Buccaneers vs. Minnesota Vikings

LOSS - Tampa Bay Buccaneers 10 Minnesota Vikings 21

The Buccaneers dominated the Vikings through the first half in a game which they needed to win to remain in playoff contention, but in the second half collapsed on both offense and defense.

In the first half, Vikings quarterback Tommy Kramer was held to 7 completions for 63 yards, with no catches by the wide receivers and no success in the ground game. In the second half, Kramer went 15-of-19 for 201 yards. His 17-yard touchdown pass to Sammy White gave the Vikings the lead for good early in the fourth quarter. Kramer's scrambling kept the linebackers out of coverage, and opened up passing routes such as Bob Tucker's 25-yard reception that set up the first Viking touchdown.

The Buccaneers were still in position to win until Fred McNeill recovered Rick Berns' fumble at the Viking 12-yard line with five minutes to play. Much-criticized for his handling of players due to his previous week's postgame comments about Berns, McKay responded to all postgame questions by saying "all of the players played lovely".

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GAMEDAY BRIEF

OFFICALS

• REFEREE: Red Cashion
• UMPIRE: Art Demmas
• LINE JUDGE: Tom Doaley
• HEAD LINESMAN: Norm Kragseth
• BACK JUDGE: Ben Tompkins
• FIELD JUDGE: Bill Kingzehl
• SIDE JUDGE: Nate Jones

SCORING

• BUCCANEERS: 6:42-1Q Yepremian FG27
• BUCCANEERS: 14:49-2Q House 30 pass from Williams (Yepremian kick)
• VIKINGS: 07:55-3Q Brown 1 run (Danmeier kick)
• VIKINGS: 10:21-4Q White 17 pass from Kramer (Danmeier kick)
• VIKINGS: 01:40-4Q Young 3 run (Danmeier kick)

STARTERS OFFENSE

• WR: #84 G. Jones
• LT: #75 D. Reavis
• LG: #68 G. Yarno
• C: #50 S. Wilson
• RG: #72 R. Snell
• RT: #73 C. Hannah
• TE: #86 J. Obradovich
• WR: #81 I. Hagins
• QB: #12 D. Williams
• RB: #38 J. Davis
• RB: #36 R. Berns

STARTERS DEFENSE

• LE: #77 B. Kollar
• NT: #76 D. Logan
• RE: #63 L. Selmon
• LOLB: #57 D. Lewis
• SILB: #58 D. Selmon
• WILB: #54 R. Wood
• ROLB: #56 C. Johnson
• LCB: #25 C. Jordan
• RCB: #40 M. Washington
• SS: #33 M. Cotney
• FS: #34 C. Brown

SUBSTITUTIONS

• 1 Yepremian, 16 Blanchard, 20 Colzie, 27 T Davis, 28 G Davis, 41 Thomas, 42 Bell, 43 Eckwood, 46 Reece, 52 Brantley, 55 Brown, 59 Hawkins, 62 Leonard, 65 Stalls, 74 Sanders, 78 Radford, 79 Lewis, 88 Giles, 89 House

DID NOT PLAY

• 14 Fusina, 69 Austin, 80 Samuels, 82 Shumann

INACTIVE

• none.

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING

• BUCCANEERS: Berns 15-54, Bell 8-35, Williams 1-17, J.Davis 7-16, T.Davis 1-6.
• VIKINGS: Brown 12-90, Kramer 5-16, Young 7-12.

PASSING

• BUCCANEERS: Williams 36-18-227-0-1.
• VIKINGS: Kramer 31-22-264-0-1.

RECIEVING

• BUCCANEERS: House 4-57, Hagins 4-46, Giles 1-27, Bell 3-25, Obradovich 2-26, Eckwood 2-13, T.Davis 1-18, Jones 1-15.
• VIKINGS: Young 6-71, Brown 6-47, Rashad 4-77, White 3-27, Tucker 1-25, LeCount 1-9, Senser 1-7.

INTERCEPTIONS

• BUCCANEERS: none.
• VIKINGS: none.

KICK RETURNS

• BUCCANEERS: Obradovich 1-15, G.Davis 1-13, T.Davis 1-11.
• VIKINGS: Payton 3-62.

PUNT RETURNS

• BUCCANEERS: Reece 4-15.
• VIKINGS: Payton 1-8.

SACKS

• BUCCANEERS: Logan 2-17, Kollar 1-0.
• VIKINGS: Martin 1-7.

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