Fire the Cannons; A Tampa Bay Bucs TL

NFC Divisional 1999
Washington(3) at Tampa Bay(2)

Tampa came into this game as one of the hottest teams in the league. They had the league’s top defensive and their offensive was in the top dozen teams. Even if it was the 12th offensive on the list. This game reminded everyone of that fact. The Bucs defense held the Redskins to 127 yards offensive all game, and 21 yards in the second half. Further the Bucs defense out scored the offensive in the second half with three defensive touchdowns in the game. These defensives came from a pair of pick sixes from John Lynch and Joey Porter and Aaron Smith recovering a fumble in the end zone. To put it simply Washington wasn’t even in the same league as Tampa and it showed.

Tampa Bay Advances 41-3


Green Bay(4) at St. Louis(1)

With the best defensive in the league playing the day before, St. Louis fielded the league’s best offensive. For St. Louis after last year’s defeat in the NFC Championship game they were looking to make there way to the Super Bowl. They were facing off against the Green Bay Packers and Brett Favre who was known for his last second come backs. This game was the only one this week that gave the Buffalo at Jacksonville a run for its money. If anything this was the better game.

With three second left on the clock in the fourth Ryan Longwell hit a 48 yard field goal to tie things up for Green Bay 31-31. Once again another playoff game was going to overtime. Green Bay won the toss and elected to receive the kick off. Desmond Howard took the kick off at the two and ran it all the way for a touchdown. However it was called back for a holding call on Green Bay. Favre started the drive and over the next six plus minutes drove down the length of the field. The Rams defensive stopped them from getting a touchdown. However on fourth down Longwell and the kicking team was called out for a 51 yard attempt. The snap was good however the Rams blocked the kick. The ball was recovered by Ron Carpenter who returned it for a touchdown.

St. Louis Advances 37-31
 
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Oof, that's a heartbreaker for Green Bay…
(Also, that should be the Rams winning 37-31, since in OT, the extra point isn't kicked.)
I screwed up my rules on that one.

And yes it a heartbreaking way for the Packers to lose. That said between the Green Bay at St. Louis game and what happened in Jacksonville I think the NFL will be looking at OT rules in the off season
 
And yes it a heartbreaking way for the Packers to lose. That said between the Green Bay at St. Louis game and what happened in Jacksonville I think the NFL will be looking at OT rules in the off season
hmm, yeah. But I think the league at this point is still very entrenched in the 'kick a FG and win it in OT' mindset… so serious changes would probably come if a Super Bowl was decided that way, maybe.
 
AFC/NFC Championship Weekend 1999
Indianapolis(2) at Jacksonville(1)

This was the first game to be played during Championship weekend and it didn’t disappoint. This game was a beautiful blend of offensive and defensive plays by both team. It was one of those games that one of the teams sadly had to lose and it would go down to the wire. By the 3 minute mark Jacksonville had on the foot of Mike Hollis had just taken a one point lead with the score being 24-23. On the kick off Indianapolis took the touchback and started the drive at their own 20 with no timeouts left. Peyton Manning and the Colts offensive came on to the field.

To the surprise of just about of everyone instead of passing the ball, the Colts handed it off to rookie Edgerrin James who bounced off the right tackle and broke it for a 14 yard game. Manning and the Colts were in the hurry up offensive and got another play off very quickly following the run by Edge. This time they did pass which was a quick slant to tight end Ken Dilger for 6 yard pick up. That was how the whole drive when. Manning took 2 minutes and 38 seconds to march down the field with only the two minute warning stopping the play clock or a few dropped passages. But Marvin Harrison caught the 8 yard touchdown pass. With the extra point it put the Colts up by six with 14 seconds left on the clock.

Jacksonville also had no timeouts left at this point in the game. They took the touchback like Indy did and took the field with 13 seconds on the clock. There was no question what was coming next. The Jags came out in a five wide receiver look and when for a hail mary. Mark Brunell took a moment to look before throwing the ball after the snap. He should had taken another moment as he was picked off by Tyrone Poole. The Colts offensive did have to come on to the field for one more play but the game was over Indianapolis had won.

Indianapolis Advances to the Super Bowl, 30-24


Tampa Bay(2) at St. Louis(1)

The hype around this game was unreal. You had the number one defensive in Tampa going up the number one offensive in St. Louis. It was a game that some have calling the unofficial super bowl given how the two team’s seasons had been. Both teams had been going at training for this game with everything they had as they knew it was tough challenge ahead of them. St. Louis wanted to advance to the Super Bowl and put behind their painful lost to Minnesota from the year before. Tampa wanted revenge for the 1979 defeat that the then LA Rams had done at their old stadium in Tampa.

For St. Louis the Tampa II Defense run by Coach Dungy was the poison pill they could not answer for. The Tampa Defense kept them in check for the whole game keeping them to 219 yards for the whole game but more importantly only 14 points. The Tampa offensive however showed some of their problems from early in the season in the first half of the game. Even with that Tampa when into halftime only down by a point. The second half saw some changes made to the Tampa offensive but they still failed to find the end zone all game. However they walked away with field goals on three possessions in the second and that was enough it turned out. When the Bucs defense forced a turnover on down with 1:09 on the clock left they knew they had won the game.

Tampa Bay Advances to the Super Bowl, 15-14
 
I call this bullshit even bigger the one other game...peyton chokes and hard....still what a shame i wanted the jaguars....even not mad as fuck the rams....still a shame for warner
From what I seen of Peyton he chokes in games that are played outside late in winter. This game was in FL with 50 degree weather.

Further Manning did go to four super bowls OTL plus winning two of them, the last one was on the back of that defense, but hey it work. So I don't see it as BS. Plus there is still another game to be played.

Plus remember the Jags of 99 had a paper soft schedule and they barely pulled off the win in the divisional round. So I can see them losing.
 
True but the Pats find a way to win.

Also Warner isn't the starting QB, Trent Green is still the starting QB for the Rams. He is just a bench warmer at this point.
 
Super Bowl XXXIV
Super Bowl XXXIV

Indianapolis Colts(2) vs Tampa Bay Buccaneers(2)

The year before both the Bucs and Colts had posted losing seasons. Yet now they were both getting ready for the Super Bowl and it was the major talking point going into the game itself. For the Bucs the key had been getting a new offensive staff that made the Bucs offensive a lot harder to game plan for along with giving long drives that would keep the defense off the field. The Colts were coming off a two year rebuild that saw the team retool.

Following them winning the coin toss the Colts elected to receive the ball. On the return they brought it out to their 24. The second play of the game however would set the tone of the game. Following a three yard game by Edge, Manning dropped back to pass the ball. He was targeting Marvin Harrison on the pass but he was picked off by Donnie Abraham who returned the pick for a touchdown. On the following drive the Colts had a total of -2 yards of total offensive following Edge being tackled in the backfield and a sack by Warren Sapp.

When the Bucs offensive came on to the field there was questions if what happened in St. Louis would follow them to Atlanta. The Bucs seem to know this, and made it a point to show that the game in St. Louis was a fluke. It took over six minutes but the Bucs drove the length of the field and capped the drive with a two yard touchdown by the A-Train who carried two Colts over the line with him as he remained upright.

Going into halftime the Bucs were up 24-0. The Colts offensive under Peyton Manning had managed to mustard only 85 yards in the first half. Further Manning had been picked off twice including the pick six by Abraham. Further Manning had been sacked four times and hurried ten times. It was clear that the Colts would have to make major changes if they wanted to over come the hole they were in.

Coming out of half the Bucs wanted to make sure the Colts understood their place. Taking the touch back and coming out on the 20 the Bucs offensive took over seven minutes off the clock as they once again marched down the field ending in a four yard catch by Warren Dunn for his second touchdown of the night. In the end the Colts were simply outmatch by the Bucs. Some believe that Coach Dungy took his food a bit off the gas following this drive already thinking about next season, how if true he never confirmed it. At the end of the game through Coach Dungy took the famous Gatorade Shower as he had taken his team to the promise land.

Super Bowl XXXIV Champs, Tampa Bay Bucs 37-6
Super Bowl MVP: Warren Dunn, RB, 142 Rushing Yards 1 TD, 62 Receiving Yards 1 TD


Yearly Awards

MVP: Trent Green, QB, St. Louis Rams
Coach of the Year: Tony Dungy, Tampa Bay Bucs
Offensive Player of the Year: Marshall Faulk, RB, St. Louis Rams
Defensive Player of the Year: Warren Sapp, DT, Tampa Bay Bucs
Offensive Rookie of the Year: Edgerrin James, RB, Indianapolis Colts
Defensive Rookie of the Year: Jevon Kearse, DE, Tennessee Titians
Comeback Player of the Year: Bryant Young, DT, San Francisco 49ers
Walter Payton Man of the Year: Cris Carter, WR, Minnesota Vikings
 
2000 NFL Draft
2000 Season

Going into the Draft the question of what the Bucs would do was the talk of the league. They were fresh off their first Super Bowl win in their history and they had massive Draft Capital going into the draft. They had three first round picks plus a total of seven draft picks in the first 94 picks. One of the first round picks going into the draft was the first overall pick which they had via the Saints from the Ricky Williams trade.

Going into the draft there were only a few clear needs for the Bucs. First was at wide receiver. Even with pass draft capital spent on Reidel Anthnoy, a former first round pick in 1996, and Jacquez Green, an early second round pick in 1998 neither had worked out as hoped. Bert Emanuel who had been the Bucs number one receiver on the depth charts had left via Free Agency and had signed with New England on a two year deal. Last year’s sixth round pick Tai Streets had been second on the depth charts with Reidel being third and Jacquez being fourth when Emanuel had been on the roster. They would have to find more receiving depth.

Also on the offensive was the need to replace aging Dave Moore at tight end. Finally they lost two key members of their offensive line to retirement, Tony Mayberry C, and Paul Gruber the blind side Tackle of the line. As a rookie Todd McClure did a good job in the few games he played in and was in line for the promotion to starting center, but it still left their blind side tackle in need of replacement.

The biggest question going into the draft with the Bucs was if they would trade the first pick in the draft or draft Chris Samuels the best Tackle in the class or take one of a number of top wide receivers in this class. This class had three receivers that could go in the top ten picks. When the draft day came there still wasn’t a clear answer to what the Bucs would do. Finally when Paul Taguliabue made it to the podium and announced the Bucs had traded down it became clear that the Bucs were still building for the future.

Cincinnati traded up out of fear the Bucs would draft their man and they were willing to pay to get him. This got them the first pick in the draft in return for sending the third pick in the draft to Bucs along with their first next year and the 66th pick in the third round this year for the first. Cincinnati drafted Peter Warrick.

When the Bucs came up again for the 31st pick in the draft, they decided to make a trade. They traded the pick to San Francisco in return for Terrell Owens. Owens performance had dropped off in the 99 season after the thousand yard season he had in 98. However the Niners were in rebuilding mode and had questions if Owens would last in a rebuild give his off the field stunts. So getting the last pick in the first was a deal the Niners were willing to take to get another rookie. When the second pick in the second round came up the Bucs made a package deal with the Eagles for the 62nd and 63rd picks to ship them for their first in 2001. It wasn’t till the fourth round that they made a trade again. This time it was with Cleveland. They shipped off the Dolphins Fourth along with their own seventh round pick this year with Jacquez Green in return for the Cleveland third next year.


1/3: Chris Samuels, OT, Alabama
1/12: Bubba Franks, TE, Miami (FL)
2/55: Fred Robbins, DT, Wake Forrest
3/66: Hank Poteat, CB, Pittsburgh
3/78: Damion McIntosh, OT, Kansas State
4/125: Tutan Reyes, G, Mississippi
5/130: Shane Lechler, P, Texas A&M
5/159: Mareno Philyaw, WR, Troy
5/161: Jabari Issa, DT, Washington
6/198: Tim Rattay, QB, Louisiana Tech
 
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