Sluggish Bucs sink low with 6th straight loss John Luttermoser, The St.Petersburg Times , published 1987 Inside the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' locker room, the only sound was the buzz of hair dryers from the shower area. Head coach Ray Perkins had said a lot a few minutes before, though, and now he was outside talking to reporters. ``These are my guys,`` he said. ``They're still my guys. I'm not going to turn them in yet.`` Not even after this performance, a 20-10 home-field loss to a Detroit Lions team that had arrived in town tied for the worst record in the NFL. It was the Bucs' sixth straight loss and rekindled the possibility of a third straight last-place finish in the NFC Central Division. The fourth-place Bucs now lead Detroit only because of the replacement games played during the strike. Tampa Bay has a 4-9 record to Detroit's 3-10 although both of the squads that played Sunday are actually 2-8. Tampa Bay lost this one with a lethargic performance that turned off a Tampa Stadium crowd of 41,699. Early in the game the fans seemed more enthusiastic than the players, and by the end they were booing with enthusiasm. Was there a lack of emotion? ``You tell me,`` said inside linebacker Ervin Randle. ``We made a couple of big plays. Did you see anybody jumping around, any hoopla? Question answered. It just doesn't seem like we had that fire. You can't play good defense without that fire.`` And the Bucs did not play good defense. It was a team-wide loss even though the relatively low score tends to point a finger at the offense, which did its part by failing to convert a third down. The Bucs led the league in third-down conversions at midseason, but Sunday they were 0-for-10. Detroit came into the game ranked last in the league in rushing offense, with an average of 70 yards per game, but racked up 190 yards and 12 first downs on the ground Sunday. They did that behind a battered offensive line - center Steve Mott missed the game with an injury, guard Keith Dorney played with an injury and tackle Lomas Brown left after being injured on the first series. ``They were always looking at second-and-5, second-and-4,`` said defensive end Ron Holmes. ``You can not play football that way. There's no two ways about it. At one point in the first period we were a little bit flat. We got it going, and then it dropped off again. It should be exciting to go out there Sunday, after all of the work we do Monday to Saturday.`` Detroit's defense had the opposite problem - controlling their excitement. The game could have been lopsided by halftime if three Tampa Bay turnovers in the second quarter hadn't been wiped out by Detroit penalties. First Vinny Testaverde, who was making his first home start and completed 20 of 39 passes for 262 yards, threw an interception that was called back because he was roughed by Lions nose tackle Jerry Ball. The Bucs wound up scoring on that series, as Donald Igwebuike kicked a 44-yard field goal to cut Detroit's lead to 7-3. On the next series Testaverde fumbled the ball away on a sack, but outside linebacker George Jamison was called for holding. But the Bucs punted anyway. On the series after that an interception was nullified by an illegal contact call against cornerback Bobby Watkins. But that just led to a more damaging interception, which outside linebacker Jimmy Williams returned 48 yards to the Tampa Bay 12-yard line, setting up a field goal that made it 10-3 at halftime. ``I'm not one of those guys who believes in omens,`` said Bucs offensive tackle Ron Heller. ``But I just kept thinking, we're getting some breaks. We've got to capitalize on them. I was hoping, okay, maybe that's the break we need to get our act together.`` In the second half the Bucs only controlled the ball for 9 minutes and 13 seconds. Detroit ate 7:44 in a third-quarter drive to a field goal, featuring six carries by halfback Garry James and three carries by fullback James Jones. The Lions also killed off the last 6:28, despite three Tampa Bay timeouts, after the Bucs scored their only touchdown to cut the margin to 20-10. The Lions had scored the first points of the game and taken a lead they would never relinquish on a much quicker drive in the first quarter, covering 75 yards in 10 plays that took just 2:52. Chuck Long threw an 8-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Pete Mandley on a third-down play. The other big play was a 25-yard pass-and-penalty combination that put the ball on the Bucs' 23. Long threw to tight end Rob Rubick for 10 yards, and Bucs strong safety Bobby Kemp hit him out of bounds for a 15-yard penalty. That play produced two of Detroit's 10 first-quarter first downs. The other Detroit touchdown came almost 44 minutes later and was the back-breaker. It capped a 39-yard drive that was set up by a 17-yard Frank Garcia punt that was partially blocked by Jimmy Williams. Gary Ellerson scored the touchdown on a 6-yard run. That made it 20-3 with 7:47 to play, which meant it was probably too late for the Bucs' offense to get its act together - so it did. Testaverde threw six straight passes and completed five of them for a 78-yard drive that used only 1:19 of the remaining time. The touchdown was a 28-yarder on a post pattern to rookie wide receiver Bruce Hill, who led the Bucs with five receptions for 86 yards. But the Bucs never got the ball back. They got an earful from the fans on the way to the locker room, and another one from Perkins after they arrived. During his press conference Perkins said he was embarrassed for himself, the team and the fans. ``I'm embarrassed for our fans who were in the stands, because they deserve better,`` he said. ``And I promise them, they'll get better.`` He meant better games, and better players. ``I think it's quite evident that we're playing with some subpar people, because some of our people have been playing on a subpar level week in and week out. But we don't have much choice right now.`` No quotes were available from the earlier speech Perkins made to the players, but its tone was obvious. ``It wasn't pretty, but it was truthful,`` said Holmes. ``One of the first things that I learned about him is that the man's going to give you an honest opinion, and he certainly told us like it is today,`` said Heller. And Heller's own opinion? ``Let me put it to you this way,`` he said. ``The best performance by a member of the Buc family was when Beasley sang the national anthem.`` He was referring to local sportscaster Beasley Reece, who played free safety for the Bucs in 1983 and 1984. ``It was downhill from there. We've got some soul-searching to do.``