Sports: King's troubles slow Bucs' 'O'

King's troubles slow Bucs' 'O'

By ROGER MILLS

TAMPA -- After analyzing the film, Bucs coach Tony Dungy said his team did a number of positive things in the 13-10 loss to the Bears Sunday.

Generally, Dungy said, the Bucs ran the ball well, protected the passer efficiently, made plays on special teams and, most important, kept the Bears offense out of the end zone.

As for quarterback Shaun King and the passing game? Well ...

"We didn't throw it well enough and we needed to make some plays in the passing game," Dungy said. "We had four third-and-4 or less that we didn't convert. We gave them a touchdown on offense when they were going against the wind, which is something you can't do in that type of game.

"We did not throw the ball very well and they played a lot of zone defense, very much like we play, and you have to drop the ball off and keep moving the chains. We didn't do that well enough."

King, a second-year player, arguably produced one of the worst efforts of his career. He finished 12-of-19 for 91 yards and threw two interceptions, one returned for the Bears' only the touchdown, the other putting an end to a comeback bid.

Though Dungy didn't lay all the blame on his quarterback, King's performance played a huge role in the loss. King agreed.

"I think it is (fair)," King said about the criticism of his effort. "As a quarterback, that's part of your job. You've got to go out and make plays. And there are sometimes when you go out and don't make the plays and negative things happen. That's part of playing the position."

Dungy said there were breakdowns throughout the team and that the Bears executed well defensively in their secondary but also said King had chances to make plays.

"We had guys open," Dungy said. "You have to drop the ball off sometimes. Sometimes it's not the deep receivers that are open. Sometimes it's not the wide receivers that are open."

AILING LYNCH: All-Pro safety John Lynch dislocated his left shoulder and likely will miss Sunday's home game against the Bills.

"John is very sore," Dungy said. "He had a dislocation and it's going to be a pain tolerance thing. Right now I would say it's pretty questionable that he'll play this week."

Regular free safety Damien Robinson will move to strong safety and backup Dexter Jackson likely will start at free safety. But that leaves the Bucs limited on the bench, as reserve safety Eric Vance sustained an ankle sprain in Chicago and will have his foot in a soft cast for the next few days and could miss the Buffalo game. David Gibson, the other safety on the roster, is coming off a quadriceps injury and is a rookie.

"Right now, our safety position is pretty thin," Dungy said. "We won't have a lot of healthy guys back there and the safeties are pretty important to the way we play."

One option could be former Buc Shevin Smith. Smith, who played with the Bucs last season and was a contributor at safety and special teams, was waived on Aug. 27 and given an injury settlement, making him eligible to return to the Bucs after 10 weeks.

"Shevin is eligible and that's something we'll probably take a look at given the health of our safeties," Dungy said. "(We'll) just have him take a physical and see if he's okay and ready to go. That would be the easiest one, if he's ready."

Also, defensive end Steve White sustained a sprained right ankle, which also could be placed in a temporary cast.

BUCS BITS: Lynch announced the November winners of the "John Lynch Star of the Month" award, given to student/athletes from Pinellas and Hillsborough counties who have excelled in athletics, academics, sportsmanship and community involvement. They were Marissa Gonzalez (Young Middle Magnet School), Ryan Ralston (Orange Grove Middle School), Kathryn Koerner (Wharton Middle School), Alphonso Cromartie (Plant High School); Ashley Martin (Madeira Beach Middle School), Naason Borden (Azalea Middle School), Kelly Foco (Seminole High), Anthony Espaillat (Seminole).