Tampa Bay Buccaneers 0 Detroit Lions 11 Sunday 4 September 1983 at Tampa Stadium CBS COMMENTARY CREW Jim Kelly and John Dockery
The Bucs opened the post-Doug Williams era by being shut out at Tampa Stadium in the 1983 season opener by the Lions. The game was memorable for Detroit DE William Gay having a career year in just one afternoon by recording 5.5 sacks in the game, thanks in the main to all three of the Bucs' offensive tackles going down injured in the first half alone. Although the Lions were kept out of the endzone, three Eddie Murray fieldgoals and a first quarter safety were enough to give Detroit victory. Jerry Golsteyn started at QB for the Bucs but was replaced at half-time by Jack Thompson.
STARTERS OFFENSE DEFENSE LT 75 Reavis LDE 78 Cannon LG 72 Snell NT 76 Logan C 50 Wilson RDE 63 Selmon RG 62 Farrell LOLB 59 Hawkins RT 70 Thomas LILB 58 Davis TE 82 J Bell RILB 52 Brantley WR 87 Carter ROLB 53 Green WR 89 House LCB 21 Holt FB 32 Wilder SS 33 Cotney RB 28 Carver FS 34 Brown QB 11 Golsteyn RCB 40 Washington PLAYED 1 Morton, 3 Capece, 5 Garcia, 14 Thompson, 20 Colzie, 22 Smith, 23 Castille, 24 Morris, 26 Owens, 43 Middleton, 54 Wood, 55 Spradlin, 56 Johnson, 57 Leonard, 60 Grimes, 66 Reese, 68 Yarno, 69 Arbubakrr, 74 Sanders, 80 Branton, 81 Tyler, 83 T Bell, 86 Obradovich, 88 Giles, 90 White, 93 Witte DID NOT PLAY 8 Hewko, 65 Stalls
VIDEO CLIPS David Logan recorded the first Buccaneer sack of the 1983 season And Cedric Brown had the first interception Not a lot of highlights but there was this 31-yard pass to Theo Bell
GAME SCORING DET 7:04-1Q Safety - Golsteyn sacked in the end zone DET 3:51-2Q Murray FG29 DET 6:16-3Q Murray FG48 DET 8:57-4Q Murray FG38
GAME REPORTS Click here for the gamebook and play-by-play
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS RUSHING BUCS: Carver 11-22, Wilder 5-18, Morton 5-16, Owens 1-4. LIONS: Sims 14-37, Jones 11-23, Hipple 3-11, King 3-6. PASSING BUCS: Golsteyn 21-14-120-0-0, Thompson 12-7-97-1-0. LIONS: Hipple 24-14-174-1-0, Danielson 10-8-89-0-0. RECEIVING BUCS: Wilder 9-69, Carter 4-41, T.Bell 2-47, J.Bell 2-16, Obradovich 1- 19, Witte 1-10, Carver 1-9, House 1-6. LIONS: Thompson 6-80, Nichols 5-41, Jones 3-49, Sims 3-31, Chadwick 2-19, Norris 1-35, King 1-4, Rubick 1-4. INTERCEPTIONS BUCS: Brown 1-10. LIONS: Latimer 1-0. KICK RETURNS BUCS: Morton 2-18. LIONS: Hall 1-25, Martin 1-15. PUNT RETURNS BUCS: Tyler 3-21. LIONS: Martin 2-25. SACKS BUCS: Selmon 2-19, Logan 1-8. LIONS: Gay 5.5-39, English 1-7, Moss 0.5-1.