Last season’s trip here was marked by Jim Miller replacing Cade McNown at quarterback with the Bucs leading 6-0 midway through the third quarter.
But Bears coach Dick Jauron said he did not consider relieving McNown at any point during Sunday’s 41-0 pasting by the Bucs, who led the Bears 20-0 at halftime.
“We wanted to stay with him,” Jauron said. “I mean, this is the defense we’re going to have to play against. They’re the defending champions of our division and in order to get where they are, you’ve got to go through them. We’ve got to figure it out. We have to come up with some answers against them.”
Jauron discounted the suggestion that McNown is still too inexperienced to handle a defense as deceptive and aggressive as Tampa Bay’s.
“I think he can rally us,” Jauron said of McNown. “You can see when he’s out there, he’s never going to quit. He’s a very tough guy, he’s a very competitive guy. I really believe it just got out of hand in the last 21/2 minutes of the first half and went downhill fast from there.”
Offensive coordinator Gary Crowton said he is more concerned with the entire offense than just one individual, but did allow, “[McNown] is young, he makes mistakes and they have a good defense. I have to look at film first before I can make any statements about how it went. It was bad, I know that.”
Guard Chris Villarrial said he was not concerned that Sunday’s drubbing, in which McNown had two interceptions and a fumble and was sacked five times, would hinder the quarterback’s morale.
“You really don’t worry about Cade,” Villarrial said. “Cade has grown up a lot and taken big strides and these games are going to make him a stronger person, I think. We just have to communicate more with him and get his confidence up and block for him better.
“Cade’s a good athlete and he’ll do things back there and he’ll win for us.”
Said Miller: “We didn’t have any consistency or get anything going, so I think they just wanted to establish something and get a tempo going. But we never did.”
History Dept.: If you’re looking for trends, don’t look here.
The last time the Bears were shut out–26-0 to the 49ers in the 1989 season finale–they finished the season 6-10.
The previous time they were shut out, however–41-0 to San Francisco in the third-to-last game in ’87–they went 11-4 and advanced to the playoffs.
Kicking: At 41-0, it wouldn’t seem to matter. But Jauron was asked at 41-0 Bucs, why the Bears opted to go for a field goal by Paul Edinger–wide right from 42 yards–rather than go for the first down on fourth-and-10 from the Tampa Bay 25.
“What I said to [coach] Keith [Armstrong] on the sideline was, `If it’s fourth-and-10, we’ll kick it; if it’s fourth-and-five, we’ll go.’ We have a young kicker,” said Jauron. “I’d like him to kick every opportunity he can.
“Fourth-and-10 is hard to convert against anybody, harder against this team. The odds of us kicking the field goal and then deciding we wanted to onside kick were better than trying to convert the fourth-and-10.”
Hurting: Wide receiver Marty Booker had his arm in a sling after Sunday’s game with a bruised shoulder. Safety Frankie Smith was on crutches and had a walking cast on a severely sprained ankle.
No score: Wide receiver Bobby Engram and quarterback Shane Matthews are still the only current Bears who have reached a Tampa Bay end zone. And the last offensive touchdown by the Bears against the Bucs still belongs to Curtis Conway in 1998.
Bad precedent: McNown is the Bears’ leading rusher for 2000 with 136 yards in 15 carries, a 9-yard average. The Bears and NFL record on a minimum of 100 carries is 9.9 yards per carry set by Beattie Feathers in 1934.
Run-on: The Bears played a safety up close to the line of scrimmage to combat the Tampa Bay running game. It worked reasonably well through three quarters as the Bucs managed 95 yards, but in the fourth quarter Tampa Bay ran for 61 yards, including a 20-yard touchdown run by Mike Alstott.
“Hopefully this sends a message to teams who line up in eight-man fronts,” said running back Warrick Dunn.
Active: With the Tampa heat and possibilities of starter Marcus Robinson having dehydration problems, the Bears had six receivers on the active roster Sunday. D’Wayne Bates was designated an inactive but rookie Dez White played in his first regular-season game. White’s first catch was a 6-yard throw from McNown that White then fumbled. Tampa Bay cornerback Ronde Barber, who also had 21/2 sacks of McNown, then picked the ball up and carried it 24 yards for a touchdown.
“I just turned around and tried to get out of bounds,” White said. “I had the ball in my arms but he hit me right as I turned around. On the way down I started bobbling it but I thought I had it when I hit the ground.”
Famous guest: Michael Jordan was embarrassed at the impromptu news conference starting to form in the Buccaneers locker room Sunday. “Go talk to some football players,” he chided.
But the Washington Wizards’ part-owner and general manager was visiting the Bucs’ Warren Sapp. “Warren and I are good friends who speak to each other by telephone every other week,” Jordan said. “I am a big fan of his. I guess Warren invited me not knowing that the Buccaneers were playing the Bears. I [was] kind of torn as to who I should be rooting for.”
