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Rick Stroud, The St.Petersburg Times, published 13 October 1997
Sometimes it is hard to tell who is in first. As the Bucs walked off the field Sunday, their shoulders sagged. Teeth were clenched. Eyes were unblinking.
The team that tried to run away and hide from the rest of the NFC Central with five straight wins to start the season reached the stadium tunnel and its bye week with a pronounced limp.
At no time did the Bucs dare to steal a glimpse at what was behind them. What a mistake it would be to peek too soon.
Tampa Bay watched its three-week sole possession of the division evaporate against the Detroit Lions. Barry Sanders rushed for 215 yards and two touchdowns, then caught a pass for another score as the Lions routed the Bucs 27-9 before a near-sellout crowd of 72,095 at Houlihan's Stadium. Sanders, who entered the game still looking for his first rushing TD, got that and more with scoring runs of 80 and 82 yards. The Bucs defense was shredded for three plays of 79 yards or more.
It was the second straight loss for the Bucs, who fell back into a tie for the division lead with Green Bay and Minnesota at 5-2. Detroit is back in the hunt at 4-3.
The defeat also snapped an eight-game home regular-season winning streak, fourth best in the NFL. "We've had a stretch of some bad games here, but let's not forget all the positives of the first five weeks," Bucs safety John Lynch said. "Let's not forget all the good football we've played. I don't think the confidence is gone. We realize we got dominated, we got our butts kicked today by Detroit. We need to regroup and guys will be confident to get back on the field after our bye week."
All week long, the Bucs were wary of Sanders and doubted they could repeat their Sept. 7 effort at Detroit, where they held the three-time NFL rushing leader to 20 yards on 10 carries.
Since then, Sanders was on a roll with four straight 100-yard rushing games and the Lions were no longer quick to abandon the run.
"Worst game (on defense) since I've been here," defensive tackle Warren Sapp said. "They just made play after play after play like we weren't even out there."
It started on the Lions' second try on offense when Sanders cut back to his left and faked Lynch out of his cleats, then outraced diving cornerback Anthony Parker for an 80-yard touchdown to give the Lions a 7-3 lead. "We try to stay on his outside and he put a little stutter on me," Lynch said. "At that point, he got me. It's a bad feeling looking up and seeing him off to the races."
Sanders made it 17-9 in the third quarter when he ran around right end and avoided the sideline shove of safety Melvin Johnson on his way to an 82-yard TD.
The downward spiral continued for Trent Dilfer. He had thrown eight TDs and two INTs for a league-leading quarterback rating of 105.9 and 4-0 start. But in the last three games, Dilfer has three TDs and four INTs. Two have been returned for touchdowns and one Sunday led to the go-ahead 34-yard field goal by Jason Hanson. His quarterback rating during that stretch is 64.9.
Dilfer was intercepted twice Sunday. In the second quarter, he tried to hit Reidel Anthony down the left sideline and was picked off by Corey Raymond at the Detroit 27.
The second was a bomb to Horace Copeland that nickel back Robert Bailey swiped. "I didn't feel I was dumb with the football today at all," Dilfer said. "I thought I made real good decisions all day long. I think the guy made a great interception on the one down the sideline. The first one, it was just an unfortunate deal I'm not really accountable for the guy who picked it. We were clearing him out and I tried to make a throw to Reidel in man coverage and it didn't work."
His receivers dropped four passes and his offensive line let him get pounded so badly he had to go out for a play after being dumped by linebacker Antonio London on the Bucs' final drive.
"I couldn't breathe," Dilfer said. "I got hit in the kidney and had some sharp pains going down my back and my ribs. I couldn't get any breaths."
The problem was the Bucs were brutal on first down. They gained 36 yards on 17 plays, an average of 2.1. Ten of those plays went for zero or negative yards.
Dilfer finished 17-of-31 passing for 237 yards, including a nifty 59-yard TD to Warrick Dunn. But overall, the passing game never clicked.
"I think the last three weeks, I believe we've taken a step backwards. There's something lacking," Dilfer said. "There's something missing in our preparation. I don't know what it is. We need to start practicing better, preparing better and playing better."
One series in the second quarter illustrated the misfires on offense. Leading 9-7, Dilfer connected with Copeland (six catches, 105 yards) for a 46-yard completion on third down. But the Bucs went from first down at the Detriot 37 to fourth and 35 at their 38. How could they have thrown it into reverse so quickly? Easy. Rookie right tackle Jerry Wunsch was beaten to the outside twice during the series as the Lions sacked Dilfer three times for combined losses of 19 yards. A week ago, it was the Packers' Reggie White making tackle Jason Odom look statuesque. Odom's replacement was beaten by the Lions' Robert Porcher, who had 1.5 of the club's three sacks.
With Sanders running wild, the Lions passed at will. Although quarterback Scott Mitchell was sacked four times (one each by the Bucs' starting defensive line), he completed 16 of 22 for 222 yards, including a TD pass to Sanders. His primary target was Herman Moore (five catches, 120 yards), whose 79-yard catch and run in the fourth quarter set up the Lions' final score.
It could have been worse. Sanders fumbled away an apparent touchdown at the Bucs' 2 in the third quarter.
The Lions made the adjustment to stop the rushing attack five weeks ago at Detroit. In that game, Dunn rushed for 130 yards, but only 14 came in the second half after the Lions went to an eight-man front and took away the middle with a variety of run blitzes.
It was a similar scenario Sunday. Fullback Mike Alstott and a 17-yard scramble by Dilfer produced 54 yards on the ground on the first possession, which resulted in Michael Husted's 25-yard field goal.
But the Lions adjusted and held the Bucs to 18 yards rushing the remainder of the game.
Sanders took a shot at the comparisons of Dunn to the Lions' superstar.
"I do a pretty good Warrick Dunn impersonation, don't I?" he said on the way to the bus.
Say this for the Bucs, they lose as a team. The offense was stifled. The defense collapsed. And the special teams allowed a 40-yard punt return and saw Husted miss his second PAT of the season.
"What we've got to do is hang together as a team over the next couple of weeks," coach Tony Dungy said. "There will be people who will jump off the bandwagon because we dropped a couple of games. But we feel like we're still a pretty good team. You don't win five straight games in this league by not being very good. We'll come back from the bye week and play well."
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