|
|
 |
Gary Shelton, The St.Petersburg Times, published 30 November 1998
Don't even look. Don't say the word. Don't think it. The Tampa Bay Bucs won a game Sunday. One. They did not discover a cure. They did not find a shortcut. They have not re-entered the race.
Do not shuffle the pages of your newspaper until you find the NFL standings. Do not look up the tiebreaker formulas. Do not reach for the schedule to guess which games this team might win or that team might lose.
Spare yourself. Do not think of a win over a pitiful Chicago team as anything more than what it was - a welcome ending to a lost November by a wayward team. Do not surrender to the temptation that Sunday's 31-17 win over the Bears meant anything other than a pleasant afternoon on a hazy Chicago Sunday. Do not form a line for playoff tickets.
The Bucs won. The offense scored a few points. The defense showed a little life. For most of this season, that has been the most dangerous time of all, on those scattered Sundays when the team teased you and made you believe it had somehow found itself. Such games as these - the first victory over Chicago, the comeback against Carolina, the upset of Minnesota - have allowed the playoff talk to bubble all over again.
Do not fall for it this time. Do not waste breath talking about winning five in a row when the team has won two in a row only once. Do not lament the ones that got away. Do not put pins into the Jake Plummer doll. This is the lesson you should have learned by now. Perhaps, it is the lesson the Bucs themselves finally have absorbed. "I'm not even thinking about the playoffs anymore," safety John Lynch said. "For so long, that was the only thing we had on our minds. When you do that, you forget about the little picture."
In other words, don't talk about the playoffs. Talk about the play. Let's be realistic. The Bucs, as well as their fans, would like very much to believe this is the start of a roll that will conclude in the post-season. But take a look at who the Bucs beat Sunday. Take a look at how.
The Bears are an awful team that was minus their best running back and their first two quarterbacks. The guy they were left with, Moses Moreno, played a lot more like Rita Moreno than Dan Marino. This was a Chicago team without a single Pro Bowl caliber player. Remember when the Bears was the perfect nickname for this franchise? Anymore, these guys are the Care Bears and the Berenstein Bears and Yogi and Boo-Boo and Gentle Ben and every other cuddly bear character you can think of.
All of that, and the Bucs still managed only 2.9 yards per rush, and Trent Dilfer still passed for only 153 yards, and Tampa Bay converted only three of its 15 third and fourth downs. The offense shut down operations far too early, and the special teams were suckered on a fake field-goal play, forgot to catch a kickoff and had an extra-point snap sail so far over the holder's head you wondered whether a center could be called for intentional grounding.
The second quarter should have been played by cartoon characters. The last time you saw something this funny, it involved a great many clowns riding in a very small car. Either the quarter should have been sponsored by Loony Toons or by Poulan Weed-eaters. You figure it out. Punts were an adventure. Kickoffs were a nightmare. And the weirdness didn't end when time ran out. When an offsides call gave the Bucs an extra play, of course they scored on it. In the words of Warren Sapp, "It got funky out there."
Still, the Bucs won. Part of that was retaining focus. Part of it was playing against the Bears. Tony Dungy knows. After the game, someone asked him about the Cardinals, and he shrugged. "It's far too early to start thinking about that," he said. "We haven't played well all year, not as good as we can play. That has to be our objective."
That said, Dungy knows the Bucs have to play better than they did much of the day. They cannot have Dilfer set up a touchdown with an interception. They cannot have Mike Alstott fumble inside the opponent's 10-yard line. They cannot, alas, schedule the Bears again. "The chances of making the playoffs are very slim," Dilfer said. "I'm not even thinking that way. If we're thinking (beyond Green Bay), we're in a very, very bad mental state."
No one is saying the team shouldn't enjoy this. This was a sweep in Chicago. This was being slow but still ahead of the Bears. This was better than the Saints and Oilers and Jags. But there needs to be a lot more plays, a lot more W's before this adds up to anything. Don't look now. Don't dream yet. Don't make more of this than it was. At least, wait to see if the Bucs can finally beat Green Bay. If that happens, it's okay to risk one eye.
|
|
|
| |
| |
|