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Roy Cummings, The Tampa Tribune, published 24 December 2002
On second thought, spending most of the playoffs on the road might not be such a bad thing for the Bucs. After all, they are 5-2 away from Raymond James Stadium this year, and their performance Monday night at RJS did little to suggest that playing at home during the postseason will provide them with any kind of an edge.
Though they were crowned NFC South champions Sunday thanks to a New Orleans loss, the Bucs did nothing to erase Pittsburgh safety Lee Flowers' claim that they are ``paper champions'' during a costly 17-7 loss to the Steelers. ``They jumped out on us and we had no answer for them,'' Bucs defensive tackle Warren Sapp said. ``We kept getting close to the end zone but we couldn't mount anything. We just need to take our [loss] like a man.''
By losing, the Bucs turned the NFC's battle for homefield advantage throughout the playoffs into a two-team race involving Green Bay and Philadelphia. The loss also left the Bucs as the third seed in the NFC's playoff picture, which means they would open the playoffs at home on wild-card weekend but likely would spend the rest of them on the road. That scenario will improve only if the Bucs can beat the Bears and Green Bay loses at the Jets on Sunday, but completing the first part of that equation will be difficult if the Bucs continue to play as they did Monday.
Though they did not surrender a point from the second quarter on, the Bucs' defense started slowly, allowing all the points the Steelers needed to end Tampa Bay's two-game winning streak in the first 11 minutes. ``We just didn't respond,'' safety John Lynch said. ``The first seven minutes doomed us.''
The offense, which sat out starting quarterback Brad Johnson because of a severe back bruise, also struggled at the outset, turning the ball over and surrendering a touchdown on its second play from scrimmage. ``I'm not going to make excuses,'' said Bucs coach Jon Gruden, who started Shaun King at quarterback and later turned to Rob Johnson. ``I'm not going to point fingers at me or at Shaun King. We just didn't play well enough to win tonight, and I think the turnovers were the story.''
They were a big part of it. For in addition to giving up a early touchdown on a King interception, the Bucs also fumbled twice inside the red zone, once after nullifying a field goal by accepting a penalty. ``We can't afford to have the ball on the 5-yard line and cough it up both times and throw an interception for a touchdown,'' receiver Keyshawn Johnson said. ``We won't go anywhere doing that.''
The teams began scrapping long before kickoff, when Pittsburgh's Joey Porter and Tampa Bay's Nate Webster got into a shouting match during warm- ups. After the opening kickoff the Steelers threw the first punch, and it was a good one. Knocking the wind out of both the Bucs and the RJS crowd of 65,684, the Steelers built a 17-0 first-quarter lead on a Tommy Maddox touchdown pass, a Chad Scott interception return for a TD and a Jeff Reed field goal. ``Chad's play was huge,'' Steelers coach Bill Cowher said in reference to his team's fast start. ``Getting off to a 14-0 lead in this type of stadium was very important. From there we were able really play solid defense and we were able to make some big plays.''
Maddox's touchdown toss, an 11-yard strike to Antwaan Randle El, capped an opening- game drive that literally staggered the Bucs. Sparked by a 41-yard pass to Plaxico Burress on their first play from scrimmage, the Steelers knocked the Bucs back on their heels, then bowled them over with a series of body blows using power back Jerome Bettis. Scott's return came after King made a questionable decision to force a pass to Keyshawn Johnson along the right sideline. It was not, however, the Bucs' most questionable decision.
That was made two series later, after Reed had increased the Steelers' edge to 17-0, when Gruden took three points off the board by accepting a penalty that nullified a 50-yard Martin Gramatica field goal. Four plays later, Mike Alstott fumbled the ball away at the Pittsburgh 7. ``I wouldn't do that anything differently there,'' Gruden said of disdaining the field goal. ``Unfortunately it backfired on me tonight.''
With the Bucs unable to move into scoring position again, the first half proved to be their worst at home since a 27-0 loss to Detroit on Sept. 9, 1996. Monday night was proved to be just as disappointing, it not more so. Especially for King. After supplanting Rob Johnson as the backup to Brad Johnson earlier in the season, King seemed primed for a big game. King hadn't started a game since Dec. 31, 2000, and it showed. With most of his passes thrown well over his intended receivers' heads or behind them, King completed just seven of his first 22 passes for 67 yards and had a 22.3 passer rating. ``I was very inconsistent,'' King said. ``I made good plays and then I felt like I left some out there. I felt I missed some things I should have made, that I usually make.''
Maddox didn't miss much. He completed his first seven passes for 153 yards and finished the game by completing 17 of 23 passes for 236 yards, a touchdown and no interceptions. ``You're not going to win many football games putting yourself down 14 points against a good team,'' Sapp said. ``That's what we did and we got an L because of it.''
They got more than that. They also got a ticket out of town for most of the playoffs. But that doesn't seem to be bothering the Bucs just yet. ``If you want it bad enough, you could take a world tour to the Antarctic for the playoffs,'' Sapp said. ``If you want it bad enough, you've got to get it no matter where you play.''
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