NFL: Bucs' swagger gets a lift

The head coach of the defending Super Bowl champions slightly resembled the man who stood on a makeshift stage in San Diego 10 months ago with the Vince Lombardi Trophy.

Slightly.

Tampa Bay improved to 5-6 and remained mathematically in the playoff hunt. For the first time since very early in the season, the Bucs showed flashes of the team so many predicted to have a good shot at repeating as champions. Their confident swagger seemed to return.

"We might lead the league in swagger. We've got a lot of confident football players and they played well last night," Gruden said at his weekly day-after-game press conference. "If we continue to play like that and can build off that performance and put back-to-back consistent games together like that, we're a handful."

The fragile Buccaneers defense came into the game desperate to rid itself of whatever it was that caused three consecutive late-game collapses against New Orleans, Carolina and Green Bay. The Packers sent the Bucs to the bottom with a 98-yard scoring drive -- the determined the final outcome -- on Nov. 16.

On Monday night, in front of an antsy home crowd at Raymond James Stadium and a national television audience, Warren Sapp, Simeon Rice, Dwight Smith, John Lynch and company stiffened when it counted most and shut the door on the Giants three times in the closing minutes of the fourth quarter.

Lynch intercepted a Kerry Collins pass with just over three minutes left. Sapp sacked Collins in the shadow of the Giants end zone -- his second sack of the night -- at the two-minute warning. Barber and Rice, who picked up his league-leading 12th sack in the first half, came up with key tackles and pass breakups. Smith had a one-handed interception in the end zone late in the third quarter.

"This was kind of what we're used to, guys making huge plays," Barber said after the game. "If it's not interceptions in the two-minute drill it's sacks, which we got today. It's huge. To knock a team out when they've got an opportunity to come back into the game is huge for us. And we haven't done it in recent weeks. Today we did."

Smith set the tone for the evening with his bone-crushing hit on Giants receiver Amani Toomer in the second quarter. The play came on third down from the Bucs' 12 with the score 7-0 in favor of Tampa Bay, and New York had to settle for a field goal.

"This guy's got rare athletic ability," Gruden said of Smith, who tied with Lynch for second in tackles on the night with six and had two passes defensed.

With five games remaining, the Bucs still have an outside shot of grabbing one of the two wild card spots in the NFC. Their schedule is favorable, with 2-9 Jacksonville on tap this Sunday night on the road, followed by a road game at 5-6 New Orleans, then home against 4-7 Houston and 2-9 Atlanta before finishing at 9-2 Tennessee.

Getting healthy bodies back on the field in the form of offensive left tackle Roman Oben, safety Jermaine Phillips, linebacker Ryan Nece, wide receiver Joe Jurevicius and tight end Rickey Dudley has Gruden and the Bucs thinking positive. And the emergence of running back Thomas Jones and wide receiver Charles Lee (five catches for 91 yards and a touchdown) also has helped.

"The glass is half empty and now we're just trying to fill it up," said Lee, who effectively replaced the deactivated Keyshawn Johnson in the lineup as quarterback Brad Johnson's third receiver. "Hopefully this week we can pour a little bit more water in and keep the glass rising."