SPECIAL DELIVERY
Rick Stroud, The St.Petersburg Times, published 3 October 1994

You knew it had to be the Buccaneers' day when Vernon Turner gathered a punt late in the first quarter and the Detroit Lions fell like dominoes in front of his eyes as he raced down the right sideline to the goal line. He had only one man to beat - special-teams coach George Stewart - who ran with him stride for stride until they collapsed in each other's arms in the end zone and 18 years of anticipating this moment tumbled to the ground with them.

It was hysterical. It was historical. Turner's 80-yard gallop was the first punt brought back for a touchdown in forever by Tampa Bay and set the tone for the Bucs' 24-14 win over the Lions. The play did more than resurrect a season that was one loss from disaster. It signified to the Bucs that it's a new year - and maybe one with many happy returns. "We had the rabbit's foot in our pockets today," Stewart said. "Hopefully, we'll look back at that return and say, `That's the play that turned the season around.' "

Luck was with the luckless Bucs (2-3) all day. The special teams set up another touchdown when Rogerick Green blocked a Greg Montgomery punt that was recovered by Jeff Brady. The Bucs also saw normally reliable Lions placekicker Jason Hanson miss a gimme 26-yard field goal wide right that would have brought his team to within a touchdown with 6:28 remaining in the fourth quarter. In fact, the Lions weren't dead until cornerback Mike McGruder stripped receiver Brett Perriman of the ball at the Tampa Bay 10-yard line and Tony Stargell recovered with 3:56 left.

Make no mistake: there was tremendous pressure on the Bucs to win Sunday. Everybody had his minefield to dodge. The Bucs' defense - which was playing without linebacker Hardy Nickerson - had to find a way to keep Barry Sanders from leaving footprints on their chests. Sanders carried 20 times for 166 yards - including a dazzling 85-yard run to set up a touchdown. But the defense clamped down to hold Sanders to 37 yards in the second half.

Quarterback Craig Erickson, who could feel the hot breath of rookie Trent Dilfer on his neck, was one series from being yanked for maybe the season. He wobbled through a 10-of-20 passing performance for 122 yards and a touchdown, but got help from the ground game that produced 119 yards rushing. "The pressure was on him," said Bucs coach Sam Wyche. "You'd have to be brain-dead not to feel that. The pressure was on the players knowing the pressure was on him."

So don't forget Wyche. His offense had not scored a touchdown in six quarters and had dropped like a stone to 24th in the league with the aid of some questionable play calling and abandonment of the running game. With tough games looming at Atlanta and San Francisco, a 1-4 start might have been too much to overcome. "Somebody really cute put Jimmy Johnson's head on my body on television," Wyche said. "That was funny, I guess, to some. Sometimes when you've been losing for this period of time, you get close. You're right there knocking on the door and you have a chance to win every Sunday and it doesn't happen. And you're still a bunch of bums. And get rid of Sam. That guy can't coach beans and maybe I can't. We'll find out which one of you grinds the ax hardest and gets it done."

The Bucs got it done on offense Sunday by doing away with the reverses and the play-action passes on the goal line and deciding to just play football. "We weren't too fancy out there," Erickson said. "We either ran it or dropped back and threw it. We basically, lined up and played. Sometimes you've got to do that."

But they still stubbed their toes. Despite holding a 10-minute edge in time of possession, the Bucs aborted their first drive to the Lions' 1-yard line for a field goal. In fact, Mazio Royster - for some reason the Bucs' designated tailback in goal-line situations - failed to score on three carries inside the 5-yard line. It wasn't until Royster failed on first and goal from the 1 after the blocked punt that Wyche rediscovered rookie Errict Rhett, who slammed across for a TD on the next play. "I got the ball and some big guy (linebacker Broderick Thomas) just stood up in the hole and we met," Rhett said. "We stood there for a second, but I just kept driving my legs and somehow I fell into the end zone."

A week ago, the offensive linemen were insulted by Wyche, who called two play-action passes that failed with the ball a foot from the end zone. "Some of the offensive linemen took it personal last week because we thought we could've punched it in on the run," guard Ian Beckles said. "I'm happy Sam had confidence in us to run two plays in a row and Rhett powered it in there. Hopefully, in the future we'll be running the ball more."

But the defining moment was Turner's splendid punt return for a touchdown. In took 18 seasons, 1,320 punts and 705 of them to be returned by the Bucs before a Tampa Bay player went all the way to the end zone in a regular-season game. It was especially sweet for Turner, who had been released by the Lions last season where he spilled some bad blood playing behind Mel Gray - perhaps the NFL's greatest kick returner.

"No matter what I did, Mel Gray was their man," Turner said. "Personally, that was a smack in my face. We won the football game and the icing on the cake is that I returned a punt for a touchdown. Ever since I got here, the only thing I've heard is no one has ever returned a punt for a touchdown. That's over with. You guys can leave me alone about that."

Turner got a great block from Brady to spring him to the outside and Royster took care of Montgomery as the giddy Stewart raced with Turner down the sideline. That was a great runback," Wyche said. "There was other people involved in it. Twelve people, including George Stewart, who designed the kickoff return and who obviously beat him to the goal line."

The victory left the Bucs tied for third place in the NFC Central with Green Bay (2-3) and the Lions (2-3), who have dropped two in a row after the storybook upset at Dallas in overtime on Monday Night Football two weeks ago. But what the game will be remembered for is Turner streaking down the sideline, carrying a piece of the Bucs' ugly history with him.