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[Times photo: Toni L. Sandys]

"We're not a very good 3-4 football team," says Keyshawn Johnson, catching a ball over Darren Sharper.

Nothing changes; nothing's the same

The Bucs are 3-4 again, but this time they may have trouble recovering.

By GREG AUMAN

© St. Petersburg Times,
published November 6, 2001

TAMPA -- In four years, it has been the Bucs' midseason constant, above the tough defense, above the offense struggling for identity: If it's Week 8, the Bucs must be 3-4.

"There's nothing to say," coach Tony Dungy said Monday about what to tell his team after a 21-20 loss to Green Bay. "We just have to start playing better."

The record might be the same, but reactions are different around the locker room.

"I'm not going to fool myself into believing that we're some great football team and everything will be hunky-dory because we were 3-4 last year," said Keyshawn Johnson, the NFC's leading receiver. "We're a different 3-4 football team, and it's a different caliber of opponents coming up."

The Bucs' first eight opponents combine for a 26-30 record, but the second half is much tougher, 35-22. The only teams over .500 Tampa Bay has played are Green Bay (5-2) twice and Pittsburgh (5-2), going 1-2 in those games. In the second half, the Bucs play seven games against teams currently with winning records, four against the NFC's division leaders and six against teams that would make the playoffs if the season ended today.

"It's definitely uphill, no question," tight end Dave Moore said. "We're going to have to play our best ball because we'll have some really hot teams coming in here. I think the most dangerous of all of them is this week. (Detroit) is without a win and playing better every week."

Moore, a veteran of all four stumbling starts, dismissed parallels with past teams, saying they only serve to remind Tampa Bay that it's capable of bouncing back.

"Obviously, the past has nothing to do with the future," Moore said. "But just as obviously, 3-4 is quite a hole to dig yourself out of. And we have been there before and we know what it's going to take from here out to play winning football."

The record is the same, but circumstances are always different. In 1998 and last season, the Bucs were 3-4 and facing an undefeated Minnesota team, instead of the winless Detroit team they face Sunday. The only 3-4 team the Bucs are thinking about this week is themselves.

"All that, "We were 3-4 in '99, we were 3-4 in '98,' it doesn't mean anything to me," Johnson said. "I'm so sick and tired of hearing what we've been, how we changed it and how we came back in the past. We're 3-4 right now and we're not a very good 3-4 football team. We've played some pretty good teams, and we've played some horrible teams ... a team like Pittsburgh, where I'd put my car on it that we wouldn't have lost."

What stands out most from the 3-4 the Bucs see in the standings is the way they feel it doesn't belong, compared with their competition, their expectations or their understanding of where the team could be.

"You never like to be in this position, especially when you feel like there's at least two games out there that we definitely could have won," punter Mark Royals said. "That doesn't help at all, though, because your record is your record. How we feel about it is irrelevant."

How well the Bucs can recover remains to be seen. The '98 team went 8-8 and missed the playoffs. A year later, the Bucs won eight of their last nine and reached the NFC Championship Game. Last season's team salvaged a 10-6 mark and opened the playoffs on the road, where it lost at Philadelphia.

Another constant in the past three seasons has been a win in Week 8, but players aren't taking Detroit lightly. Twice this season, the Bucs have faced winless teams that probably shouldn't have been, in Week 3 against Minnesota and Week 5 against Tennessee, losing both. And Sunday's game is in the Silverdome, where Tampa Bay has lost six of the past eight meetings.

"You play a team that hasn't won a game and you play them at their place, believe me, those guys will come out playing," defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin said. "We'll definitely be getting their best shot."

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