The final exam

Bucs' Simeon Rice sees battle of No. 1s as the ultimate test

Former free-agent castaway Simeon Rice led the NFC with 15 1/2 sacks. Andy Lyons/Getty Images

By John Donovan, CNNSI.com

SAN DIEGO -- Simeon Rice likes to think of this Super Bowl as some big showdown between good and evil, a kind of gridiron Armageddon. It will be, Rice figures, the ultimate test.

"This," he says of the game between his Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Oakland Raiders on Sunday, "will be my research tool. Is offense more important than defense, or is defense more important than offense? What's the more dominant force?"

It's a pretty boiled-down way of looking at Super Bowl XXXVII, for sure. But Rice, Tampa Bay's quick and physical sack-making defensive end, doesn't go in much for the fluff.

Friday, Jan. 24, 2003 -- 2 days to kickoff "If you don't like Keyshawn, you have a problem with yourself." -- Tampa Bay receiver Keyshawn Johnson. 226 -- Number of first downs the Oakland Raiders got this year by passing the ball -- exactly twice as many as they got running it for a first down. The players are now off the hook in their responsibilities to the media, something that takes a lot out of their preparation time over the course of the week. They may do something here and there, but as far as the maddening mass news conferences with the mass media, the players are free and clear. Which means now, over the course of Friday and Saturday, they really get into the mindset of the game. Meanwhile, the outside craziness is just starting to heat up. Thousands of people are expected to fly (or drive down the coast) into San Diego in the next couple of days for a long Super Bowl weekend that will include parties for the masses in the Gaslamp Quarter and parties for the upper crust in a lot of private get-togethers all over the city. Raiders fans rule here, considering we are in California and less than a two-hour drive from where the Raiders used to play. But the occasional Tampa Bay fan can be spotted, and there are billboards placed strategically throughout the city that show the Buccaneers' flag and the words "Go Bucs!" Does Rich Gannon ever get rattled on the field? >>> Joe Jurevicius Q: How's your son [born a month premature] doing? A: He’s doing a little bit better. That’s all we can ask for at this time, that things get progressively better. We’re prepared for the long haul, but I’m hoping in the back of my head that it will be shorter rather than longer. Q: Is it hard for you, your wife being home with the baby? A: It’s really sad that she won’t be able to be out here and enjoy this experience. That would have been a great release for her. I’m on the phone with her constantly checking on how she’s doing and how he’s doing. She’ll enjoy the game. We have a lot of great friends back in Tampa and there’s going to be all kinds of Super Bowl parties going on. ... We have some good friends and I’m sure one of them is going to hold a big bash.

To Rice, and to a lot of people who have spent hours and days and, yes, the better part of a week analyzing this game, the biggest unknown in the Super Bowl is whether the Bucs' top-ranked defense can stop the Raiders' top-ranked offense. Period.

"Everything else," Rice says, "makes it cute."

The answer to this game's great question will come, in large part, from Rice himself. As the premier pass rusher in the NFC -- he had 15 1/2 sacks -- it will be up to Rice to disrupt the Oakland passing game, the major part of the Raiders' No. 1 offense.

In short, Rice has to get around the man in front of him and get to Oakland quarterback Rich Gannon.

If he can't, Oakland stands a much larger chance of coming out on top.

"I have to stay on him, for one," says Barry Sims, the tackle who stands in front of Rice, of his strategy for blocking Rice. "Any time you get any separation from him, he's got such a quick burst."

If Sims doesn't keep contact with Rice, or even if he does but gets a little off-balance, Rice will use his strength and speed to blow by him and get to Gannon. Even if he doesn't get a sack, Rice can make things happen. He led the Bucs with six forced fumbles and knocked down 11 passes.

"He has the ability as he speed-rushes around the corner in the pocket, he has a knack and a feel for stripping the ball out of the quarterback’s hand," Oakland coach Bill Callahan says. "When they do elect to drop him in coverage, he’s capable of making plays like a linebacker. This is a dangerous guy that we have to account for on every snap, especially on third down when it gets into long-distance situations."

Getting to Gannon has been a mantra of sorts for the Bucs. As good as the Bucs' defense is, it could end up looking pretty ordinary if Gannon, the league's MVP, isn't pressured, and isn't pressured all the time. Everyone points to the Miami game late in the season, when Gannon was sacked five times in a 23-17 Dolphins win, as a blueprint for success.

Earlier in the season -- that Miami loss was the Raiders' only one in their last 10 games -- Gannon had trouble in losses at St. Louis (four sacks) and San Diego (three).

Still, sacks aren't everything, and sometimes they barely bother Gannon. He was sacked four times by the Broncos late in the season but the Raiders still won. This is a guy who threw more than 600 passes. He threw for more than 300 yards in a game 10 times.

He'll get sacked, only to get up and throw again.

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The old saw that defenses win championships has some merit. Top-ranked defenses are 6-1 in the Super Bowl (since the 1970 merger). Top-ranked offenses are 7-4. According to USA Today, the team with the better offense in the Super Bowl is 18-18. The team with the better defense is 24-12.

But Sunday will mark the first time the No. 1 defense and the No. 1 offense have ever met in the Super Bowl.

There's a tendency at this time of the year to try to place an offense, or a defense, in historical context. When the Ravens won the Super Bowl after the 2000 season with a defensively dominant team, many compared them to the 1985 Chicago Bears, one of the best defenses of modern times.

Tampa Bay's '02 defense could get included in the conversation. If …

"You look at the great defenses of the past and they have won games and won championships. The jury is still out on where we fit in the great defenses of the past," Rice says. "But after we win this game, then we can talk about where we stand."

After this game, Rice will have his answer.

 

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