Promising Rick Stroud, The St.Petersburg Times, published 13 December 1993 Get those playoff tickets now, Tampa Bay Bucs fans. Only several hundred days left before a line starts forming. Right now, there still are plenty of good seats available. And no waiting. This special offer comes with a guarantee from coach Sam Wyche. He said it after the Bucs' 13-10 win over the Chicago Bears on Sunday. This time next year, Tampa Bay's football team will be turned around and playoff-bound. "We're not going to be in the playoffs this year. We will next year," Wyche said. "I might as well say I'll guarantee it, because even if we don't, all you can say is `I screwed up' or `You lied to me.' " Still, that's quite a promise for a Bucs team that finally showed some promise against the Bears, who dropped one game behind Detroit and Green Bay in the NFC Central race with the loss. The Bucs forced two fumbles and made two dramatic fourth-down stops of the Bears' offense, which entered the game worst in the league. Combined with Courtney Hawkins' 34-yard punt return to set up the Bucs' only touchdown and two field goals by Michael Husted, Wyche had enough evidence to make the pronouncement. "We want to enter the race," Wyche said. "We're tired of being the little guy who has no rivalries in the division - mainly because when you're the little guy you don't go up to the bully and poke him in the chest." The Bears seemed bullish entering Sunday's game tied for the NFC Central lead and had forged a reputation as road warriors by winning at San Diego, Kansas City and Detroit in a 12-day span. But so lousy was Chicago when it had the football that the only task for Tampa Bay's offense was trying to keep the Bears' defense from scoring. This was a game in which neither team figured to burn out any lights on the scoreboard. Where three quarterbacks would combine to average 4.6 yards per completion. Where the player who would stick out his chest, point the way and do the most taunting was not linebacker Hardy Nickerson, who eclipsed the team record for tackles. Or safety Marty Carter, who recovered a fumble and made a fourth-down tackle of Tim Worley to stop a Bears drive. It was - fittingly - a placekicker. Chicago's Kevin Butler enraged the Bucs by taunting them after a 55-yard field goal on the final play of the first half that left the Bears trailing 10-3. "He was gesturing at our bench and it was uncalled for," Nickerson said. "But they have some guys who've been around a long time, they're getting a little old and getting a little rust on them and figure they have to talk more than they have to play. That's not going to go on here any longer." Thanks to the play of the defense and special teams, Tampa Bay's offense had just one assignment Sunday: stay out of the way. The Bucs only had to go 7 yards to score their first touchdown. A turnover and a shanked punt set up Husted's two field goals. Nickerson, who led the Bucs with 15 tackles, forced a fumble by tight end Keith Jennings in the first quarter that was recovered by Carter to set up the first score - Husted's 38-yard field goal. Then the special teams got in the act. Punter Dan Stryzinski pinned the Bears at their 1-yard line and Hawkins took advantage of the field position to return a punt 34 yards to the Chicago 7-yard line. Bears punter Chris Gardocki prevented Hawkins from becoming the first Buc to take a kick the distance. Statistically, it's a wonder the Bucs won this game. They finished with fewer total yards (286-215), first downs (18-13) rushing yards (119-103) and net passing yards (167-112). "We tried to play smart instead of flashy," Wyche said. "We decided we're going to grab a 2 by 4 and let them have a 2 by 4 and we're going to smash each other in the face for three hours." But the Bucs' defense confused the Bears by blitzing less and reacting more and forced starter Jim Harbaugh out of the game in the second half with a sore hand despite playing without defensive end Eric Curry and nose tackle Mark Wheeler. "We've got people like Sean Price coming off the ball," Carter said. "I don't think he knows where he's going. But when he gets there, somebody gets hit. During films, it's a big laugh how hard that guy plays. We weren't a blitzing team. We were a read-and-react team mostly. I think it caught them off guard because knowing Floyd Peters, he likes to blitz five or six people." Meanwhile, Bucs quarterback Craig Erickson recovered from his three-interception performance last week against Washington and did a good job of keeping the Bears' defense out of the end zone. Erickson finished 12-of-21 passing for 128 yards and one interception. He even felt confident enough in the fourth quarter to change a play sent in by Wyche and call a bootleg as the Bucs were trying to run out the clock. "As a quarterback, you can pull the ball out and make some yardage. I didn't tell anybody else. Reggie (Cobb) was a little surprised I pulled the ball out." But that was nothing like the surprise Wyche conjured up after the game when - perhaps intoxicated by victory - he guaranteed the Bucs will be in the playoffs next season. "Chicago's not any better than we are. We're right there with them. We don't give them one inch. We don't give Minnesota, we don't give Green Bay - any of them - one inch." Cobb, however, did not set the Bucs' goals as lofty. "We'll have to see how we do next week," Cobb said. "We have a tendency to make some progress and take a step back. If we come back next week and take a step forward again, we'll be miles ahead. We need to win two in a row." No telling what a wild card like Wyche will guarantee if that happens.