Tampa Bay Buccaneers 10 Los Angeles Rams 9 Thursday 11 September 1980 at Tampa Stadium
SCORING LA 9:16-2Q Corral FG42 TB 0:00-2Q Yepremian FG43 LA 6:59-3Q Corral FG32 LA 7:00-4Q Corral FG27 TB 0:57-4Q Williams 1 run (Yepremian kick)
The Bucs first-ever appearance on ABC Prime Time TV was a winning one when Doug Williams' QB sneak with 57 seconds left gained revenge for the NFC Championship defeat on the same field nine months before. Once again the Rams were held to a trio of Frank Corral fieldgoals, and this time a late drive by the Bucs proved successful as Williams gained ten yards on a scramble on the play before his game winner.
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS RUSHING BUCS: Eckwood 16-60, Williams 4-26, Bell 7-14. RAMS: Thomas 7-64, Peacock 15-48, Bryant 8-46, E.Hill 3-11. PASSING BUCS: Williams 23-10-97-1-0. RAMS: Ferragamo 29-17-191-4-0. RECEIVING BUCS: Giles 3-33, Eckwood 3-19, Bell 2-26, Jones 2-19. RAMS: Waddy 5-88, Bryant 3-16, Dennard 2-28, D.Hill 2-27, Peacock 2-9, Miller 1-12, E.Hill 1-9, Thomas 1-2. INTERCEPTIONS BUCS: Cotney 1-21, Washington 1-15, Wood 1-6, Thomas 1-0. RAMS: Cromwell 1-25. KICK RETURNS BUCS: Hagins 2-43, G.Davis 1-22, Reece 1-21. RAMS: Hill 2-66. PUNT RETURNS BUCS: Reece 2-19, T.Davis 0-0. RAMS: Irvin 5-69. SACKS BUCS: Johnson 1-0. RAMS: Fanning 1-8, Jack Youngblood 0.5-6, JimYoungblood 0.5-6
STARTERS OFFENSE DEFENSE LT 75 Reavis DE 77 Kollar LG 74 Sanders DT 71 Crowder C 50 Wilson DE 63 L Selmon RG 61 Roberts LOLB 57 Lewis RT 73 Hannah LILB 58 D Selmon TE 88 Giles RILB 54 Wood WR 81 Hagins ROLB 56 Johnson WR 84 Jones LCB 25 Jordan FB 43 Eckwood RCB 40 Washington RB 42 Bell SS 33 Cotney QB 12 Williams FS 34 Brown PLAYED 1 Yepremian, 16 Blanchard, 20 Colzie, 27 T Davis, 28 G Davis, 36 Berns, 38 J Davis, 41 Thomas, 46 Reece, 52 Brantley, 55 Brown, 59 Hawkins, 62 Leonard, 65 Stalls, 68 Yarno, 76 Logan, 86 Obradovich, 87 Mucker, 89 House DID NOT PLAY 14 Fusina, 15 Rae, 72 Snell, 79 Lewis INACTIVES none
COMMENTARY CREW Frank Gifford, Howard Cosell and Fran Tarkenton
GAME HIGHLIGHTS Click on the boxes to view the big plays Doug Williams showed amazing grit and determination to take the Bucs down to the one-yard line On the next play, he scored the winning touchdown Norris Thomas sealed the victory with his late interception of Vince Ferragamo