By DERON SNYDER
The (Fort Myers, Fla.) News-Press

TAMPA, Fla. - Now Jon Gruden starts earning his keep, starts showing he was worth all those draft picks, starts proving the millions he's being paid is money well-spent.

Going 12-4 was terrific, a franchise record. Winning the inaugural NFC South crown was expected, but great, nonetheless. It makes for a neat trivia question.

But Gruden wasn't brought in to produce nice regular-season records and win division titles. Tony Dungy did that. Gruden was brought in to win playoff contests like Sunday's game against San Francisco. Dungy didn't do that often enough.

Indianapolis' 41-0 shellacking against the New York Jets was the fourth consecutive playoff game in which Dungy's team didn't score a touchdown. That's mind-boggling. It's almost enough to call for a probe, making sure everything's been on the up-and-up.

Gruden's teams in Oakland didn't have that problem (although the 2000 Raiders were held to three points by Baltimore). But besides being two of only three NFL coaches to lead different teams to the playoffs in consecutive years (along with Mike Holmgren), Gruden and Dungy have something else in common:

They both had 2-2 playoff records after four seasons.

Dungy nose-dived from there, his Bucs' tenure ending with back-to-back touchdown-less losses at Philadelphia, after a touchdown-less loss at St. Louis.

Gruden, in his fifth season as a head coach, has a bitter taste from his last playoff game, when New England "tucked" the game away against Oakland, in the 2001 AFC Championship Game.

If Gruden is to distinguish himself from his precedessor, it begins Sunday. Because he really hasn't done so yet.

About the only visible changes under Gruden have been the facial contortions that TV directors love; the high-quality quotes and funny one-liners; and the commercials for a national hotel chain.

Seriously, when you look at the Bucs' NFL rankings this year - No. 1 in total defense and No. 24 in total offense - there's no reason to believe a coaching change took place. You see Tampa Bay firmly entrenched among the mediocre in scoring offense - No. 18 (21.6 points per game) - while leading in scoring defense - No. 1 (12.2 ppg) - and it seems that Dungy's "Buc Ball" is still in effect.

We won't see the difference Gruden makes until the Bucs score some postseason touchdowns and start winning postseason games. That's why the Glazers brought him to Tampa. But his players can tell things aren't the same, even if the style of play is similar.

"He has spread some joy, love and fun around this place," Warren Sapp said. "We have fun around here. That is the one thing that is different about this team than any of the others I have been on."

Maybe that will be enough. Maybe being looser and more fun-loving will keep them from tightening up in the playoffs. Maybe Gruden realized that the Bucs' approach just needed to be tweaked, not wrecked.

"This franchise is good at what it is," Sapp said. "We're pretty much the same blue-collar, tough-nosed team that has been built. When you get groomed into that, it's tough to get out of it."

They haven't had far to go for awhile, always close but not quite. Now it's up to Gruden to lead them from here to there.

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