Here ends the lesson, until the fall Gary Shelton, The St.Petersburg Times, published 5 January 1998 There was no more coaching to do. Tony Dungy's job, for the season at least, was complete. Still he lingered, as if he did not want to leave, as if walking into the night and toward the team bus would acknowledge it was over. The game had been over for almost an hour, and Dungy's team had been eliminated. But Dungy is foremost a teacher, and the lessons were not complete. He stood in a narrow hallway outside the Bucs' locker room, his 10-year-old son, James, at his side. He leaned against the cold concrete and he talked of his team's quest to overtake the Green Bay Packers. As he spoke, it sounded a lot as if he were talking about picks and stones. "I told our team a story," Dungy said evenly, the way he always speaks. "You have a pick, and you start to hit a boulder. And it doesn't do much. And you hit it again, and you hit it again. And it doesn't look like you're getting any closer. But then the 20th time, or the 21st time, you hit it, and it just explodes." Dungy paused, letting the message sink in. "That's where we are with the Packers. We're still holding the pick." Yes. And still chasing the Pack. Green Bay is better. This is no disgrace for the Bucs to admit today, because every other team in the NFL can say the same. But on a cold, blowy day in Wisconsin, the Packers showed why they are the world champions and why there are more steps on the ladder for the Bucs to climb. The Packers were the smoother team Sunday. They were the team with the slight air of arrogance, confident in its ability to rise to the big plays. For the Packers, it seemed the field always sloped downhill and the wind was always at their backs. It is that way for champions, for complete teams without weak links. Play against a champion and it often looks as if you are hanging on. Until you are championship-worthy yourself. This was not only a defeat. This was an instruction manual on where the Bucs need to improve until they can clear the next hurdle. This was a demonstration of what the Packers have and what the Bucs lack. Maybe it is that knowledge, but the friction between these teams is growing. Soon, whenever they play, the league will stop and take note. Already the dislike seems to be growing. "The next time we play the Packers," Warren Sapp snarled in the locker room, "they're dead men." Perhaps. For now, however, the Packers are alive. And the Bucs are still trying to close the gap. It is a familiar story. There is a rite of passage in the playoffs, where a team gains its confidence and its poise. For the Bucs, this was the next step. For Green Bay, the albatross used to be the Cowboys. It didn't matter how good a season the Packers had, they couldn't overcome Dallas. For Dallas, it was San Francisco. For Tampa Bay, it is Green Bay. Until the Bucs can catch the Packers, they are going to be second best. In the league. In the conference. In the division. "We're inches away from them," Sapp said. "Inches." You can measure it differently. A play or two. A player or two. But the biggest gap between the teams, right now, comes on passing downs. When the Packers drop back to pass, they scare everyone. When the Bucs drop back, they scare no one. "We need to be able to make big plays in the passing game," Dungy said. "That's the one thing the Packers can do that we can't do yet." By now that is obvious to everyone, and that is why the Bucs never had more than a slugger's chance to upset Green Bay. The Bucs have lost five straight to the Packers and have scored only 39 points in the losses. So how does improvement happen between now and the next time these two meet in a playoffs (say, next January)? Dungy is not a big believer in free agency, remember? He talked about the Packers' pursuit of big-time free agents after Sterling Sharpe returned, and how the team instead developed its own stars. General manager Rich McKay said the team might look for a veteran receiver in free agency but said the draft was a more likely vehicle. None of this matters to the players, you should know. The way the team talked, it would be more willing to suit up and play against the Packers again today. "They're the best team in the NFL," defensive tackle Brad Culpepper said, "and we're second." Maybe it sounds odd to you, but the Bucs fully expected to win Sunday. Not only that, they expected to keep winning until they reached the Super Bowl. According to Sapp, that is inevitable. "A year ago we were 20 plays from where we needed to be," Sapp said. "Now we're four or five. It's going to happen, without a doubt. We have something special going on. We're going to win a championship. Soon, very soon."