Tampa Bay Buccaneers 29 Baltimore Colts 26Sunday 9 September 1979 at Memorial StadiumCBS COMMENTARY CREWLindsey Nelson and Paul Hornung
The Bucs fought back from a 17-0 first quarter deficit to go into overtime where Bill Kollar's fumble recovery set up Neil O'Donoghue's game-winning fieldgoal after 1:41 of the extra period. The Bucs' kicker had earlier missed two extra points, but fortunately his counterpart Linhart missed one of his own to make his 38-yard fieldgoal only the tying score rather than the winning one. The Bucs recorded 10 sacks of Greg Landry and it was the last of these by Randy Crowder, that led to the decisive fumble. Never before in their brief history had the Bucs come from so far behind to win a game and it put them alone atop of the Central Division for the first time.
GAME SCORINGBAL11:03-1Q Hardemann 4 pass from Landry (Linhart kick)BAL5:24-1Q Linhart FG24BAL3:55-1Q Hardemann 1 run (Linhart kick)TB10:39-2Q Bell 1 run (kick failed)TB7:06-2Q Hagins 9 pass from Williams (O'Donoghue kick)TB14:44-4Q Washington 49 interception return (O'Donoghue)TB10:57-4Q Jones 37 pass from Williams (kick failed)BAL7:13-4Q DeRoo 67 pass from Landry (kick failed)BAL1:26-4Q Linhart FG38TB13:19-OT O'Donoghue FG31
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICSRUSHINGBUCS: Eckwood 19-53, Bell 10-34, Berns 4-9, Williams 3-8, Ragsdale 1-3, J.Davis 1-0.COLTS: Hardemann 18-58, McCauley 8-28, Landry 3-5, Garry 6-1. PASSINGBUCS: Williams 29-10-196-2-2.COLTS: Landry 37-22-183-2-2. RECEIVINGBUCS: Bell 3-56, Hagins 2-35, Owens 2-31, Jones 1-37, J.Davis 1-24, Eckwood 1-13 .COLTS: Hardemann 7-24, McCauley 6-49, DeRoo 3-81, Garry 2-(-3), Doughty 1-16, Burke 1-9, Alston 1-4, McCall 1-3. INTERCEPTIONSBUCS: Washington 1-49, Wood 1-24.COLTS: Thompson 1-35, Shiver 1-3. KICK RETURNSBUCS: Ragsdale 1-19, T.Davis 1-16.COLTS: Leonard 3-70, Thompson 2-81, Callicut 2-23. PUNT RETURNSBUCS: Reece 7-54.COLTS: Glasgow 2-(-2). SACKSBUCS: L.Selmon 2-19, Lewis 2-12, Crowder 2-9, Washington 1-11, Jordan 1-9, Chambers 1-6, Kollar 1-3.COLTS: none.
VIDEO CLIPSRicky Bell started the comeback with a one-yard touchdown runRandy Crowder’s strip-sack of Greg Landry was the decisive play in OTNeil O’Donoghue then won the game with a 31-yard fieldgoal