Tampa Bay Buccaneers 21 Pittsburgh Steelers 24Sunday 9 November 1980 at Tampa StadiumNBC COMMENTARY CREWDick Stockton and Merlin Olsen
The game that nearly was the previous Super Bowl went Pittsburgh's way. The decisive score came just before half-time when Lynn Swann caught a deflected pass for a TD to give the Steelers a 24-14 lead at the intermission. Doug Williams had his second 300-yard passing day of the season, but a blocked punt and fumble deep inside Tampa territory had done their damage earlier in the game.
GAME SCORINGPIT 9:28-1Q Bahr FG48PIT 8:19-1Q Winston recovered blocked punt (Bahr kick)TB 4:15-1Q House 26 pass from Williams (Yepremian kick)PIT 11:28-2Q Thornton 1 run (Bahr kick)TB 5:24-2Q Giles 12 pass from Williams (Yepremian kick)PIT 0:03-2Q Swann 20 pass froma Bradshaw (Bahr kick)TB 1:20-3Q Bell 8 pass from Williams (Yepremian kick)
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICSRUSHINGBUCS: Bell 22-68, Eckwood 6-6, Williams 1-1.STEELERS: Bleier 17-78, Thornton 10-32, Davis 4-18, Hawthorne 3-8, Stoudt 1-0, Bradshaw 1-(-1).PASSINGBUCS: Williams 45-21-302-1-3.STEELERS: Bradshaw 26-11-100-1-1.RECEIVINGBUCS: Giles 6-128, House 3-58, Eckwood 3-38, Jones 3-30, Hagins 2-25, Bell 2-3, Shumann 1-17, J.Davis 1-3.STEELERS: Bleier 3-26, Stallworth 2-34, Thornton 2-2, Swann 1-20, Smith 1-14, Grossman 1-9, Cunningham 1-(-5).INTERCEPTIONSBUCS: Brantley 1-6.STEELERS: Shell 1-7.KICK RETURNSBUCS: G.Davis 4-76.STEELERS: R.Davis 3-59, Pollard 1-23.PUNT RETURNSBUCS: Reece 6-22.STEELERS: Bell 4-54.SACKSBUCS: L.Selmon 1-6.STEELERS: Greene 1-8.
VIDEO CLIPSKevin House’s scoring reception was a thing of beautyJimmie Giles was left all alone on his scoring passRicky Bell added one through the air to give Doug Williams three