Tampa Bay Buccaneers 28 Atlanta Falcons 30 Saturday 20 December 2003 at Raymond James Stadium
SCORING ATL 9:36-1Q Feely FG26 ATL 0:44-1Q Crumpler 6 pass from Vick (Feely kick) TB 6:35-2Q Dudley 3 pass from B.Johnson (Gramatica kick) ATL 1:53-2Q Finneran 13 pass from Vick (Feely kick) ATL 1:01-2Q Bolden 41 interception return (Feely kick) ATL 0:00-2Q Feely FG38 ATL 3:40-3Q Feely FG37 TB 11:27-4Q Lee 3 pass from B.Johnson (Gramatica kick) TB 2:20-4Q McCardell 76 pass from B.Johnson (KWilliams pass) TB 0:27-4Q Cook 11 pass from B.Johnson (pass failed)
GAME REPORTS Roy Cummings' game review Martin Fennelly's award-winning column What Marty Strasen made of it all What next for Warren Sapp? Rich McKay's strange day in the Bay Michael Vick is back with a vengance Charles Lee continues to emerge The late rally is just too late How the American press saw the game What the Atlanta press had to say Game notes and anecdotes The game report The gamebook and the play by play of the game
The Falcons came into town at 3-11 and the Bucs had to win to keep their playoff dreams alive. Entering the fourth quarter, it was 30-7 Atlanta and the Buccaneers were dead and buried the week before Christmas. They made it close with three Brad Johnson touchdown passes but a final two-point conversion failed and the defending Super Bowl champions would miss the playoffs entirely.
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS RUSHING BUCS: Jones 17-73, Pittman 4-20, B.Johnson 1-1. FALCONS: Duckett 27-93. Vick 12-39, Griffith 3-16. PASSING BUCS: B.Johnson 48-34-346-4-4. FALCONS: Vick 15-8-119-0-2. RECEIVING BUCS: Lee 10-88, Pittman 9-85, McCardell 6-122, Jones 4-14, Cook 2-19, Dilger 1-9, Williams 1-6, Dudley 1-3. FALCONS: Price 4-76, Griffith 1-16, Finneran 1-13, Kozlowski 1-8, Crumpler 1-6. INTERCEPTIONS BUCS: none. FALCONS: Bolden 1-41, Newman 1-29, Scott 1-3, Carpenter 1-0. KICK RETURNS BUCS: Stecker 2-47, Jones 2-35, White 1-7. FALCONS: Rossum 3-43. PUNT RETURNS BUCS: Williams 1-6, Barlow 0-0. FALCONS: Rossum 1-17. SACKS BUCS: none. FALCONS: none.
STARTERS OFFENSE DEFENSE LT 72 Oben DE 94 Spires LG 71 Jenkins DT 92 McFarland C 76 Wade DT 99 Sapp RG 60 Coleman DE 97 Rice RT 67 Walker LLB 56 Nece TE 85 Dilger MLB 53 Quarles WR 82 Lee RLB 55 Brooks WR 87 McCardell LCB 26 Smith FB 43 Cook RCB 20 Barber RB 22 Jones SS 47 Lynch QB 14 Johnson FS 23 Phillips PLAYED 3 Shepherd, 7 Gramatica, 9 Tupa, 21 Frost, 27 Stecker, 28 Whitaker, 32 Pittman, 34 Gibson, 35 Ivy, 52 Webster, 57 Rudd, 61 Pinkney, 65 Whittle, 66 Benjamin, 74 Green, 80 Yoder, 84 Barlow, 86 K Williams, 88 Dudley, 90 White, 91 Darby DID NOT PLAY 10 King, 38 Martin INACTIVES 2 Simms, 19 Johnson, 28 Robinson, 62 King, 79 Mahan, 81 R Williams, 89 Heller, 95 Wilson
COMMENTARY CREW Sam Rosen and Bill Maas