Tampa Bay Buccaneers 16 Houston Texans 3 Sunday 14 December 2003 at Raymond James Stadium
SCORING TB 7:26-1Q Jones 18 run (Gramatica kick) TB 10:13-2Q Gramatica FG36 TB 0:33-2Q Gramatica FG23 HOU 9:01-3Q Brown FG38 TB 7:03-3Q Gramatica FG26
GAME REPORTS Roy Cummings' game review Martin Fennelly's award-winning column What Marty Strasen made of it all Mick Elliott sees a new defense emerging Long drives set the tone Gramatica comes good And there is still a playoff hope Time for the reserves to step up What the Houston press had to say Game notes and anecdotes The game report The gamebook and the play by play of the game
The second-year Texans were no match for a suddenly rejuvinated Buccaneer defense that held them to just seven first downs and 107 yards of total offense. Thomas Jones exceeded that on his own and Jon Gruden’s team found themselves back at 7-7 and mathematically alive in the wild-card race.
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS RUSHING BUCS: Jones 34-134, Stecker 5-17, Lee 1-6, Pittman 1-3, B.Johnson 1-1. TEXANS: Davis 16-56, Hollings 2-9, Ragone 1-0. PASSING BUCS: B.Johnson 28-17-237-0-0. TEXANS: Ragone 17-9-64-0-0. RECEIVING BUCS: McCardell 5-59, Pittman 5-33, Lee 3-95, Dudley 2-14, Cook 1-19, Jones 1-17. TEXANS: Johnson 4-28, Miller 2-10, Davis 2-2, Bradford 1-24. INTERCEPTIONS BUCS: none. TEXANS: none. KICK RETURNS BUCS: Stecker 1-13. TEXANS: Moses 5-99. PUNT RETURNS BUCS: Barlow 5-36. TEXANS: Moses 2-24. SACKS BUCS: Spires 2.5-12.5, Darby 1-5, Pinkney 1-0, McFarland 0.5-3.5. TEXANS: none.
STARTERS OFFENSE DEFENSE LT 72 Oben DE 94 Spires LG 71 Jenkins DT 92 McFarland C 76 Wade DT 91 Darby RG 60 Coleman DE 97 Rice RT 74 Green MLB 53 Quarles TE 88 Dudley RLB 55 Brooks WR 82 Lee DB 28 Whitaker 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 7 Gramatica, 9 Tupa, 21 Frost, 27 Stecker, 30 Barnes, 32 Pittman, 34 Gibson, 35 Ivy, 52 Webster, 56 Nece, 57 Rudd, 61 Pinkney, 65 Whittle, 66 Benjamin, 79 Mahan, 80 Yoder, 81 R Williams, 84 Barlow, 86 K Williams, 90 White, 96 Wyms DID NOT PLAY 10 King, 67 Walker INACTIVES 2 Simms, 3 Shepherd, 19 Johnson, 28 Robinson, 62 King, 85 Dilger, 89 Heller, 99 Sapp
COMMENTARY CREW Don Criqui and Steve Tasker