With all due respects to the 2007 Buccaneers squad that won the NFC South, the win over the Rams in week 3 was really not part of the whole “Bucs/Rams Mystique” that began with an NFC Championship game in 1999, and continued through three separate yet joined at the hip football games each a bit more exciting than the last one, and sometimes each a bit more weird too. Now maybe not at first, but towards the end of the series, freaky stuff started to happen; the kind of happenings that you wouldn’t expect from anything OTHER than a Rams/Bucs game. Case in point; 2004 and Tampa Bay is experiencing a comeback kind of game, Michael Pittman is tackled, but what happens to the ball? Why it comes out of his hands and bounces off of the carpet, right into Adam Archuleta’s hands where he runs it in for a St. Louis Touchdown. Greatest show on Turf indeed!
Mind you not all strange happenings go against the Bucs way; there are quite a few Ram fans who still curse at the names of Warrick Dunn and Shawn King. For such reasons…
Now maybe this doesn’t fall into weird vvvvv, and Ive made myself quite clear on the record of saying something was a “Good play call” or “Bad play call”, but in the 1999 NFC Championship game with everything on the line, and its in the 4th quarter with the Bucs up by 1, 3rd and 11 with the ball on the 50, wouldn’t it be Tony Dungy ball to PUNT the ball and make the Blue and Yellow team travel across the field to get into scoring territory. Ah that hindsight, its always 20/20 isn’t it?!?
Did you know Tony Dungy could not bear to watch the tape of the loss to the Rams until the week before the 2000 game only because he had to? Although it was a tough loss to swallow, the Bucs would beat the Rams the next three times they would play them, all on Monday Night Football, all nationally televised games including the Super Bowl season game where Keyshawn Johnson is shown getting into it with Jon Gruden. I think they made up by January! Are YOU ready for some football? Bucs/ Rams this Sunday at 1pm- yours truly will be 16 rows behind the Bucs bench on the 35 yard line for the game-and some great desktop HD photos will be up afterward- now hopefully the cool weather will keep it up!!
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