Gannon was all alone, but not at the top
QB, FAR FROM MR. POPULAR, SUFFERS HORRENDOUS GAME
By Tim Kawakami
Mercury News Staff Columnist


Mercury News / Mercury News

Raider quarterback Rich Gannon is sacked by Buccaneer defensive end Greg Spires.


SAN DIEGO - Nobody spoke to Rich Gannon, or grabbed his shoulder in consolation, or patted his back, or acknowledged his presence at all.

He was alone as Super Bowl XXXVII crashed down on his head. Alone as the offense coughed and collapsed. For most of the 3 hours, 50 minutes of sad and shocking Raiders football Sunday, Gannon, the league MVP, was on the sideline 100 percent isolated from his teammates -- by his choice and theirs.

``What was Rich's mood? How do I know, I wasn't in his pocket,'' receiver Jerry Porter snapped after the game.

Well, weren't you in his huddle? ``Next question,'' Porter said.

Gannon is a special player: Leading this corps of elder statesmen, he's a competitor so grim and ferocious that he often inspires as much loathing from his teammates as he does respect. They could not have gotten here without him. They could have enjoyed it far more if he had not been here at all. And, since they didn't do it this time, they may not get another chance.

But in the horrible 48-21 loss to Tampa Bay, Gannon was especially woeful and especially alone. He was the worst thing about their worst game, and there was nobody around to say otherwise.

``I had a terrible night,'' Gannon said after setting a Super Bowl record by throwing five interceptions, three of which were returned for touchdowns. ``I wish I didn't. You never want to have a night like that.

``I'm not going to kill myself, I promise you. I don't want to minimize what happened tonight, but I tried my best. But it wasn't enough, and that's what happens sometimes.''

One failure after another

Eleven times Gannon walked off the field after a failed possession. Eleven times he went to the sideline, maneuvered through milling teammates and stood by himself, hands on hips, helmet on and eyes darkening.

One time, receiver Tim Brown came over for a word or two, then walked away. A couple of times, Gannon talked with offensive coordinator Marc Trestman. But other than that, it was as though a force field stood between Gannon and his teammates. What else could he do? Gannon is no fraud. These players are not his friends. His closest friend in the stadium probably was the opposing coach, Jon Gruden, whom Gannon sought out for a postgame hug.

What did Gruden tell him? ``Hang in there,'' Gannon said.

Gannon considers many Raiders to be slackers, as he makes evident, and Barret Robbins' weekend festivities probably tell you that Gannon is more right than not. But this loss was not about slackers. It was about a Tampa Bay defense fine-tuned to stop Gannon by applying constant pressure and refusing to bite on his canny pump fakes. The Bucs knew that if they stopped Gannon, they would win.

Gannon wasn't sharp, completing just 10 of 23 passes through 2 1/2 quarters. He threw three interceptions before the fourth quarter; he hadn't thrown three interceptions in a game since Dec. 16, 2000, against Seattle. He was chased and antsy. He overthrew, underthrew and maybe even panicked at times. A late flurry only slightly improved his statistics: 24 of 44 for 272 yards, with five sacks and those five interceptions.

On each of his first three interceptions, Gannon had receivers open for a moment but couldn't deliver the ball quickly enough.

``I'm not going to sit here and pay lip service to that defense and say they did this, this and this to stop us,'' Porter said. ``It wasn't what they did. It was what we didn't do.''

Not the usual Gannon

In other words, Gannon was nothing close to the Gannon of the first 18 games -- the Gannon who carried the No. 1 offense in football, who dominated every important game, who was so good on Sundays that his teammates didn't care that they disliked him Monday through Saturday.

The Gannon who won.

Gannon didn't deny that the Bucs' pressure, particularly hard hits delivered early by linemen Greg Spires and Simeon Rice, affected him.

``There's an expression,'' Gannon said. ``Knock a great quarterback around and you make him a good quarterback; knock a good quarterback around and you make him average; knock an average quarterback around and you make him a poor quarterback.

``That's probably a little bit what happened tonight.''

Really, there weren't many open Raiders, at least until the Bucs' defense relaxed after going up 34-3. Brown and Jerry Rice, choked off from the offense by a physical secondary, combined for just one catch (by Brown) in the first half. Rice had five catches in the second half, Brown none.

Rich, were you looking for your future Hall of Famers?

``I was looking for everybody,'' Gannon said, looking away from me for a moment. He turned back after a second and added quietly, ``I was looking for somebody.''

But on this terrible night for the Raiders, he never found anyone. He just had to keep walking back to the sideline, alone, silent and unable this one last time to do anything about it.