CHARGER NOTEBOOK / T.J. SIMERS : Chargers: Buccaneers No Dog Team

Charger linebacker Junior Seau said he expects the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to be angry when they take the field Sunday because of suggestions in a San Diego newspaper that they are “mutts.”

“They have a right to be (upset) if somebody is writing bad about them,” Seau said. “That will wake them up. When someone calls you a mutt you just don’t take that lightly.”

It was suggested earlier this week that the Chargers will have an easy ride into the playoffs because of the “Mutts-R-Us” schedule they play the remainder of the season. The Chargers’ upcoming opponents have a combined 16-34 record; the Buccaneers are 4-6.

“I think that’s ridiculous,” Charger Coach Bobby Ross said. “I don’t know where it all started; it certainly didn’t start with our team. We’re one of the teams that has been as low as anybody in the league and we have respect for everyone.

“I’m sure Sam (Wyche, Tampa Bay coach) is talking to them about it, but it wasn’t said by us.”

Two years ago, when the Chargers beat the Buccaneers 41-10, Coach Dan Henning told his team before the game that he had heard Tampa Bay Coach Ray Perkins guarantee a victory on the radio.

The Chargers became enraged and clobbered the Buccaneers. Henning, however, seemed to be the only one who heard that radio report--if there was such a report.

Wyche is in command of the Buccaneers now, and he already has told his team that they are being regarded as mutts this week. Will it make a difference Sunday?

“He’ll use that, but I think that’s kind of reaching,” defensive end Burt Grossman said. “I guess he needs something, but that’s kind of far-fetched.

“It used to be every city we walked into we were called the mutts, and I don’t think it ever fired us up.”

The Buccaneers have a 1-11 record in California, with their only victory coming over the 49ers in 1980, 24-23. The oddsmakers have made them 8 1/2-point underdogs to the Chargers.

“Games aren’t won or lost in the paper,” Ross said. “This isn’t a match between words by either the media or me or anyone else, for that matter. This is a game to be played on the field.

“Our guys know when they line up against Tampa Bay that we’re lining up against a football team that is capable of beating us or anyone else. If they don’t know that they haven’t been listening. We’re not that good; we’re a blue-collar football team that needs to go out and play well.”

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Grossman took a shot of cortisone in his sore ankle this week, and he said he will take another shot to deaden the pain Sunday to allow himself to play against the Buccaneers.

“Last week it was so swollen and black and blue they didn’t know where to give it a shot,” Grossman said. “The pain is more localized now and the shot will take away the pain for a few hours.”

Grossman worked out Friday and is expected to start Sunday.

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After the first 10 games last year Marion Butts had run for 466 yards; after the first 10 games this season Butts has run for 466 yards.

There is a difference, however. Last year Butts ran 112 times to gain his 466 yards, an average carry of 4.2 yards a try.

This year Butts has carried the ball 136 times and he is averaging a career-low 3.4 yards a rush.

“I’ve had a difficult year from game one,” Butts said.

Butts injured a knee and ankle in the season opener against the Chiefs, added a knee brace to his equipment, re-injured his knee against Seattle and then had his knee twisted again against the Chiefs.

“During the course of the season I don’t know if you’ll ever get it (knee) 100%,” Ross said. “It’s like someone in basketball that keeps rolling a bad ankle. He’s better this week, and as long as he doesn’t get hit on it, he’ll be all right. But you know he’s going to get hit on it.”

Butts ran effectively in Cleveland with the game on the line in the fourth quarter, but he doesn’t appear to be the same runner as he has been in the past.

“When you go back and see some of the films you can see a little difference, particularly when you start running the outside stuff,” Ross said. “People still bounce off of him; he must break 20 or 25 tackles a game. There’s no difference there, but sometimes you can see it in a turn or a cut.”

Butts, who has a history of downplaying his bumps and bruises, said, “My knee doesn’t bother me that much; it’s feeling pretty good. I work out every day to keep up the strength in it. I still have good power in it.”

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The Buccaneers run a no-huddle offense, as the Cincinnati Bengals did under Wyche. The Chargers have played against the no-huddle twice this season in their two encounters with the Colts, but Indianapolis did not try to rush the play to catch the Chargers in a defensive mismatch.

The Buccaneers will.

“They try to get you in the middle of a substitution,” Ross said. “By rule, if they substitute, we’re allowed to substitute, too, in the normal framework of time. We worked on that hard and we feel like we’re prepared.”