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No lack of luck to go with Bucs' pluck

By GARY SHELTON
Published January 2, 2006

TAMPA - They are the luckiest team alive, and what of it?

They are four-leaf clovers and rabbits' feet, lucky pennies and shooting stars. And what's wrong with that?

For the Tampa Bay Bucs, it is a day of platitudes. They are the champions of the NFC South. They are going to the playoffs. They have completed the greatest turnaround in franchise history.

Also, they are on a first-name basis with fortune.

If you think about it from their point of view, really, isn't it grand?

It happened again Sunday. The Bucs were in the middle of finishing their season in uninspired fashion against the woeful New Orleans Saints and Tossin' Todd Bouman, and they were having the darndest time doing it. It was early in the fourth quarter, a four-point game, when Ronald McKinnon intercepted a tipped pass to put the Saints in business at the Bucs' 25. If you had flashbacks of the losses to the 49ers or the Jets, it is understandable.

Then, acting more on instinct than on evidence, Jon Gruden challenged and - you guessed it - the play was overturned. Once again, there went the Bucs, getting lucky all over again.

Lucky McKinnon dropped the pass.

Lucky the replays showed it.

Lucky Gruden followed his hunch.

Add it to the list. Add it to the phantom offensive pass interference calls against the Vikings, to the missed fumble against Green Bay, to the nullified touchdown by the Lions, to the debated two-point conversation against the Redskins, to Jim Mora calling the worst play in NFL history with a backup quarterback at his own goal line against the Falcons, to getting away with fumbling a kickoff in overtime in the Atlanta rematch.

In other words, it has been a charmed season for the Bucs so far.

Now that the stakes have increased with the playoffs, perhaps you should keep that in mind.

Here's the thing: there is nothing wrong with good luck. When you think about it, isn't good the best kind of luck to have? Yet, in sports, it is common to see an athlete scowl at the suggestion of luck, as if somehow you are attempting to lessen their accomplishment.

That's not the intention here. These Bucs should also be remembered as talented, energetic, resilient, determined. They led the league in defense and had a 1,000-yard receiver and a 1,000-yard back. They didn't make it to the playoffs because of luck; they made it to the playoffs because they were good enough to make their luck matter.

Hey, the Bucs won 11 times this year, after winning 12 times in the previous two seasons combined. Consider: Even with all of those two- and three-win seasons in its history, Tampa Bay had never won six more games one season than the next before this. Consider: Most of us figured the Bucs would win about seven games this year, and when we did, most of us were being optimistic.

Still, there are moments in close games that slip beyond the control of men, when a game hinges on a call that can go either way, on a bounce. This season, most of those fell the way of the Bucs. If you remember two seasons ago, it beats the alternatives.

"In life, you have to have a little bit of good fortune," linebacker Derrick Brooks said. "There is nothing wrong with good fortune in life, is there? I don't hear anyone complaining when they're lucky in their everyday life. Why should it be any different in sports?"

It shouldn't. By this time, the Bucs should be reveling in their luck. They should stitch "team of destiny" across their shoulder pads. They should whisper to their opponents every chance they get how much the angels love this team. As they enter the playoffs, they should vow to keep dealing the cards and to keep spinning the wheel. In other words, let it ride.

Frankly, that's a better exercise than trying to sort through much of Sunday's game in search of clues as to how the Bucs will do in the playoffs. It's a silly practice, of course, because as hard as we all look for trends, one week's NFL game tells you precious little about the next. All the Bucs know for certain is they won't play against the Saints, and thank goodness for it.

In other words, it is time for a new set of doubts. After 16 games, as tackle Kenyatta Walker takes great glee in reminding everyone, the Bucs have mostly done away with the old ones, from doubts about Chris Simms' toughness to Cadillac Wiliams' durability to the defense's age to the offensive line's punch.

Now the question changes to this: With the Bucs in the playoffs, can they do any damage while there? It depends on how well they protect the ball. How well they can run. Oh, and they could use a little luck.

In his corner of the locker room, Brooks tossed his division championship cap into his locker as someone mentioned to him the p-word: Playoffs.

"I'm thinking of the c-word ... championship," Brooks said. "This is the first of three goals: the division championship, the conference championship and the Super Bowl championship."

So are the Bucs good enough to make a run?

"We're good enough to win next week," Brooks said. "We can't win a championship next week. For us, that's a big concept. Championship games come when it's time. We have to accept whatever opponent we have and play."

For the record, Simms doesn't buy into any notion of luck. When your family business is quarterback, you put more faith into sweat and focus and execution.

Nevertheless, if you're interested, Simms offered up some lottery numbers.

"Two. Eight. Eleven. Twelve. Twenty-two. Forty-two."

Come Saturday night, perhaps we will see how lucky the kid really is.

[Last modified January 2, 2006, 02:30:25]