Who's panicking about defense? Not Kiffin

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© St. Petersburg Times
published September 10, 2002

TAMPA -- The old coach hobbled through the corridor, his shoulders slouched from the weight of the disappointment.

There was pain on his face, etched between the lines. His lips were tight and his eyes were glassy, and when he moved, it was with the stiff, slow strides of a man who has witnessed some things he would have been better off not seeing.

It was late in the evening and, frankly, Monte Kiffin looked a hundred years old.

This game will do that for you. It will age your soul, and it will twist your internal organs. Given a chance, it will beat you up and take your watch.

Sunday was like that for Kiffin. The Bucs defense, his defense, had been on the low side of ordinary. No pass rush. No coverage. Poor tackling. Bad penalties. And third down turned into a gimme putt.

Say what you want about the offense, about how poorly the line played, about whether Brad Johnson needs to be in a shotgun or, at least, arm himself with one. For all the problems, however, most of us would have expected the offense to come along slowly.

The defense? That was supposed to keep the Bucs in the game. The defense was supposed to intimidate, frustrate, obliterate. It was supposed to let the offense stumble over a few series before it found its rhythm.

Instead, the Saints picked at the bones of the Bucs defense. By the time the first half was over, you were checking the birthdates of the starters, just to see if there was a little too much treadwear.

Start with the pass rush, because with the Bucs defense, it always starts with the pass rush. The Bucs defense is hard on a defensive back if there isn't a relentless rush. Against the Saints, a team that also has changed some things on its offensive line, night fell before quarterback Aaron Brooks did.

"We have a standard around here that's hard to describe," Bucs coach Jon Gruden said. "The standard to our pass rush is so high that (Sunday) was not nearly good enough. Our players would be the first ones to say that."

Then, of course, there is the secondary, which confused "Cover Two" with "Cover Who?" It surrendered two long scoring passes, precisely what it is designed to prevent, and it allowed Joe Horn 108 yards. Put it this way: If a Saints receiver heard footsteps at any point, he has awfully good hearing. (It should be pointed out the linebacking corps, too, was at fault on some of the shorter passes.)

The result was the Saints kept making long, time-consuming drives. They had three drives of 10 plays or more. The most disappointing moment? After the Bucs scored to come within 13-10, the Saints marched 82 yards on six plays to answer the touchdown.

So you can imagine how Kiffin felt Sunday night, shuffling down the corridor. Perhaps you also can imagine how he felt Monday, sitting on a bench on the porch and looking out into a September afternoon that felt as if someone had turned up the heat.

"It's tough," Kiffin said. "I love these players. It would be different if these were bad guys, or if they didn't care. Players tell me not to be down, but I'm going to be down. I hate losing. I hate it when we play bad. But come Wednesday, I'll be fine. I'll be fired up."

The scary part, however, comes in what lies ahead. What if the pass rush isn't better? What if the coverage is as poor as it was from now on? What if Sunday wasn't an aberration but an indicator?

Look at the secondary. Whenever a team comes with three wide receivers, the Bucs line up with Ronde Barber, John Lynch, Dexter Jackson, Brian Kelly and Dwight Smith. Barber and Lynch are Pro Bowl players, but how much do any of the others scare you? Better yet, how much do they scare Kurt Warner and Brett Favre and Donovan McNabb, quarterbacks the Bucs have to play? Or Randy Moss and Isaac Bruce and Terry Glenn, receivers who lie ahead?

It works in concert. Except for Lynch and Barber, the Bucs secondary has too many players who aren't playmakers, and if they're ever going to be, it's because the pass rush is forcing the quarterback to be reckless.

Kiffin will tell you, point-blank, that Sunday's disappointment was one bad game, not the onset of something awful. Things are going to be fine, he says. No, he says, the Bucs didn't grow old all at once.

"I know what happened," Kiffin said. "This isn't an excuse, but the expectations were so high, and our guys were so fired up to play well. When New Orleans started the game and drove the length of the field, our guys were kind of like, "Wow. How did that happen?' And the players started overanalyzing and we got away from our fundamentals.

"I'm not going to sit here and say we're not going to be good. I don't believe that at all. You have to be tough on yourself, and you have to take it hard. But one game? I'm not going to panic about it."

Kiffin laughs, and he points at the notepad in front of him.

"Put this in the paper," Kiffin said. " "Gary Shelton is panicking about it.' I'm glad you're not the coordinator, or we'd go right into the tank against Baltimore. Put that in, too."

Touche. Maybe it was one bad game. Just that. Maybe the pass rush will return and the secondary will tighten and future opponents won't go 13-and-out. Maybe the AARP cards aren't in the mail, after all. We'll see.

The Bucs, naturally, can't afford to believe anything else. The most dangerous thought of all is to think that maybe this bunch won't be dangerous again.

Because if the Bucs are going to go anywhere this year, it's because other offenses don't.

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