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In a second straight absolutely pointless display of professional football, the Bay Buccaneers surrendered to the San Diego Chargers 23-0 Sunday afternoon without firing any offensive shots in their regular season home opener.
A meager and disgruntled Tampa Stadium crowd of 39,558 (there were 6,362 no-shows) sat through an NFL game that was a virtual replay of last week's 20-0 loss to the Houston Oilers. Held to a pair of 48-yard field goals by Tony Fritsch through the first three quarters, the Chargers exploded for 17 points in the last 15 minutes, with 10 of the points set up on intercepted passes.
"Once they kicked that first field goal, we were in trouble," Head Coach John McKay said of his fledgling Bucs. "If we can't generate any more offense than that, we won't ever be close."
THE FIRST-YEAR Bucs have now gone nine straight quarters, including the preseason, without scoring a point. And the club's impotent offense has scored only one touchdown in the last 16 quarters. Two other touchdowns came on kickoff returns.
The Bucs' only scoring opportunities Sunday came on Mirro Roder field goal attempts of 35 and 46 yards. The first was wide left and the second was partially blocked, hit the ground and bounced over the cross bar.
Fritsch had six attempts, missing at 24, 45 and 47 yards. Besides the 48 yarders, he hit a 22-yarder in the fourth period. The Chargers' other points came on Rickey Young's 46-yard touchdown run with 2:55 to play and Tom Hayes' 37- yard runback of an intercepted Parnell Dickinson pass with 2:37 remaining in the game.
The rookie Dickinson was the third Tampa Bay quarterback to operate without success. Dickinson came on in the fourth quarter after Steve Spurrier and Larry Lawrence did little to aid the Bucs' cause. A 46-yard jaunt by Dickinson was the club's biggest offensive play of the day and it was that run which ushered them over 100 total yards for the afternoon. The Bucs' total of 125 yards was 15.more than against Houston last week.
"THAT WAS OUR biggest gain of the day, and it's a play designed where we don't block anybody," said McKay. 'Everybody goes right and Dickinson just goes around to the left. We don't have to block anybody on that play. Maybe we should do that more often. I just don't believe we can't block.
"l really don't have a lot of answers right how. I'll do a lot of soul-searching next week but our main problem is that we're just not flocking anyone. And our backs don't seem to be very fast at all. Only (Essex) Johnson and (Ed) Williams ran very well. The rest of them looked like a mud fence."
THINGS COULD have been worse for the Bucs had not the Chargers, who at 2-0 have equaled last year's total victories, displayed their own special brand of ineptitude early in the game and had not the Bucs' defense been as aggressive as it was.
Late in the second period, the Bucs' Williams fumbled at his own 2t.yard line, with the Chargers’ John Lee making the recovery. In two plays quarterback Dan Fouts had the Chargers facing a second-and-six at the Bucs' seven. But two straight incompletions brought on Fritsch, and blew a 24-yard field goal attempt at 1:47.
Then midway through the third period, after the Bucs’ Joe Blahak had blocked a 47-yard Fritsch field goal attempt, Iinebacker Don Goode intercepted a Lawrence pass at the Tampa Bay 41 and returned it to inside the 15-yard Iino. As Goode was being tackled, he attempted to lateral the ball and it was recovered by the Bucs' Bob Moore at the 13.
THE BUCS proceeded to lose 12 yards in three plays and, on a Dave Green punt, Mike Fuller returned it to the Tampa Bay 33, where he fumbled and Tampa's Richard Wood recovered.
But the Chargers made better use of fourth-quarter opportunities presented them by the Bucs' offense. Woodrow Lowe's interception of a Lawrence screen pass enabled the Chargers to set up shop on the Bucs' eight-yard line. Three running plays produced only three yards and Fritsch came on for his third successful field goal, a 22-yarder.
Young's 46-yard jaunt around right end capped a 71-yard, eight-play drive that made it 16-0. On the first offensive play following the kickoff, Dickinson threw right into Hayes' hands at the 36 and he returned it untouched for the score. With Fritsch's conversion it wag 23-0.
"IF YOU had told me that's the best we would do against this team, I would have told you you were wrong," said McKay. "But I'm wrong. There's no way we can win any games when we don't block anybody. I'm not going to predict that we're going to win four or three or two or even one game if we don’t start blocking."
As for Spurrier's status, McKay said: "All of us, myself and the whole offensive staff, are going to have to take a hard look at things. I never make changes in the locker room. That's a bad time to make changes. You can't put all the blame on the quarterback though, if you don't give him protection and if the holes aren't there when he gives the backs the ball. You have to fault the whole offense then."
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