Tampa Bay Buccaneers 7 Detroit Lions 15 Saturday 9 September 1978 at Tampa Stadium
SCORING TB 10:02-1Q Bell 1 run (O'Donoghue kick) DET 6:00-1Q Ricardo FG48 DET 4:44-1Q Thompson 9 pass from Landry (kick failed) DET 0:00-2Q Ricardo FG47 DET 11:28-4Q Ricardo FG27
Thanks to seven sacks, the Bucs managed to "gain" -31 yards passing in this one. Ricky Bell set a then-Buc record with a 56-yard run to set up his own score in the first quarter, thereby outgaining the whole Lion offense in the first quarter (53 yards). But because of the turnovers, the Lions still led 12-7 at the break.
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS RUSHING BUCS: Bell 15-98, J.Davis 6-28, Carter 5-9, Ragsdale 1-5. LIONS: Bussey 21-88, King 17-38, Gaines 3-17, Bolton 2-5, Kane 3-1. PASSING BUCS: Boryla 5-2-15-0-0, Huff 9-4-48-1-0. LIONS: Landry 10-8-55-0-1, Danielson 4-1-14-0-0. RECEIVING BUCS: Giles 2-37, Owens 1-18, Hagins 1-11. J.Davis 1-0, Carter 1-(-3), LIONS: Thompson 3-29, King 3-27, Jarvis 1-9, Kane 1-6, Hill 1-(- 2). INTERCEPTIONS BUCS: none. LIONS: Hunter 1-0. KICK RETURNS BUCS: Ragsdale 4-51. LIONS: Thompson 2-52. PUNT RETURNS BUCS: Cotney 5-38, Brown 2-9. LIONS: Thompson 3-30, Hunter 1-19, Blue 1-11. SACKS BUCS: L.Selmon 1-12, Pear 1-10. LIONS: Baker 3-46, Woodcock 2-23, Gallagher 1-13, O'Neil 1-12.
STARTERS OFFENSE DEFENSE LT 75 Reavis DE 73 Hannah LG 65 Johnson DT 76 Pear C 79 Wilson DE 63 L Selmon RG 68 Medlin LOLB 57 Lewis RT 70 Carlton LILB 61 D Selmon TE 88 Giles RILB 54 Wood TE 86 Obradovich ROLB 56 Johnson WR 85 Owens LCB 45 White FB 38 J Davis RCB 40 Washington RB 42 Bell SS 25 Jordan QB 10 Boryla FS 34 Brown PLAYED 4 Green, 6 O'Donoghue, 19 Huff, 23 Ragsdale, 25 Jordan, 31 Anderson, 32 L Carter, 46 Reece, 51 Nafziger, 53 Bonness, 55 Brown, 60 Chambers, 67 Moritz, 71 Crowder, 74 Freitas, 77 Kollar, 81 Hagins, 82 Darby, 87 Mucker, 89 McKay DID NOT PLAY 12 Williams, 35 DuBose INACTIVES 62 Winans
COMMENTARY CREW Unknown
GAME HIGHLIGHTS Click on the boxes below to view the big plays This is one of the few games not available on DVD - there are two clips of the game on the season highlight reel Lee Roy Selmon makes a sack in spite of being triple-teamed by the Detroit offensive line Ricky Bell had a long run down the right sideline