| Bad finish to a bad start Raymond James Stadium 16 January 2000 The background The first game for Jon Gruden as head coach of the Buccaneers. And a home game in front of 65,000 crazy Tampa Bay fans and an expected win to start the season. But the Saints had different ideas and it wound up being a crazy finish to the season opener. Of course the season would end a lot better with a Super Bowl victory in San Diego, but at the outset, the Gruden era was as disappointing in its start as the Dungy was at its finish. The Bucs had battled back from a 20-10 deficit inside the final minutes and had tied the score on a FUAT fieldgoal. But overtime saw the Bucs gradually lose the field position battle. The game situation The Bucs faced 4th down from their own 9. Tom Tupa faced a heavy rush from former Buc Fred McAfee and in the process of being tackled, tried to throw a left-handed pass out of the endzone. Click here for the game reports & stats |
| The 100 Greatest Plays in Buccaneer history Welcome to the next and best countdown that we have ever run on BUCPOWER.COM. Featuring every one of the 32 years that the Bucs have played NFL football, we have clips of memorable touchdowns, bloopers, decisive moments and trick plays. From the ridiculous to the sublime, this is a countdown to bring back a lot of memories for Buccaneer fans of all ages around the world. Whereas the top 20-30 plays do stand out and are able to be ranked subjectively (and have been by some of the Tampa media), the early plays are generally spread out across the years and can only be placed approximately in terms of their importance. |
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