Road Kill-lers?

In the 1980s and 1990s, No team was a polar opposite of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers like the San Francisco 49ers. The Bucs had 14 consecutive double digit losing seasons. The 49ers had as many double digit WINNING seasons. During this time frame, the 49ers were road masters. They regularly won more games on the road than they did at home. 1983; 4-4 at home, 6-2 on the road. 1984; 7-1 at home! But 8-0 away from then Candlestick Park! The Bucs? They lost at home and on the road, but Tampa Bay would go whole seasons without a road win. Then in 1997 with the arrival of Tony Dungy, Rich McKay, the players, the uniforms, everything turned around. The Bucs have never been on the level of those 49er teams, but they were respectable on the road, while winning most of their home games at Raymond James. Fast Forward to today, as the Bucs are taking care of business on the road, where they seem to play pretty smooth. Remember that road loss to the Panthers last year where Josh Freeman threw all those picks as Carolina snuck out a win even though the Bucs put up over 400 yards of offense? Remember how everyone was up in arms over it? “Oh No, Josh Freeman is not going to be able to do that and win!!” That was the last time our Tampa Bay Buccaneers have lost a road game. They have won 4 straight, and are second in the NFL in that regards, Behind only the NY Jets who have 6 games in a row. With the Arizona Cardinals on the calandar for Sunday, the Bucs could run that up to 5 straight, something they have never really done before. SuperBowl season, the Bucs had a best 6-2 mark away from the Bay. 1999 when they went to the NFC Championship game? 4-4. Even the 1979 Bucs only went 5-3, so this new generation of Tampa Bay Buccaneers players is treading on new ground as they started this streak with, of all places, a win at Seattle. The Bucs have always had a hard time winning on the west coast, and a real test of this current streak will be coming up on November 21st. Should Tampa Bay get past the Cardinals, the Atlanta Falcons would await them at the Georgia Dome, and then following the home rematch with those Panthers, the Bucs would take the trip to San Francisco, CA., where they have not won in that stadium since 1980. 1980, before Ronald Regan was elected, before John Lennon was shot. Before the very 49ers team turned into the road trippers we’ve talked about today, and maybe that is where the baton is handed off to the Bucs franchise for the decade.