The 1985 Snow Bowl
The Buccaneers have played some pretty amazing games during their
chequered history. And of course, for 27 years, there was the infamous statistic
about never having won when the temperature was under 40 degrees. But in
1985, the Bucs played in the most incredible conditions of all in a December 1st
game at Lambeau Field, one that has remained in a lot of players' memories
since.
1985 was the first year of Leeman Bennett's reign as head coach of the Bucs
and his team were on their way to a 2-14 campaign. Steve Young had arrived
from the USFL and had the previous week, beaten Detroit in his NFL starting
debut. The Bucs were optimistic for the umpteenth time that this was the start
of the corner being turned in Tampa. Not so fast my friends as Lee Corso would
say.
Week 13 was a trip to Lambeau Field to play the Packers, not exactly world-
beaters at the time themselves. And it was snowing in Green Bay. Hard. And
getting worse. Six inches of snow fell the day before the game, six inches fell
during the game and another foot and a half the following day.
It was the worst weather Lambeau Field had seen on a game day in 30 years.
Total white-out conditions at times, grounds crew trying to sweep the lines
between plays and coaches and commentators alike having difficulty in seeing
on to the field. And the Bucs were in white.
The Bucs were outgained by the incredible margin of 512 yards to 61 and it
was only two short missed fieldgoals by Al Del Greco of the Packers (basically
because he couldn't stand up straight to kick them) and a pair of fumbles that
stopped the game being a total annihilation on the scoreboard. A shade under
20,000 were in the stands to see the game although probably many more were
unable to travel across snowbound Wisconsin to get to Lambeau Field that
afternoon.
It was 30 first downs to five for the Pack and Lynn Dickey's passing
performance was nothing short of unreal in the conditions. James Lofton had
over 100 yards by half-time and Dickey's arm was every bit as good as Brett
Favre who would follow him a decade later.
Steve Young threw one out pass that sailed on the wind and flew over the
receiver's head. He tried again on the next play and the wind knocked it down
to fall incomplete five yards from Kevin House's feet. Backs and linemen were
slipping all over the place unless they had a Packer helmet on, in which case
they seemed to be playing on perfect grass.
The 1985 Bucs were not a great team and they quickly realised that as soon as
the Packers scored, any hope of success was beyond them. Thanks to a
fumble recovery, they did get inside the Green Bay 20-yard line at the end of
the third quarter but the incompetent Leeman Bennett didn't call a time out and
hence had to attempt the kick at the other end of the field at the start of the
fourth quarter when the teams changed ends. I don't know if Igwebuike missed
left, right or short - you simply couldn't even see the ball flying off his foot.
The Bucs did get out of Wisconsin on a flight that evening but several of the
players had staged a protest convinced it was not safe to fly. Eventually the
pilot had to come out of the cockpit to convince them that he had a wife and
family and wouldn't put them at risk by taking off in dangerous conditions.
"Show us the pictures" LB and current Buc radio show host Scot Brantley remembers calling out. "You could hear a pin drop when we rolled
down the runway" he added.
Of all the hundreds of games the Bucs have played, this one will go down as one of the most memorable. Images of the Bucs players
huddled around the only heater on the sideline or the speed at which they ran off the field at half-time and the final gun. They probably would
have lost if conditions had been perfect but at least this way, everyone got to remember a trip to Green Bay for something very special.