The Bucs, Halfway to ?
(October 30, 2000)

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers find themselves 4-4 at the halfway point of the 2000 season. For a team that many thought would be a Super Bowl contender, far more questions remain unanswered than have been answered.

The Bucs started the season 3-0 and everyone was jumping on the bandwagon. A 21-16 win at New England, a 41-0 blowout of Chicago in the home opener, a convincing 31-10 victory at Detroit and more pundits were predicting the Bucs would become the first team to play a Super Bowl in their own stadium. In the season's first loss, to the Jets 21-17, the Bucs allowed two touchdowns late in the game. A fourth quarter comeback went for naught in a 20-17 overtime loss at Washington. A late touchdown cost them a Monday night game at Minnesota 30- 23 and then they lost a Thursday night game against Detroit 28-14.

With four straight losses, the wheels were coming off quick. A complete effort against undefeated Minnesota Sunday at least stopped the bleeding. Shaun King threw four touchdown passes, the defense played exceptionally well and Keyshawn Johnson had a big day in a 41-13 victory.

Which Bucs team will we see in the second half of the season? A 4-4 record is disappointing after a 3-0 start, yet it is better than 3-5. After the 1997 team went to the playoffs expectations were high in 1998. When that team finished at .500, Tony Dungy commented "Eight and eight is disappointing. It's mediocre. We were capable of so much more." Most would admit that this year's team, with high expectations after last year's NFC Championship Game appearance, is capable of more. Will they go on to mediocrity? Will they go on to a strong finish like the 1999 team? Like Warren Sapp said after Sunday's victory, "Championships are won in November and December, so we're going to see where we go from here."

Even with all the expectations, there were plenty of questions about the 2000 version of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. How would the personnel changes affect team chemistry? How would Shaun King's sophomore season shake out? How would newcomers Keyshawn Johnson, Jeff Christy and Randall McDaniel work out? What about Damien Robinson, Booger Mcfarland and Les Steckel? At the mid-point of season, most of the training camp questions remain unanswered.

Obviously, any thing can happen on any given Sunday, but the second half of the season seems to be easier than the first. The current records of the first eight opponents is 39-25 (.609) and remaining teams have gone 30-35 (.462). The first half of the schedule featured six teams that have winning records, three of those on the road. Four of the teams are currently in first, or tied for first place, and two of those games were on the road. The second half of the season features only two teams with winning records, and each are in first place, with one of the games on the road. The Bucs should be favored over Atlanta, Green Bay (twice), Chicago, Buffalo and Dallas. They will probably be underdogs at Miami and for a Monday night home game against St. Louis.

So, where does all this leave us? After the first half of the season, who knows.