By MIKE LOPRESTI
Gannett News Service

Tampa Bay Buccaneers cornerback Ronde Barber carries an interception toward the clinching touchdown in the fourth quarter. (AP photo) | ZOOM |

PHILADELPHIA - It was Philadelphia's weather, and Philadelphia's crowd. It was the Eagles' stadium and their turf, and it was supposed to be their moment. But the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are going to the Super Bowl.

"Assumptions," said Ronde Barber, the cornerback whose fourth quarter 92-yard interception return made him the hero of a 27-10 NFC shocker, "can be a terrible thing."

On a cold dusk in Veterans Stadium, the Bucs forever changed their world, with the first Super Bowl berth in their 27-year history.

Gone is the stigma of their 0-6 playoff road record. Gone is their reputation of being cold weather sitting ducks.

Gone is the sting of their past three trips here - all defeats without an offensive touchdown, futility that became over the past week a broken record they heard about every moment, even as it stoked their resolve.

Gone is the idea they were lacking something - on a day they were behind 7-0 after 52 seconds, but never allowed another touchdown.

"Hopefully some of those stories will go away," said Jon Gruden, the 39-year-old boy wonder of a coach who was lured from Oakland this season for this very achievement. "It's kind of like 'The Wizard of Oz.' Ding, dong, the witch is dead."

"When people say we can't do it," said receiver Joe Jurevicius, his 71-yard catch in the first quarter the day's defining play, "we do it.

"I got the chills in this locker room earlier and it wasn't from the draft. We knew we were going to do something special."

As for the Eagles' second straight NFC title loss, this one in the last football game ever at the Vet, with nearly every factor in their favor, left them shattered.

"We did this last year," said defensive end N.D. Kalu. "We didn't improve. We failed.

"That was not the Philadelphia Eagles."

Not the usual Donovan McNabb, anyway, with his two fumbles and one interception - returned by Barber for a touchdown with just over three minutes left in the game to kill Philadelphia's last hopes.

"It all starts," McNabb said of the day's downfall, "with the quarterback."

So make way for the Bucs, the franchise that started its life with 26 straight losses in the 1970s, and had so much to prove Sunday.

Make way for Gruden, who came with a high price tag - four draft choices and $8 million sent to the Raiders - but whose calm demeanor and deft gameplan Sunday leaves him looking like a bargain.

"This is probably the greatest day of my life," he said.

Make way for Brad Johnson, the quarterback with so many past scars from Veterans Stadium but on this day in gloves the model of efficiency, picking apart Philadelphia with lots of short passes, hitting 20 of his 33 attempts for 259 yards, leading touchdown drives of 96 and 80 yards in the first half to knock groggy the Eagles' fearsome defense.

"When I left here (after the Oct. 20 game), I left with cracked ribs," Johnson said. "Now I walk away with an NFC title."

Make way for Jurevicius, the new father who missed practice all week to be with his wife and their prematurely born son, whose first days of life were tough ones.

It was Jurevicius in the first period, taking a short pass over the middle and rolling down the sideline 71 yards to set up the first touchdown, and sound the trumpet the Bucs would hear all day.

"It was an emotional roller coaster that no one can imagine," he said of his week. "My son is a fighter. For everything he has gone through this week, the least I could do is get on a plane and try to do everything I could."

Make way for Barber, who forced a fumble and clogged up the middle all day, knocking down pass after pass.

Then came the fourth period, when the Eagles trailed only 20-10 and McNabb had driven them to the Tampa Bay 10 with just over three minutes left, and the Philadelphia day could still be saved.

McNabb tried to rush a pass to Antonio Freeman to his left, but Barber was waiting to step in front of it. Soon, McNabb and everyone else was watching Barber run down the field for a touchdown.

"He threw right into the teeth of it," Barber said later of the Tampa Bay defense.

Make way for Keyshawn Johnson, the vociferous receiver whose 9-yard touchdown catch late in the first half broke a 10-10 tie and put the Bucs in front for good.

"You have to understand, we're the players, and we understood what we had done wrong," he said of Tampa Bay's earlier troubles in Philadelphia. "We weren't going to make those same mistakes again."

And make way for the Bucs' maligned offensive line, who gave up six Philadelphia sacks earlier this season, but none on Sunday when it counted most.

"We were tired of hearing it," tackle Kenyatta Walker said of the skeptics, including former quarterback and TV analyst Steve Young, whom Walker claimed had called the line "below average."

"That was like a song in the back of my head all day," Walker said. "Below average ... below average ... below average."

Nothing would shake the Bucs this day. Not even the first 52 seconds, which began with Brian Mitchell's 70-yard kickoff return, and then Duce Staley's 20-yard touchdown run for an instant 7-0 Philadelphia lead.

Tampa Bay quickly answered with a field goal, and then the long scoring drives for a 17-10 lead, and then two Philadelphia fumbles, the ball knocked loose from McNabb by Simeon Rice and Barber.

"Poorly," McNabb assessed of his play that included 26 of 49 passing for 243 yards, but much of it done too late. "I'm very hard on myself. I'm pretty sure you guys (the media) will be very critical of me as well. To let you know, I played poorly today."

The Bucs had known many days like that in this city. But not Sunday.

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