Tampa Bay Buccaneers 7 Chicago Bears 13 Sunday 23 November 1997 at Soldier Field FOX COMMENTARY CREW Kenny Albert and Tim Green
Tampa Bay essentially lost the game with a pair of first-quarter turnovers, surrendering a 10-0 lead in the first quarter after two fumbles. The Bucs’ very first play from scrimmage started the troubles when FB Mike Alstott fumbled and CB Walt Harris recovered. The Bears were only 1-10 coming into the game but shut down the Buccaneer running game all day and the only Tampa touchdown came as a result of a drive extended by a pair of Chicago personal foul penalties.
STARTERS OFFENSE DEFENSE LT 74 Gruber LDE 72 Ahanotu LG 60 Pyne DT 77 Culpepper C 61 Mayberry DT 99 Sapp RG 64 Diaz RDE 91 Upshaw RT 70 Odom WLB 55 Brooks TE 80 Harris MLB 56 Nickerson WR 85 Anthony SLB 59 Porter WR 88 Copeland LCB 21 Abraham QB 12 Dilfer SS 47 Lynch TE 83 Moore FS 22 Mincy RB 40 Alstott RCB 27 Parker PLAYED 4 Walsh, 5 Husted, 7 Landeta, 23 Bouie, 25 Johnson, 28 Dunn, 31 Young, 37 Ellison, 45 Legette, 50 Gooch, 51 Singleton, 53 Quarles, 69 Pierson, 71 Wunsch, 73 Middleton, 82 Hape, 84 Thomas, 86 Williams, 87 Davis, 90 Maniecki, 94 White, 97 Jackson DID NOT PLAY 32 Rhett INACTIVES 13 Milanovich, 20 Barber, 24 Robinson, 29 Gant, 52 Bellisari, 65 Dogins, 75 Curry, 78 Jones
GAME SCORING CHI 2:30-1Q Harris 2 run (Jaeger kick) CHI 0:05-2Q Jaeger FG32 CHI 11:00-3Q Jaeger FG25 TB 0:04-3Q Anthony 12 pass from Dilfer (Husted kick)
GAME REPORTS Rick Stroud reports from a cold and miserable Soldier Field It just went wrong from start to finish No excuse for sitting Alstott at key time Bears' offense hardly a mystery Click here for the gamebook and the play-by-play
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS RUSHING BUCS: Alstott 7-18, Dilfer 1-13, Dunn 9-4, Anthony 1-0. BEARS: Harris 33-116, Kramer 4-42, Autry 5-11. PASSING BUCS: Dilfer 33-19-247-0-1. BEARS: Kramer 28-15-110-0-0. RECEIVING BUCS: Anthony 4-59, Thomas 4-53, Harris 3-54, Williams 3-53, Dunn 2-13, Alstott 2-10, Copeland 1-5. BEARS: Penn 6-53, Bownes 2-23, Proehl 2-4, Allred 1-9, Jennings 1-8, Wetnight 1-6, Carter 1-4, Harris 1-3. INTERCEPTIONS BUCS: none. BEARS: none. KICK RETURNS BUCS: Williams 3-62. BEARS: Bownes 2-54. PUNT RETURNS BUCS: Williams 3-40. BEARS: Hughes 2-15. SACKS BUCS: none. BEARS: Thomas 1-6, Simpson 1-4.
VIDEO CLIPS Jackie Harris’ reception was the offensive highlight from the first half John Lynch’s famous hit on his brother-in-law, Bears TE John Allred Reidel Anthony had the only Tampa Bay touchdown of the game