Tampa Bay Buccaneers 3 Minnesota Vikings 9
Saturday 24 September 1977 at Tampa Stadium
GAME REPORTS
Click here for the gamebook and the play-by-play
GAME SCORING
MIN
12:48-2Q
Safety - Hedberg sacked in the endzone
TB
1:57-2Q
Leavitt FG19
MIN
7:25-3Q
Foreman 31 pass from Tarkenton (Cox kick)
Randy Hedberg completed seven passes but three of them were to
the Vikings and any hopes of winning the home opener in 1977 went
the same way. The Bucs were knocking on the Minnesota goal-line
in the second half but had to resort to an Allan Leavitt fieldgoal from
the one-yard line and never threatened again. The winning score
came in the third quarter when Fran Tarkenton scrambled around in
his famous way, and found Chuck Foreman from 31 yards out. The
Bucs were 14 point underdogs in this game but once again, did
manage to cover the spread.
STARTERS
OFFENSE
DEFENSE
LT
75 Reavis
LDE
78 Rudolph
LG
62 Winans
DT
76 Pear
C
51 Ryczek
RDE
63 L Selmon
RG
68 Medlin
LOLB
57 Lewis
RT
70 Carlton
LILB
61 D Selmon
TE
86 Moore
RILB
54 Wood
WR
85 Owens
ROLB
56 C Johnson
WR
89 McKay
LCB
45 White
FB
35 DuBose
SS
33 Cotney
RB
42 Bell
FS
34 Brown
QB
14 Hedberg
RCB
40 Washington
PLAYED
4 Green, 9 Leavitt, 19 Huff, 25 Jordan, 28 Davis, 32 L Carter, 36 Winfrey, 43
Williams, 46 Reece, 52 Harris, 53 Bonness, 59 Lemon, 64 Robinson, 65 R
Johnson, 66 B Carter, 73 Hannah, 77 Kollar, 79 Wilson, 81 Hagins, 83
Nafziger, 87 Mucker
INACTIVE
17 Blount, 80 Novak
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING
BUCS: Bell 21-66, Hedberg 6-25, DuBose 3-12, Davis 1-2, Williams 1-
0, Carter 2-(-1).
VIKINGS: Foreman 14-58, McClanahan 9-33, Johnson 4-11, Miller 2-5,
Tarkenton 3-(-3).
PASSING
BUCS: Hedberg 14-4-51-3-0, Huff 3-1-(-3)-0-0.
VIKINGS: Tarkenton 38-25-223-2-1.
RECEIVING
BUCS: Owens 2-26, McKay 2-25, DuBose 1-(-3).
VIKINGS: McClanahan 5-46, Miller 5-45, Foreman 4-52, White 3-40,
Voight 3-14, Rashad 3-13, Johnson 2-13.
INTERCEPTIONS
BUCS: D Selmon 1-9, White 1-3.
VIKINGS: Krause 1-25, Blair 1-18, Wright 1-5.
KICK RETURNS
BUCS: A.Davis 1-27, Hagins 1-26.
VIKINGS: McClanahan 1-18, Miller 1-17, Grim 1-4.
PUNT RETURNS
BUCS: Reece 2-19, Hagins 1-9.
VIKINGS: Grim 5-15.
SACKS
BUCS: Rudolph 1-12.
VIKINGS: White 1-12, Eller 1-2.
VIDEO CLIPS
Game footage of this game is not available. But a brief compilation of plays
from the game has been put together from the NFL’s 1977 season film of
the Buccaneers albeit without sound. This is below left. There is also a
brief selection of clips from the NFL “Review of the Week” programme. This
is below right and has Harry Kalas on the commentary.
