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Rick Stroud, The St.Petersburg Times, published 30 September 1996
He had beaten them for one score and Johnnie Morton still had not used his best moves. The Detroit Lions' hot-dogging receiver saved them for the two-minute warning when he boogied just a few yards behind the Buccaneers' cheerleaders who were performing in the end zone.
If it was humiliating to Tampa Bay fans, it emphasized a point.
If you are the Lions, you have touchdownmakers who can choreograph their own end-zone dances.
If you are Tampa Bay, the only dancers allowed in the end zone are real ones; they call themselves the Swash-buc-lers.
It takes a keen eye to notice the difference, but it was evident again Sunday when the Bucs failed to score a touchdown for the second time in three weeks against Detroit and were beaten by the Lions 27-0.
At least Morton and the dancing troupe could act like they had been in the end zone before.
You can't say as much for the Bucs or maligned quarterback Trent Dilfer.
The tone was set in the first quarter on third and goal from the Lions' 4-yard line when Dilfer threw an ill-advised pass for LeRoy Thompson that was intercepted by safety Bennie Blades and returned 98 yards for a touchdown. It was the third interception in four games that has been returned for a score, so Dilfer needs to work on his tackling. He ran Blades down at the Bucs' 28, but was stiff-armed and couldn't prevent the touchdown. "I should've made the tackle, first of all," Dilfer said. "It was a bad throw. I'll take the blame for it."
Dilfer was referring to the interception, but he might as well have been talking about the game.
Two plays later, tailback Reggie Brooks fumbled at his 12 and the Lions cashed in with a Jason Hanson field goal to make it 10-0.
Ballgame. The rout was on.
The loss saddled the Bucs and coach Tony Dungy with an 0-5 record to mull over during their bye week. The Lions completed their sweep of Tampa Bay for the second straight year to improve to 3-2. "It gets a little tougher every week," Dungy said. "I think our bye is probably coming at the right time for us. Hopefully we can get rested up, we can get healthy and come back with some renewed atmosphere and start scoring some points."
Dilfer's numbers may give Dungy a clue as to where to look for answers. The lowest-rated quarterback in the NFL was intercepted twice by the Lions, giving him 10 INTs on the young season to go along with just one TD pass. He completed 14 of 26 passes for 119 yards and was sacked twice. And for the first time this season, Dungy replaced him due to performance with Casey Weldon. But the Lions led 28-0 and the issue had been decided.
Weldon moved the Bucs and had a touchdown pass dropped by Alvin Harper before he threw one up for grabs and was intercepted by Ryan McNeil. Dilfer was booed roundly by most of the 34,961 at Houlihan's Stadium. They cheered when he was briefly injured late in the second quarter. "I feel for them, I do," Dilfer said of the fans. "But I don't feel for them as much as I do my teammates. If they choose to boo, if they choose to cast blame and make yearlong assessments, that's their prerogative, but I guarantee you it's not going to affect me and I don't think it's going to affect my teammates one iota. If they believe that, they're ignorant."
Dungy stood firmly behind his quarterback and said not to expect lineup changes after the bye week. "I don't see why he shouldn't stick with me," Dilfer said. "At this point, you've got to believe."
At this point, you've got to be kidding. If not for Blades' interception, the Lions might have been ripe for an upset. (What do the Blades have against Tampa Bay, anyway? Brother Brian was the hero last week in Seattle's fourth-quarter comeback.) The Bucs led at halftime in total yardage (152-139), rushing yardage (70-17), first downs (8-6) and time of possession (21:32 to 8:28). But on the scoreboard, they trailed 17-0 after Morton hauled in a 31-yard pass from Scott Mitchell. "This is a team we can't fall behind against and that put us behind the 8-ball," Dungy said.
In the second half, the Bucs totaled just 74 yards and had the ball just over nine minutes. The defense actually did a decent job of containing Lions superstar tailback Barry Sanders, who gained 73 yards on 15 carries. "The guy's a freak of nature. He can make you feel real stupid out there," safety John Lynch said. "You've got to keep battling and everybody's got to keep running to the ball."
Dungy could be forgiven if he let out a primal scream after this one. He owns the lowest-scoring offense in the NFL. The Bucs put fewer points on the scoreboard than the Tampa Bay Mutiny. "We're surprised. We're disappointed. I look at them and figure we're going to win them all," Dungy said. "I don't think there's a lack of effort. I don't think there's a lack of preparation. I don't think there's a lack of emotion or intensity. We're just not producing right now. We're not scoring points. We're not coming up with the defensive stops when we need them. We'll evaluate everything. If the conclusion is we need to raise our voice more and scream, we'll come out after the bye week doing that."
But what the Bucs need are more end-zone dances from players, not cheerleaders. Several Tampa Bay players were upset with Morton when he mockingly pointed at safety Melvin Johnson on his way to the end zone. "I don't think he showed a lot of class doing what he did," cornerback Martin Mayhew said. "I think that's the kind of guy who doesn't make a play, and all of a sudden he makes one and feels like he has to show off. I said something to him and maybe we'll meet again. I just saw him pointing at Melvin. If you've been there before, act like you've been there before.y We've got something for him later. We'll get him next year maybe."
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