The future may hold more, but someday is right now
Gary Shelton, The St.Petersburg Times, published 9 December 1996

You can talk of tomorrow if you wish. For the Bucs, after all, it has seldom seemed brighter. And if you want to know the truth of it, this is a team that cannot wait for September. You can talk of yesterday if you wish. For the Bucs, December is always the same. You can look at this game that could have been won with a little better offense, or that game with a little better defense. The truth of it, this team would love to start over again in the September that got away.

For the first time in a long time, however, the point is neither in the future nor in the past. It is in the present. And in a revelation that might startle you. This is a good football team. Right now.

No longer is this a team that is "going to be" good. Or one that "has a chance to be" good. Or one that is "this far away" from being good. This is a team that is about delivery as much as promise. One that is good and has a chance to be better. If you still doubt it after Sunday's 24-10 drubbing of the Washington Redskins, well, it is time to add "a clue" to your Christmas list. Something good has happened with the Bucs under Tony Dungy, and it's time you noticed.

Don't think of it in terms of record, because the miserable start clouds perception. Think of it in terms of how this team is playing. It has won four of five games. It has 10 straight good games from a defense that is playoff caliber. Against the Redskins, it dominated a team that, amazingly, is still in a playoff hunt. "Right now, we're one of the better teams in the league" is the way tackle Warren Sapp sees it. "I'd say we're in the top 10 teams," says defensive end Chidi Ahanotu.

Guess what? Neither one is far off. A year that started so horribly now provides the most hope a Bucs season has mustered since 1982. When is the last time you could see this much promise from a Tampa Bay team? When is the last time it seemed to progress toward a plan each week?

Oh, there have been moments you could trick yourself into believing things were going to be different. Two years ago, the team won four straight late. Last year, it won four straight early. But those victories felt different, like fool's gold. The Bucs did not so much win as hang around until the other team lost. Then, they looked like a team on a roll; now, they look like a team on the rise. There is a difference.

"We're still not in the upper echelon," Dungy said. "But I think we've got a pretty good team. When we play well, I don't think anyone looks forward to playing us. We can do some very good things in the future."

They did very good things against the Redskins, such as running the ball straight through Washington's chests. Such as making Terry Allen look ordinary. Such as finally winning a game with ease. A game such as this one makes you look back at the ones that got away, Seattle and Arizona and Green Bay and Denver and Chicago. Two wins out of those, and this team doesn't have to wait until next year to talk playoff.

Granted, the Bucs still need help on offense. Consider that it is 4-1 in games when it scores 14 points or more. Consider that 14 is not exactly setting the bar high. It needs offensive linemen so it can run on everyone the way it ran on a Redskins front that seems made of tin and balsa wood. It needs wide receivers to stretch the opposing defense.

But if anything has impressed you about Dungy, it is his adherence to his plan. Not even 0-5 shook that. The Bucs have a history of coaches who panic and coaches who change plans weekly to coaches who have no clue what to do. Dungy maintained calm and kept teaching, and his team got better. He stood in a doorway, still grinning after the victory. You ask if he sees any reason why this team can't make a run at next year's playoffs. "I don't see any reason why it can't," Dungy said.

"It would be disappointing if we didn't," T Brad Culpepper said. "Even if we did something like go 8-8 and stop the streak, that would be disappointing."

Perhaps that is the ultimate testament of how much things have improved. Yesterday's goals are tomorrow's disappointments. A team that has improved its performance has now raised its standards. "I think we're good," linebacker Hardy Nickerson said. "I don't want to make any prediction, but I think this time next year, we'll be wondering who we're going to play in the playoffs."

Nickerson sounded firm, confident, resolute. The darnedest part of it was this: He didn't sound wrong.