Bucs Dusted Marty Strasen, The Tampa Tribune, published 17 November 2003 The Bucs didn't pound any rocks Sunday as much as they saw their playoff hopes crushed to bits by one jackhammer of a drive. Tied in the second half, Green Bay and Tampa Bay were bitter rivals again, facing precisely the same scenario. Two old NFC Central warriors, both 4-5, one that would salvage its playoff hopes, the other destined to drop off the wild-card map - three games behind with a half-dozen to play. The Bucs, defending Super Bowl champions, are all but officially dusted after a 20-13 loss, their third in a row and their fourth home setback in five games. Bucs-Packers. These were the games for which Tampa Bay's veterans used to live. How many times have Brett Favre and Warren Sapp exchanged pleasantries after the former was knocked on his backside by the latter? A Bucs win here. A Packers win at Lambeau. Often, the team that would win their now-defunct division would credit the challenge posed by the other for at least a portion of whatever success they enjoyed in the playoffs. Only one was going to survive on this day. And as the last few thousand fans headed for the Raymond James Stadium exits, Bucs coach Jon Gruden had this to say on a postgame media conference that was projected on the video scoreboard: ``I apologize to the Tampa Bay fans. That was not good enough.'' A devastated silence turned to a smattering of boos. That's where Bucs football, 2003 version, stands right now. Gruden seemed legitimately perplexed by what has become his team's weekly slow start to games. He called its continuing penalty problems embarrassing - almost a novelty, he said - and pointed to a lack of concentration. If the fading Bucs again lacked focus, the game itself did not. It had a signature moment, and that moment spanned 17 plays and 9 minutes, 42 seconds of the second half. Tampa Bay appeared to be in great shape, having scored 10 consecutive points to tie the score at 13. The Bucs had pinned the Packers at their own 2-yard line on Tom Tupa's 52-yard, coffin-corner punt late in the third quarter. Momentum and field position were on their side. Cue the Favre highlight reels. Truth be told, Favre was not the hardest-working man on the decisive 98-yard drive that ensued. Ahman Green, Najeh Davenport and a physical Green Bay offensive line provided the sweat required to save a season. But Favre deserves every ounce of credit he'll get, too, on what has to rank among the top clutch performances in a career full of them. On third-and-9 from his own 3, the Packer QB fired a cool, 23-yard strike to Robert Ferguson to keep his team from having to punt from its own end zone. Green converted the next third down on the ground, but a 9-yard Favre-to- Ferguson throw early in the fourth quarter was one yard more than the Packers needed to keep rolling. On fourth- and-1 from the Bucs 16, it was Davenport who hurtled the line and gained 5. The rest was routine. Davenport for 7, Tony Fisher for 3 and Green for the final yard that sealed the Bucs' fate. ``I credit the size, the strength and the will of their football team,'' said Gruden, a comment that was quickly followed by a question about the will of the Bucs, a team that has yet to win back-to-back games since that championship night in San Diego. The will is there, Gruden believes. The focus, the concentration, the execution - those are different stories. Consider ``the drive before the drive.'' It was telling indeed. Travaris Robinson's interception of Favre had given Tampa Bay the ball near midfield, and after two big Thomas Jones runs the Bucs should have been on their way to a go-ahead score. Instead, Cornell Green was flagged for holding. Second- and-20. Kenyatta Walker was penalized 15 yards for - what else? - grabbing a facemask. Second-and-35. Those were two of the Bucs' eight penalties on the day. At one point in the first half, Tampa Bay's offense was penalized on three consecutive plays. Gruden struggled to explain it. He talked about focus and concentration and starting the game ``in a funk.'' How about one more adjective? Inexcusable. So on a day when Jones turned the toss sweep into gains of 61 and 51 yards, his team may have tossed any realistic playoff hopes out the window and swept them into the road. ``We expect every man to finish this season with authority,'' Gruden said. Six weeks to go. A finish that will arrive much sooner than anyone around here expected. Gruden was right. Not good enough.