Saints 16 Buccaneers 31 Tampa Bay handed the Saints their seventh-straight loss. The Bucs returned the opening kickoff to the NO 40, but the momentum shifted to the Saints when Ashley Ambrose recovered a Dunn fumble and returned it to the TB 44. Billy Joe Tolliver went for the home run ball on the next play, but the throw was (incorrectly) ruled to have been intercepted in the endzone (apparently the officials didn't get to see the replay angle that clearly showed the ball hitting the turf). The D forced a 3 & punt, so the team wound up getting the ball back quickly at a cost of only 54 seconds and 6 yds. The O moved to 1st & goal at the 7, but had to settle for a 29 yd FG. Tampa Bay took the lead shortly thereafter when Green flew past the secondary en route to a 62 yd TD reception. After a 3 & punt Saints series, what looked to be a Fred Weary fumble-return for TD was correctly ruled to have been a non-fumble. Grammatica kicked a 35 yarder, then found himself in possession of the ball when Troy Davis fumbled the ensuing kickoff. The turnover led to a 1 yd TD catch by John Davis and a 17-3 Buccaneer lead. The Saints managed a FG before halftime. The opening possession of the second half ended with a Saints punt. The D forced a lost-fumble by hitting Dilfer, but the ball soon went back to TB when Tolliver was intercepted. The visitors converted the pick into a 10 yd McDonald TD catch. Following a pair of punts, Doug Brien added a 37 yd FG. The Bucs killed more than 8 minutes of clock before missing a 51 yarder. The Saints made things interesting with a 1 yd Keith Poole TD catch with :48 left. The onside kick was easily recovered by Tampa, but the Saints used all their timeouts to bring up 4th & 2 at the NO 25 with 21 seconds left. Alstott broke free up the middle for a TD to make the final score 31-16. stats (view with a fixed-width font, like Courier) ^^^^^ runnin'........../..........passin' & catchin' 5- 28 B.J. Tolliver 14- 41 Ricky Williams 4- 22 2- 22 Lamar Smith 4- 27 1- 3 Aaron Craver 1- 4 Eddie Kennison 2- 42 Keith Poole 3- 23-1 Andre Hastings 2- 45 Brett Bech 1- 13 Cameron Cleeland 2- 39 23- 98 TOTAL 18-211-1 inc 17 INT 2 runnin'........../..........passin' & catchin' 1- 4 T. Dilfer 12- 42 Warrick Dunn 3- 54 25-117-1 Mike Alstott 1- 15 1- (5) Jacquez Green 4- 89-1 Riedel Anthony 2- 14 Darnell McDonald 3- 47-1 Dave Moore 1- 7 John Davis 1- 1-1 39-158-1 TOTAL 15-227-3 inc 5 INT 0 notes ^^^^^ * held out due to injury: Fields, Hobert, Naeole, Wally Williams * if Ricky matches his first-half-of-the-season stats over games 9-16, he'll meet none of his individual statistical incentives ******************************************************************************* Frank Serpas III serpas@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu