For Tampa Bay Buccaneers, last chance for 1996

For many of us, we see the similarities between the 2014 Bucs

and the 1996 team. Of course there are those who do not see it, and are mostly overcome with the terrible scores and play of the Bucs. As we enter the Bye week, lets go over one more comparison feature, and leave it to you to decide if you think there are parallels or not.

Remember, when you compare things, they will never be exactly equal. Thats why your COMPARING!- your looking to match the similarities or the opposite.

The Bucs hit the bye week in 1996 after week 5 as opposed to week 6 this year. We’ve seen many ex-Bucs come out and explain what happened last week: players not doing what they were supposed to do. Steve White showed it best with actual game photos and red/yellow circles showing the culprits, what they did/did not do that caused the big play.

You’ve read these blowouts are historical, so no, you won’t find any historical blowouts from 1996, but you will find blowouts. Are they the same? Keep in mind the NFL is different now than it was back in 1996.

The new Players Association deal limits amount of tackling with pads on practices. In 1996, Tony Dungy could run his players through drills as many times as he wanted, 3 times a day if he wanted to. Its going to take players longer to catch on than it did back then.

Does that mean the scores will be more lopsided? Well, it could. Maybe it doesn’t. Maybe there are no stars on this team like we think they are, or maybe, in 1996, some of the Bucs weren’t stars back then either?

There is no doubt the talent level is not the same…the Bucs in 1996 had many years of drafting high, and so have these Bucs. But Rich McKay started drafting in 1995 and he helped build the talent base up even higher. In 2014 the Bucs are suffering from 3 coaches in 6 years, with each successive coach getting rid of his predecessors players. Add to that a team built with a lot of free agents as opposed to drafted players, and you have a big difference in talent.

• The Bucs opened up 1996 with a 34-3 loss to the Packers, in which a few key mistakes caused the Bucs to go from a close loss, to a blowout.
• The second game wasn’t close either, Tampa Bay lost to Detroit on the road 21-6, before playing a couple of close games at Denver and vs Seattle. But at 0-4 it didn’t matter, the Lions were coming back to town for a rematch.
• Barry Sanders went nuts, it was a 27-0 loss to Detroit. Again, thats not 48-17, but its still a 4 score loss.

Tampa Bay hit its BYE week and worked on basics. They continued to drill the keys of their defense home. What happened next?

The Bucs got their first win for Tony Dungy with a home victory over Dungy’s old team the Vikings 24-13. They then lost  three more straight games.

In those 4 games however, they never gave up more than 13 points. A young inconsistent QB named Trent Dilfer and lack of a quality running game contributed.

It was during a week of internal issues that Dungy stopped coaching football and started to address his players issues as men. That week two players missed appointments with local schools or other businesses, and Dungy was beside himself with his players behavior. Thanks to a missed last second FG that forced OT, Bucs beat the Raiders.

Week 11 at San Diego is considered the game that turned the franchise around. The Bucs had been fired up with a passionate Dungy speech about national TV show. But they went out and were down 14-0 before they knew it. But they clawed back and won 25-17.

That win was a far cry from what that team was capable of doing in week 5. So we’ll just have to see what the Bucs do with their ten games left in 2014, and we can either put this 1996 comparison to rest, or celebrate it!