Tampa Bay Buccaneers 21 St.Louis Rams 28 Monday 18 October 2004 at the Edward Jones Dome ABC COMMENTARY CREW Al Michaels and John Madden
Monday Night Football were hoping for a repeat of the great Bucs v Rams match-ups from the previous five years but this one was disappointing with both teams long past their best. The Bucs gave it away with a fumbled snap inside the St.Louis 5-yard line leading to a long fumble return score and a late drive ended inside the Ram 15 when Tim Brown fumbled after catching a pass by an impressive Brian Griese.
GAME SCORING STL 12:40-1Q Holt 52 pass from Bulger (Wilkins kick) TB 9:14-1Q Alstott 1 run (Gramatica kick) TB 13:02-2Q Pittman 5 pass from Griese (Gramatica kick) STL 1:39-2Q Faulk 1 run (Wilkins kick) STL 7:24-3Q Archuleta 93 fumble return (Wilkins kick) TB 0:37-3Q Heller 1 pass from Griese (Gramatica kick) STL 10:46-4Q Holt 36 pass from Bulger (Wilkins kick)
GAME REPORTS Roy Cummings' game review Martin Fennelly's award-winning column Gary Shelton's morning-after thoughts Gimme Five by John Romano What Rick Stroud thought of it all Don't blame the defense for this loss Greg Spires comes up big on the line Covering Torry Holt and Isaac Bruce is not easy Game notes and anecdotes The game report The gamebook and play-by-play of the game
STARTERS OFFENSE DEFENSE LT 70 Deese DE 94 Spires LG 78 Stinchcomb DT 92 McFarland C 76 Wade DT 91 Darby RG 60 Coleman DE 97 Rice RT 67 Walker MLB 50 Gooch TE 85 Dilger RLB 55 Brooks WR 82 Lee DB 27 Edwards WR 80 Clayton LCB 25 Kelly FB 40 Alstott RCB 20 Barber RB 32 Pittman SS 26 Smith QB 8 Griese FS 23 Phillips PLAYED 9 Bidwell, 10 Gramatica, 11 Schroeder, 22 White, 24 Cox, 34 Comella,35 Ivy, 37 Allen, 38 Howell, 51 Burns, 52 Gold, 56 Nece, 58 Cooper, 66 Gregory, 75 Steussie, 79 Mahan, 81 Brown, 86 Moore, 89 Heller, 90 White, 96 Wyms DID NOT PLAY 14 Johnson, 69 Davis INACTIVES 2 Simms, 16 Madise, 17 Garrett, 43 Cook, 53 Quarles, 77 Terry, 84 Galloway, 93 Savage
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS RUSHING BUCS: Pittman 13-37, Alstott 5-17 , Griese 4-1. RAMS: Jackson 13-48, Faulk 15-40, Curtis 1-7, Bulger 1-(-1). PASSING BUCS: Griese 40-27-286-1-2. RAMS: Bulger 30-18-264-1-2. RECEIVING BUCS: Clayton 8-142, Dilger 4-30, Pittman 4-16, Lee 3-31, Heller 3-21, Alstott 3-20, Brown 2-26 . RAMS: Holt 6-124, McDonald 3-30, Jackson 3-30, Faulk 3-29, Curtis 1-32, Bruce 1-11, Goodspeed 1-8. INTERCEPTIONS BUCS: Clayton 8-142, Dilger 4-30, Pittman 4-16, Lee 3-31, Heller 3-21, Alstott 3-20, Brown 2-26 . RAMS: Holt 6-124, McDonald 3-30, Jackson 3-30, Faulk 3-29, Curtis 1-32, Bruce 1-11, Goodspeed 1-8. KICK RETURNS BUCS: Cox 4-152. RAMS: Harris 4-84. PUNT RETURNS BUCS: Brown 1-14. RAMS: McDonald 2-(-5). SACKS BUCS: Spires 2-16, McFarland 1-12, Rice 1-6. RAMS: Flowers 1-8, Polley 1-1.