Windy City debacle leads to long list of questions Martin Fennelly, The Tampa Tribune, published 17 December 2001 How does that happen? How do you play dead when you're supposed to be fighting for your life? How do the Bucs let that happen? How do Bucs coaches let that happen? The Chicago Bears are in the playoffs for the first time since 1994 because they wanted to clinch Sunday. Not next Sunday. Or the Sunday after that. They were thirsty. They drank Buc blood, overwhelming Martin Gramatica, 27-3. “That's what a playoff team looks like,” Tony Dungy said. And to think we were firing up the ol' engines on the Bucs being a dangerous postseason team, the kind you don't want to play. Sunday, they were exactly the kind of team you want to play. A team that can't run or stop the run. A team that makes mistakes and never recovers. A team that, when down, stays down. It was a performance as ominously silent as the Glazers. In their last game as a member of the NFC Central, the Bucs exited as they entered: scoring three points in a loss. What a difference 25 seasons makes. Or maybe you don't have to go back that far. It says enough to say it resembled the last game of last season. “It seemed like Philly,” John Lynch said. Again with the cheese steak. There are many good reasons to keep Dungy as head coach. Sunday was not one of them. Sunday is the kind of day that'll makes you keep resumes updated. Speaking of which, do you think Clyde Christensen will leave Bucs offensive coordinator off his? Yes, there is still the destiny-in- their-own-hands escape. The three games left are all at home. A win against New Orleans next week might help the Bucs slip into the playoffs. But this wasn't the slip-in season. And why bother with playoffs if it's another Philadelphia? Come to think of it, the Bucs might have to beat Philadelphia on the last Sunday of the season to get to Philadelphia the following week. That's progress? There was a real opportunity Sunday. The Bucs could have knocked the Bears back on their heels. They could have handed Chicago its second consecutive loss. Instead, the Bears go 2-0 against the Bucs. How they did it was a sweeping indictment. “What they wanted to do today was play like this was a playoff game,” Warrick Dunn said. “And they did. But we didn't show up like we wanted to play ...” In that sense, maybe the Bucs did approach it like a playoff game. Like the Philadelphia game, which they lost 21-3. Maybe it started a trend. In 13 games this season, the Bucs, Johnson and Johnson or no, have scored one touchdown or less in seven of 13 games. There were more parallels to Philadelphia. There, the Bucs never recovered from a Shaun King fumble. Sunday, they never recovered after a Keyshawn Johnson fumble. Or was it the Brad Johnson fumble? Both times, the Bucs stood around, waiting to get beat. That's progress? This team can't run the ball. It added Brad to Keyshawn, and they've connected exactly 100 times. And they beat Detroit last week. And it's still a cruddy operation. “I have no idea what the hell is going on with our offense, at all, whatsoever,” said Keyshawn. It doesn't help when Brad Johnson's TD to interception ratio is 1:7 over the past four games. But the Bears ran for 207 yards Sunday, as many yards as the Bucs have rushed for in their past three games. Chicago's Anthony Thomas ran for 173 all by himself. The Bucs savaged the Bears with 80 yards on the ground this year. And to think, the Bucs had made strides in recent weeks. They won at St. Louis. A healthy Derrick Brooks and the defense were their old close-and-kill selves. And Brad and Keyshawn showed they could do it at the end. Could it be the groundwork for playoff magic? Then came Sunday. You want progress? Try the Bears. They're where the Bucs are supposed to be. Chicago coach Dick Jauron, put on job notice by General Manager Jerry Angelo, moved off the plank as Dungy and the Bucs moved farther out. You have to be happy for Angelo, in his first year with the Bears after several hundred seasons scouting and directing scouting for the Bucs. We all wished good fellow Jerry well as he left, knowing the daunting rebuilding task in front of him and all the Bucs potential he was leaving behind. Rebuilding 27, Potential 3 the scoreboard said. The Bears celebrated. The Bucs thought about their sins and the Saints. Next week can't come soon enough. They need to distance themselves from Chicago. Or is it Philadelphia? When you're standing in place, it all runs together. Again with the negative yardage.