Not Much To Say After Latest Loss Joe Henderson, The Tampa Tribune, published 10 November 2003 ``Two minutes guys, two minutes. No more.'' Brad Johnson was dressing quickly in front of his locker late Sunday afternoon after the Bucs' 27-24 loss to Carolina. He was beaten up, scarred, seething. We had expected to be interviewing him about the magnificent fourth-quarter comeback he had engineered to beat the Panthers, but things didn't work out quite as planned. ``As a fourth-quarter quarterback, he might be the best I've ever seen,'' Jon Gruden said. Johnson threw 17 times in the final period, completing 11 for 147 and two touchdowns. The second TD - a 36-yarder to Keenan McCardell with 4:44 left - gave the Bucs the lead. But we know what happened after that. We know how Carolina drove the length of the field and scored the winner with a little more than a minute to play. We know what it means to the division race, how basically the Bucs are cooked now and will have to depend on a wild card for a chance to defend their Super Bowl championship. There's not much left to say, which is why Brad Johnson - one of the best, most cooperative humans on the team - didn't want to say it. He wanted to run the two-minute drill with reporters after the game. Maybe it's just as well. A guy plays the way he does, and perhaps it's enough to simply appreciate what might have been. The Bucs didn't win Sunday, but as guard Cosey Coleman said afterward, ``As long as I've been here and a question has been posed about Brad Johnson, all I can say is, I've got his back, 110 percent. He's our leader. He's our general. We follow his lead.'' The Panthers' talented young defensive line bent Johnson in ways that didn't seem possible. He took helmets in the back, shots at his legs; he was folded, mutilated. And entering the fourth quarter, he was trailing 20-7, a general in charge of a stagnant offense. The Bucs' only score to that point came on an interception return by Tim Wansley for a touchdown. Gruden wasn't worried though, at least not about his quarterback. ``Against Carolina earlier [in Tampa], he went 90 yards [for a late touchdown] with no timeouts. He did it against the Saints last week, too. He's outstanding,'' Gruden said. A 23-yard TD pass to Keyshawn Johnson on the Bucs' first drive of the fourth quarter cut the lead to 20-14. That was good. What Brad Johnson did the next time he got the ball was better. Starting at the Bucs' 35, he hit five of six passes for 75 yards - good, but even the numbers don't fully explain what happened. Johnson almost willed them down the field with two plays that - had the outcome been different - might have gone down among the most famous in Bucs history. On fourth-and-one at the Bucs' 44, Johnson faked a handoff into the middle of the line and rolled to his left. He could have run for the first down, but chanced a pass to Warren Sapp, who had lined up as an eligible receiver. Gutsy play. Sapp caught the ball. First down. ``It was a run-pass option. [Sapp] was wide open,'' Johnson said. ``He did a great job of protecting the catch.'' Two plays later, he was sacked for the third time and fumbled. The game might have ended there, but Johnson grasped at the ball and barely pulled it back in. Two plays after that was the magic pass to McCardell in the right edge of the end zone. McCardell's catch was jaw- dropping - twisting between two defenders and pulling it in with one hand - but had the ball been anywhere else it would have been batted away or intercepted. ``We did a good job of coming back and scoring,'' Johnson said. ``It was a little too late.'' Now What? Well, that about sums up this puzzling 4-5 season: Everything has been a little too late for this team. Last year, if the offense struggled as it frequently has in the first half of games, no one noticed because they'd rally and win the game. This year, the rallies have just been preludes to some spectacular pratfall leading to dejection and despair. It's been a little bit of everything. Defensive collapses. Missed extra points. We all know that drill. But somewhere it's worth mentioning that through the frustration of watching a season that seems a little more lost each week, at least one thing hasn't changed. When the Bucs needed their leader, he was there for them. That doesn't help much on a day like Sunday, but it's something to hold onto - even if it's just for two minutes, no more. At this point, you take what you can get.