Rhett puts it on line to get yards Don Banks, The St.Petersburg Times, published 13 November 1995 Whatever carrot Errict Rhett dangled before his offensive line Sunday, the Bucs' second-year running back was delighted they kept their eyes on the prize. Rhett's streak of five frustrating games without 100 yards rushing came to an end in Tampa Bay's 27-24 loss to Detroit. He ran 25 times for a season-high 144 yards. His performance, the second-best of his career (trailing only his 192-yard breakthrough game against Washington in December), was the centerpiece of Tampa Bay's 190 yards rushing in 33 attempts. Both figures were Bucs season highs. Rhett would not reveal the incentive he used with his blockers except to say he was prepared to pay for results. "They were pumped up and ready to play," Rhett said. "They had that incentive I gave them. It was a personal incentive. I can't tell you what it was. But it was an amazing incentive. It was definitely financial. They reached it, too. But they were 6 yards short of getting a real incentive. One-fifty (150 yards) meant something special." Rhett entered Sunday with just one other 100-yard game this season: his 27-carry, 104-yard effort against Washington in Tampa Bay's 14-6 Week 4 win. But Rhett had 50 yards or fewer in three of his past five games, including a season-low 37 in 13 carries in the 19-7 loss at Houston two weeks ago. The Silverdome is rapidly becoming a gold mine for the ex-Gator. He had his first career 100-yard game here last year, beginning a streak in which Rhett topped 100 yards four times in five games. The building has now been home to two of his top four rushing performances. Rhett wasn't the whole story for Tampa Bay. His backup, Jerry Ellison, scored his first two NFL touchdowns, a 36-yard romp around left end in the second quarter and a fourth-quarter 1-yard dive. And quarterback Trent Dilfer added a first-quarter 7-yard touchdown run. Ellison, who entered with just seven carries for 49 yards this season, finished with four rushes for 39 yards. His 36-yard effort was Tampa Bay's longest run from scrimmage this year and he became the first Bucs running back other than Rhett to score since Reggie Cobb had a pair of 1-yard touchdowns in a 27-20 loss to the Raiders on Dec. 19, 1993. "It felt great to get that first touchdown, but in a loss it just doesn't mean anything," Ellison said. "A loss kind of overshadows the touchdowns. But my first run was just a matter of getting good blocks by (right guard) Ian Beckles and (H-back) Dave Moore. The offensive line did a great job of opening holes for us today. All we can ask is for them to get us into the secondary and then let us make some moves." The Bucs' offensive line, banged up most of this season, was relatively healthy against Detroit. Beckles returned after missing one game with a knee injury and center Tony Mayberry's broken right thumb felt as whole as it has in weeks. "When we've had success in the past it was because we were running the ball," left tackle Paul Gruber said. "We really hadn't done it all year like we did today. It felt good to see it again. It started to feel like when we had that run at the end of last year. When we ran against everybody."