Polian confident Bucs are ready to be relevant again 
Bill Polian is confident that despite some struggles last year the Tampa 2 remains a championship-caliber defense. Tony Dungy brought the scheme to Indianapolis in 2002, when Polian hired him as head coach, and Dungy’s 2006 Colts went on to win the Super Bowl. ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE PHOTO By Roy Cummings | Tribune Staff Published: February 27, 2015 A 2-14 season in his first year back on the sidelines has left some fans to wonder if coach Lovie Smith can lead the Tampa Bay Buccaneers back to playoff prominence.One person with no such doubts is Bill Polian.The former Buffalo Bills and Indianapolis Colts executive who will be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame this year believes the Bucs are situated for a return to relevance.“First off, Lovie Smith has a blue print that he’s going to follow, and that blue print has proven he can take a team (the 2006 Chicago Bears) to the Super Bowl,’’ Polian said during a break last week at the NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis.“So what I would say to fans when they get frustrated there is, ‘Look to the history.’ Has it worked before? Yes, it has. So they ought to be confident that it will work again.’’Another reason Polian is confident the Bucs are on the right path stems from his belief in the defensive scheme Smith brought to Tampa after he was hired early last year.Smith has the Bucs playing the same Tampa 2 scheme they played when they won their only Super Bowl in 2002. Polian is confident that despite some struggles last year it remains a championship-caliber defense.Tony Dungy brought the scheme to Indianapolis in 2002, when Polian hired him as head coach. Dungy’s 2006 Colts went on to win the Super Bowl over Smith’s Bears.“I know from having picked players for that defense for 10 years that, in many ways, players that have not played in it before find it counterintuitive,’’ Polian said. The reason? “It takes a while to learn to trust the guy next to you, to learn to trust your reads, to learn to trust your techniques in the secondary,” Polian said.One Tampa Bay player who admits he had a difficult time learning those techniques was cornerback Alterraun Verner, a 2013 Pro Bowler with the Titans who was signed by the Bucs as a free agent last March.“The way I played in Tennessee was more reaction-based,’’ Verner said during an interview this week on the NFL Network’s “NFL AM” show. “(But) in Lovie’s system, you have to kind of be in the right spots.“You have landmarks, and you have to be very disciplined and be very trusting in your teammates. And since it was my first year, most of the guys were new to me and the whole system being new, I think that trust factor was not really lost but being built over time. “I think that’s why you saw it toward the end of the season, us playing a little bit better as a group because we were together, especially in the back end, and I think that’s why it’s going to be even better this year.”The Bucs finished the 2014 season ranked 25th in the NFL in total defense but were already showing signs of improvement, ranking in the top 10 over the final nine weeks.That improvement, Polian said, is an indication the Bucs have already adjusted defensively to Smith’s scheme. He also believes the team’s overall comfort level with Smith will allow for improvement, too.“They’re used to Lovie now and the way he does things. So I would say, those two things (are working in their favor). One, Lovie’s blue print works, and two, they’ve (gone through) their learning curve as a defense and it will get better.’’ [email protected](813) 259-7979Twitter: @RcummingsTBO
