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Ray Holliman, The St.Petersburg Times, published 23 November 1981
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers were getting ready to ke the field for pre-game warmups, and guard Ray Snell looked at the faces of his fellow offensive linemen. "I saw the look on their faces, the hunger," said Snell. t was just like they wanted to go out right then and get Green Bay.
And in the end ... Doug Williams went over to the offensive linemen, resting on the bench while the defense ran out the clock.
"I told them to look around the stands and see how many people were leaving this week," said William"; And I told them to remember how many boos we hear last week and how many they had heard today."
In between these observations of Snell and Williams, the Tampa Bay offense made a remarkable turnaround from its sad performance a week ago in a 24-7 loss to Denver.
Last week, there was no evidence of hunger. And last week, the fans grew so tired of booing that most of them packed up and left before the fourth quarter was half over.
What could cause such a drastic change, especially among the linemen who spent Sunday paving the way for record-breaking performance by the Bucs with some -precision blocking?
"It was just a matter of necessity," said Snell. "Not only did we feel we had to prove ourselves, but it was a time we had to win if we were to stay alive in the playoffs. We knew to beat Green Bay, we had to put some points on the board."
Tackle Eugene Sanders said the immense amount of criticism directed at the offense last week - by the press, and by the fans and by the coaching staff - provided a little extra incentive.
"For the last two games, we haven't been carrying out our (blocking) assignments," said Sanders. So people got on our back, and when that happens you either drown or you rise up and get back on top.
"I've always said we have a good offensive line. We're young and we make mistakes. But what I like about it is that if things go bad one week, they come back and prove themselves the next week."
After the pitiful performance of a week ago, Bucs' Coach John McKay skipped the usual two heavy workouts in pads this week. Instead, he sent the offensive unit out In shorts to run through its assignments. I just felt that at this time of the season if you have the right people, I don't see any sense in going out in pads and beating up on people."
The linemen are hopeful McKay will take their latest performance into consideration and lighten up for the rest of the season. "Maybe we won't be in pads next week, either," said McKay.
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