Wins are not likely to save Wyche's job Hubert Mizell, The St.Petersburg Times, published 5 December 1994 Sam Wyche isn't sure that two consecutive wins, or even three or four or five successes at season's end, can save his job. Tampa Bay's head coach was all wet Sunday, drenched amid locker-room hijinks over back-to-back Bucs edgings of Minnesota and Washington. Around here, small successes can call for big celebrations. Wyche's 2-9 record has been beautified to 4-9. Even as Sam is haunted by "We want Johnson! Give us Jimmy!" chants, the ever-optimistic Georgian unquestionably believes a 7-9 windup can become Tampa Bay's gift by Christmas Eve. If it happens, what chance - if any - might Sam have to coach the Bucs in 1995? Can he possibly duck the J. J. Missile, which is the NFL's most expensive, most famous, most available coaching weapon? Wyche was still dripping with Sunday's mini-glory. His team had pulverized, stampeded but barely survived the 2-11 Redskins. With the Bucs franchise for sale, which has triggered a wave of possible scenarios plus the unrelenting talk of J. J., the soon-to-be-50-year-old Sam spoke with understandable uncertainty about his future. "I don't know if our record will matter much, even if we win a lot of December games," he said. "Whoever winds up owning the Bucs will surely have a coach in mind. Chances could be slim that he will take time to assess how our team has been coming on. If there is to be a new Bucs owner who has a coach all set, well, there will be no chance to finish the job we've got started. But if a new owner came in with more of an open mind, maybe he could talk to players on our team. He might like what he finds. Even more important than our eventual 1994 record will be how the team has wound up playing." Johnson, a two-time Super Bowl championship coach with the Dallas Cowboys who was working from his Florida Keys home as a Fox TV analyst, said Sunday that the next two weeks will bring a J. J. yea or nay on his candidacy for new NFL coaching opportunities. Wyche's neck was crimson late Sunday, well-scorched by "J. J." chants from a cluster of Tampa Stadium patrons who sit in the lower rows just behind the Bucs' bench. "There's maybe 15 of them who can't wait for Jimmy Johnson," said the obviously irritated Tampa Bay coach. "They're the ones who're always mocking my signals, making life not much fun for me. I don't know why they buy tickets. Even when we're playing hard, winning a game, they seem to hate this Tampa Bay team. Obviously they hate me. Thank heaven a huge majority of our crowd is wonderfully supportive." Wyche talked as though an impending Bucs franchise sale was a 100 percent certainty. That's not so. There is some chance, however small, that no deal will be struck. Bucs ownership could continue to be the Culverhouse Trust. That was reconfirmed Sunday by Steve Story, one of three trustees. Story was asked if a Bucs rally, including two or three or four or five successive victories, might deliver Wyche from the coaching guillotine. "If they win the rest," Story said in the semi-giddy Tampa Bay locker room, "it would be something any owner would have to consider. If that happens, I don't know who could say these guys (Wyche and his coaching assistants) aren't getting the job done." It's risky to say, knowing the depth of Bucs doom over most of the past 19 seasons, but there have now been back-to-back Sundays of positive, game-turning Bucs breaks. Sure, in part, this sweet stuff is the residue of good, hard play. But only a jock moron would suggest that good teams don't get more good breaks, while losers suffer a majority of bad bounces. A week ago, the Bucs jumped on a Minnesota fumble that allowed Tampa Bay to stun the Vikings in overtime. Follow that with what occurred down the stretch against the reeling Redskins. A football bounced wonderfully for Tampa Bay, as Washington safety Darryl Morrison dropped an in-the-gut interception chance that would have prohibited the Bucs' winning touchdown drive. Tampa Bay, without question, should have hammered the Redskins by two dozen points. Tampa Bay free safeties blew two first-half coverage assignments to allow touchdown howitzers by Washington rookie quarterback Heath Shuler. Except for that, the Bucs mutilated the D.C. gang in statistics. Digest the numbers slowly . . . Redskins were held to TEN yards rushing. TEN. Tampa Bay ruled in first downs 29-7. Bucs bossed in time of possession, 42:14 to 17:46. Errict Rhett ran his rookie butt off for 192 yards on 40 carries for Tampa Stadium's home team. Still, the Wyche guys commit just enough boo-boos, causing them to desperately crave a couple of final-march breaks against the oh-so-whippable Washingtonians, before the Bucs eventually bang it home for a TD in the fading seconds to win. But a Tampa Bay win is a win is a win. Something to soak the head coach over, perhaps trying to put out all the fires that stalk Wyche. Next up are the Los Angeles Rams, then a rematch with the 'Skins in Washington, followed by a Bucs season finisher at home against Green Bay. What is possible? Many, many things. Just ask Sam Wyche.