BUCPOWER.COM


Bucs 24 Panthers 27

Scott Smith, Buccaneers.com, published 10 November 2003

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ hopes of defending their NFC South title took a serious blow in Charlotte Sunday with a 27-24 loss to the Carolina Panthers. At 4-5, the Bucs’ odds of defending their Super Bowl crown are also getting longer. That the Panthers, first place in the South at 7-2, would defeat the Buccaneers no longer qualifies as a surprise. That they would do it primarily through the air, however, was a bit of a shocker. And that the Bucs would once again stage a dramatic fourth-quarter rally only to lose on a final, answering blow was just downright painful.

Last week, the Bucs drove for two long touchdowns in the fourth quarter against New Orleans only to see Aaron Brooks and the Saints answer with a game-winning field goal drive. This time, Tampa Bay again staged two final-period touchdowns, plus a field goal, simply setting the stage for Jake Delhomme to march the Panthers 78 yards for the game-winning touchdown.

The Bucs are 0-2 this season against Carolina, making their three-game deficit more like a four-game hole, thanks to the head-to-head tiebreaker. In the first Bucs-Panthers meeting, Tampa Bay rallied to tie the game at 9-9 on a last-second touchdown catch by WR Keenan McCardell, only to see the potential game-winning extra point blocked. McCardell caught the go-ahead touchdown in Carolina, as well, on an astounding, one-handed grab of a 36-yard pass at the goal-line, diving between two Buc defenders. CB Tim Wansley grabbed his second interception of the game two plays later and the Bucs tacked on what appeared to be an insurance field goal.

However, Delhomme completed consecutive passes of 29 yards to Ricky Proehl and 22 yards to Muhsin Muhammad to drive the Panthers right down the field. On the completion to Proehl, blitzing CB Ronde Barber forced Delhomme to throw blindly while falling backward, but it fell right into Muhammad’s hands at the five. On the next play, Delhomme hit WR Steve Smith on a quick slant for the winning score.

Tampa Bay had one minute left to attempt to tie or win the game, but stalled at its own 44. Kenyatta Walker’s third personal foul of the game hurt the drive and a fourth-down pass to McCardell was ruled incomplete on what could have been a first down over midfield.

Playing without RB Stephen Davis, the NFC’s leading rusher, Carolina put it in Delhomme’s hands and the first-year starter delivered, as he has several times this season. Delhomme completed 20 of 32 passes for 277 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions. The big blow before the wild fourth quarter was a 66-yard touchdown pass to a wide-open Proehl in the third quarter, on a third-down play that appeared to be a coverage mix-up in the Tampa Bay secondary. Proehl is a long-time Buc nemesis, having scored the game-winning touchdown for St. Louis against Tampa Bay in the 1999 NFC Championship Game.

The loss will once again obscure an impressive performance by QB Brad Johnson and his receivers under pressure. Johnson completed 24 of 43 passes for 275 yards, two touchdowns and one interception. Of those 275 yards, 157 came in the final period. Nine of B. Johnson's completions went to McCardell, who gained 118 yards. K. Johnson caught five passes for 80 yards. Even before Sunday’s game in Charlotte, Johnson was the NFL’s highest-ranked passer in the fourth quarter. Before McCardell’s acrobatic touchdown, his seventh of the season, Johnson directed a five-play, 63-yard drive that cut Carolina’s lead to 24-20. The drive’s big gains were 21 and 23-yarders to WR Keyshawn Johnson, the second for K. Johnson’s third touchdown of the season.

It was still a historic day in one sense for the Buccaneers’ defense, which finished its long pursuit of an impressive NFL record. When DE Simeon Rice took down QB Jake Delhomme for a nine-yard loss in the fourth quarter, it marked the 69th consecutive game in which the Tampa Bay defense has recorded at least one sack. Rice also got to Delhomme on the next play, finishing off a very important three-and-out and giving Rice 11 sacks on the season. The previous record in that category was 68 games, set by the Dallas Cowboys from 1976-80, That fierce Cowboy rush was led by such memorable NFL stars as Ed “Too Tall” Jones, Randy White and Harvey Martin. It’s likely that Warren Sapp, Simeon Rice and this Bucs’ defense will have the same sort of lasting impact on the collective NFL consciousness.

Rice’s sacks, his 10th and 11th of the season, forced the three-and-out that set up the Bucs’ go-ahead touchdown. Rice finished with four tackles and a forced fumble to go with his takedowns of Delhomme. CB Tim Wansley led Tampa Bay with nine tackles; his first interception of the game was returned 23 yards for the Bucs’ first score, cutting Carolina’s lead to 10-7 at halftime.

The first half didn’t follow the expected form. Both offenses were able to move the ball to some extent, with Carolina surprisingly passing on 20 of their 35 plays. That was in part a reaction to Davis’ inactive status due to an ankle sprain, but the Panthers had a fine backup in second-year man DeShaun Foster. Unlike the power-running Davis, Foster bounced most of his runs to the outside, generally a less effective strategy against the Bucs’ swift defenders. At halftime, Foster had just 24 yards on 11 carries, and 14 of Carolina’s 41 rushing yards came on a receiver end-around. Jake Delhomme was sharp, however, completing 12 of 18 passes for 118 yards by halftime. On several occasions, Delhomme escaped a collapsing pocket to buy time, finding WR Steve Smith for 17 yards on one play and WR Ricky Proehl for 38 yards on another.

However, both touchdowns in the first half were scored by the defense. Carolina got on the board in a hurry, with S Mike Minter intercepting Brad Johnson’s fourth pass and returning it 29 yards for a touchdown. The pass was intended for WR Karl Williams, but Williams fell down while making his cut and the pass sailed on into harm’s way. Tampa Bay’s defense responded in the second quarter on Wansley’s first career touchdown on a pass thrown over Muhammad’s head. In between, the Panthers got a 47-yard John Kasay field goal at the end of a 39-yard drive.

Despite their offensive struggles, the Bucs were just three points down when the second half began. Unfortunately, Carolina tacked on 10 more points on their first two possessions. A 42-yard drive to start the third quarter chewed 6:30 off the clock and netted three points on a 45-yard Kasay field goal. After the Bucs were forced to punt, the Panthers went 77 yards on four plays, most of it on a 66-yard touchdown pass to Proehl. The play appeared to be a mix-up in coverage by the Buccaneers, who let Proehl get behind the secondary by at least 15 yards.

Overall, Tampa Bay’s fifth-ranked offense rang up 347 yards to the Panthers’ 341. Like the first game between these two teams, however, the game was marred by penalties, nine against Tampa Bay and seven against Carolina. A holding call on the Panthers erased a 94-yard kickoff return for a touchdown by RB Rod Smart. The Bucs are at 4-5 after nine games for the first time in the last three years. In 2001, Tampa Bay rallied to win five of their last seven and earn a Wild Card berth.