The Underachieving Buccaneers
(November 19, 2001)

It seems so long ago. Remember when the Tampa Bay Buccaneers were being picked to go to the Super Bowl? Remember the talk of a great defense and how Brad Johnson would provide the spark on offense. In a year where the National Football League has provided plenty of surprise teams, the underachieving Bucs may be the biggest disappointed.

Sometimes it may be better to be lucky than good, however, over the first nine games the Bucs have only looked good in a 41-14 win over Minnesota. They have squeaked by Dallas, Green Bay and Detroit, while all the losses have been tough. A 20-16 defeat at Minnesota, a 31-28 overtime loss at Tennessee, a 17- 10 loss to Pittsburgh, falling 21-20 at Green Bay and a 27-24 defeat against Chicago. A few breaks and maybe things would not look quite so dismal. At 4- 5, and with a Monday night game at St. Louis looming, the Buccaneers bandwagon is pretty empty.

Warren Sapp has only three sacks. Keyshawn Johnson, despite having a really good season, has yet to catch a touchdown pass. Late leads evaporate, rallies fall short, defensive lapses, and it is painful to watch.

A loss to the Rams, who have the league's best record at 8-1, and any realistic chance at the playoffs may be over. At that point all that may be left are questions. How cold will it be when they travel to Cincinnati to play the rejuvenated Bengals (4-5) in early December? Will Detroit (0-9) still be winless when the come to Tampa? How cold will it be in late December when the Bucs play the surprising Bears (7-2). Will it even matter that the Bucs have the last three games at home, against New Orleans (5-4), Baltimore (6-4) and Philadelphia (6-3)?

After the season, we can all do the postmortems. The off season changes are likely to be significant. This season has not offered a whole lot of positives to write about. However, in the spirit of Thanksgiving, maybe we should be grateful. We should be thankful the team is still here in Tampa Bay. Remember when relocation was the hot topic? We should be thankful for a football palace like Raymond James Stadium. We should be thankful that the Bucs are a contender. Remember when it would take two full seasons for the team to win four games? And, we should be thankful for the old adage "Wait 'til next year."