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Roy Cummings, The Tampa Tribune, published 3 October 2005
The Detroit Lions didn't strip the wheels off the Cadillac on Sunday. They simply stuck something in between the spokes and bent them up a bit. To go along with his sore left foot, Bucs rookie running back Cadillac Williams now has a sore right hamstring to worry about. It's not likely, but the injury could be enough to keep him from playing next week against the Jets.
Guess what? It may not matter.
With Cadillac spending most of his time watching from the side of the road Sunday, the Bucs offense chugged and burped like an old Ford Pinto. But it still drove well enough to get them to a place they've seldom been before. For only the third time in their 30 seasons, the Bucs are 4-0. And for the first time this season, they won a game without riding Cadillac all the way to victory lane.
Receiver Joey Galloway produced 170 yards and a touchdown, and backup tailback Michael Pittman produced 126 yards and a touchdown to help the Bucs post a 17-13 victory at Raymond James Stadium. "We've said all along that we have a lot of weapons on this team, and I think we proved that to everybody," Pittman said. "This shows that we have a whole arsenal of players."
And they have them on both sides of the ball. It was, after all, the defense that put the finishing touches on the victory by stopping a suddenly effective Lions passing attack on Detroit's final drive. After being limited to just 63 passing yards through the first 50-plus minutes, skittish Lions quarterback Joey Harrington threw for 71 yards in a 4:30 span down the stretch to put Detroit in position to win on a second-and-1 play at the Bucs' 12.
The Lions chose first to target the right corner of the end zone, but tight end Marcus Pollard's sliding catch was overturned by replay officials, who ruled that his bent knee was out of bounds as he made the grab. The Lions then looked to their left, but former Plant High standout Mike Williams couldn't keep both feet in bounds after making a third-down catch, and Harrington's fourth-down throw sailed over the head of receiver Roy Williams. "That right there is a building block for something special," defensive end Simeon Rice said. "We lost a lot of close games like this last year, but Sunday we finished. That's what we've been doing all year. We've been finishing."
They've been starting well, too. In fact, Sunday marked the first time this year the Bucs haven't gone into halftime with a lead. But it wasn't long after the second half started that they had one. On the third snap of the half, quarterback Brian Griese hit Galloway in stride as he split a pair of Lions defenders on his way to an 80-yard touchdown that gave the Bucs a 17-10 lead.
The completion was one of 22 Griese made on a day when he got knocked woozy by a second-quarter hit to the head as he finished off a 7-yard scramble by making a headfirst dive.
"It was a mistake," Griese said of the headfirst plunge, which came 4 yards short of the first-down marker. "I took a pretty good shot and don't remember a little bit of the first half. I was kind of off there for a little while."
It showed. Griese was off the mark on each of his next four passes, including one that was intercepted by Lions linebacker Teddy Lehman. After completing his next two throws, Griese was picked off again, by Andre' Goodman, but the play was erased by a questionable defensive holding call. "He was pretty dizzy," Pittman said of Griese. "You could really tell; he wasn't all there. But he wouldn't come out of the game, and he made some big plays when he had to."
Two of those big plays came almost immediately after the penalty. With a more firm grasp of his senses, Griese stepped away from pressure to complete a 20-yard pass to Michael Clayton on a third-and-12, and then hit Pittman -- who had gotten behind the pursuing Lehman -- in stride on a third-down play that went for a 41-yard touchdown.
"I went to Coach Jon Gruden early in the game and told him that the Lions' linebackers can't run with me," Pittman said. "I told him they're playing man-to-man on third down and that we can beat them if he calls either Halfback Trojan or Halfback Rail. Well, he called Halfback Rail."
Gruden called the victory a personal milestone. It marked the first time in his 15 years as an NFL coach that he has been on a team that has started a season 4-0. He was one of several Bucs cherishing the moment.
"I only had five of these victories last year, so to get No. 4 is real special," linebacker Derrick Brooks said. "I mean, I feel grateful to be honest with you. Detroit gave us everything we could handle."
The Bucs limited the Lions to 226 total yards and allowed them to convert just two of 12 third downs, all while losing their top back (Williams) as well as the turnover battle by a 4-1 margin.
"It's nice to have a superstar in your midst, but there's 10 other guys and backups that have to play, too," cornerback Ronde Barber said. "You've got to get a lot out of a lot of guys to win in this league, and Sunday we did that."
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