Tampa Bay Buccaneers 24 San Diego Chargers 31 Sunday 12 December 2004 at Qualcomm Stadium
SCORING SD 11:49-2Q Parker 79 pass from Brees (Kaeding kick) TB 9:02-2Q Galloway 36 pass from Griese (Taylor kick) SD 0:49-2Q Osgood 19 pass from Brees (Kaeding kick) TB 4:56-3Q Galloway 4 pass from Griese (Taylor kick) SD 0:30-3Q Tomlinson 7 run (Kaeding kick) TB 6:53-4Q Clayton 20 pass from Griese (Taylor kick) SD 4:18-4Q Edwards 30 interception return (Kaeding kick) SD 2:06-4Q Kaeding FG42 TB 0:16-4Q Taylor FG40
Brian Griese passed for nearly 400 yards and kept the Bucs coming back with three touchdown passes to match earlier San Diego scores. But his pick six with 4:18 remaining proved to be the back-breaker and no other kinds of miracles were going to pull this one out of the fire.
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS RUSHING BUCS: Pittman 12-42, Alstott 4-12, Graham 1-6, Griese 1-3. CHARGERS: Tomlinson 25-131, Neal 1-2, Brees 4-(-3). PASSING BUCS: Griese 50-36-392-3-3. CHARGERS: Brees 23-17-220-2-2. RECEIVING BUCS: Clayton 9-145, Pittman 6-46, Galloway 5-78, Dilger 4-28, Heller 3-19, Jurevicius 2-33, Alstott 2-23, Brown 2-14, Smart 2-10, Griese 1-(-4) . CHARGERS: Parker 6-118, Tomlinson 4-19, McCardell 3-30, Osgood 2-27, Gates 1-17, Peelle 1-9. INTERCEPTIONS BUCS: Barber 1-0, Allen 1-0. CHARGERS: Edwards 2-34, Jammer 1-12. KICK RETURNS BUCS: Smart 5-106. CHARGERS: Chatman 3-70, Neal 1-12. PUNT RETURNS BUCS: Galloway 3-5. CHARGERS: Parker 2-10. SACKS BUCS: Rice 1-9, Spires 1-5. CHARGERS: Leber 1-10, Fisk 1-7, Foley 1-2.
STARTERS OFFENSE DEFENSE LT 70 Deese DE 94 Spires LG 78 Stinchcomb DT 95 Ahanotu C 79 Mahan DT 91 Darby RG 60 Coleman DE 97 Rice RT 67 Walker LLB 52 Gold TE 85 Dilger MLB 53 Quarles TE 89 Heller RLB 55 Brooks WR 80 Clayton LCB 25 Kelly FB 40 Alstott RCB 20 Barber RB 32 Pittman SS 26 Smith QB 8 Griese FS 38 Howell PLAYED 6 Taylor, 9 Bidwell, 27 Edwards, 34 Comella, 35 Ivy, 36 Smart, 37 Allen, 43 Cook, 50 Gooch, 51 Burns, 56 Nece, 58 Cooper, 72 O'Dwyer, 73 Bradley, 75 Steussie, 81 Brown, 83 Jurevicius, 84 Galloway, 86 Moore, 90 White, 93 Savage DID NOT PLAY 2 Simms INACTIVES 14 Johnson, 23 Phillips, 24 Cox, 28 Jackson, 69 Davis, 77 Terry, 82 Lee, 98 Smith
COMMENTARY CREW Thom Brennaman and JC Pearson