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NFC teams should consider themselves warned
© St. Petersburg Times, published December 20, 2000 TAMPA -- Rattle off the names. The Giants. Vikings. Eagles. Saints. Lions. Rams. Packers. Now, who do you like better than the Bucs in the NFC playoffs? Once you're done reminiscing about Monday night's stirring 38-35 win over the defending Super Bowl champion Rams at Raymond James Stadium, this is what you're left with: The Bucs might just be the best team in the conference. Who do you like better? The Vikings? Not with them on a two-game skid. And not with Daunte Culpepper hobbling on a sprained right ankle. The Eagles? Perhaps, but they haven't exactly beaten many quality teams, unless Cleveland is your idea of a quality team. The Saints? Again, who have they beaten? They have one win against a team with a winning record (St. Louis). The Lions?: If they even make the playoffs, they'll come through the back door, having lost two of their past three. Plus, they are averaging only about 13 points a game the past three Sundays. The Rams?: Didn't Monday night tell us everything we need to know? Plus, if the Lions beat the Bears in the season finale, the Rams are out. The Packers?: Yeah, they're almost as hot as the Bucs, having won three straight and four of their past five. But, like the Rams, they may not even make the playoffs. No, you gotta like Tampa Bay, and here's why: The Bucs are hotter than the Sahara Desert during a heat wave. The regular season is about positioning. The post-season is about momentum. It's about self-assurance that borders on arrogance. It's about not only being there, but feeling you're entitled to be there. This is what you take from Monday night. You remember witnessing a team once without direction finally seizing its destiny. You remember a team shedding weeks of inconsistency and insurrection, and discovering a new skin, one as firm as iron, and perhaps as durable. More than anything, you remember seeing a team not only earn a spot in the playoffs, but prove it belongs there. "Our team wouldn't quit," coach Tony Dungy said, "and that's what you need this time of year. I think it did a lot in terms of pulling the team together." If you are Andy Reid or Jim Fassel or Dennis Green, that's the last thing you want to hear, that the Bucs are finally playing as one. There can't be much that looks scarier to them than Keyshawn Johnson, Shaun King, Warren Sapp and Warrick Dunn all having the time of their lives. That's what was so captivating about this team at the start of the season, why so many experts were so quick to embrace it. The pieces were there. It was just a matter of getting them to fit nicely together. Unless I'm way off, the puzzle is just about finished. By beating the Rams for their fourth straight win and seventh in their past eight games, the Bucs have arrived. They've got the look, the walk and the talk of a team that knows where it's going and pities any team that gets in its way. After their unexplainable 3-4 start, the Bucs are averaging 28 points a game in their past four games. They have beaten the Vikings, Packers, Dolphins and a rejuvenated Rams squad during their eight-game surge. But more than anything, they have responded. When they had every reason to take a knee Monday night, to yield in the face of almost certain defeat, they delivered a full frontal assault. Can you remember a more impressive and tantalizing drive than the 80-yarder the Bucs had in the closing minutes? And in the deluge at Pro Player Stadium, when the Dolphins were pushing them closer and closer to the edge of the cliff, the Bucs dug in. Damien Robinson's interception preserved Tampa Bay's 16-13 lead. That's what you want to see in a team heading toward the post-season. You want to see a relentlessness that knows no surrender. You want to see composure that's impervious to pressure. You want to see a team unabated by the competition and limited by only itself. You want to see it grab hold of its fate and defend it against all comers. "I think if a team is hot and healthy, it's going to have a good chance in the playoffs," Dungy said. "I think it's going to come down to who's hot and who's healthy. And we're probably as hot as anyone, and if we can stay healthy, we certainly like our chances." That's why it's a 16-game schedule, and why coaches always stress that it's not where you start but where you finish that matters most. The Bucs, of course, aren't guaranteed of getting further than their first playoff game. But if you're the Eagles, Giants, Saints, Vikings, Lions, Rams or Packers, you've got to at least be a little envious of where the Bucs are now.
 © 2006 • All Rights Reserved • Tampa Bay Times
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