1995 Tampa Bay Buccaneers Season 20 Brief

The 1995 Tampa Bay Buccaneers season was the franchise's 20th season in the National Football League.

The season began with the team trying to improve on an 6–10 season in 1994, a season in which the team won 4 straight games at the end of the year, and four of their final five. It was Sam Wyche’s final season as the team's head coach.

Prior to the season Malcolm Glazer took over ownership of the team, then the Bucs drafted defensive lineman Warren Sapp and linebacker Derrick Brooks, both of whom are recognized as two of the team's greatest ever players. The Buccaneers' first-ever draft pick, Lee Roy Selmon, was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Season Overview

There had been rumors as far back as the end of the 1993 season that new owner Glazer would move the team after funding to improve Tampa Stadium was not obtained, but a referendum kept the Bucs in Tampa for 1995. The possibility of moving the Buccaneers to Cleveland, Ohio was an undercurrent throughout the 1995 season once Art Modell’s relocation of the Browns to Baltimore was announced.

Bucs Head coach Sam Wyche gained some notoriety for saying "Five dash Two" to reporters during a press conference after the seventh game of the season, referring to the team's 5-2 record at the time. Tampa Bay had won 9 of its previous 12 games, going back to the end of the 1994 season, and many observers felt they had become a sleeper NFC playoff contender. However, the good luck and victory string soon ran out, and the team would go 2-7 for the remainder of the season.

Following the week seven overtime win over Minnesota, Tampa Bay lost three in a row before beating expansion Jacksonville, only after Jaguars coach Tom Coughlin decided to go for a 2-point conversion when scoring a last minute touchdown. It failed and the Bucs won 17–16, giving them a sweep of that season's new expansion teams, as they had beaten Carolina 17–10 in week 5. Two more losses followed, and the 6–7 Buccaneers had a prime time ESPN Sunday Night Football game against the Green Bay Packers, who were playing without standout Reggie White due to injury. Tampa Bay pulled out an overtime win over the eventual NFC Central champion Packers to make their record 7–7, ensuring that their streak of 10-loss seasons—dating back to the 1983 season—would end. The Buccaneers had remained in playoff contention through fourteen games for the first time since the strike-shortened 1982 season under Doug Williams.

The Bucs, however, lost to the Chicago Bears by 21 points at Soldier Field in the penultimate game of the season, ending their playoff hopes. In the season finale at home against a surging Detroit Lions team who were riding a six-game winning streak, Tampa lost decisively. The game became infamous due to a sideline argument between Wyche and quarterback Trent Dilfer; it was later revealed that Wyche planned to pull Dilfer for young backup quarterback Casey Weldon regardless of how the game was going, triggering Dilfer’s furious reaction and also angering teammates of the very respected if inconsistent starter. The Buccaneers' overall passing attack in 1995 was anemic: they passed for the fifth-fewest yards in the league, had the second-worst team passer rating (60.3), and set an NFL record for fewest team touchdown passes (5) in a 16-game season.

Rumors also swirled that Wyche, knowing he would be let go by new owners without a winning record after a 5–2 start, ordered the team to wear orange pants and orange shirts (which at the time, would have been a first to wear the same color top and bottom), but after several players refused to wear it, the idea was scrapped. New owner Malcolm Glazer decided Wyche’s tenure as coach was done, and started the search for the next coach of the Buccaneers, a search that would bring in coach Tony Dungy, who would turn the Buccaneers into a perennial playoff team (a 54-42 record and four playoff appearances in six seasons with the Tampa Bay), and build the foundation for their first Super Bowl win in 2002.

		PRESEASON
Date		Opponent	Week/Record	Outcome
Saturday Aug. 5		New York Jets Tampa Stadium, Tampa Bay, FL	PS - wk 1 0-1	Lost 3-9
Friday Aug. 11		@ Cincinnati Bengals Paul Brown Stadium, Cincinnati, OH	PS - wk 2 1-1	Won 31-7
Saturday Aug. 19		Pittsburgh Steelers Tampa Stadium, Tampa Bay, FL	PS - wk 3 2-1	Won 20-7
Friday Aug. 25		Miami Dolphins Tampa Stadium, Tampa Bay, FL	PS - wk 4 3-1	Won 24-17
1995 Season Results Record: 7-9, DIV: 2-6 (5th in NFC Central)
Date		Opponent	Week/Record	Outcome
Sunday Sep. 3		@ Philadelphia Eagles Veterans Stadium, Philadelphia, PA	RS - wk 1 1-0	Won 21-6
Sunday Sep. 10		@ Cleveland Browns Cleveland Municipal Stadium, Cleveland, OH	RS - wk 2 1-1	Lost 6-22
Sunday Sep. 17		Chicago Bears Tampa Stadium, Tampa Bay, FL	RS - wk 3 1-2	Lost 6-25
Sunday Sep. 24		Washington Redskins Tampa Stadium, Tampa Bay, FL	RS - wk 4 2-2	Won 14-6
Sunday Oct. 1		@ Carolina Panthers Memorial Stadium, Clemson, SC	RS - wk 5 3-2	Won 20-13
Sunday Oct. 8		Cincinnati Bengals Tampa Stadium, Tampa Bay, FL	RS - wk 6 4-2	Won 19-16
Sunday Oct. 15		Minnesota Vikings Tampa Stadium, Tampa Bay, FL	RS - wk 7 5-2	Won 20-17
Sunday Oct. 22		Atlanta Falcons Tampa Stadium, Tampa Bay, FL	RS - wk 8 5-3	Lost 21-24
Sunday Oct. 29		@ Houston Texans Astrodome, Houston, TX	RS - wk 9 5-4	Lost 7-19
Sunday Nov. 5		BYE	RS - wk 10 5-4
Sunday Nov. 12		@ Detroit Lions Pontiac Silverdome, Pontiac MI	RS - wk 11 5-5	Lost 24-27
Sunday Nov. 19		Jacksonville Jaguars Tampa Stadium, Tampa Bay, FL	RS - wk 12 6-5	Won 17-16
Sunday Nov. 26		@ Green Bay Packers Lambeau Field, Green Bay, WI	RS - wk 13 6-6	Lost 13-35
Sunday Dec. 3		@ Minnesota Vikings Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome, Minneapolis, MN	RS - wk 14 6-7	Lost 17-31
Sunday Dec. 10		Green Bay Packers Tampa Stadium, Tampa Bay, FL	RS - wk 15 7-7	Won 13-10 (OT)
Sunday Dec. 17		@ Chicago Bears Soldier Field, Chicago, IL	RS - wk 16 7-8	Lost 10-31
Saturday Dec. 23		Detroit Lions Tampa Stadium, Tampa Bay, FL	RS - wk 17 7-9	Lost 10-37
		PLAYOFFS
Date		Opponent	NFC/Superbowl	Outcome
Season Ended		@ Tampa Bay Buccaneers Tampa Stadium, Tampa Bay, FL	None None	00-00

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