The Buccaneers, 17 point underdogs and making their NFL debut, went down to a 20-0 defeat at the hands of the Houston Oilers in a game that left a lot to be desired on both sides of the field. Tampa Bay was held to eight first downs and the closest they came to scoring was when Mirro Roder’s fieldgoal hit the post and when Steve Spurrier overthrew Lee McGriff in the endzone. John McKay's take on the game. "Let's see, has this team here, Houston, lost any games? I believe they have been playing for 6,000 years and I don't remember them winning any championships. We are an expansion team, but this is our expansion team. We will be back."

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS RUSHING BUCS: E.Johnson 5-15, C.Davis 3-15, Carter 12-7, DuBose 3-5, Dickinson 1-4, Kendrick 1-3, Spurrier 1-3. OILERS: Coleman 25-142, Willis 8-30, Dawkins 4-11, Hardeman 3-3, Pastorini 1-2, Baker 1-2. PASSING BUCS: Spurrier 21-8-90-2-0, Dickinson 5-1-15-0-0. OILERS: Pastorini 27-17-194-1-2, Hadl 2-2-11-0-0. RECEIVING BUCS: McKay 3-49, DuBose 2-21, B.Moore 2-21, E.Johnson 2-14. OILERS: Burrough 5-92, BJohnson 5-41, Coleman 4-35, Willis 1-13, Sawyer 1-12, Alston 1-7, Baker 1-6, Hardeman 1-(-1). INTERCEPTIONS BUCS: Stone 1-21. OILERS: Whittington 2-58. KICK RETURNS BUCS: M.Moore 3-74, Hagins 2-35. OILERS: Hardeman 1-40. PUNT RETURNS BUCS: Reece 2-4, Cotney 1-8, Hagins 1-2. OILERS: Johnson 7-76, Whittington 2-10. SACKS BUCS: L.Selmon 2-23. OILERS: Culp 1-8, Bethea 1-9, Little 1-4, Washington 1-9, Thompson 0.5-7, Rossovich 0.5-7.

STARTERS OFFENSE DEFENSE LT 75 Reavis LDE 78 Rudolph LG 72 Fest DT 76 Pear C 73 Ward DT 63 Selmon RG 77 Little RDE 66 Toomay RT 74 Current LLB 58 Peterson TE 86 Moore MLB 52 Reese WR 83 McGriff RLB 30 Gunn WR 89 McKay LCB 40 Washington FB 35 DuBose SS 33 Cotney RB 32 Carter FS 28 Stone QB 11 Spurrier RCB 21 Blahak PLAYED 1 Hagins, 4 Green, 5 Roder, 18 Dickinson, 19 Johnson, 20 Kendrick, 26 Davis, 42 Oliver, 44 Moore, 46 Reese, 51 Ryczek, 53 Ball, 56 Cooper, 57 Peterson, 61 Selmon, 64 Robinson, 67 Alward, 79 Wilson, 82 Pagac DID NOT PLAY 13 Lawrence, 88 Smith INACTIVES 25 Jordan, 27 Davis, 43 Williams, 54 Wood, 71 Young, 80 Novak

GAME HIGHLIGHTS Video footage from the expansion season is limited to occasional clips from the NFL Films season highlight film as NBC who broadcast all 14 games that season, destroyed the master tapes some years later leaving none of the games available in the way other games from Buccaneer history are. However I have been able to obtain the coverage from NFL Films’ Review of the Week in which the Buccaneers were featured, sometimes though not in the most flattering of highlights. The left video are the selected Buccaneer clips. The right video is the one from the Review of the Week.