Tampa Bay Buccaneers 0 Chicago Bears 10 Sunday 4 December 1977 at Tampa Stadium
All the scoring took place in the fourth quarter. After a Bob Thomas field goal, Walter Payton ran three yards for a touchdown. Again, the Bucs offense had its problems and ten possessions ended in punts. Behind Randy Hedberg who was back starting at quarterback, the Bucs generated 21 yards passing. The Bears had been 15 point favourites in this one. After the 10-0 defeat, the Buccaneers had managed just seven points over their last five games and were on a 26-game losing streak. Hugh Culverhouse joked about getting the number one pick in the following year's draft. "It's set. The commissioner's office figured it out according to the formula, at my request."
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS RUSHING BUCS: Bell 25-94, Williams 8-18, DuBose 2-8, Hagins 1-2, Ragsdale 1-(-2), Carter 5-(-6). BEARS: Payton 33-101, Harper 9-27, Scott 1-10, Musso 1-3. PASSING BUCS: Hedberg 15-4-36-2-0. BEARS: Avellini 25-11-130-1-0, Parsons 1-1-32-0-0, Harper 1-0-0- 0-0 . RECEIVING BUCS: Hagins 1-10, McKay 1-9, Novak 1-9, Carter 1-8. BEARS: Scott 7-79, Schubert 3-60, Latta 1-15, Harper 1-8. INTERCEPTIONS BUCS: White 1-0. BEARS: Livers 1-29, Fencik 1-10. KICK RETURNS BUCS: Hagins 1-24. BEARS: Musso 1-15. PUNT RETURNS BUCS: Reece 2-3, Hagins 2-(-3). BEARS: Schubert 7-22. SACKS BUCS: L.Selmon 2-19, Pear 1-10. BEARS: Osborne 1-11, Newsome 1-4.
SCORING CHI 11:07-4Q Thomas FG32 CHI 3:18-4Q Payton 3 run (Thomas kick)
COMMENTARY CREW Lindsey Nelson and Bob Hornung
STARTERS OFFENSE DEFENSE LT 75 Reavis LDE 78 Rudolph LG 62 Winans DT 76 Pear C 79 Wilson RDE 63 L Selmon RG 68 Medlin LOLB 57 Lewis RT 70 Carlton LILB 61 D Selmon TE 83 Nafziger RILB 54 Wood WR 85 Owens ROLB 56 C Johnson WR 89 McKay LCB 45 White FB 43 Williams SS 33 Cotney RB 42 Bell FS 34 Brown QB 14 Hedberg RCB 40 Washington SUBSTITUTIONS 4 Green, 23 Ragsdale, 32 L Carter, 35 DuBose, 46 Reece, 51 Ryczek, 52 Harris, 53 Bonness, 59 Lemon, 64 Robinson, 65 R Johnson, 72 G Johnson, 77 Kollar, 80 Novak, 81 Hagins, 87 Mucker DID NOT PLAY 5 Swider, 19 Huff, 25 Jordan, 66 B Carter, 82 Waddell INACTIVE 17 Blount, 28 Davis
VIDEO CLIPS Jeris White recorded an early interception of Bob Avellini Ricky Bell’s 12-yard run was unfortunately one of the offensive highlights Lee Roy Selmon recorded one of his two sacks to end a Chicago drive