked on the next play to kill the drive.
"The only thing that gets on my nerves a little bit, even if I tripped the guy or didn't intentionally trip him, he would've never gotten there and the play would've stood," Odom said.
Despite the Bears owning a 12-minute advantage in time of possession for the game, the Bucs defense did shut out Chicago in the second half.
That allowed Dilfer to cut the Bears' lead to 13-7 late in the third quarter with a 12-yard TD pass to Reidel Anthony.
The Bucs had several chances to win. They drove to the Bears' 22 and appeared to have drawn a pass interference penalty in the end zone when Tom Carter collided with Anthony.
But officials ruled the ball was uncatchable and picked up the flag. Two plays later, placekicker Michael Husted missed a 40-yard field goal to the right.
"(The referee) said he thought it was interference but they thought the ball was way out of bounds and not catchable," Bucs coach Tony Dungy said. "Reidel said the ball hit his hands. So I don't know who was right. Obviously, they were right because they picked it up."
The game was still there for the Bucs to win after they drove to the Bears' 41 on their last possession. It was third and 2, and the Bucs huddled on the sideline during the two-minute warning to weigh their options with two timeouts remaining.
Perhaps surprisingly, they opted not to pound the Bears with Alstott on two running plays.
Instead, with their fullback on the bench, they fired an incomplete pass to Warrick Dunn on third down. Alstott's number was called on fourth down, but he was stopped inches shy of the first down after gathering a short pass in the flat from Dilfer.
"You've got to live with what you call and it didn't work out that well," Dilfer said. "People are going to second-guess that."
People are also always going to wonder why the Bucs can't win at Soldier Field, where they are 2-17. Those victories came in 1979 and '89. Presumably, the Bucs will have to wait another two seasons to keep the 10-year cycle going.
"It's always something," Lynch said. "Last year it was the (Errict) Rhett fumble. I don't know if there's any mystery or anything. But one of these times we've got to reverse that trend."
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