They then won Game 15 at home to clinch a playoff spot and entered the final weekend of the season on the road, at a division opponent, in cold weather, with a chance to capture a division title.

Sound familiar? That's a summary of how things have gone this season.

And it's exactly how they went in 1999. "When you do actually think about it, we did win eight of our last nine and we did go to Chicago and have to win in cold weather," linebacker Jamie Duncan said. "And our record was 11-5, wasn't it? Nah, it hadn't dawned on me at all!"

Added linebacker Shelton Quarles: "It's been a gradual progression up to this point because there have been so many scenarios that had to play out. So, to be honest, we really never thought about it until this point."

To this point, the Bucs remarkably have managed to duplicate what happened last season. Like 1999, Tampa Bay opened the 2000 season with four losses in its first seven games and enters Sunday's game in Green Bay with a chance to finish with 11 wins.

"There are some similarities," safety John Lynch said. "The fact that we started 3-4 and here we are at the end of the year going to a division opponent on the road, able to possibly clinch. Last year, we had a little bit more control.

"I think we've fought hard to get back here. I think we've all done a good job just believing that we can (after) we put ourselves in that hole, and just hope that we have a little bit of a different ending to this year than last year."

This season, the Bucs had to rebound from a four-game losing streak early. While the losing streak included losses to the Jets and Lions at home, the Bucs appeared not to press the panic button.

The calming influence of coach Tony Dungy, coupled with a been-there-done-that approach to the doldrums, likely helped.

"It certainly helped when we were 3-4," linebacker Derrick Brooks said. "When we were 3-4, we realized that we knew how to climb out of the hole we were in, and we knew we could get ourselves back in the race."

Dungy can't put his finger on why the team has had poor showings in the first third of the season the past two season, but has confidence in how things ended last season and how they will end this season.

"A little adversity is probably good, but hopefully we don't do this every year and create that much for ourselves," he said. "I really don't have the answer. We're going to research it in the off-season, what we can do to play better in October and keep the momentum going in the first third of the season. The big thing, and maybe I emphasize it too much, is playing well at the end of the year. Our team seems to have bought into that."

Part of the secret to surviving last season and doing it again this season is what Quarles described as the team's preoccupation with fundamentals and routine.

"I'm not sure about what happened in the middle of the season, but we believed in ourselves," he said. "When we have breakdowns during the season we know it's because we're not doing our fundamentals. But toward the end of the season we tend to get back to the fundamentals and focus back in and it's starting to help us again."

That focus was critical last season when the Bucs lost 45-0 in Oakland in Game 14 and it was equally critical this season when they lost 13-10 in Chicago in Game 11.

"I think in Oakland, we played a lot worse," Brooks said. "I'm not saying we played well in Chicago, but in Oakland we flat-out got punched in the mouth. Chicago was a game we felt we could win because we dominated them before and we should have dominated them again.

"They were, however, both road games and they both could have been devastating. But we rebounded fairly well from either one and you couldn't write a better script for this weekend."

While the two scorelines reflect vastly different situations for the Bucs, they both appear, at least to this point, to have had one similar side effect.

"It gives you a sense of where you are and where you're trying to get to," Duncan said. "Sometimes you have to get your backs up against the wall to let you know that this is it.

"I think it's a credit to our staff and the guys we have. It's something to say when the guys can play well when their backs are to the wall, when everything's on the line and you have everything to lose. After you go through certain situations, you know what it takes to overcome them, you know what held you back."

Mirror reflection

Sound familiar? The 1999 Bucs ...

Started the season 3-4.

Won seven of their next eight.

Suffered a potentially devastating late-season road loss.

Won Game 15 at home to clinch playoff spot.

Played Game 16 in cold weather on the road against a division rival with a chance to clinch a home playoff game.

-- ROGER MILLS

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