Dog days are gone; it's tail-wagging time Gary Shelton, The St.Petersburg Times, published 10 November 1997 It was like the end of a lost-pet movie. Everything good came bounding into the back yard for the Bucs Sunday afternoon. The running game. The defensive pressure. The feeling of control. Most of all, the hope. Just like that, it all came back, scampering into the arms of the Bucs like poor lost Scruffy. You know the movie. Where the pet gets lost and crosses difficult terrain through repeated obstacles to reach the final reel, where it leaps into the arms of its joyful owner. Listen. Can you hear it? It's the sound of the Bucs saying, "Scruffy! Where have you been?" They were back Sunday. That lovable bunch that could do no wrong the first month of the season finally showed up again. Better yet, it finally punched another team in the snout. For the first time in six weeks, the Bucs looked like a good team again. For the first time in six weeks, they looked as if they belonged in the playoffs. For the first time in six weeks, they won a game that was not separated by good breaks and bad. The Bucs beat the Falcons 31-10. Key word: Beat. "It felt like a playoff team again," safety John Lynch said. "We needed to do that to someone. We had played so darn good in the first month. We were doing all the things championship teams do. And all that stuff was starting to slip away little by little. They call it death by inches, and it was starting to happen to us." It has been a while since we have seen this Bucs team. September, to be exact, in the 31-21 victory over Miami. Since then, the Bucs had slid and sputtered. For the first time since Tony Dungy arrived in Tampa Bay, his team was not improving. Oh, things weren't miserable. The Bucs won two, lost three, had a bye week. But there was nothing special in their play. They beat the hapless (Arizona) and the hopeless (Indianapolis), and were darned lucky both times. You want to know the best the Bucs had played the last six weeks? It was in the defeat to Green Bay. But this erased a lot of that. The Bucs showed off all their weaponry against the Falcons. You want back? Try the quarterback: Trent Dilfer threw for two touchdowns. You want back? Try the fullback: Mike Alstott had 77 yards rushing and a touchdown. You want back? Try the running back: Warrick Dunn had 76 yards rushing, 57 yards receiving and two touchdowns. The defense had five sacks. And the team walked off the field grinning. This wasn't escape. This wasn't enduring. This was excellence. "I've really been disappointed the last month, and I've held a lot more in than I've said," Dilfer said. "Some people call it hitting the wall or whatever. Everyone goes through it. It stunk that two of them were at home. That's what got to me. We had so much to look forward to if we kept things going, and we didn't. You could just taste the possibilities. And we were letting them slip away. It wasn't anything Tony did, and it wasn't anything I did. I think each guy decided the same thing. That we were sick and tired of playing bad." Obligatory disclaimer. As a football team, the Falcons are having a hard time getting out of their own way. They do everything a losing team does. On the other hand, so did Indianapolis, and the Bucs played terribly there. General manager Rich McKay will tell you he expected such a slump. That the youth of the team makes it inevitable. "When we were 5-0, there was such energy, it was like we wore ourselves out." Said Dilfer: "We were 5-0, and everyone was talking about how we go three games up in the standings. The next thing you know, we're 5-3." The worst part of the slide is it rendered what is special about the Bucs ordinary. The holes for Alstott and Dunn closed. The offensive line was being beaten. The receivers couldn't separate. It was as if the NFL adjusted to the Bucs, and the Bucs couldn't adjust back. Other teams were stacking the line and daring Tampa Bay to throw to beat them, and the Bucs seemed stuck for an answer. Sunday, they finally spoke up. This was a team in complete control of the game. Atlanta was the team scrambling. So what happens the next six weeks? Is this Bucs team back to stay? Suddenly, a .500 season, even a winning one, seems too meager a goal to discuss. Against fast company, the Bucs need four victories to assure a playoff. They need to maintain patience. They need to take control of their games and future. Most of all, they need to put Scruffy on a leash.