As I watched the Tampa Bay Buccaneers practice during training camp last summer, I couldn't help but let my mind fast forward to late December, to a time when I saw this team out of playoff contention and a Glazer family foot pushing Jon Gruden out the door.
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| Jon Gruden's hot seat has cooled off very nicely. (AP) |
"Everybody's under pressure," Gruden said. "So what?"
He really didn't seem to care. He didn't seem at all bothered by reports it would be a win-or-else year for the man who led the Bucs to their crowning moment, a Super Bowl victory to end the 2002 season that made those laughable Creamsicle-colored Bucs seem as if they had existed a lifetime ago.
Many of his players brushed aside the talk as well. They insisted the 2006 season, which ended with a 4-12 record -- the worst for a Bucs team in 15 years -- was not what it appeared to be and that they were more like the 11-5 team that won the division in 2005.
I didn't believe them.
Maybe I should have.
"I told you," Bucs linebacker Derrick Brooks said last week. "I told you this team was close. I knew what we had. I knew that we lost a lot of close games last year and this team could be a good one. I told you."
Tampa Bay is 7-4 heading to New Orleans to play the Saints this weekend with a chance to all but clinch the NFC South title. It would be a last-to-first story, which we've come to accepts as the norm these days in the wacky NFL.
Back in July, who could have imagined that?
"We expected to be good," Brooks said. "I did anyway."
Not many others did. The Bucs had major issues. Some thought getting 37-year-old quarterback Jeff Garcia was just a Band-Aid move. Instead, Garcia been taking care of the football, which is what Gruden wants.
In 11 starts, Garcia has thrown for 2,135 yards, 11 touchdowns and just three interceptions. His ability to escape pressure and turn potentially bad plays into good ones is a big reason the Bucs are where they are.
