Bucs weren't a surprise, but domination was

That Tampa Bay won last Sunday's Super Bowl wasn't a major surprise. The Bucs were only four-point underdogs, and most people expected a close game.

But the way Jon Gruden's team thoroughly dominated Oakland could not have been anticipated by many gridiron fans, except maybe die-hard Bucs loyalists. Tampa Bay's 48-21 romp put a major exclamation point on a dominant postseason run.

The Bucs outscored their three playoff foes 106-37 and allowed just three offensive touchdowns. Not since the 1985 Bears has there been a defense so dominant in the playoffs (Chicago outscored its three opponents 91-10).

At halftime of the Super Bowl, Oakland's record-setting offense had just 62 yards. Only those 1985 Bears allowed less first-half yards, during their Super Bowl rout of New England.

I expected a game that could go either way and figured we might have the type of thrilling, down-to-the-wire Super Bowl of the last two seasons, when the Rams first slipped past the Titans and then lost to the Patriots on a last-second field goal.

It never happened as the Bucs -- specifically a defense that was incredible -- were simply too good.

It was certainly quite a performance for a team directed by a former Southeast Missouri State University assistant coach.

Gruden is being lauded these days as a coaching genius -- and based on Tampa Bay's performance last Sunday, there is plenty of evidence that he just might be.

One more NFL note: Former Southeast Missouri State University standout Jason Witczak signed a free-agent contract with the Buffalo Bills last weekend.

Witczak, a place-kicker, has been in the Tennessee Titans' training camp the last two years but was cut both times before the season started.

Now Witczak will take another crack -- with a different organization -- at making the NFL. He's a great guy, and here's wishing him the best.

I just can't seem to get the hang of this wing-eating stuff.

As people who regularly read my column know, I recently lost badly to Southeast assistant women's basketball coach Lisa Pace in a contest to see who could eat six extremely hot wings the fastest during coach B.J. Smith's weekly radio show at Buffalo Wild Wings.

Well, instead of going directly to a rematch with coach Pace, I was relegated to a play-in type of competition.

Lo and behold, I lost again, although this time it was much closer: Junior forward Carina Souza beat me during the show two Thursdays ago (I guess that's what I get for trying to drink so much beer while I eat the wings).

I congratulate Carina, who was a good sport about it and didn't rub it in too much. And once again I had a great time at the show, which is always a lot of fun.

And I'm not about to give up. I'm going to keep practicing until facing my next opponent -- although I might need to go up against somebody less than 10 years old to gain a little confidence, even though that probably still wouldn't be a lock.

Memo to the person who suggested in the FanSpeak section of a recent Southeast Missourian that Central boys' basketball coach Derek McCord would be better served to play his seniors more, since several of them started last year and would give the Tigers' much-needed experience: You'll recall that Central went 4-21 last season under new coach McCord and is 13-5 this year. Based on those records alone, I'd say it looks like McCord is making the right lineup choices.

Really, I can't imagine any Central basketball fan would be anything less than elated with the job McCord is doing in building the Tigers' program.

Just one example of why you've got to love college basketball: Struggling Evansville recently beat nationally ranked Creighton 74-66 just eight days after losing to the Bluejays 93-56.

In college hoops, any team can beat another on a given day. That's why, in my opinion, it's the best sport there is.

One more college basketball note, Ohio Valley Conference style: Morehead State is still in first place in the OVC, but the Eagles were brought back down to earth somewhat Thursday night as Austin Peay handed them their first league loss by winning in Morehead, Ky.

It looks like the OVC race might go right down to the wire after all.

Marty Mishow is a sports writer for the Southeast Missourian.