Tampa Bay Buccaneers 20 New Orleans Saints 23 Sunday 1 December 2002 at the Superdome

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS RUSHING BUCS: Alstott 8-17, Pittman 8-17. SAINTS: McAllister 27-99, Brooks 2-5, Delhomme 2-(-2). PASSING BUCS: B.Johnson 44-28-276-1-2. SAINTS: Brooks 25-9-155-0-2, Delhomme 1-1-10-0-0. RECEIVING BUCS: McCardell 11-107, Pittman 6-27, K.Johnson 5-53, Alstott 2-47, Jurevicius 2-18, Cook 1-13, Dilger 1-11. SAINTS: Horn 5-106, Reed 3-43, Stallworth 1-9, McAllister 1-7. INTERCEPTIONS BUCS: none. SAINTS: Bellamy 1-14. KICK RETURNS BUCS: Stecker 2-46, Smith 2-33, Williams 2-26. SAINTS: Lewis 4-81. PUNT RETURNS BUCS: Williams 3-14. SAINTS: Lewis 2-56. SACKS BUCS: Rice 3-25, Singleton 1-4. SAINTS: Grant 1-12, Howard 1-8, Smith 1-5, Jackson 1-2.

OFFENSE DEFENSE LT 72 Oben LDE 94 Spires LG 71 Jenkins UT 91 Darby C 62 Christy DT 99 Sapp RG 60 Coleman RDE 97 Rice RT 67 Walker LLB 51 Singleton TE 85 Dilger MLB 53 Quarles TE 88 Dudley RLB 55 Brooks WR 87 McCardell LCB 25 Kelly WR 19 Johnson SS 47 Lynch RB 32 Pittman FS 34 Jackson QB 14 Johnson RCB 20 Barber SUBSTITUTIONS 7 Gramatica, 9 Tupa, 23 Phillips, 26 Smith, 27 Stecker, 35 Ivy, 38 Howell, 40 Alstott, 43 Cook, 52 Webster, 58 Golden, 66 Benjamin, 74 Green, 75 Brown, 77 Washington, 80 Yoder, 83 Jurevicius, 86 Williams, 89 Crawford, 90 Gurley, 96 Wyms DID NOT PLAY 10 King, 93 Claybrooks INACTIVE 11 Johnson, 30 Barnes, 31 Wansley, 64 Goodspeed, 81 Lee, 84 Barlow, 92 McFarland, 95 Warner

SCORING TB 3:17-1Q Safety - ball batted through endzone NO 10:02-2Q McAllister 6 run (two-point run failed) TB 6:41-2Q Alstott 44 pass from B.Johnson (Gramatica kick NO 12:56-3Q Reed 3 pass from Brooks (Carney kick) NO 9:00-3Q Horn 14 pass from Brooks (Carney kick) TB 5:04-3Q Gramatica FG51 NO 10:47-4Q Carney FG48 TB 2:49-4Q McCardell 2 pass from B.Johnson (K.Johnson pass)

GAME REPORTS Roy Cummings' take on the game Bucs lost turnover battle Over 10,000 Buc fans make the trip Now it's Atlanta up next The one-game cushion is gone NFC playoff race closes up Game notes and anecdotes The game report Post-game quotes The gamebook and the play by play of the game

All the good work done the previous weekend was undone on a Sunday night in New Orleans as the Bucs committed three turnovers and found themselves being swept in the seasn series by the Saints. Aaron Brooks had a pair of second-half touchdown passes and then watched from the sideline as back-up Jake Delhomme completed a key third down pass late in the game to run out the clock and end a potential Buccaneer comeback. “Our running game kind of hurt us,'' Brad Johnson said. ``We had a hard time getting it going. We definitely have to be more effective with our running game.''

COMMENTARY CREW Mike Patrick, Paul Maguire and Joe Theisman

VIDEO HIGHLIGHTS Click on the boxes below for the main plays from the game The Bucs’ defense earned themselves two points thanks to Simeon Rice Mike Alstott took a dump-off pass 44 yards for a touchdown Keenan McCardell gave the Bucs late hope with this score