Bucs/NFL

Sting of playoff defeat propels players

By RICK STROUD
Published April 16, 2006

TAMPA - Every player you talk to has the same refrain.

They pick at the wound so it won't heal. They replay the mistakes in their minds to make sure they never repeat them.

Chris Simms' pass is tipped to set up a touchdown. Cadillac Williams loses a fumble to create another score. Edell Shepherd loses the football on the way to the turf in the end zone.

Eventually, they will move forward. But right now, January's 17-10 playoff loss to Washington propels the Bucs toward a new season.

"I think everybody is on the same page. We're hungry," Simms said after a full-squad workout last week. "No one likes the way we went out last year and we'll be ready to go.

"I think it definitely does (drive us). We don't want to take anything away from the Redskins. They're an extremely good team, but we'd beaten them earlier in the year and we know we made a few mistakes early on that put us behind the eight ball. We just didn't play our best game and I know a lot of us feel like we might have been the better team."

Williams led all first-year players with 1,178 rushing yards and was named NFL rookie of the year. But for all the highlight runs, it's his fumble against the Redskins that he remembers most vividly.

"We need to expect to win games, we need to expect to win the NFC South, we need to expect to win championships," the running back said. "We should expect it. So this year I think we can do some great things.

"I'm going hard. I was up in Detroit for the Super Bowl. I flew out the day before, but just to experience the atmosphere there, it was unbelievable. Just to experience that, it's going to put a spirit of motivation in me that's unbelievable. I really do want to experience that and I want to be on that stage this year."

THE NEW FUN BUNCH: Coach Jon Gruden says he would like to add another receiver, but he's not discounting the three draft picks from last season who spent much of the year on the practice squad. "We've got the young guys - the triplets, I call them - in big Larry Brackins, Paris Warren and J.R. Russell. They're fun guys to be around. I like to yell and scream at them and take it easy on the older guys."

SCHEDULE WOES: You will never hear a peep from One Buc Place about the difficult schedule. And really, it does no good to complain. But it's fair to say that the Bucs were less than pleased at how the games fell for 2006.

There are two particularly disturbing facets. Three of the four potential cold-weather games will be played in December. That doesn't include a game against the Giants Oct. 29 at the Meadowlands or Nov. 13 at Carolina, where it might not exactly be balmy.

But the most brutal stretch is the three games in 10 days - at Carolina on Monday night, home against the Redskins and at Dallas on Thanksgiving.

It could get tougher. It's possible with the NFL's new flexible schedule that the Nov. 19 game against Washington could be moved from 1 p.m. to 8:30 for network television.

[Last modified April 16, 2006, 00:43:12]