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Playoff fourtunes

Take IV: Buccaneers-Eagles renew postseason rivalry

Posted: Sunday January 12, 2003 8:39 PM

TAMPA, Fla. -- Here's all you need to know in the wake of Tampa Bay's 31-6 throttling of San Francisco in the NFC Divisional playoffs Sunday:

Brad Johnson's back is back. No worries there.

The Bucs' top-ranked defense is revved up, coming off the equivalent of a second consecutive bye week, and primed to take on anybody.

And from this vantage point, there's still no way Tampa Bay matches up against those omnipresent Philadelphia Eagles.

Not to slight the Bucs' impressive win -- their first postseason victory since 1999 -- but Sunday's game seemed like an afterthought midway through the second quarter, by which time Tampa Bay had built a 21-6 lead against an outmanned and crippled San Francisco team.

The scoreboard might have said 49ers, but somehow, everywhere you looked, the specter of next week's NFC title-game showdown against the Big Green Machine loomed over Raymond James Stadium.

For the next seven delicious days, four little words will suffice: Here we go again.

"We wanted a situation where we were going to play them again in Philly, and we got that," said Bucs poet laureate Simeon Rice, who doubles as a defensive end. "All we have to do is bring our dancing shoes, put our best foot forward and let the chips fall where they may."

Rice's analogy was a little awkward, but there was no side-stepping the Bucs' Philadelphia story. Watching Sunday's game unfold, it was impossible not to let the mind drift ahead to next week at ratty old Veterans Stadium, when two of the past three NFC title-game losers meet for the right to at last make it to the NFL's Roman-numeraled promised land.

While the Bucs will be looking to finally bury their Eagles hex, Philly will be looking to bury the Bucs -- yet again. That would give the Eagles five consecutive wins overall in the series and three postseason punchouts of Tampa Bay in a row.

Start with five, take away three, and it all begs at least two questions: Haven't we seen this before, and why should anyone believe the outcome will be different this time, when Tampa Bay will have the unenviable distinction of closing out Veterans Stadium?

This much we know: If the Bucs play as well as they talked Sunday, they at least have a fighting chance.

"It doesn't matter about the past," Rice said. "It only matters about the present, because we're living for today, and today is all we've got. So we journey into Veterans for the last game. We're going to blow the place up. We're going to destroy it. We're going with the C-4 [plastic explosive] in a bag."

Suffused with confidence after their dismantling of the 49ers -- who ended the game with three of their four starting secondary members sidelined by injuries -- the Bucs for the moment shoved aside their 0-6 lifetime record in playoff road games. And their 1-21 record in games played below 40 degrees. Not to mention the Eagles' status as the lone NFL team that has climbed fully and uncomfortably into Tampa Bay's head.

"If we're good enough to get to the Super Bowl, we've got to do it going through Philly," Bucs safety John Lynch said. "To be honest, I'd like to play it right here. I was kind of hoping those Falcons would take care of them.

"But since it didn't happen, we get a chance to go up there and exorcise our demons. The last two years it has been miserable up there. They sent us home for the season. We have a ton of respect for that team, but we also think we can get it done."

Getting it done is the job Bucs first-year head coach Jon Gruden was charged with the moment he hit town after being pried away from Oakland in exchange for a pirate's ransom. His Bucs team is only 0-1 at the Vet, the result of a 20-10 Week 7 loss, leaving him in no mood to entertain a lot of self-defeating talk of a jinx.

"We're not going to sit here and try to justify what happened two or three years ago and what happened last year," Gruden said. "It's irrelevant. We respect Philadelphia this year, because of what they've done this season.

"What happened last year is not going to hurt us or help us in any way. We realize we have our hands full. We're going to get on a plane and we'll go and we'll play any place, be it the Vet or on the Walt Whitman Bridge."

Just how wide is the chasm between the two rivals? Based on recent history, the Eagles' dominance could constitute the second coming of the Broad Street Bullies. Consider:

During their four-game losing streak to the Eagles, the Bucs have scored just one offensive touchdown, one defensive touchdown and seven field goals. In their past three trips to Veterans Stadium, all losses, the Bucs' offense has been held to five field goals.

In Tampa Bay's late-October loss in Philadelphia, linebacker Derrick Brooks' fumble recovery and return provided the Bucs' only touchdown.

The Bucs lost 31-9 in last January's first-round playoff, a game that sealed Tony Dungy's fate as a soon-to-be-fired Bucs head coach.

They lost 21-3 in a first-round game in 2000, effectively ending Shaun King's reign as the Bucs' starting quarterback.

Throw in the Bucs' 17-13 loss to the visiting Eagles in the 2001 regular-season finale, and Philadelphia has overwhelmed Tampa Bay to the tune of 89-35 in those four games.

"One of the things that gets me about Philly is when you go back and really think about these games, that place [the Vet] has a frantic feel to it," Lynch said. "When you're down sometimes by one touchdown, it can feel like you're down by 20 points."

No matter how you factor in the Bucs' brave words and late-season momentum, it's hard to see how they will account for much come next Sunday in the wild and woolly environs of the Vet. Break down this matchup, and a few givens jump out at you:

The Bucs, who rushed for 121 yards on 38 carries against San Francisco, won't be able to run against the Eagles. That will force Tampa Bay to throw the ball often and invite Philadelphia defensive coordinator Jim Johnson to do what he does best: send a bevy of blitzes Brad Johnson's way. As the 49ers finally figured out far too late Sunday, Johnson, like most quarterbacks, is far less effective when the pass rush starts breathing down his neck.

If the Bucs' O-line can withstand the Eagles' pressure, Philadelphia's talented secondary figures to shut down Tampa Bay's receivers, who lack the ability to create much separation. The Bucs completed 16 of 32 passes for 217 yards and two touchdowns against San Francisco, but the truth is, the Bucs merely did what they should have done Sunday: take advantage of an injury-decimated secondary.

49ers cornerback Jason Webster (ankle) was inactive, and the team's best pass defender, Ahmed Plummer, left early in the game with a separated shoulder. Injured free safety Zack Bronson left the game in the third quarter, forcing San Francisco into a makeshift mode.

The Bucs' stout defense will no doubt do its part to keep Donovan McNabb and the Philly offense in check. But unless Tampa Bay's offense has an antidote for the Eagles' all-out blitzes, the Bucs' lightly regarded offensive line figures to be overmatched by Philadelphia's swarming defensive front.

Add it all up, and that's pretty much the blueprint that has turned Tampa Bay into the Eagles' personal punching bag. But that was then. What happens now?

"It doesn't matter what has happened in the past four games," said Brooks, the NFL's Defensive Player of the Year. "This is a different team, a different day. We're on the way to the Super Bowl, and we've got to go through Philadelphia.

"It doesn't matter how we get it done, we've got to get it done. Obviously, it's for the highest stakes. But when this team first met in March, we said, "Everything goes through Philadelphia." There's no better way to get a hump off your back than to go beat Philly and go to the Super Bowl."

So it's Bucs at Eagles. Bigger than ever. Hang on. Here we go again.

Don Banks covers pro football for CNNSI.com.

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