WR Reidel Anthony, who caught a crucial third-down pass on Friday, prepares to cut on CB Ronde Barber
In a way, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers picked up on Sunday right where they left off Friday night.
The lasting image from the waning moments of Friday night's game against Washington was rookie QB Joe Hamilton leading the Bucs on a successful hurry-up touchdown drive. After an off-day Saturday, the Bucs came back to camp on Sunday morning for a 45-minute practice, and immediately went back into the two-minute drill.
Head Coach Tony Dungy has only one full-pads workout scheduled for the four days of practice before the team's next preseason contest, a Thursday night game in Miami, but he plans to put the time to good use by focusing on specific game situations. Sunday morning, it was the two-minute drill, over and over, with the first, second and third teams rotating rapidly.
On Sunday morning, the offense looked almost as sharp as it had Friday night, consistently moving down near the goal line during the two-minute drills. However, as it had on Friday, the attack flickered out near the end zone and the Bucs most often settled for field goals. K Martin Gramatica, who uncharacteristically missed two kicks on Friday night, was perfect on Sunday morning.
The short week between preseason games one and two will also be used to re-evaluate the team's mildly injured players, a list that includes such starters as Mike Alstott, Damien Robinson and Jason Odom. None of those three were back on the field Sunday morning, but one player, rookie WR Tavarus Hogans, did see his first action in approximately a week.
Another player that sat out the session on Sunday morning was WR Keyshawn Johnson, but there is no cause for alarm. Johnson felt a little beat up from a variety of awkward tackles and collisions Friday night and was given Sunday morning off. "I'm alright," said Johnson afterward. "I'm a little sore…my body's a little sore."
There was a moment of deeper concern on Friday night when Johnson hauled in a 14-yard pass but was twisted strangely as he was tackled by CB Deion Sanders and other Redskins. While the play looked frightening on tape, the flexible Johnson says it was nothing out of the ordinary.
"I've seen enough replays to know what it looked like," he said. "I've been in worse situations than that where I've been bent up. I'm fine. I'll play. I'll be practicing on Monday."
Johnson, in fact, continued to play after that tackle and was only taken out when the first team offense finished up its night. That's the nature of the business in the preseason, and some veterans prefer that opportunity to preserve themselves for the regular season, but Johnson wishes he could stay in a little longer.
"I'd like to play a little more," he said on Sunday. "I'm not coming out of the game during the (regular) season. They can forget it, unless I'm seriously hurt. If they would let me play the whole game, I'd play the whole game. All the way with Joe (Hamilton), Scott (Milanovich), (Eric) Zeier…I would have stayed in the whole game if they would have let me. If they had just closed their eyes, I never would have come out.
Tampa Bay will come back to the practice field Sunday afternoon for a one-hour workout devoted solely to special teams. The Bucs have practiced kickoff returns ceaselessly during Training Camp 2000, but received only moderate results on Friday, mostly due to costly penalties. They will try to work that out Sunday afternoon, then return on Monday morning for the only full-pads workout of the week.
