Run game stymies Bucs, especially during crunch time There was plenty of time left and the Buccaneers needed only one yard. Trailing 21-13, the Bucs moved to the Chicago 36-yard line with three minutes remaining when Josh McCown flipped a nine-yard pass to rookie running back Charles Sims. After an incompletion, Tampa Bay stepped up to the line needing one yard to move the chains. It never happened. With McCown working out of the shotgun, Sims went off left guard for no gain. There was still 2:08 remaining when McCown tried a quarterback sneak up the middle on fourth-and-1. Chicago’s maligned defense held firm as McCown found little traction with the game on the line. He was wrapped up for no gain by defensive end Jared Allen and the ruling on the field was upheld after a review. In retrospect, Tampa Bay’s inability to move effectively on the ground in crunch time is a microcosm of a season-long problem. The Bears limited the Bucs to 66 rushing yards in 22 attempts, marking the eighth time in 11 games Tampa Bay has run for fewer than 100 yards. And in the past four seasons, the Bucs are 4-31 when failing to reach the century mark on the ground. Sims, Doug Martin and McCown each posted a 10-yard run Sunday, but Martin’s dismal season continued. In his first action since missing three games with an ankle injury, Martin gained only 27 yards in 11 carries, dropping his season average to 2.8 yards per carry. During his majestic 2012 rookie season, Martin averaged 4.6 yards per carry and finished third in the NFL in total yards from scrimmage. “We’re working on our run game and we’re going to do our best to get it going,’’ Martin said. “It’s frustrating, but we’ve got things to clean up.’’ Out of Tampa Bay’s 75 snaps Sunday, McCown dropped back to pass 53 times. “We didn’t get the job done,’’ center Evan Dietrich-Smith said, “and you’re not going to win too many games when you are minus-3 on the turnover chart.’’ When asked about the struggling ground game, Dietrich-Smith said the Bucs need to get into an offensive rhythm. “How many attempts did we have?’’ he asked. “You can only have so many yards when you have so many attempts.’’ Despite the presence of Sims for the past three weeks, Tampa Bay’s running game hasn’t picked up steam. While the Bucs did a decent job against Chicago’s versatile back, Matt Forte, limiting him to 89 yards in 23 carries, their lack of success on the ground has kept opposing defenses from honoring McCown’s play-action. “We’ve got to do a better job of blocking and providing holes for them,’’ Bucs coach Lovie Smith said. “In the conditions today, both defenses kind of showed up. But even on days like this, you need to get more production from the running game.’’ Especially when you need only a single yard to keep hope alive.