Tampa Bay Buccaneers 7 Arizona Cardinals 12 Sunday 2 January at Sun Devil Stadium
SCORING ARI 9:06-1Q Rackers FG40 ARI 0:03-2Q Rackers FG35 TB 1:24-3Q Clayton 75 pass from Simms (Taylor kick) ARI 11:07-4Q Rackers FG39 ARI 6:12-4Q Rackers FG31
GAME REPORTS Roy Cummings' game review Martin Fennelly's award-winning column Rick Stroud's opinion on the game Gary Shelton's usual morning-after rant Chris Simms' 2nd start is not so good Michael Clayton is the one shining point Game notes and anecdotes The game report The gamebook and play-by-play of the game
Chris SImms made his second NFL start but outside of one long touchdown pass to rookie sensation Michael Clayton, this was a depressing way to end the 5-11 season on the road against a similarly poor Cardinal team. There were lost fumbles, too many penalties and four sacks on Simms - all signs of a bad team. Simms missed the winning TD pass when he badly overthrew a wide-open Earnest Graham down the sideline.
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS RUSHING BUCS: Pittman 16-50, Graham 1-12, Simms 3-1, Alstott 1-(-1). CARDINALS: Smith 23-69, Ayanbadejo 6-31, Scobey 1-8, Fitzgerald 2-1, McCown 2-(-2) PASSING BUCS: Simms 32-16-224-2-1. CARDINALS: McCown 36-16-115-1-0. RECEIVING BUCS: Galloway 3-48, Pittman 3-30, Jurevicius 3-20, Clayton 2- 86, Alstott 2-15, Lawrie 1-15, Baber 1-7, Dilger 1-3. CARDINALS: Fitzgerald 3-36, Boldin 3-31, Jones 2-18, Smith 2- 13, Johnson 2-9, Ayanbadejo 2-5, Williams 1-8, McCown 1-(-5). INTERCEPTIONS BUCS: Smith 1-13. CARDINALS: Wilson 1-24, Dockett 1-20. KICK RETURNS BUCS: Cox 2-80. CARDINALS: Scobey 2-41. PUNT RETURNS BUCS: Galloway 5-10. CARDINALS: Williams 3-45, Boldin 0-0. SACKS BUCS: none. CARDINALS: Berry 2-22, Davis 1-8, Dockett 1-7.
STARTERS OFFENSE DEFENSE LT 70 Deese DE 90 White LG 78 Stinchcomb DT 95 Ahanotu C 79 Mahan DT 91 Darby RG 60 Coleman DE 97 Rice RT 67 Walker MLB 53 Quarles TE 85 Dilger RLB 55 Brooks WR 84 Galloway DB 27 Edwards WR 80 Clayton LCB 25 Kelly FB 40 Alstott RCB 20 Barber RB 32 Pittman SS 26 Smith QB 8 Griese FS 28 Jackson PLAYED 6 Taylor, 9 Bidwell, 24 Cox, 33 Graham, 35 Ivy, 37 Allen, 38 Howell, 43 Cook, 44 Baber, 46 Lawrie, 50 Gooch, 51 Burns, 52 Gold, 56 Nece, 58 Cooper, 69 Davis, 77 Terry, 81 Brown, 83 Jurevicius, 93 Savage, 95 Ahanotu DID NOT PLAY 14 Johnson INACTIVES 8 Griese, 34 Comella, 36 Smart, 68 Wright, 72 O'Dwyer, 82 Lee, 83 Moore, 98 McNeal
COMMENTARY CREW Ron Pitts and Tim Ryan