No Feeley-Good Story For Backup QB King Joe Henderson, The Tampa Tribune, published 24 December 2002 Everything was set up perfectly. All Shaun King had to do was deliver. Just like A.J. Feeley has done for the Eagles. Just open up a can of feely good. Just play with the poise he has usually displayed, and surely the Bucs would keep rolling. Brad Johnson was hurt and couldn't play. This was King's chance. He would roll out, add mobility to Jon Gruden's offense, and show everyone what might have been if he had kept his job as starting quarterback. Everything was set up perfectly. And then he dropped to throw his second pass of the game. Keyshawn Johnson was open on the right side. King saw Pittsburgh cornerback Chad Scott all the way, but was pretty sure the pass had enough room to be complete. ``I thought we had him beat,'' King said. As he started to throw though, he felt a nudge. It may have been teammate Michael Pittman. King doesn't know for sure. ``Something bumped into me,'' he said afterward in the quiet of the Bucs' locker room. The ball floated in the flat. And before you could say, ``That never would have happened with Brad Johnson'' - or even think it, for that matter - Scott had intercepted the pass and returned it 30 yards for a touchdown. The Steelers, who already led by seven, had all the points they would need for an eventual 17-7 win that may have ruined any chance the Bucs have at winning the Super Bowl. Instead of keeping alive chances to stay at home throughout the playoffs, the Bucs all but ensured themselves a road playoff game in a cold city - assuming they can get that far. We know what that means. Philadelphia? Green Bay? Does it matter? King? Rob Johnson? Did it matter? Not on this night. In a season when backup quarterbacks have become a big story in the NFL, the Bucs' reserves didn't come through when they were needed most. King didn't come close to reprising the electric show he put on two years ago in a similar late-season Monday night setting against St. Louis. He was just nine of 26 for 73 yards and that killer interception before giving way to Rob Johnson in the third quarter. His passes fluttered, flailed, and flew off-target. He threw over receivers, behind them, and in sort of the same zip code sometimes. Johnson put up better numbers, but lost a fumble at Pittsburgh's 3 late in the third quarter to snuff out the Bucs' last realistic hope of coming back. ``The decision was made to go with Shaun because Brad couldn't go,'' Gruden said. ``We went with Shaun as long as we could. Whatever we tried didn't work, no matter who was in there.'' That's true enough. King used words like ``inconsistent'' to describe the debacle. In fairness, it was his first action of the season - unless you count the one pass he threw in a cameo role against Carolina. Pittsburgh had an answer for everything both quarterbacks tried. ``I thought he practiced well, but game speed is not practice speed,'' Keyshawn Johnson said. ``A few of his throws got away from him and it took him a while to settle down.'' Unfortunately for the Bucs, they didn't have a while. They fell behind so far, so fast that you'd have to wonder if even Brad Johnson would have been able to bring them back against Pittsburgh's assortment of blitzes. Couple that with Mike Alstott's big fumble at the Steelers' 7 to end another promising drive, and that's a recipe for a crushing loss. `We didn't play well enough to win,'' King said. That much we know. The Bucs have won football games with Shaun King at quarterback. Big games. He took them to the NFC title game as a rookie and was supposed to be a major insurance policy for just this sort of occasion. He says he still can be. ``[I can] come out next week and I will be able to play a lot better,'' he said. ``I thought I did some good things tonight. There were some plays I left out there that I wish I could get back.'' One in particular. Maybe it was too much to expect him to sit out all year, then throw him in against a defense like Pittsburgh on the Monday night stage and expect any different result. Of course, that's what people said about the Eagles when Donovan McNabb went down. It hasn't seemed to slow them much. The Bucs didn't expect to be slowed on Monday night, either. At least not like this. It was, after all, set up perfectly. All King had to do was deliver. Now, does any of it matter?