Bucs fall flat in the mud 17-10 Michelle Kaufman, The St.Petersburg Times, published 1988 By the time the security guard opened the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' locker room door to let in a couple of straggling assistant coaches and a handful of curious reporters, the screaming had ceased. But the silent aftermath of coach Ray Perkins' scolding told the story. Heads bowed, eyeballs rolled, shoulders shrugged, and the words “next year” kept popping up. The Bucs (3-10) had just lost a mud-fest with the Atlanta Falcons 17-10 in front of the smallest NFL crowd of the season (14,020). The 13,630 ticket buyers who stayed dry and didn't show up at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium were the smart ones. They probably had a hunch the resurgent Falcons (5-8 and 4-1 the past five weeks) wouldn't have much trouble. “We lost to a better football team,” said Perkins, who is 5-20 as the Bucs' head coach, excluding strike games. “Yes, the field was a factor. It was terrible, but both teams played on the same field. We just weren't good enough to win. This might've been the worst game we played defensively all year.” The Bucs' defense, ranked fourth in the NFL against the run going into the game, let running backs John Settle and Gerald Riggs gain 175 yards. They let Chris Miller complete 58 percent of his passes, including the game-winning 37-yard touchdown to Michael Haynes. They allowed the Falcons to convert 56 percent of their third downs (9 of 16). Vinny Testaverde loaded up his season interception collection with Nos. 29, 30, and 31. Eleven more and he will tie George Blanda's 26-year-old pro football record. Two of his interceptions landed in the hands of Falcon cornerback Scott Case, who leads the NFC with nine interceptions, and the other in the hands of rookie linebacker Aundray Bruce. Case joked that “maybe we all got so muddy out there today that Vinny couldn't tell one of us from another.” By the end of the day, Testaverde had completed 34 percent of his passes (12 of 29) for 190 yards with no touchdowns. His team-leading 58 yards rushing indicates that the Bucs running game was just as unproductive. Lars Tate and William Howard combined for 69 yards. “Coach Perkins had a right to be mad at us,” said receiver Mark Carrier, who caught four passes for 54 yards. “We have got to quit making the same mistakes over and over.” “I'm getting tired of saying this, and I know it sounds repetitive, but we just have to stop making mistakes,” said linebacker Kevin Murphy. “We can't give up 30- and 40-yard runs and 30-yard pass routes and expect to be successful.” The three biggest plays the Bucs yielded were a 48-yard run by Settle, a 34-yard run by Riggs, and the 37-yard touchdown catch by Haynes. Settle, a second-year player who needs 86 yards to become the first free agent in NFL history to break 1,000 yards rushing in a season, described his run like this: “It was designed to go out to the right, but the nose tackle (Curt Jarvis) stunted and then overran the play, so I spun out and cut it back. I made the read and then it was off to the races.” Settle broke about four tackles, and would have probably made it to the end zone had Ricky Reynolds not caught his ankle on a dive. Riggs' run took the Falcons from their own 46-yard line to the Bucs 20. Murphy and safety Harry Hamilton got to Riggs at about the 30, but the stocky 230-pound runner carried the two Bucs piggy-back style for 10 yards. The Falcons could've scored on the drive, but placekicker Greg Davis, a 1987 Buc draft pick, missed a 32-yard field goal attempt. Jarvis said the Falcons were able to gain 181 yards on the ground because they found holes in the back side of the Bucs' run coverage. “They'd cut back and hit seams on us, which is something nobody else has done this year,” Jarvis said. “They found a weakness that we didn't even know we had.” The Falcons led 3-0 after one quarter, following a 40-yard field goal by Davis. The field goal capped a 12-play, eight-minute drive that covered 47 yards. Tampa Bay had a chance to tie early in the second quarter, but Atlanta nose tackle Greg Brown blocked a 35-yard field goal attempt by newly signed Bucs kicker John Carney. Oddly enough, Carney's 40-yard attempt a few seconds earlier was blocked, and he got to try again from 5 yards closer because Bruce was penalized for jumping offsides. That drive was made possible when Hamilton intercepted a Miller pass (Hamilton's fourth interception in four games) and returned it 58 yards to the Falcons 32. Another Buc miscue ended the next drive. Testaverde sprinted for 24 yards on second-and-18, and got the team to the Falcons 34-yard line. But Bruce stripped Howard of the ball on the very next play, and cornerback Bobby Butler recovered at the Atlanta 19. Sixteen plays later, Settle ran in from 8 yards and the Falcons led 10-0. At halftime, the Bucs had just four first downs to the Falcons' 11, and controlled the ball 10:03 to the Falcons' 19:57. Carney scored the Bucs' first points with a 24-yard field goal on the opening drive of the second half. The 68-yard drive included a clutch third-down run by Testaverde, a 13-yard catch by tight end Ron Hall, a 21-yard catch by Bruce Hill, and a 17-yard pass interference penalty that put the Bucs at the Atlanta 6-yard line. The Bucs made it 10-10 on a 2-yard Tate dive at the end of the third quarter. The highlights of the 80-yard drive were a 24-yard catch by Carrier, and catches of 24 and 29 yards by Hall. With 11:20 left in the game, Haynes beat Bucs cornerback Charles Wright and caught Miller's pass at about the 2-yard line. He slipped, but still got into the end zone. Forty-eight of the drive's 90 yards came on Settle's run, the longest run against the Bucs this year. Later, Bobby Futrell returned a punt 45 yards to the Atlanta 40, but the return was nullified by a holding penalty on Donnie Elder. The Bucs had to start the drive from their own 8. Tampa Bay got back into Atlanta territory again with five minutes to go in the game, when Donnie Elder forced punt returner Lew Barnes to fumble and Dan Turk recovered at the Atlanta 49. But Testaverde's second interception killed the drive. “Vinny could've done things better on three or four occasions, but it wasn't all him,” Perkins said. “Part of it was coaching, and I'll have to correct that. Also, I've talked about youth, but it really irritates me when a young player gets opportunities and doesn't improve. At some point you've got to say, `This guy can win, this one can't.' We're still short of people, but we're a better team than we were at this time last year.”