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John Romano, The St.Petersburg Times, published 27 November 1989
Mark Carrier was in the end zone with the winning catch in his hands. He lifted the ball over his head for a spike and then let it drop softly to the ground. Maybe Carrier was being humble. After all, the Buccaneers had looked awfully shaky in Sunday's 14-13 win against Phoenix.
Or maybe this last-minute victory stuff is just becoming old hat for Tampa Bay. The Bucs pulled out a 32-31 win against Chicago just last week. And now Tampa Bay has won consecutive games for the first time in almost five years. It had been 10 years since the feat had been accomplished on the road.
Tampa Bay's 5-7 record hardly qualifies the team as a serious playoff contender, but it does make the final few weeks more interesting. The Buccaneers trail Green Bay and Minnesota by two games in the NFC Central. A win against the Packers in Tampa Stadium and a Chicago victory against Minnesota would cut that margin in half. “This is a perfect example of perseverance,” said nose tackle Shawn Lee. “We've won two in a row and we should keep looking up. Especially the way the conference is going.”
Tampa Bay looked anything like a team on the rise for most of Sunday afternoon. It took an 82-yard drive, and a 5-yard touchdown pass from Vinny Testaverde to Carrier with 43 seconds left, to make a winner out of the Bucs. The way that drive had gone, Carrier's catch was almost anticlimactic. Two times in the final two minutes, Testaverde kept Tampa Bay's hopes alive with fourth-down completions. “We have to know we were lucky on several plays,” said Bucs coach Ray Perkins. “But it's like I told the players: We haven't had too much luck in the last 2 1/2 years. Maybe it's our turn to be lucky.”
Tampa Bay's good fortunes were not confined to that final offensive drive. The Cardinals took advantage of a short kickoff by Donald Igwebuike and drove to Tampa Bay's 30 in the final minute. Al Del Greco had a chance to win the game, but his 47-yard field goal attempt went wide left with 1 second remaining. “This game is not that difficult. Sometimes we make it look harder than it should be,” said Perkins. “But I guess that's why the game is so exciting.”
The excitement was a long time in coming on Sunday. The Cardinals (5-7) certainly didn't make a big impression in their first game under interim coach Hank Kuhlmann. And the Bucs were hardly better. Testaverde threw for only 118 yards in the first 57 minutes. His receivers and linemen didn't help much, dropping several passes and allowing five sacks. “We couldn't get anything going because of our mistakes,” said Carrier, who finished with eight catches for 90 yards. “We hurt ourselves over and over.”
While the blame could have been spread equally, it was Testaverde who felt most responsible for the poor effort. Especially after he was intercepted by Tim McDonald at the Phoenix 18 with four minutes left in the game. The Bucs were in the middle of a 10-play drive when Testaverde turned the ball over. “I made a crucial mistake that could have cost us the game,” said Testaverde. “I was lucky because the defense played great. I knew, if we got the ball back, I had to be almost perfect.”
Testaverde wasn't perfect. But he was effective. He got his second chance when Phoenix was forced to punt after three plays. The Bucs took over at their own 18 with 2:53 left. Testaverde threw incomplete on five of his first seven attempts on the drive. But each time the Bucs were faced with giving the ball up, he came up with the critical completion. He threw to Bruce Hill for a 15 yards on third-and-10. He dumped the ball off to William Howard, who fought his way to a first down on fourth-and-10.
Faced with another fourth-and-10 from the Phoenix 40, Testaverde hung in the pocket under a heavy rush and hit Hill on a crossing pattern for 25 yards. Tampa Bay had come into the game 2-of-7 on fourth-down attempts. “Vinny had a lackluster day throwing the ball until the end,” said Perkins. “Then he came through when he had to. He did a good job of moving around and making plays when he was uder pressure.”
Tampa Bay's defense also came through under pressure. The Cardinals were handed the football in Buccaneers territory 10 times. When Phoenix scored, it took a putt instead of a drive.The Cardinals' only touchdown march covered a whopping 35 yards. The two field goal drives went 7 and 8 yards. “They put seven or eight men up front there and just asked us to pass,” said Phoenix quarterback Tom Tupa, who was making his second NFL start. “The game plan we had was good. W just didn't execute it the way we'e supposed to.”
Phoenix was even given good field position on its final drive. Igwebuike's kickoff, following Carrier's touchdown, was a blooper that landed in Lydell Carr's hands at the 25. He returned it 15 yards and the Cardinals needed only 30 yards or so to move nto field goal range. They had 39 seconds to work. “I was trying to get the ball deep,” said Igwebuike. “It wasn't anything intentional. It was just a bad kick.”
Phoenix moved into Del Greco's range with a pass-interference penalty and a 13-yard scramble by Tupa. But Del Greco, who was 6-of-10 on field goals over 40 yards, pulled this one just a little to the left. “I hit it good,” Del Greco said. “If it was two or three yards closer, it would have been in.”
Tampa Bay already has won more games than in any of the past four seasons, but the players aren't jumping for joy. Perkins gave the Bucs a modest set of goals to shoot at this season: beat a good team; come from behind for a win; win two in a row.
That mission has been accomplished. “Two wins in a row has got to mean a lot for us,” said center Randy Grimes. “This is another big step.”
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