Run defense heart of Bucs' struggles
Gary Shelton, The St.Petersburg Times, published 16 November 1998

When a house is crumbling, it figures the problems eventually will reach the foundation. This is where we are with the poor, defenseless Bucs. Another game. Another defeat. Another myth scattered in the dust. This is the way Tampa Bay's season has gone. Every week, the Bucs take something else you believed in, and they make you feel silly for your faith. This time, it was the outdated notion this is still a special defense. Sunday night, as its members watched a running back grow smaller into the distance, it showed again it was not.

This is no longer a great defense. Lately, it is not even a good defense. In November, the money month, it has been a darned poor one. This was the type of situation that used to make them bare their fangs. They had the lead. The clock was dying. The other team was running out of chances. If there was anything you liked more than the game being in the hands of the Bucs defense, it was the sight of the other team handing the ball to a running back. This time, the Jaguars were so impressed by the sight of the defense that it took them 12 seconds to score.

That was it. One play. The hardest part was Mark Brunell making sure he didn't drop the long snap from the shotgun formation. After that, it was just a matter of watching Fred Taylor run away. "One play," Warren Sapp repeated, again and again. "We didn't even give ourselves a chance to make a play. Just the first play and, boom, it's gone. We have a chance to put ourselves in great shape, and we're p------ it away."

Sapp shook his head, as if he still did not believe it. A few weeks ago, no one else would have, either. As recently as October, there was the look of greatness to the Bucs defense, and in such a situation, a one-point lead would have felt like a hundred and 70 yards would have felt like a mile. No more. Whatever was special about this defense seems to be on sabbatical. The running lanes look like expressway exits in the city, one every few yards, and no one makes a play on the ball anymore. More important, the growing impression is this is no longer a dog that bites.

Two words about the playoffs: Shut up. It should be a city ordinance that anyone saying the p-word gets a ticket. Right now, this team looks more like those 10-loss teams of old than last year's playoff team. In particular, where is the run defense? Where is the team that smothered and pursued? "It's the backbone and soul of our team, and it's killing us," Sapp said. "This is two straight weeks the run defense has let us down. That's what we're all about. Give us a lead, and we'll make it stick."

Sapp sat at his locker, growing more annoyed every time someone asked him the depth of his pain. How do you describe this? Finally, he looked at someone sitting next to him and said, "I'd take a broken bone over this," he said. "If you take away last week, too, you can break two."

Lately, all that is broken is the defense, backpedaling and bleeding, scrambling and searching. In their first seven games, the Bucs allowed 121 points. The past three weeks, they have allowed 84. It was the third straight 300-yard effort by an opposing offense (none of the first seven opponents managed that many).

But more important than the statistics are the way this defense has played on the big downs. Look at Jacksonville's scoring drives Sunday. On the first one, Brunell faced a third and 5. No sweat. He hit Jimmy Smith for 19 yards to set up a touchdown. Next possession, he faced a third and 7. No problem. He hit Pete Mitchell for 24 to set up another. He converted third and 26 to set up one field goal and a third and 8 to set up another.

And so it would have been understandable if Brunell had led his team downfield again in the final moments, working the corners, working the clock. In the NFL, logic says that is how comebacks occur. But not with a 70-yard run against a defense constructed to stop the run. For Tony Dungy, run defense is the first step in the blueprint. You win with defense, specifically run defense, specifically run defense on first down. "That's the disappointing thing," Dungy said. "You'd like to think you can stop someone to hold a lead, but we haven't done it."

A week ago, Nashville quarterback Steve McNair went 71 yards to deny the Bucs a last-chance offensive possession. This time, Taylor ran an instantly recognizable draw play. "As soon as he crow-hopped, we knew it was a draw," Sapp said. "We aren't playing very well right now," safety John Lynch said. "We aren't shutting teams down the way we used to. We aren't playing up to our standards."

Sapp was asked if this defense is still among the best in the league. "Not even close," he said. Top 10? "Not even close," he said. Top 20? "Not even close," he said. "I have no way to say where we are now."

You know where the Bucs are? About 1994, from the looks of it. Chasing running backs, taking bad angles, falling to the turf with hands outstretched, unable to stop a back, and a season, from running away from them.