TAMPA, Fla. -- The last thing anyone expected Tony Dungy to do is try to beat the Rams at their own game. The Rams have Kurt Warner. The Buccaneers have Shaun King. No way was this rematch of last season's NFC Championship Game going to be a shootout.
|  | | Shaun King scrambles away from Rams linebacker London Fletcher (59) for a key first down late in the fourth quarter. |
But the King story goes back eight days to a monsoon in Miami. The Dolphins and Bucs were bogged down in a low-scoring game of field goals. Tampa Bay's offensive coaches treated King like a kid, telling him to be cautious on this, to watch out for that and don't screw it up. NFL Films caught him coming over to the sidelines and yelling, "Just let me play my (bleeping) game!"
On Monday night, King played his bleeping game. Offensive coordinator Les Steckel, who sometimes overprepares quarterbacks, just let
King play. On his fourth offensive play, Steckel let King rifle a long pass that was intercepted. This normally is considered an offensive no-no. But Steckel didn't fret. He took the wraps off his struggling quarterback and watched him outduel the Rams, 38-35, in the latest of the greatest Monday Night Football games.
Imagine King, he of the 60-yard-net passing games, matching Warner, he of the 300-yard days, pass for pass, touchdown drive for touchdown drive. King doesn't have Warner's smooth, authoritative style. At 6-foot, he's short. His 225-pound body isn't pretty either, having a slight hint of flab at the tender age of 23.
It took three series to get the Rams' offense started, but Warner fired slant pass after slant pass to set up four touchdowns by Marshall Faulk over the course of the game. Drives of 76 and 72 yards on back-to-back possessions in the first half gave the Rams a 14-10 lead. You could see the delight along the Rams' sideline. The Bucs were going to play them in a shootout, and because the Rams had all the weapons, King wouldn't stand a chance.
"We haven't been involved in too many games like that," Dungy said. "Our offense has taken a lot of criticism, but I think this game
proved what we are made of."
King didn't hold back from throwing an occasional long pass. For the first time this season, he even went into the game making Keyshawn Johnson his primary target. Johnson caught seven passes for 116 yards and two touchdowns.
When King hit Johnson for an 8-yarder with 4:02 left in the first half to put the Bucs ahead 17-14, momentum changed. The Rams were being beaten at their game, and King was doing it well. Warner followed with a three-and-out capped by a lunging body-slam sack by Warren Sapp, who has 15½ for the season.
King marched his offense back with a 58-yard drive on six plays and, believe it or not, the Bucs led 24-14 at halftime. And Johnson, ignored more than he'd like in the first 14 games, had his second touchdown of the game before intermission.
"We've shown that we can grind it out, and tonight we showed we can win going out and throwing it around," said King, who completed 18 of 38 passes for 256 yards and two touchdowns. "Each week I think we've been cutting down on our mistakes."
But face it, King is the quarterback that people love to hate. He doesn't execute plays the pretty way. Accuracy isn't his strength. His only really good stat is his record, 10-5 this season and 4-1 as a starter last year. To think that King is a 14-6 quarterback, and lately Brett Favre is hanging around the .500 mark, is almost inconceivable.
"There's been people in this locker room who have doubted him," guard Frank Middleton confessed.
His rebound from disaster in the fourth quarter of this thriller is the defining moment of King's
young career so far. Leading 31-28 in the fourth, King had the Bucs with a first-and-goal at the Rams' 1-yard line with 7:14
left. He fired a pass to tight end Dave Moore that was dropped. Warrick Dunn was stopped for a 2-yard loss.
Confusion reigned when Bucs coaches tried to take back a play-call and had to waste a time out. On third down, King lobbed a fade pass to Johnson, who was double-covered, and the ball went off his hands and was intercepted by Dexter McCleon.
Two plays later, Warner hit Torry Holt on an uncovered slant pass that went for a 72-yard touchdown and gave the Rams a 35-31 lead with 5:18 left. The Bucs were stopped on the next possession, and when they got it back one last time, they had 80 yards to go and only 2:22 remaining to do it.
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I told (King) that despite all the criticism and everything that was going on, that he grew up today. There has been a lot of doubt about our offense. Today, it was up to the offense to bail out the defense." ” |
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— Derrick Brooks, Buccaneers linebacker |
"I look at Steve McNair and I look at Shaun King and I see a guy in King who has only played about 18 to 20 games as opposed to somebody who had the chance to sit for two years," Johnson said. "Here's a guy who is forced to play and learn as he goes along. He has to sort it out."
Five plays into this monumental 80-yard drive, King faced a crisis. Warrick Dunn was trapped for a huge loss on a screen along the right sideline. King ran over yelling, "Warrick, Warrick, Warrick!"
"I didn't second-guess myself, and I just pitched him the football," Dunn said. "It was a sandlot play. You can't draw those plays up."
King, sensing it would be illegal to pass the ball again, just ran. He gained a first down 15 yards downfield and then gained 15 more because linebacker Mike Jones hit him out of bounds, drawing a penalty. With 1:33 left, King had the Bucs at the Rams' 35. A 22-yard pass with 1:02 left to Reidel Anthony put the ball at the Rams' 1. Two plays later, Dunn scored a touchdown and the Bucs clinched a playoff spot, leaving the Rams on the verge of playoff elimination.
"We were walking off the field and were in the tunnel and I told him that despite all the criticism and everything that was going on, that he grew up today," linebacker Derrick Brooks said. "There has been a lot of doubt about our offense. Today, it was up to the offense to bail out the defense."
King didn't gloat afterward. He has endured an entire season in which he's been the player most outsiders felt would keep the Bucs out of the Super Bowl. "People have been dogging him for weeks," Dunn said. King, oblivious to the criticism, simply performs and wins. He has won seven of his last eight starts. On Monday night, he won a shootout against the best gunslingers in the NFL.
"Before that drive, Rams players were saying, 'Take your pads off, it's over,' " Frank Middleton said. "That was dumb. The game wasn't over. We hit them in the mouth and made them play two more minutes. I guess their coach doesn't want them to play four quarters.
"I just want to say, 'Rams, you (stink), ya'll are punks and I hate all y'all.' That won't change."
What changed was King. On Monday Night, he wore a crown.
John Clayton is the senior NFL writer for ESPN.com.
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VIDEO
  ESPN.com's John Clayton says Shaun King and the Bucs' offense are finally on track. wav: 352 kRealAudio: 14.4 | 28.8 | 56.6  Shaun King hopes the Bucs can get the monkey off thier backs at Green Bay next week. avi: 1329 kRealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1 Keyshawn Johnson talks about the Bucs' offense, playing in Tampa Bay and more. RealVideo: 28.8 Shaun King tells Chris Berman this was one of the biggest victories in Bucs' history. wav: 508 kRealAudio: 14.4 | 28.8 | 56.6 |
