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Scott Smith, Buccaneers.com, published 14 October 2002
Is this NFL realignment thing final? If not, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers might want to petition for a move to the AFC North. Half of the Bucs’ first six games have featured AFC North opponents, and Tampa Bay is now 3-0 in those games with a combined winning margin of 77-10. The most recent victim was the visiting Cleveland Browns, who left Raymond James Stadium humbled after a 17-3 pasting.
A month ago, Tampa Bay shut out Baltimore, 25-0, and two weeks ago they pasted Cincinnati, 35-7. The victory moves Tampa Bay to 5-1 and increases its winning streak to five consecutive games. The Bucs last won five in a row in a single season during their playoff stretch drive of 1999, and have only done so three times previously in team history.
That ’99 streak actually reached six games, a team record the Bucs could match with a victory next Sunday in Philadelphia. The Bucs’ 5-1 record equals the best start in team history. In both 1979 and 1997, Tampa Bay opened the season with five consecutive wins but then lost its sixth game. In fact, those ’79 and ’97 squads also lost their seventh games, so a victory in Philly would also give the Bucs their best start ever, at 6-1.
But we’re looking ahead, and that’s something the Bucs clearly did not do today. Even with the arch-rival Eagles looming, Tampa Bay focused on the now 2-4 Browns and the results were impressive, particularly on defense. With the New Orleans Saints and Green Bay also winning big on Sunday, the Buccaneers knew they had to win to stay tied atop the NFC standings. They also knew this: Mike Alstott is most definitely not a forgotten man, not in the Bucs’ game plan or the fans’ fancy.
The Bucs may have a radically different offensive schemed under first-year Head Coach Jon Gruden, but the current regime shares one belief with the last one. If your team is leading in the second half and needs to grind out the clock and some tough yards, give it to Alstott. That’s what Gruden did near the end of the third quarter and into the fourth, as Alstott carried on all five plays of a 55-yard touchdown drive, including a 17-yard touchdown run on third-and-one. The Bucs continued to feed Alstott throughout the fourth quarter, as he ran the ball on 11 of the team’s 16 offensive plays in the period. The result was his first 100-yard rushing game since last December 23, when he picked up 101 against New Orleans. Alstott ran for 126 yards on 17 carries as the Bucs picked up a season-high 186 on the ground, their best mark since late in the 2000 season.
Alstott also scored the Bucs’ first touchdown, giving the five-time Pro Bowler his first two-TD game since last November 26, when he pulled off the feat in the Bucs’ 24-17 win at St. Louis. He extended his team record to 54 career touchdowns in the process. His first came after fellow back Michael Pittman chewed up most of the yards on an 80-yard touchdown march to open the game on a single play. Pittman turned a short out into a 64-yard reception down to the Cleveland nine by spinning out of one tackle and out-running S Devin Bush down the sideline. Alstott took it in from there on two plays, giving the Bucs their first opening-possession touchdown of the season.
Pittman’s catch-and-run continued a string of long plays the Bucs’ passing offense has suddenly begun to generate. A 65-yard catch by WR Keenan McCardell in Cincinnati and a 76-yard reception by WR Keyshawn Johnson in Atlanta were instrumental plays in the Bucs’ last two victories. Pittman’s play also was the third-longest reception by a running back in franchise history, trailing only a 74-yarder by Gary Anderson against Green Bay on October 14, 1990 and a 68-yarder by Warrick Dunn against Detroit on December 12, 1999. Pittman finished with 95 yards on five receptions and added 53 rushing yards on 16 attempts.
The Bucs’ unbelievably stingy defense needed no more. Extending its remarkable streak to 12 straight quarters without allowing an offensive touchdown, Tampa Bay held the Browns to just 194 total yards and 11 first downs. The Browns got 101 of those yards late in the fourth quarter, as the Bucs were hanging back with a big lead. Cleveland came into the game ranked 10th in the NFL in passing yardage, but managed just 134 through the air. The Bucs sacked QB Tim Couch twice, 1.5 by DT Warren Sapp, and allowed only 20 completions in 40 attempts.
The Bucs also responded to a the midweek motivational push of Head Coach Jon Gruden, who made sure his players were aware that Tampa Bay had never beaten Cleveland. The five-game losing streak to the Browns, dating back to the Bucs’ inaugural season of 1976, came to an end with Sunday’s victory, meaning Tampa Bay now owns a regular-season victory over every team in the NFL that it has played (the Bucs have yet to meet the expansion Houston Texans). After the Bucs’ opening score, they had a chance to quickly extend their lead when CB Ronde Barber intercepted a deflected Tim Couch pass in Cleveland territory, but the Bucs gave it back four plays later when a pass to WR Keyshawn Johnson bounced away from the receiver as he was hit and into the arms of S Earl Little. Those were the only two turnovers of the game.
After the first Alstott touchdown, the rest of the first half slipped into a punt-laden battle for field position. Tampa Bay allowed Cleveland onto its side of the field just once in the half, after a 30-yard punt return by WR Dennis Northcutt. The resulting Browns possession lasted five plays but started and ended at the same spot, the Bucs’ 41. In fact, the closest Cleveland got to Tampa Bay’s end zone in the entire game was the 31-yard line, on the last play of the game. Another drive in the fourth quarter reached the Bucs’ 33, and resulted in the Browns’ only points, a 50-yard field goal by Phil Dawson.
One big play in the punting battle did result in another Bucs score before intermission. WR Karl Williams, he of the seemingly endless string of big special teams plays, returned a Chris Gardocki punt 43 yards to the Cleveland 27, setting up K Martin Gramatica’s 33-yard field goal. Williams added a 42-yard return in the fourth quarter and ended with 120 yards on six runbacks. However, the Bucs’ struggles on field goal tries was the only thing that marred the game for the home team. Tampa Bay had three attempts go awry, one on a block by Cleveland, one that was pushed just left and one that never got off the ground due to a bad snap. Two of those attempts came in the third quarter, as the Bucs tried to extend a 10-0 halftime lead. Though neither attempt worked out, the offense did sustain two drives long enough so that a pair of three-and-outs by Cleveland was all the defense had to contend with in the entire third period.
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