Buccaneers 16 Cardinals 0 - a game review And then after nine straight defeats, Leeman Bennett finally won a game as head coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. And it was the much-maligned defense that came through after giving up points by the bucketload over the first half of the season, they registered only the second shut-out in franchise history in the 16-0 blanking of the St.Louis Cardinals. OK so the much-maligned Cardinal offense did not do a lot to help their own cause with kicker Jess Atkinson missing two first-half fieldgoals, and QB Neil Lomax constantly wasting good field position during the third quarter. Even when St.Louis did get a decent drive together late in the game, RB Ottis Anderson fumbled inside the Buccaneer 10-yard line and the shutout was never threatened again from then on, the final Cardinals' drive being halted by John Holt's interception. For the Bucs, it was three Donald Igwebuike fieldgoals, although he did misfire on a fourth attempt, and a 134-yard performance by Jimmie Giles that would have been even better if he had not fumbled deep inside St.Louis territory at the start of the third quarter after a long run and catch. The Buccaneers' only touchdown came on the back of a 73-yard drive and was completed on a one-yard play-action pass to FB Adger Armstrong on 4th down. James Wilder had done his usual job setting up the score and went over 100 yards for the first time in a month. But any hopes of a return of the Tampa Bay defense to its earlier shutout form of 1979 was dashed just a week later when they managed to conceed a team-record 62 points in a loss to the New York Jets, the greatest one-game differential in NFL history.