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[Times photo: James Borchuck] Bucs quarterback Shaun King hits the ground Sunday against Buffalo thanks to linebacker Sam Cowart.

King hurting; Zeier waits in wings

The Bucs' starting QB has back pain, which leaves the team thinking about getting the backup ready.

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By RICK STROUD

© St. Petersburg Times, published November 28, 2000

TAMPA -- Shaun King's performance against the Buffalo Bills landed him in more hot water Monday: A whirlpool, to be exact.

King, who was sacked seven times and barely able to finish Sunday's game after experiencing lower back pain, might not be able to practice Wednesday in preparation for the Bucs' game Sunday against the Dallas Cowboys.

If King's condition does not improve in 48 hours, the Bucs said veteran backup Eric Zeier will begin to prepare as if he will be the starter.

"If (King) wasn't ready Wednesday, I would really hit the accelerator to get Zeier ready," quarterbacks coach Clyde Christensen said.

King moved gingerly in the locker room after Sunday's game. He began experiencing back spasms several weeks ago, but the condition was aggravated to the extent that Zeier was told to warm up in the second half.

"Shaun has got some back pain, and we're trying to get to the source of it right now," coach Tony Dungy said. "I don't know how it's going to be this week. He wasn't as comfortable after the game as we would have liked, but I guess we'll monitor that during the week.

"He's had some pain in there the last couple of weeks, but I think it's gotten a little worse after this game. This is the worst he's felt after a game. I know he's had some X-rays and they've looked at it, and we're getting some opinions on it, and they don't seem to have pinpointed exactly what it is."

Despite concerns about his back, King was optimistic he would be able to practice Wednesday.

"It tightened up at some point in the game," he said. "It's one of those things that just happened. It had been sore earlier, but nothing like that. ... It's just my back getting old."

Zeier has appeared in only one game this season, completing all three pass attempts for 36 yards. He has not started for the Bucs since Oct.31, 1999, a game in which he sustained a rib injury that sidelined him for a month.

Zeier said Monday he was eager to get more work in practice with the first team.

"If he can't go, I'll get probably all the reps with the first-team guys," he said. "Which will be good. Obviously, there's going to be a little bit of rust there. But it's my job to get rid of that pretty quick and get ready to go.

"The only reason you play the game is to be out there and get it done. I'm anxious. Obviously, I don't want to get a job because Shaun is hurt or whatever."

Whether King starts against Dallas will depend on how much he is able to practice this week.

"I think some of it would be how Zeier plays in practice," Christensen said. "I think some it would be the gameplan and how much (King) would miss mentally, whatever point it switches over where you believe Eric Zeier gives you a better chance to win the game than Shaun King does. Does Eric Zeier with practice give you a better chance to win the game than Shaun King does without practice? It'd be hard to answer that without it happening first."

King is coming off two of his worst games in terms of passing yardage. He threw for a season-low 91 yards at Chicago two weeks ago and completed 10-of-18 for 106 yards Sunday against Buffalo.

But Christensen said King's performance against the tough Buffalo defense was one of the best of his young career.

"I really think maybe Shaun King's best game was this week," Christensen said. "He played extremely well. I know it sounds bizarre, and it may be contrary to public perception, but it may have been his best game of the year.

"He didn't try to make something happen when it wasn't there. He protected the football. We stressed patience the whole week that it was going to take a patient game to beat this bunch. And then also to have him get sacked four times in the first quarter, a young quarterback might get happy feet or start not looking down field. But he didn't do it.

"He made three big plays. He made the one to Warrick (Dunn), he made the one to Dave (Moore) to get the first down and he made the one to get the touchdown. He made three big plays and no bad plays."

Dungy said while he has been disappointed in the passing game, he was pleased in the way that King protected the football and did not have any turnovers against Buffalo.

"I guess I don't have all the answers for why our passing game has struggled the last two weeks or we would have gotten it corrected and we would have thrown for 500 yards," Dungy said. "I think we know what we want to do, and I think we can't lose sight of how we win, and we can't worry if media-types think that passing for 60 yards and winning 31-17 is bad. We happen to think it's good.

"We're not precise where we need to be right now. I thought it was more in Chicago that we didn't take the throws that were there, we had some protection breakdowns early that kind of got everybody out of whack (Sunday). We had some guys open and weren't able to get the throws off in the first half and then in the second half we were more concerned about if we were going to pick things up right or not. But our passing game will get back on track."

The only question now is whether King will be the quarterback.

"We'll probably know more about that Wednesday," Dungy said. "We're hopeful that he will but right now it would be questionable whether he's going to practice on Wednesday or not."

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