|
|
 |
Roy Cummings, The Tampa Tribune , published 30 December 2001
As the clock ran down on their 22-10 victory against the Super Bowl champion Baltimore Ravens early today, the Bucs and their fans still were paying a small price for that miserable 4-5 start they got off to this year. Instead of being able to celebrate with absolute certainty a return to the playoffs, their bubbling revelry had to be capped the way you would one of those spring-loaded surprise-in-a-can snakes. “It's a great win, but we still have a ways to go,” Bucs vice president Joel Glazer said.
Though it showed signs of returning to normal in the second half, when 16 carries produced 83 yards, the Bucs' running game still looked dreadfully inefficient at times. That certainly was the case early, when the Bucs averaged just 2.7 yards per carry in the first half. Maintaining drives also remains a problem. The Bucs were 1-for-10 on third-down conversions through three quarters and kept the ball for just 16 seconds during a critical late fourth-quarter drive. Capitalizing on scoring chances is another problem.
For instance, the Bucs got the ball three times inside the Baltimore 40 in the first half, but one drive resulted in no points while another resulted in only a field goal after Tampa Bay set up at the Ravens' 34. “We had good field position and had the short field,” Dungy said. “It would have been nice to push a couple of those in.'
The one drive that started inside the Ravens' 40 and resulted in the Bucs' first touchdown started at the Baltimore 1, but it was the defense that got them there. Standing alone in a zone at midfield, Derrick Brooks picked off an Elvis Grbac pass and returned the ball 53 yards to just inside the Baltimore 1. After starting there, though, the Bucs' offense still needed help scoring.
After their first play from scrimmage lost 2 yards, the Bucs regained the lost ground when the Ravens were called for offsides. On the next play, Bucs quarterback Brad Johnson surged over the line to give Tampa Bay a 16-7 lead. Led by Ronde Barber, who picked off his team-record 10th pass of the season six plays into the game, the Bucs forced three turnovers in the game and nearly recorded two others in the first half alone.
The unit also recorded four sacks, limited Baltimore to a net total of just 257 yards (90 rushing) and succeeded in stopping 13 of the Ravens' 17 third-down conversion tries. “The defense really stepped up big for us tonight; it has all year,” said Johnson, who threw for just 90 yards. “The way our defense was playing, we knew they were going to have a hard time driving 90, 95 yards against us,” Dungy said.
The Bucs' defensive effort allowed Tampa Bay to force field goals when the Ravens needed touchdowns, and never was that more important than late in the third quarter, when the defense showed its only real sign of slippage. After allowing the Ravens to move the ball 68 yards in four plays to the Bucs' 2, the defense tightened up and allowed only a Matt Stover field goal that cut the Bucs' lead to 16-10.
The Bucs had built that edge mostly by riding the leg of replacement place kicker Doug Brien. Signed Thursday to replace the injured Martin Gramatica (sore right hamstring), Brien enabled the Bucs to score when their early drives stalled, hitting on field goal tries of 42, 38 and 24 yards in the first half. The latter came after Todd Yoder barreled in on punter Kyle Richardson to block a punt attempt that was eventually recovered by Rabih Abdullah at the Ravens' 23. “We had a couple things we thought we could get inside,” Dungy said of the block. “We felt like we had a place we could attack.”
As big as that play was, though, there was one bigger to come. Two plays into the Ravens' next series, Brooks picked off a Grbac pass and ran it back 53 yards to set up the Bucs' first touchdown. That score began to seal the Ravens' fate, but it wasn't until the waning seconds of the game, when Mike Alstott ran 32 yards for a touchdown, that a Bucs victory was certain.
|
|
|
| |
| |
|