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Don Banks, The St.Petersburg Times, published 11 September 1995
Ideally, the Tampa Bay Bucs wanted to march into Cleveland Stadium on Sunday and bury their past, in the form of one-time franchise quarterback Vinny Testaverde.
But the way things worked out in the Browns' 22-6 victory, about all that got buried was Tampa Bay's present-day standard-bearer, Trent Dilfer, along with most of the momentum generated by the Bucs' fast start in Philadelphia.
Standing in against the blitz-happy Browns, Dilfer gave new meaning to the seven-step drop, getting dropped seven times beneath swarms of Cleveland defenders. The Bucs' second-year quarterback knew he'd face pressure this season; he just didn't know it would come all at once, and from every direction.
"They just brought the house and I just didn't react to it and get the ball out of my hand," said Dilfer, who lost a total of 45 yards on the seven sacks. Seven? Wow. They gamble when they bring it like that, but today it paid off for them. They didn't invent any new blitzes that the NFL hasn't seen, but they did bring a lot of blitzes. I've seen them all, but I don't know to that quantity."
Six of Cleveland's sacks came in the second half, when Tampa Bay was trying to dig out of a 19-0 hole. The Browns (1-1) gave the Bucs (1-1) that problem with a 19-point second-quarter scoring spree, highlighted by Testaverde touchdown passes of 6 and 32 yards to receiver Keenan McCardell in a span of 58 seconds.
Tampa Bay entered the game having surrendered just three sacks in its past seven regular-season games, including just one last week against the Eagles. Conversely, the Bucs sacked Eagles quarterback Randall Cunningham five times last week. But both those glowing trends died a cruel death - the Bucs got to Testaverde just once Sunday - as did the Bucs' dreams of starting the season 2-0 on the road, which would have been a franchise first. "I was thinking as I showered, `You know, I knew we were going to lose this year, but why is it so painful?' " said Dilfer, who finished 20-of-36 for 255 yards, two interceptions and no touchdowns. "It is hard, very hard. I'm not going to sleep real well tonight. And the plane ride home's not going to be fun."
Nobody had more fun Sunday than Testaverde, who now is three seasons removed from his inglorious six-year tenure in Tampa Bay. Laughing longest, loudest and last after his first regular-season appearance against his former team, the league's newest Buc-killer was a cool 17-of-27 for 256 yards - 227 in the first half - for two scores and nary an interception.
With Vinny's vindication the theme, the Browns' offense never once went three plays and out, and allowed just one sack for 3 yards.
"It's one ugly uniform against the other," said Testaverde, asked how it felt to beat those guys in the ugly uniforms. "It just felt good to get our first win of the year, especially after the loss we had last week. But going against a team I played for for six years, it just felt good and it's a little extra special win for me. I just know I wanted to win this one real bad."
More than anyone among the Cleveland Stadium crowd of 61,083 - the Browns' smallest home-opening gathering since 1974 - Testaverde could commiserate with Dilfer. Testaverde absorbed a Bucs team-record 197 sacks from 1987 through 1992.
"I thought Vinny played a great game. Not a good game, he played a great game," Bucs coach Sam Wyche said. "I think he's a guy that's gone through a lot in his career. A lot of guys might not have survived it. He has."
But Wyche took pains to praise Dilfer, too. "This is a great day for Trent," he said. "This is the kind of a day that a quarterback has to go through, and the good ones go through it and say, `I'm going to study everything that happened and I'm not going to make the mistakes again.' "
Offensively, Tampa Bay found the scoreboard just once - on a fourth-quarter 2-yard run by Errict Rhett (23 carries for 89 yards) - but the Bucs did move the ball between the 20s. Tampa Bay had drives of 78 and 66 yards that produced no points, thanks to a blocked field goal by Browns defensive end Rob Burnett and an end zone interception by cornerback Don Griffin.
Even on the Bucs' touchdown drive, a 10-play, 80-yard march, a pair of Cleveland sacks cost Tampa Bay so much ground that Dilfer had to convert a third-and-35 situation with a 38-yard pass to Courtney Hawkins to keep the chains moving. The Bucs also played well on third down, converting 8 of 14 (57 percent).
But unlike last week, the Bucs' special teams failed and failed miserably against the Browns. A botched punt snap by long snapper Ed Brady set up the Browns' second field goal - a 23-yarder by Matt Stover - and Burnett's block of a Michael Husted 22-yard field-goal attempt cost Tampa Bay dearly.
Another low point was McCardell's second touchdown, a 32-yarder that came with 16 seconds remaining in the first half and made it 19-0. McCardell (six catches for 79 yards), playing because starter Michael Jackson pulled a calf muscle in warmups, was 10 yards behind cornerback Charles Dimry.
"He did a stutter move, I bit, and he scored," said Dimry. "We just didn't make the play."
In April, when the schedule came out, a 1-1 record on the Bucs' two-game season-opening road trip would have been cause for celebration. But Sunday, in the aftermath of the Browns' dominance, the Bucs were disappointed as they looked to their home opener next week against the Bears.
"We knew coming in that we opened against two of our toughest opponents," Wyche said. "We played well against both. We won one and we lost one. We thought we could whip these guys. But we couldn't today."
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