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Playing with enthusiastic abandon in the first half, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers abandoned their enthusiasm before the start of the third period and allowed —the Cleveland Browns to sneak out of Tampa Stadium Sunday with a 24-7 victory.
The Browns needed a 15-yard Brian Sipe to Paul Warfield touchdown pass in the third period and Joe Jones' recovery of Steve Spurrier’s fumble in the end zone for a touchdown early in the fourth period to break a 7-7 halftime tie and keep alive their slim playoff hopes.
Now 7-4, the Browns are tied with Pittsburgh for second place in the Central Division of the American Football Conference and can still slip in as a wild card playoff entrant provided New England loses two of its three remaining games.
But the Browns almost left their playoff aspirations scattered in front of 36,932 Tampa Stadium spectators — the smallest crowd of the season — as the out manned Bucs played 30 of the best minutes of football they've played this season before folding.
"We had a good tempo going in the first half but in the second half we didn't pick up that tempo." said Bucs Head Coach John McKay whose first-year club is the only winless team in the National Football League with an 0-11 record.
"When we came into the locker room at the half the players were yelling things like: 'Only 30 more minutes!' and other dumb things like that. I guess they were patting themselves on the back after playing so well in the first half they just forgot to play the second half. In the second half our offense didn't pop with the enthusiasm it did in the first half."
The Browns operated in the first half without the services of wonderback Greg Pruitt, the team's leading rusher and receiver, and his absence was noticeable as the Bucs' defense clamped down on running backs Larry Poole and Cleo Miller
So Sipe, a third-year quarterback out of San Diego State, picked up the Black with his passing. On the Browns' first scoring drive he hit Warfield for 16 yards and a first down on third and eight then on another third and. eight connected with Miller for 15 yards and a first down. On the next play safety Ken Stone was called for interfering with Warfield and it was first down at the two. Miller then slanted off left tackle for the score at 2:17.
On Don Cockroft's successful extra point attempt, Bucs rookie left tackle Steve Young sprained his ankle, forcing a shift in the Bucs' offensive line. Guard Howard Fest moved over to tackle and Tom Alward replaced Fest at left guard, the first time the Bucs have had to play in that alignment this year.
The Bucs held the ball for the next 6:10, but moved only 41 yards and failed to score when a fake field goal attempt failed as holder Ricky Davis bobbled the ball and threw a pass to Jack Novak that was short. Earlier, Dave Green had a 42-yard attempt blocked.
But on their next possession the Bucs began to move from their own 20 behind the revamped line. Spurrier hit tight end Bob Moore for 15 yards across the middle on a crucial third and eight and eight plays later Spurrier caught the blitzing Cleveland linebackers with a screen pass to Essex Johnson. Behind four blockers Johnson went 13 yards untouched for the score that tied the game.
“We had so many people out there in front of him I thought they would run into each other and fall down," said McKay. "And if you looked at it closely they almost did."
Spurrier, who has played excellent football the last six Sundays, was at his best in the first half. With plenty of protection he hit 12 of 17 passes for 116 yards and the touchdown to Johnson. "We had pretty good protection the first half but they just overpowered us in the second half," said Spurrier, who hit only three of 11 over the last 30 minutes and was sacked three times. "I guess they just decided to play. Maybe they figured they were in for a game."
Parnell Dickinson replaced Spurrier early in the fourth quarter and moved the Bucs from their own 30. to the Cleveland 22 with passes of 11 yards to Johnny McKay and 18 yards to Bob Moore followed by Louis Carter's eight-yard run and Rod McNeill's 11-yard pickup. But a holding penalty was quickly followed by Terry Brown's interception of a wobbly Dickinson pass to cut off the threat. On the play Dickinson injured his knee and left the game.
But the damage had been done before that as Pruitt, nursing a sore ankle entered the game and opened up the Cleveland offense in the third quarter. On their second possession the Browns moved 61 yards in seven plays. With Sipe hitting Warfield on a post pattern at 9:32 for the 15-yard score to make it 14-7.
Warfield caught four on the day for 79 yards. Joe Jones made It 21-7 when he hit Spurrier at the two-yard line on the second play of the fourth period and fell on the fumble in the end zone. A 32-yard Cockroft field goal completed the scoring. “This was the day the offense had to win it for us because we have so many injuries on defense," said McKay. “But we just weren't good to do it.”
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