Cards trump Bucs again
John Luttermoser, The St.Petersburg Times , published 1987

On their first possession Sunday, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers took the ball 60 yards in just six plays for a touchdown, and the fans were tantalized. But the second possession was the one that told the story of the Bucs' 1987 home finale. They wound up losing 31-14 to the St. Louis Cardinals, and long before the final gun the less-than-half-of-capacity crowd of 32,046 was clearing out of Tampa Stadium as if it was being evacuated.

On that second Bucs series, St. Louis defensive backs were called for grabbing face masks three times. On that second series, Bucs fullback James Wilder broke loose for his longest run of the season, a 21-yarder that (with help from the third face-mask penalty) put the ball on the St. Louis 6-yard line. But the Bucs didn't score on that second series. Faced with third-and-goal on the 22 after a holding penalty and a sack, head coach Ray Perkins decided to play it safe with a draw play to backup fullback Bobby Howard. The plan was to get a few yards, kick a field goal, get out of there with a 10-0 lead.

Howard fumbled, and St. Louis cornerback Cedric Mack recovered. The Bucs didn't score on their second series, or their third, or their fourth. They didn't score again until their 13th series, when Vinny Testaverde's 26-yard touchdown pass to Gerald Carter reduced the margin to 17 points with 45 seconds left. Carter caught five passes for 116 yards, but like rookie quarterback Testaverde, he produced most of his yardage in the fourth quarter after St. Louis had put the game away at 31-7. ``We've been embarrassing ourselves,`` Carter said. ``We've just totally embarrassed ourselves.``

Head coach Ray Perkins said his team's performance was ``real disappointing.`` When a reporter commented that Perkins didn't seem as angry as he did last week, Perkins said: ``I'm angry. I'm mad as hell. I'm just trying to stay calm. I'm trying not to create a scene.``

The Bucs have now lost seven in a row, giving them a 4-10 overall record - 2-9 for the regular team that was on strike for 24 days in September and October. St. Louis improved to 7-7 (the regulars are 6-5) and stayed in the race for the last unclaimed position in the NFC playoffs. In the standings, the good news for Tampa Bay was that Detroit also lost. The Lions clinched last place in the NFC Central Division and spared the Bucs from their third straight last-place finish. The Bucs, who close the season next Sunday in Indianapolis, will finish fourth in the five-team division no matter what happens next weekend.

Perkins said he thought there was some good news on the field, too, but he won't know exactly what it was until he reviews the game films. ``I think I'm going to be real excited about two or three players,`` he said. Since Perkins has been talking about another year of heavy roster turnover, that could be a crucial film session for a lot of the Bucs. ``I think it's important that they take a look at this experience - if that's what you call it - and try to learn something from this,`` Perkins continued. ``I think most of our guys are intelligent enough to do that. The ones that aren't won't be here, so it doesn't matter.``

Things could have been worse for the Bucs. Placekicker Donald Igwebuike could have been seriously injured on a cartoonish play in the second quarter, when his 49-yard field goal attempt was blocked by St. Louis defensive tackle Steve Alvord and bounced straight back into Igwebuike's hands. ``My eyes got big,`` said Igwebuike. ``I was hoping I could find somebody to throw to, but I didn't see anybody. Then I was hoping to run, but I didn't see any room.``

So Igwebuike was buried under a pile of Cardinals, who left him spread-eagled on the ground with a twisted ankle on his kicking leg. He picked a good day to get hurt. The Bucs didn't need a kicker for the remaining eight minutes of the second quarter, the entire third quarter, or the first 14 minutes of the fourth. When Carter scored that last-minute touchdown, Igwebuike was able to kick the extra point. It was 7-7 when Igwebuike got smothered, and the next quarter and a half were decisive. The Bucs managed only four first downs while St. Louis was opening up its huge lead.

Testaverde was 8-of-22 for 100 yards at the end of the third quarter, before throwing for 140 meaningless yards in the fourth. Meanwhile, St. Louis quarterback Neil Lomax was 22-of-29 for 233 yards and three touchdowns, with only one interception. At one point in the game, Lomax officially completed 12 straight passes, tying a Cardinals record. Unofficially he threw three incomplete passes during that stretch, but they were nullified by penalties for (a) roughing the passer, (b) pass interference, and (c) defensive holding.

By that time that first series, when the Bucs went up 7-0, was ancient history. Rookie tight end Ron Hall scored the touchdown with a diving catch of a 1-yard pass from Testaverde. Officials first ruled Hall caught the ball out of bounds, but that ruling was reversed because the instant replay showed Hall's knee hit the ground in the end zone before his shoulders landed out of bounds.

St. Louis went ahead in the second quarter on two Lomax touchdown passes - 15 yards to tight end Jay Novacek and 8 yards to J.T. Smith. The first of those came on an 85-yard drive that started with Howard's fumble on the draw play Perkins called at the end of that second series. The Cardinals got a cheap three points at the beginning of the second half after Bucs running back Jeff Smith fumbled on a screen pass. Mack recovered again, this time at the Tampa Bay 26.

Bucs defensive end Ron Holmes stopped the Cardinals' offense with one of his three sacks, which tied a Bucs single-game record, but Al Del Greco's 28-yard field goal still extended the St. Louis lead to 17-7. The Cardinals scored later in the third quarter on a 5-yard pass from Lomax to tight end Robert Awalt, and early in the fourth on Stump Mitchell's 3-yard run. Mitchell rushed for 101 yards.