New York Giants 17 – Tampa Bay Buccaneers 13
by David Oliver
Tampa Bay, City of broken dreams, first tough hurdle on the road to January. It was brutally hot, alternating bright sun and clouds with a little sprinkle and a bay wind in the fourth quarter which made passing and kicking real interesting. Warren Sapp was in his glory, taunting the Jints and psyching the fans – he was also reading BBI this week, as he asked me for the phone number of our guy in Pete’s Corner who said Warren could kiss his blue $#@. I, of course, declined because of the potential liability in any wrongful death action.
How was the game? Well, The Tampa Bay Tribune headlined it on Monday as “Lowly Giants intercept Bucs Offense.” Not flattering, but partially accurate. The defense was awesome, the offense ran into one of the League’s better defenses, but didn’t make any mistakes, which was great; Maynard kicked like a demon and the return coverage team did its job – David Patten was down in Jacquez Green’s face on every punt. Reading the Tampa papers you would think Dave Brown was their QB – they had nothing but venom for poor Trent Dilfer, who didn’t look bad, he looked awful.
Up front, know this, the officiating was horrid, but towards the end of the game when it counted, we got some make up calls. Our receivers were continually getting hooked. Statistically, we were outgained offensively , both ground and air, we lost the time of possession battle, we were on the wrong end of penalty yardage. But we had no fumbles or interceptions given up; they did, and they lost the game.
Sean Bennett did not have a great coming out party; he had 13 carries for 24 yards. Kent Graham was 12 of 23 for 91 yards, but no mistakes. Charlie Way had 6 carries for 2 yards; the receivers were led by Toomer with 36 yards, Mitchell had 25 yards and Ike had 18. Not a day to write Mom about. The line had a rough day, but they were up against the best. DT Warren Sapp and DE Chidi Ahanotu are great players and Sapp controlled the line of scrimmage. WLB Derrick Brooks played like he was a Giant – and our offense was anemic.
However, our D was their equal. DT Christian Peter did a start and finish and was extremely active including his TD rumble. WLB Jessie Armstead was all over the field making key stops. DE Cedric Jones showed up and looked like a ball-player; go Cedric. SLB Ryan Phillips had some nice hits, MLB Corey Widmer had 8 tackles and 2 assists, and the secondary was something else. CB Andre Weathers played and got an interception and TD. CB Phillippi Sparks was popping guys all over the lot, after allowing a few early reception teasers and FS Percy `will you guys get off my back’ Ellsworth, showed his worth by a two-pick afternoon.
The locker room was buzzing, as it always is after a win. An emotionally charged Jim Fassel, who spent part of his game, like the rest of us on the sidelines, screaming at the refs, was proud of his team. And it is HIS team. He told us “I feel very good about the team. We set our course to come down here and win this football game, whatever it took, and I thought the team showed mental toughness; our defensive guys were excited and they kept going out there and there was no `what’s happening?’ and `no nothing’ – we came down here as a team to try to win. I wanted them to play tough, tough, mentally tough physical football, and I thought we could win…”
He also told us “we did some things. I don’t think either offense played the way they could, there were two outstanding defenses, the difference in the ballgame was we didn’t turn it over.” Fassel complimented the kicking game and special teams for giving the Jints good field position and said Jason Whittle “did an excellent job” for never having snapped in a game situation. Fassel said “I mean this sincerely. I don’t know when I’ve had as good a feeling about this TEAM. I had a sense when I talked to them last night and today (that) we were not going to be denied, we were going to fight this thing to the bitter end…They did it…the bottom line, we did it.”
On the offense performance, Fassel said, “quite honestly, I’ve got to give (Tampa) credit. They are one of the better defenses in the League; they’re quick, we struggled with their quickness at times, we got ourselves in long yardage situations…I’ve said right from jump street that we’ve got to win on first down because that’s what this team does. When I looked at cut-ups they have more teams in second and long…then the way they play their coverages…they just really played well…We started out pretty well, we had a couple of runs and had third-and-1…then…we lost our rhythm and our timing…I went to a deeper drop and it wasn’t any good. Kent was getting some pressure…” Coach said, “the biggest thing we have to do right now is getting our offense back on track and the penalties are killing me. The whole game comes down to…both defenses played extremely well, both of them, what it comes down to is we made less of the glaring errors…All I care about is winning. I’m not happy about the way we played on offense. I’ve got to look at the pictures and see how many mistakes we made and how many physical breakdowns we had…but we didn’t make any mistakes that cost us the ball game, and the first thing you have to do on the road is don’t beat yourself. I’m proud of the team because of the mental toughness they showed and that’s one of the things I’ve been pounding at them…mental toughness, no matter how the game is going, no matter what’s going on, you have to find a way to win.”
Jessie Armstead talked about the toughness of the Tampa defense and he said the Jints defense knew “we had to step our game up. We couldn’t put pressure on the offense (to get the job done)…no matter what the circumstances, if we had to play 5 or 6 quarters, we win out there today.” He said as the game went on Dilfer felt the pressure, but keep in mind, he said that “you keep hitting at something, it’s got to break…that was our attitude…at times we got close to making a play and we just kept knocking on the doorand finally we knocked that door in…” It wasn’t just Dilfer, Jessie said, “any QB, I don’t care who the QB is, you put enough pressure on him, you’ll rattle a QB, that goes for anybody…same for a receiver, you hit him enough and he’ll look twice…we got pressure on him and made him make some bad plays…”
On facing four wideouts Jessie said ” it’s a big change. You’re looking at something where you have all DBs in, with one LB. You like to have two LBs sitting in the box, but this time you got 1 LB…and it puts stress on the defense…One thing about TB they’ll flip-flop the tight end to the strong side and make me become the strong side LB. I’m used to playing the weakside, so I’m saying (to the bench when he’s wagging his finger-this in response to my question) hey you can bring anything to me, I can play either side, it doesn’t make a difference – I’m just letting them know – hey, don’t come to my side…”
Andre Weathers told us he didn’t see the pass, it just came up over the top. He said, ” those guys are tall, I’m only 6 ft, it just came out.” He was thrilled with playing the game and said even though nervous in the beginning, the guys got me through it “they were on the field telling me to play my game, if anything goes wrong, we’ll help you.” He told me he thought Tampa’s receivers were real quick, good receivers.
Roman Oben was obviously tired but spent a few moments with me and said he would have to wait for the films to see where the breakdowns were. He said `they did pretty much what we expected them to do…they’re going to get you with that stuff every now and then but everybody has to block their assignments to give us the best opportunity for making a play.”
Kent Graham is one tough dude – from now on he is Kid Timex, takes a licking, keeps on ticking. I asked him what Sapp kept saying to him and he said he was telling Kent that Kent wasn’t going to finish the game. Kent was telling him “yeah, we’ll see.” He also told us that the first thing (Giants’ Quarterback Coach) Sean Payton said to him was “you were real smart today.” That was the key word – Kent acknowledged the deficiencies on offense, said they had tried different things, but basically decided they were not going to make mistakes. He had to throw a few screens away because the coverage was there and there was little opportunity to go deep.
Percy told us he had been hurt by many of the things being written about him. He knows he’s not a hitter, but he says he is a playmaker. He said “I’m determined to prove what I can do…I don’t like a lot of things that have been written about me and I’m determined that by the end of the year I’m going to change everybody’s opinion about me.” Go, Percy.
Time constraints – must end here, but keep in mind this is a TEAM, it is Fassel’s team and is led by Kent and Jessie and a bunch of guys who just won’t quit. Tampa should realize we are not the `lowly Giants,’ and the rest of the League had better be ready. Till next week.
New York Giants 17 – Tampa Bay Buccaneers 13
First Quarter
GIANTS — Peter 38 fumble return (Daluiso kick), 11:37. GIANTS 7, Tampa Bay 0.
Second Quarter
TB — FG Gramatica 23, 14:15. Drive: 15 plays, 71 yards, 8:39. Key plays: Dunn 15 run; Dilfer 18 pass to Alstott; Dilfer 12 pass to Green on 3rd-and-8. GIANTS 7, Tampa Bay 3.
TB — Moore 1 pass from Dilfer (Gramatica kick), 0:16. Drive: 5 plays, 54 yards, 1:26. Key plays: Dilfer 6 pass to McDonald on 3rd-and-2; Dilfer 39 pass to Emanuel to the Giants 1. Tampa Bay 10, GIANTS 7.
Third Quarter
GIANTS — Weathers 8 interception return (Daluiso kick), 3:31. GIANTS 14, Tampa Bay 10.
TB — FG Gramatica 36, :15. Drive: 7 plays, 42 yards, 3:16. Key plays: Dilfer 12 pass to Alstott; Dilfer 26 pass to Moore. GIANTS 14, Tampa Bay 13.
Fourth Quarter
GIANTS — FG Daluiso 36, 12:10. Drive: 4 plays, 6 yards, 1:36. Key plays: Ellsworth 5 interception return of Dilfer’s pass to Tampa Bay 24. GIANTS 17, Tampa Bay 13.
TEAM STATISTICS
Giants Tampa
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FIRST DOWNS 4 15
Rushing 1 4
Passing 3 11
Penalty 0 0
3RD-DOWN EFFICIENCY 1-14 4-17
4TH-DOWN EFFICIENCY 0-0 0-1
TOTAL NET YARDS 107 254
Total plays 49 71
Average gain 2.2 3.6
NET YARDS RUSHING 27 77
Rushes 24 27
Average per rush 1.1 2.9
NET YARDS PASSING 80 177
Completed-attempted 12-23 18-42
Yards per pass 3.2 4.0
Sacked-yards lost 2-11 2-11
Had intercepted 0 4
PUNTS-AVERAGE 12-43.8 8-46.0
RETURN YARDAGE 110 74
Punts-returns 4-25 3-30
Kickoffs-returns 2-23 2-44
Interceptions-returns 4-62 0-0
PENALTIES-YARDS 9-59 3-20
FUMBLES-LOST 0-0 2-1
TIME OF POSSESSION 27:01 32:59
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING — GIANTS, Bennett 13-24, Way 6-2, Graham 5-1. Tampa Bay, Dunn 15-46, Green 1-15, Alstott 9-12, Dilfer 1-4, Abdullah 1-0.
PASSING — GIANTS, Graham 12-23-0-91. Tampa Bay, Dilfer 15-31-3-174, Zeier 3-11-1-14.
RECEIVING — GIANTS, Toomer 4-36, Mitchell 3-25, Hilliard 2-18, Bennett 1-7, Jurevicius 1-4, Way 1-1. Tampa Bay, Emanuel 3-53, Green 3-27, Dunn 3-26, Moore 2-27, Alstott 2-25, K.Williams 2-14, Anthony 2-10, McDonald 1-6.
PUNT RETURNS — GIANTS, T.Barber 4-25. Tampa Bay, Green 3-30.
KICKOFF RETURNS — GIANTS, Levingston 1-16, Patten 1-7. Tampa Bay, Green 2-44.
TACKLES-ASSISTS-SACKS — GIANTS, Widmer 8-2-1, Armstead 5-2-1, Phillips 5-1-0, Sparks 5-1-0, Garnes 4-3-0, Lincoln 4-1-0, Ellsworth 3-1-0, K.Hamilton 2-2-0, Weathers 3-0-0, S.Williams 2-0-0, C.Jones 1-2-0, Peter 2-0-0, Way 2-0-0, Holsey 1-0-0, Strahan 1-0-0, G.Williams 1-0-0, Buckley 1-0-0, Comella 1-0-0, Johnson 1-0-0. Tampa Bay, Brooks 10-3-0, Nickerson 6-0-0, Sapp 5-2-1, Lynch 2-7-0, Abraham 4-2-0, R.Barber 3-2-0, Culpepper 1-2-0, Quarles 2-1-0, Ahanotu 2-0-0, Kelly 2-0-0, White 1-0-1, M.Jones 1-0-0, Diaz 1-0-0, Dilfer 1-0-0, Dunn 1-0-0, McLaughlin 1-0-0, Palmer 1-0-0, Smith 1-0-0, Young 1-0-0, Robinson 0-1-0.
INTERCEPTIONS — GIANTS, Ellsworth 2-26, Sparks 1-28, Weathers 1-8. Tampa Bay, None.
MISSED FIELD GOALS — None.
Attendance–65,026. No-shows–NA.