Holiday bashing Rick Stroud, The St.Petersburg Times, published 23 December 1996 As the final minutes of the season melted away Sunday, the Buccaneers' bench became a celebration station. Safety John Lynch and tackle Warren Sapp signed autographs. Fans jammed the aisles for a closer inspection of their heroes. Nobody noticed the two garbage touchdowns that were just scored on the home team. Tony Dungy was given a Gatorade bath to put more squeak in his clean. It was the kind of atmosphere you'd expect in Green Bay. Or Carolina. Even (gulp) Jacksonville. Those teams know they have another game or two to suit up for this season. They are headed to the playoffs. For the 14th straight season, the Bucs packed their belongings and headed home for the holidays. So why does it feel like this team is going places? The Bucs saved their best for last, scoring 31 unanswered points in the first half - the largest two-quarter outburst in team history - to cruise to a 34-19 victory over the Chicago Bears. The onslaught was sparked by rookie Karl Williams' club-record 88-yard punt return for a touchdown and two scoring passes by quarterback Trent Dilfer. Even though the win left the Bucs with a 6-10 record, it felt a lot like 10-6 and was an early Christmas present for the 51,572 fans at Houlihan's Stadium. The victory also was the fifth straight at home for the Bucs - a team record - who rebounded from a 1-8 start to win five of their last seven games. "It was very important to give us momentum and give our fans a taste of something to look forward to," linebacker Derrick Brooks said. "If we'd gone out and lost or been blown out, it would've been the same old Bucs for next year.... Last year, our last game of the season, everybody had the U-Hauls packed. They gave up. We could've finished 8-8, but nobody had enough pride about that. This year, it was a totally different meaning. This was a team that had been dominating us the last few years. We wanted to keep our home winning streak. We found facts to rally around." You want facts? Just consider that the 34 points against Chicago on Sunday were the most scored by the Bucs in 94 games, daring to their 38-21 win over Detroit in the '90 season opener. The Bucs also took extreme pleasure in walloping the Bears, a team they had lost to five straight times. Chicago (7-9) may have entered the game with nothing to play for. And the Bears are notoriously bad finishers, having lost 18 straight on the road in December and January. But nobody expected this. After spotting the Bears a touchdown, the Bucs lit up the scoreboard. Dilfer tossed TD passes to Dave Moore and Courtney Hawkins; Hardy Nickerson recovered a fumble at the Bears' 4 to set up Errict Rhett's TD run; and Williams electrified the crowd with the second punt returned for a score in team history. After Michael Husted connected on his second field goal, the Bucs led 34-7 and everybody was rubbing their eyes. Of course, not everyone is as easily convinced the Bucs are any better under Dungy. Just consider how much bigger the bulletin board will have to be next season in Tampa Bay's new training facility to hold the expert assessment of Bears defensive end Alonzo Spellman. "I still ain't got no respect for this team at all and next year we'll beat them twice," Spellman said. "That's team's awful. That's all I know. They're terrible. They know it. We know it. Fluke, that's how I explain it. Fluke. Can you spell that? Terrible. They're terrible. Period." While Dungy acknowledged he doesn't expect any more Gatorade showers after a deep-six in the win column, he was proud of how far his team had developed since the 34-3 loss to Green Bay in the home opener. "None of us are pleased with the way the season went because we came down here to be a playoff team and we fell short of that goal," Dungy said. "But I think we all looked at the second half of the year and saw some improvement, saw some progress. I was really pleased with the way our team fought and played the second half of the year. Now we've got to take that level and make it our beginning level." It's easy to understate the importance of Sunday's win. Consider the alternative. Ending the year with two straight losses to division rivals would've made for a long off-season analysis. And if Detroit loses at San Francisco tonight, the Bucs will finish out of the NFC Central cellar for the first time since '88. "A lot of the positive signs would've been for naught," Lynch said. "There's been so many last games that didn't mean anything, you came into the locker room knowing when you looked around that we were in trouble today." Nobody enjoyed the ending more than Dilfer, who atoned for his two-interception performance at Minnesota last week. Dilfer was efficient in completing 11-of-14 passes for 104 yards and two scores, helping erase some particularly bad outings against the Bears. "I became a better quarterback almost every single week this year," Dilfer said. "I had a couple setbacks. But I became a better player. I became a better person. I became a better leader. I did all the things I've been asked to do. I have a lot more to learn." So do the Bucs. For instance, 6-10 seasons do not merit celebrations. Now that everyone understands that, let's party. "This is our last Christmas at home," Bucs tackle Warren Sapp said. "We'd better enjoy this one. From here on out, we're in the playoffs."