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Bucs Stuck In A Road Rut

Tribune photo by JOSEPH BROWN III

The Atlanta Falcons are 5-1 at home this year.

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By ROY CUMMINGS

rcummings@tampatrib.com

Published: December 14, 2008

Updated: 12/14/2008 12:13 am

TLANTA - See that dateline over there on the left? It spells trouble for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. They are 3-4 this year whenever it says something other than TAMPA.

That's nothing to be ashamed of. The average road record of the 32 teams in the league this year is 3-4. The Bucs, though, don't consider themselves to be an average team.

They consider themselves to be a playoff team, maybe even a Super Bowl contender. If they want to maintain those distinctions, they need to do something about that road record.

"It's definitely something we have to shore up," nose tackle Chris Hovan said.

Since 2000, road teams have won just 29 of the league's 80 playoff games, and a road team is what the Bucs will be if the playoff slate remains the same through the end of the season.

It's in the Bucs' best interest, then, to shake that fifth seed their holding onto now and get back in the running for one of the first two NFC playoff seeds and the home games that go with them.

To do that, they really need to win today at the Georgia Dome. No easy task there. The Falcons are 5-1 whenever the dateline says ATLANTA this year, and they're a team suddenly on the rise.

The Bucs, meanwhile, are coming off another stumble on the road, this one in Carolina, where they surrendered 299 yards rushing in a 38-23 loss to the now NFC-South-leading Panthers.

It was a mostly uncommon performance by the Bucs, who blamed their demise on poor execution of defensive fundamentals. In some ways, though, it was typical of how the Bucs have performed away from home this year.

For the fourth time this year, they gave up the first score on the road; for the sixth time this year they failed to score a first-quarter offensive touchdown on the road; for the third time this year they trailed at halftime on the road.

"It's hard to put a finger on it," Bucs guard Davin Joseph said. "It seems to be one thing one week and another thing the next. Sometimes it's penalties, sometimes in turnovers. Like I said, it's hard to put a finger on it."

One thing that makes the Bucs' road woes so confounding is the fact they have had little trouble winning at home. The Bucs are 6-0 at Raymond James Stadium this year, and in most cases they have dominated their opponent.

Though they have started slowly there as well, scoring just three first-quarter offensive touchdowns, they've never gone into the fourth quarter without a lead and have outscored opponents by an average of 24-13.

"I don't know what it is, but it's like we feel a little more comfortable at home," Joseph said. "We hit a little harder at home. Bottom line is, we're just a little better at home."

The Bucs have scored an average of 23 points per game on the road this year, but that number is boosted by three defensive touchdowns and one kick return and one punt return for touchdowns.

Take that away, and the Bucs' offense is producing an average of 18 points per game while the defense is surrendering 23 points and 343 yards per game, which is more than 100 yards more than the Bucs allow at home.

"In Dallas, Denver and New Orleans we gave up a lot of big plays," Hovan said. "And last week at Carolina, we got out of our gaps on defense and didn't make tackles.

"When we're on our game we're not giving up big plays, we're stopping the run and we're getting after the quarterback. That's Buc Ball. When you let that other stuff creep in, you've got problems."

Familiarity is a problem for the Bucs. Veteran defensive end Kevin Carter said the rigors of traveling, especially long distances, and the change in daily routine before a road game can affect a player's performance.

"At home you don't have a lot of the distractions that you have on the road," Carter said. "On the road you always seem to have people from out of town coming to see you and things like that.

"There's just a lot of little things that go on on the road that kind of mess with your regular way of doing things, of preparing for a game. It's just such a process."

It's a process championship teams find a way to overcome. Since 1988, no Super Bowl team has had a losing road record and only two reached the big game with 4-4 regular-season road records.

Which brings us back to today's game in Atlanta. The Bucs can reach that .500 level on the road by winning today, but even if they do win they'll still be 2-4 on the road against teams with winning records.

According to linebacker Derrick Brooks, the key to winning on the road lies in playing the same kind of fundamentally sound football that the Bucs play at home.

"To me, it's not so much a road issue, it's more of an issue of us doing what we do," Brooks said. "We have to trust our system and trust the offense, trust the defense. And we can't panic when teams get big plays on us.

"That's what happened last week. We got into a little bit of a panic mode and we lost our rhythm. We just have to keep things simple and make the plays when the plays are there to be made."

If the Bucs do that and win today, they will move another step closer to Coach Jon Gruden's ultimate goal, which goes well beyond just winning regularly on the road.

"What we'd like to do is prove to ourselves that we can win anywhere, anytime," he said.

Reporter Roy Cummings can be reached at (813) 259-7979.

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