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Bucs backfield starting to jell around a fearsome threesome

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By RICK STROUD

© St. Petersburg Times, published November 7, 2000

TAMPA -- As an offense, you never want to settle for three.

But to be a great offense, it helps if you have three players who can lift the team on their shoulder pads and carry it to the end zone.

The Rams get it done with Kurt Warner, Marshall Faulk and Isaac Bruce. The Colts have Peyton Manning, Edgerrin James and Marvin Harrison. The Raiders are built around Rich Gannon, Tyrone Wheatley and Tim Brown.

Lately, it appears the Bucs have established their triple threat of quarterback Shaun King, receiver Keyshawn Johnson and running back Warrick Dunn.

"I've always been on a team that had a quarterback, running back, receiver type of deal," Johnson said. "And every team that I've known that has won has had that. Whether it was Dorsey Levens, Antonio Freeman and Brett Favre; Roger Craig and Jerry (Rice) with Joe Montana; or Rice, Steve Young and Ricky Watters; or Dallas with Emmitt (Smith), Michael (Irvin) and Troy (Aikman).

"You've got to have guys willing to make plays."

In his past two games, Dunn has rushed 29 times for 166 yards and had a 23-yard touchdown reception. Johnson has caught nine passes for 168 yards and three touchdowns in wins over Minnesota and Atlanta. King has passed for seven of his 13 touchdowns this season.

Dunn's 18 carries at Atlanta on Sunday were a season high. Dunn had averaged just 11.5 carries. There were only two games last season that Dunn carried 18 times or more: Nov. 14 vs. Kansas City with 18, and Sept. 9 at Philadelphia with 24.

"Warrick's running well," coach Tony Dungy said. "Against Minnesota, that was kind of our plan, to play a lot of three wide receivers. (Sunday) we played a lot of regular formations and he was running well. We felt going on AstroTurf that he'd have a chance to be really effective. It was Warrick yesterday, and who knows next week?"

While Dunn's production has gone up, Mike Alstott's opportunities to run have gone down.

He has had 10 carries in each of the past two games, nearly all in short-yardage situations or during garbage time in the fourth quarter.

Offensive coordinator Les Steckel said the game plan the past two games was to feature Dunn. But depending on the opponent and the type of matchups it favors, Alstott could become a larger focus in the running game.

"We've gone into some games, and Mike Alstott has known this, where we're going to feature one over the other," Steckel said. "Ideally, what you would like it to be is balance, like it came out the first few weeks. But it just came out that way. You can see Warrick on turf. He likes turf and we like him on turf. We wanted to be able to feature that with his great quickness. A couple of times he made us look great."

Becoming a bigger part of the offense has re-energized Dunn, whose role shrunk last season when he gained a career-low 3.2 yards per carry. He was used primarily as a receiver and led the club with 64 catches for 589 yards and two touchdowns.

"The last two weeks have been good for me," Dunn said. "It's helped me out a lot confidence-wise. I'm just feeling it. I love the game and I'm enjoying it.

"The things I do out there, I don't know what I'm doing. I'm just letting things happen and I think I'm helping this football team move in the right direction."

He has lots of help.

Johnson, who spent most of the first half waiting for the Bucs to feature him more in the offense, has emerged as the go-to receiver.

"It's one of the reasons we went to get Keyshawn," Dungy said. "We felt like we needed that. I think he has helped the passing game and helped other guys. Hopefully, as we get more comfortable with the offense, that part will be even bigger."

Johnson insists he never has been concerned about his numbers. He is on pace to hit his career averages, about 80 catches for 1,000 yards.

"Like I said, at the end of the day you can line me up with the rest of them and I'm pretty confident they will all be pretty close, if not the same, and I'll have the Ws," Johnson said.

Before the win over the Vikings, the Bucs appeared to be searching for an identity on offense. At least now they know the names of the players their offense will run through.

"I don't know if that's necessarily the design," Dungy said. "Certainly, those are three talented guys, and they had the ball a lot and things feed off that, and that opens things for Mike (Alstott) and Jacquez (Green) and Dave (Moore). But when those three guys are playing well, that definitely makes us tough to defend."

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