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On December 16, 1979, the Kansas City Chiefs faced the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Tampa Stadium during week 16 of the 1979 NFL season.
The Chiefs were in last place in the AFC West under second-year coach Marv Levy.
The Bucs, led by head coach John McKay and rookie quarterback Doug Williams, needed a win to clinch the NFC Central.
This game is infamously known as the Monsoon Game.
There was so much rain that the field was covered in water and mud, and water was flowing down the stadium steps like a waterfall throughout most of the game.
Every tackle resulted in a gigantic splash of water.
This is the local Tampa radio broadcast featuring announcers Mark Champion and Dave Kuturek.
Week number 16 of the National Football League.
It's a day of if. There are so many things that can happen as far as teams still trying to get into the playoffs, but let us centralize ourselves on the Tampa Bay situation.
If Tampa Bay defeats Kansas City or Chicago loses to St. Louis, the Buccaneers will win the Central Division title.
If Tampa Bay and Chicago finish tied, the Buccaneers would win the division title on the basis of a better division record, 6-2 to 5-3 for Chicago.
That's basically the situation. Right now, let's go to Tampa Bay.
Good afternoon everybody. Mark Champion and Dave Kuturek with you. It is a rainy afternoon at Tampa Stadium.
The Buccaneers kicking off Neil Modotahue. Beneath man is Johnny Durdin.
He comes up forward at the gate guard line, takes a third of the 10, 15, tries to get outside 20, breaks free 25, 30, and up near the 35-yard line, Neil Modotahue over there to force him down along with Billy Cesar.
So a pretty good return that time by Johnny Durdin.
And Kansas sitting on offense with Steve Fuller, the rookie out of Clemson, a number one drop choice at quarterback, Ted McKnight and Earl Gantt of the running back.
Gantt starting over Mike Williams, another rookie.
The wide receivers are Henry Marshall and JT Smith, the tight end Tony Samuels, Charlie Getty, Rod Walters, Jack Rudnay, Tom Condon, and Bob Simmons make up the offensive line.
First and 10, 35-yard line as the Chiefs move from right to left here at Tampa Stadium.
Steve Fuller, the rookie, hands off, goes inside and the tackle made just across the 38-yard line.
Earl Gantt, Dewey Solomon on the stop that time, brings up a second down.
And the crowd seems to be a bit fired up, Dave.
Oh, that's true, Mark. There's so much on this football game and everybody's been talking about the crowd and I'm sure everybody senses it.
I know everybody in this booth is very, very excited.
I think the rain's going to hamper what could be a championship game, but I think everybody's going to have to make the best of it.
Wide receivers to either side on second down and seven, Gantt and McKnight are split behind Fuller.
He bubbles the ball, picks it up and is tackled immediately after a pick up maybe of a half a yard.
Wally Chambers wrapping his arms around Steve Fuller and we're going to see that happen today.
I talked to Frankie Pappello before the game. He says they're going to use rosin. Rosin is the answer.
Sickom doesn't really work when things get wet and you pick up a lot of junk and things that are very difficult.
So I think you're going to see a lot more conservative game from both sides.
When it starts to rain, the ball gets a little bit slippery.
You've got to go with a little more muscle, a little less finesse.
However, Doug Williams has a tendency to throw rather well in rain in wet conditions and maybe he'll be able to be on target today.
Marshall to the left side, JT Smith on the right side now on third and seven and Motion McKnight.
Dropping back is Fuller to pass. Centaline flags are down. Out of the backfield and incomplete.
Mark, I hate to say, I think Wally Chambers might have charged offside from his left defensive end spot a little bit early.
I think he's going to get another shot. They're going to take the penalty and get another shot.
Earl Gantling, intended receiver that time, went off his end.
No, no, it was Motion Kansas City.
So the Buccaneers will get the football after the punch coming up now by the national football league leading punter, Bob Gruff.
You know, the interesting thing about Gruff, he's a free agent. He had a couple of tryouts with the Jets.
He also tried out in Canada and it's interesting. He's averaging 43.7 and he's kicked extremely well.
Well, they took the penalty.
Well, now wait a minute. Now they've decided to...
The ball was dead. Fire to the snap.
All right, the ball was dead. Jerry Seaman, the referee, fooled everybody because they had changed over and the whistle had blown apparently.
So now it will be a third down and a little more than 11 yards.
The ball marks back at about the 33-yard line. 13-27, first quarter, rainy afternoon. No score, Kansas City and Tampa Bay.
Wide receivers to either side. Again, McKnight and Gantz. Fuller to pass on third and long. Out of the backfield, McKnight at the 30.
35 and Randy Clowder has him out of bounds at about the 37-yard line and it brings up fourth down.
Very aggressive defense that time. The entire left side, as we've seen so often, Mark, during the season, the cornerback, Jarrett White, coming up.
Linebacker, Wally Chambers, Randy Clowder from his nose. All of them converging over there and limiting to a four- or five-yard gain bringing up the putting situation.
We might tell you defensively for the Buccaneers, Danny Reese is starting at right cornerback in place of Mike Washington.
He suffered a shoulder injury last week. It's not known how much, or if at all, that Mike can play. Bob Grubb gets the snap.
Good charge for the on-grub. Gets it away. It's a low kick. Danny Reese will let it bounce.
Picked it at the 25 and it hit immediately at the 26-yard line. That's where the Buccaneers take over.
The tackle made by J.T. Smith. So it's 13-10 remaining here in the first quarter.
Tampa Bay nothing, Kansas City nothing, and the fans are really getting fired up now after the 37-yard punt.
Doug Williams, the quarterback. Wicky Bell, Johnny Davis in the backfield. Larry Mucker and Ike Hagan, the wide receivers.
Jimmy Giles, a tight end. Dave Revis and Greg Wharton on the left side. Steve Wilson, the center. Greg Roberts and Darryl Carlton on the right side.
Defensively, we'll get to Kansas City in just a minute.
One of the big matchups, Mark, is the right tackle. Darryl Carlton against Arch Steele, their premier defensive left end.
They open with two tight ends. O'Bradovich is in there. The lone wide receiver is Mucker.
Back to split. Handoff goes to Wicky Bell, and he cannot find much at all. Right up the middle, Arch Steele, the number one draft choice in 78 out of Kentucky.
Makes the tackle. He is at left defensive end. Don Perish is in the middle, and Sylvester Hicks on the right side.
The linebackers are Calvin Peterson, the former Buccaneer, starting over the injured Whitney Paul.
Frank Manumaliuna is on the inside left side. Gary Spanning on the right side, and Tom Howard is the right side linebacker.
Gary Green, M.L. Carter, are the corners. Gary Byborow, and we're going to check to see if Christopher is starting at strong safety because he was slightly injured as well.
Second down, nine for the 27. Again, Wicky Bell, the handoff. Sides to swing it out, finds room up to the right side, and gets just near the 30 yard line where Christopher made the tackle.
So indeed he is in the lineup. 12-22 remaining in the first quarter, no score.
You're likely to see a lot of running plays here this afternoon because the ball is wet.
The field is tremendous because it soaks up that rain very, very well. Good drainage system here, but the ball is wet.
Yeah, the ball is wet, Mark. The field should be excellent. The rain just started just prior to game time, and it hasn't really been heavy, so I don't see any problems. I think the ball being wet is the big factor.
Third down and six, the ball just across the 30 yard line here at Tampa Stadium. In the flat light as Wicky Bell in motion goes Larry Mucker to the left side.
Doug Williams to pass on third down and six. He's looking long, and flipping as Ike Haggins, and the ball goes out of bounds at about the 20 yard line. It was well over thrown anyway.
Ike flipped along the sideline. It wouldn't have been good had he caught it because he went out of bounds.
The official on the spot dropped his hat indicating that he had gone out of bounds. When he made the cut, he flipped it, carried him out of bounds.
He can't go from out of bounds to in bounds and still make the play, and so it would have been incomplete even if he hung on the ball, bringing up a punting situation.
J.T. Smith at eight, man, he has returned 56 points this year, an average of 10.7. He is the speedster.
Two touchdowns I might add, Mark, one of which went 88 yards I believe against the Oakland Raiders. Tom Blanchard standing back, awaiting the snap from Dana Masviger.
It is a good one, and he's going to have to hurry, gets it away. It's a fast front, line drive right to J.T. Smith at the 35, up to the 40, and he tackled it about the 43 yard line.
Billy Cesar was in there initially, and Jim O'Bradovich also on the stop. 34 yard front, an eight yard return. So with the score, Tampa Bay nothing, Kansas City nothing, we'll be back.
We'll take a look at the schedule in the National Football League, and then we'll, as briefly as we possibly can and as clearly as we possibly can, try to explain to you the various possibilities for playoff teams.
This is something much better read than said, but we'll try to clear it up for you a bit.
Well on Saturday, the New York Jets over Miami, 27 to 24, doesn't make any difference as far as Miami is concerned because they've already clinched the division title and no other team from that division can qualify, so no problem.
The Jets 27 to 24 over Miami. Green Bay and Detroit both well out of it. Green Bay winning Saturday 18 to 13 at the Silver Dome.
Now in progress right now, Buffalo is at Pittsburgh, Kansas City at Tampa Bay, that's the game you're listening to right now. Cleveland is at Cincinnati, Minnesota at New England, Baltimore at the New York Giants, and San Francisco at Atlanta.
All of those games are in progress. A little later, Philadelphia at Houston and St. Louis at Chicago, then later Washington at Dallas, that game will be heard later.
New Orleans is at Los Angeles, Seattle at Oakland, and then Monday Denver at San Diego.
We want to mention to you, we'll have updates throughout the afternoon on the Chicago-St. Louis game at Soldier Field where it is 19 degrees, and that game gets underway at 2 o'clock. The wind chill factor is minus 9 degrees.
That's a lot of fun. This is no picnic playing in this stuff, but I'd rather play in a little wet at about 65 or 70 degrees than a wind chill factor of minus 9 in overcast in Chicago. That's an hour starting, at least that's an hour after this kickoff.
JT Smith to the left side, and Henry Marshall splits right on first down at 10 Kansas City from the 44 yard line. Play fake.
Steve Fuller dropping back to pass, gets one out, open, complete to Marshall, and he's going to be brought down at about the 48 yard line by Cecil Johnson.
Good, strong tackle by the right side linebacker, Henry Marshall. So it brings up a second down, and about 5, 6 yards to go.
It is second and six. Kansas City 48 yard line, 11 minutes to go, first quarter, no score, Tampa Bay and Kansas City. Steve Fuller brings them up, Gant and McKnight in the backfield, they are split.
And off McKnight, off the left side, tries to swing it out, and can't. He's brought down a loss.
Big play, Richard Wood on the tackle, but Cecil Johnson made the play. He turned it in, and Richard Wood made the tackle, lost back to the 45. Again, very fine outside support, the corner, Danny Reese coming up also, Cedric Brown from his free safety spot,
bringing that play out along with Cecil Johnson, and what happens when you swing it out? You allow the big people, your good tacklers, an opportunity to come on in from the inside, and they threw that one for a 5 yard loss, bringing up a third and ninth.
The Chiefs go with three wide receivers as Stan Rhoam and other Clemson rookie at 11th round drop choice comes in, so they have three wide receivers on third and ninth from the 45 yard line.
Steve Fuller dropping deep, the pass, good pressure, the pass is incomplete, and a flag drop. Dewey Thelma with a strong hit on the intended receiver that time, Ced McKnight.
I think the Herald can't hold, Mark. It looks like the flag was deep in the Kansas City where the pocket was based, and I think it's going to be a holding against Kansas City, correct. Well, they all decline the penalty, it is fourth down.
The headlinesman was the one that threw that flag, and he threw it in the direction of the pocket.
Your attention please, Walter Markert. The referee is Jerry Seaman, Frank Sikovits is the umpire, headlinesman is Joe Mase who made the call, Bob McAuley is the line judge, Al Jury the back judge, side judge Bob Wrightfield, judge Bill O'Brien.
And Danny Reese is the man to receive the punt from Rupp. Danny back at his 10, snap, Rupp gets it away, it's the wobbler again, Danny lets it drop at the 25, he's going to get away from it, and it's going to take a bucket here, bounce and go out of bounds at the 22 yard line.
And that is where Tampa Bay takes over, touched by Dave Rosemack, a 33 yard punt by the NFL's leading hunter, first and 10 Tampa Bay with a score, the Bucs nothing, Kansas City nothing.
Reviewing the situation for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, now if Tampa Bay defeats Kansas City or Chicago loses to St. Louis, the Buccaneers will win the division title.
If Tampa Bay and Chicago finish tied, the Buccaneers will win the division title on the basis of a better divisional record, they'll be 6 and 2, and Chicago will be 5 and 3.
Now Chicago will be at home against St. Louis, but that game will not be getting underway for about 45 minutes, so if you have heard about scoreboard watching and baseball, I got news for you, they're going to be taking a close look at the scoreboard in Chicago to see the progress of this game between Kansas City and Tampa Bay.
If Chicago wins and Tampa Bay loses, the Bears will win the division title on an overall record 10 to 6 to 9 and 7.
Tampa Stadium on this Sunday afternoon, a very, very important Sunday for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, we have 9 minutes and 55 seconds remaining in the first quarter, no score, Tampa Bay and Kansas City, the rain has kind of neutralized things offensively for both teams, and Dave you noticed that they're putting a lot of pressure on Grupp the punter.
Well there's a lot of pressure going both ways, a lot of pressure on Mike, on Tom Blanchard, I want to keep calling him Mike Blanchard, a tennis official named Mike Blanchard, an old friend, but anyway they're putting a lot of pressure on Blanchard as well, but Grupp has got a lot of heat from the inside of the Bucs' punter rush team and hasn't been very effective.
In his first intent, too tight in offense now for John McKay's Buccaneers, the Baxter split behind Doug Williams in first intent, in motion Larry Mucker, handoff Ricky Bell, 25, breaks free to the 29-yard line, and the tackle played that time by Tom Howard, the right linebacker, good first down pick up that time by Ricky, who's going for 1200 yards, he said that was his goal after reaching 1000, and he needed I believe 74 yards to reach the 1200 mark.
Well he's got 11 and 3 carries Mark, he's well on his way, and he's carried every ball, every play that they've run, Doug through one pass incomplete.
The Buccaneers go to two tight ends, two wide receivers, a different style of alignment, Jim O'Bradovich actually flanks out as a wide receiver on this play on second and three, and he is in motion to the left side, pitch back to Ricky Bell, Bell looking for room, he's not going to find it, Herb Christopher turned that play in and made the tackle.
O'Bradovich went in motion to the left side and the pitch went wide to Ricky and wide there was Herb Christopher.
Well he came in motion and he cracked extremely well, he came in motion and got a fine block on Cal Peterson, the linebacker, Jimmy Giles with an excellent block on Arch, still, however Christopher came in with O'Bradovich and he was in excellent position for the support play.
So it is third down and three now, the ball is the Tampa Bay 29 yard line, Jerry Eckwood comes in the game and replaces Jim O'Bradovich.
So it is Eckwood and Bell in the backfield, actually Jerry is in a wing to the left side, going in motion is Larry Mucker to the right.
Doug Williams, draw play, Ricky Bell 30, 35, up to the 40 yard line, first down Buccaneers, Tom Howard on the tackle, but not until Ricky Bell picked up a good first team yard and a Tampa Bay first down with 8'16 remaining in the first quarter.
Excellent call, the draw play.
Well he got some good blocks up front, Steve Wilson primarily, Greg Horton on the left center and left offensive guard with fine blocks, Dave Revis simply kicking out, making it look like a pass type action and he was able to move Mike Bell out of there.
Mike Hagens to the left side and Morris Owens is now the flanker right, the backfield still, Bell and Jerry Eckwood there in an eye on first down 10, handoff Ricky Bell, 45, Bell with a 49 yard line and again the tackle by Don Terry, the nose tackle.
Big burst of about 8 yards for Ricky Bell, right up the middle.
Pick up a 7 that time, brings up a second down and a little over 2.
He said 8 and statistician Provenzano said 7 and I say 7 and a half so we don't go by half in this business, the scoreboard doesn't know how to do it so they're going to call it second and two.
Larry Mucker in at flanker replacing Owens, wide receivers to either side, 7, 12 remaining, first quarter, no score but the Bucs are driving, they have it at their own 49 yard line, Jerry Eckwood the call, midfield, break free, 45, Eckwood to the 40, 35, and a first down for the Buccaneers.
Jerry Eckwood, ML
Very explosive in additional dimensions they've been lacking, first and 10, Kansas City 34 yard line, wide receivers Mucker and Hagan to either side, Johnny Davidson replacing Jerry Eckwood, handoff Ricky Bell, inside to the 30, 25, Ricky Bell with a 20 yard line, another first down, Jerry Barbaro the free safety on the stop.
But not until Bell picked up 15 yards on that play, down to the Kansas City 19 yard line, 6, 04 remaining, first quarter, no score.
Eckwood back in now replacing Johnny Davis so Ricky will shift to the fullback side unless, well now Johnny comes back on the field and Ricky Bell is going to get a breather and he'll get a good hand from this crowd as he comes off the field, not bad for Ricky Bell.
Hagan with left and Larry Mucker to the right side now, back to the 9, on first and 10 for the 19, pitch back, Eckwood to the 20, down to the 16 yard line and he lost his footing, he gets back up but he didn't get touched but Calvin Peterson the former Buccaneer kind of took his feet from underneath him.
So they mark it down at about the 16 yard line.
Second down, 6, pick up a 4 that time, Eckwood comes along the sidelines now, it will be Ricky Bell and Johnny Davis.
Bell with 45 yards and 7 carries, wide receivers from either side, ball at the Kansas City 16 yard line, 4, 58 remaining in the first quarter. Good ground offense, Ricky Bell is hit right about the line of scrimmage by Don Perry for those tackled out of Pittsburgh, he was a free agent dropped by the Atlanta Falcons.
Defensively on the line, the Kansas City Chiefs have an excellent defensive front three, anchored by Arch Phil and Mike Bell who is the big guy, a rookie out of Colorado State, a number one draft choice, we'll see some action, number 99.
Both defensive ends, Bell number 99 and Arch Phil number 67 were number one picks the last two years.
It is now 3 and 5 from the Kansas City 15 yard line, Jimmy Giles lines up as a wide receiver to the right side.
Doug Williams to pass and it is ruled to Obradovich incomplete.
Kind of skipped up to him that time, Jim Obradovich, the ball was thrown low and now on comes Neil O'Donoghue to attempt the field goal.
And this will be a 32 yard field goal attempt, Tom Blanchard to do the holding. Incidentally Steve Wilson is snapping in place of injured Charlie Hanna on the field goal attempt.
Talked to Neil and the last time with the extra point against San Francisco was a little bit low, Blanchard with a good hold was able to get it down and they were able to convert on the extra point.
So, 4th down and 5, Neil O'Donoghue to attempt the 32 yard field goal to get the Buccaneers the early lead with 4, 11 remaining.
Steve Wilson, the snap is modeled right through Blanchard's hand, O'Donoghue breaks away and he's running to the 25.
Blanchard looking for the first down marker but he will not even get close.
So, the snap went right through Tom Blanchard's hand.
The ball may have been wet, it's hard to say.
So, the Buccaneers come away empty handed.
It wasn't a real bad snap, it was hard to tell, Tom had his hands on it and again it's a very, very wet ball.
The ball came a little bit far, a little bit to the side and Blanchard was unable to hold it.
So, with a score of Tampa Bay nothing, Kansas City nothing, we'll be back on the Buccaneer radio network.
As far as that national conference under race is concerned and we explained to you the various possibilities, see one more.
If Chicago doesn't win the division title and finishes tied with Washington for the remaining wild card berth, the tie would be broken on the basis of best net points in all games.
The Redskins would have a plus 54 net and the Bears a plus 21 net point.
So, Tampa Bay needs to beat Kansas City or Chicago needs to lose to St. Louis.
If Tampa Bay wins this game, well then the Buccaneers can rest easy for the rest of the afternoon because it doesn't make too much difference.
However, if Tampa Bay should lose and Chicago loses, well then the Buccaneers are in pretty good shape.
The NFC West has already been clinched by Los Angeles.
They've done it for a record NFL 7 straight time.
No other teams from the NFC West can qualify.
It'll take us probably the rest of the first quarter of this football game to explain the situation in the NFC East.
We'll be carrying the Dallas-Washington game later. We'll get to that one at that time.
So, Kansas City takes over, first and 10 at the 20-yard line.
Wally Chambers, Randy Crowder, and Leroy Selman are the defensive line for the Buccaneers.
David Lewis, Dewey Selman, Richard Wood, and Cecil Johnson are the linebackers.
Jaris White and Danny Reese are the cornerbacks.
Cedric Brown, Mark Cotton, he's the safety.
That is the defensive alignment for the Buccaneers.
Again, Reese replacing the injured Mike Washington who suffered a shoulder injury against San Francisco.
4-0-9 remaining in the first quarter, no score.
The Buccaneers, a very impressive drive on the ground, but it's stalled,
and the field goal attempt went awry as the ball was not handled by the holder Tom Blanchard.
First and 10 for Kansas City.
And off goes Gant across the 20, up near the 24-yard line.
Pickup of about 4 yards that time. Brings up second down and six.
We might make note, Mark, that they had the ball for over 7 minutes in that drive,
and it really doesn't mean a lot because they didn't get any score,
but at least it gives them some confidence that they know they can move the ball against a very solid defensive team.
In a couple games, it don't mean a heck of a lot.
Baltimore, Colts, 7-0 over the New York Giants in the first period.
Atlanta, 3-0 over San Francisco.
We'll keep you abreast of that Chicago game.
We will cut in periodically, and that's an hour later start to this game.
Henry Marshall to the left side. J.T. Smith, flanked right on second down and six foul for Kansas City.
And off Gant. He's got room.
He drops to 30. David Lewis chasing him down and makes the tackle and a penalty flag drop.
David Lewis made the tackle at the 37-yard line and then a late penalty flag drop.
Don't be surprised if somebody might have grabbed the face mask.
The referee, Jerry Seaman, will make the call.
It's going to go against Kansas City.
We're going to get a personal foul clipping against Kansas City.
I think the wide receiver came back and clipped David Lewis.
He tried to throw a block that time, I think.
And that will mark off Big Yardage, 15.
And it moves it all the way back just about to the line of scrimmage, the original line of scrimmage, just short of the 20-yard line.
And we hear Jerry Seaman now with the call.
Personal foul clipping, pop it.
And we didn't hear the player, but it was one of the wide receivers.
And that's why he's coming in.
He clipped Jaris White. Jaris is coming in and he came in completely from the backside.
So it is now second down and nine for Kansas City.
323 remaining in the first quarter.
No score on a rainy afternoon, and it certainly will have an effect.
It already has.
Gant and McKnight are split behind Steve Fuller.
He's going to pass on second and nine.
Gets the time over the middle, complete to Gant.
That's a 30. 35. Turns the corner to 40.
And he is pushed out of bounds by Richard Wood at about the 48-yard line.
Oh, there's a penalty. That's a bad shot.
He didn't know he was out of bounds.
Richard went and gave him a shot right at the lower portion of his chest.
And they're going to say it's a late hit, but he didn't know the guy was out of bounds.
He was still very active and very much into running at it.
Well, again, it's on the Kansas City side of the field.
And John McKay has talked about this a great deal, that they seem to call them on the side of the bench.
For example, if it would have been a Buccaneer call, if the Bucs had been offensive,
later the chances are it would have gone for the Buccaneers, had it been on their side of the field.
It's a very, very judgmental call.
And again, it was on the Kansas City side of the field.
So it will give Kansas City an excellent field position now, first and 10, at the Tampa Bay 43-yard line.
Personal foul, unnecessary roughness, number 34, defense.
Yeah, that was Cedric.
Richard Wood actually was the one that forced him out of bounds, but Cedric didn't know it.
He just wanted to make sure and he gave him a kind of a shot.
He didn't go to his head.
He just went to his upper part of his chest as they took him through the flag.
First and 10, Buccaneer 44-yard line, 3.13 to go in the first quarter now.
Wide receivers to either side.
The Buccaneers are blitzing and Mark Cotney comes in and hauls down.
Kevin McFyde, David Lewis, also went on the stop.
The Bucs had a safety blitz on that time and they snuffed out that play a lot, so maybe a couple of yards.
Swings up second down, a little over 11.
So that fired up the defense after that personal foul federally.
And this crowd is fired up and that's something that is very, very good to see.
And those of you with radios in the stands, we want to have you keep that mood going, cheering all the way for this team.
Both wide receivers are to the right side.
And now the man in motion to the left is Marshall.
Handoff goes to Earl Gant.
He's scooping around and he's not getting anywhere.
No game, perhaps a lot of a couple of yards.
David Lewis and Cedric Brown on the stop.
David Lewis stood that play up very, very well.
He didn't let Gant get outside and Cedric Brown from his free safety spot came over to clean up.
And the intensity, Cedric's really hitting.
He's not known as a real tough hitter.
He's a great center fielder, but he came in from center field and literally took Gant and David Lewis just threw him down to the ground.
But the intensity of that defense is really something.
The Chiefs go with three wide receivers.
Stan Rohn comes in and Curtis Jordan to mickleback for Tampa Bay.
Third down 11 from the bucket here, 45-yard line.
In motion goes Ted McKnight.
Dropping back deep is Steve Fuller.
He looks, fires, intercepts it.
Pick off Richard Wood.
He's up to the 40, 45, under the 46-yard line.
A big interception by the Batman, Richard Wood.
And JT Smith made the tackle.
12-yard return that time by Richard Wood.
And so time out on the field with a minute 21 remaining here in the first quarter.
No score, Tampa Bay and Kansas City.
And well, that's going to fire him up a little bit, Dave.
Yeah, that's for Richard Wood with excellent position there.
That's his second interception.
He had one for 24 earlier, so now he's got two for 36.
We've got 1.21 to go in the first period.
And the Buc defense, I think, has been outstanding.
They've allowed one first down that I recall.
The other one was aided by the penalty.
And they're really hitting and stocking, putting a lot of pressure.
They really haven't got close to Fuller yet at this time.
But most of the outside people, Leroy Selman, Wally Chambers, have been putting plenty of heat on.
And that one just looked like it floated off his head.
Fuller is a fine young man, a great college quarterback at Clemson.
And a super smart guy.
You know, Levy is a 5'8' of Kappa.
Steve Fuller was a 3.99 in college.
And he really enjoys that intelligence being around.
The Chiefs have made a change at Nostacle.
They brought in their rookie seventh-round draft choice, Ken Kramer, out of Ball State.
My old alma mater.
Got to mention that because there are not very many in the National Football League.
No, that's for sure.
But the ones who are in play very well, naturally.
The good friend Jay Randolph is doing the game for NBC today.
And Paul McGuire says Ball State is his favorite school.
We won't go into it.
Paul McGuire is my old teammate.
We owned a saloon together in San Diego.
He's having a back-to-the-five first-and-ten from the Tampa Bay 46-yard line.
Bucker and Hagen to either side.
Hand off Ricky Vowell.
And he can't find much room at all.
Arch Still, maybe stop off the right side of the Tampa Bay line.
Pick up a maybe a yard that time.
And George Ragsdale comes in the game.
Now John McKay said earlier this week that George Ragsdale and Jerry Eckwood would play a great deal.
It was probably a good anticipation that they would throw a lot to him.
But now, of course, with the rain, we don't know.
With the rain.
I think we'll still put the ball.
We'll still see the ball be put in the air a fair amount.
I don't think you're going to see the long stuff because of the control factor.
But I think the little dink stuff to the back, Eckwood and Ragsdale, we should see some of that.
Forty-five seconds remaining.
First quarter, no score.
In motion goes Lerri Mucker to the left side now.
Doug Williams pitches back right to Ricky Vowell.
He turns the corner, gets out.
Fidelity flag drops as Vowell is forced out of bounds at about the 47-yard line.
And George Ragsdale was kind of looking at the officials.
I think Ike Hagen's clipped.
Ike coming in from his flanker spot.
Well, we got a clipping steadily against Tampa Bay.
One guy was kicking out on the men, and Hagen came in and kicked in, clipped in, and he was really high-load.
I think it was the outside linebacker, Cal Peterson, to this side.
Again, Calvin Peterson, a former Tampa Bay Buccaneer.
Played pretty well when he was here.
And he signed on with Kansas City.
Well, I think he went to the Rams from here, and he was doing some acting stuff.
Let's listen to Jerry Seaman.
Personal foul, clipping, number 81, offense.
Still the call against Ike Hagen, and now it brings up a second down and 13 for the Buccaneers with 33 seconds to go here in the first quarter.
No score, Tampa Bay and Kansas City.
We'll keep you up to date on that Chicago-St. Louis game.
It gets underway at 2 o'clock.
Davis and Bell in the eye behind Doug Williams.
Long count.
Handoff goes to Bell right up the middle.
And he has brought down again Art Still on the tackle at the 35-yard line.
Pick up on the play of about three, and it brings up third down and long.
Maybe the last play of the quarter.
Again, the no-shows this afternoon doesn't look like a great deal because this game is not being televised locally.
It was not sold out far enough in advance.
So we don't expect the no-shows to be that great here this afternoon.
Plus, it is such an important game.
And that's going to be the end of the first quarter here at Tampa Stadium with a score.
Tampa Bay nothing, Kansas City nothing.
Mark Champion and Dave Kisere back with you at Tampa Stadium.
We begin second-quarter action.
No score here at Tampa Stadium.
A rainy afternoon.
It is still raining.
It's a light rain, but it is a constant rain.
And the weatherman says that will be the case all afternoon.
Statistically, the Bucs were 67 yards rushing to Kansas City 2, passing the Bucs 0, Kansas City 39.
Not a lot of action.
Very much hampered by the weather.
So it is third down and 21 yards to go.
The ball back at the Tampa Bay 35-yard line.
And off goes to George Ragsdale.
He's caught in the backfield and dropped.
Arch still.
The rookie out of Kentucky, number one draft choice.
Or second-year man rather out of Kentucky.
And the loss is all the way back to the 30-yard line.
So still has been a big factor today defensively for Kansas City.
Brings up fourth down and 26.
Tom Blanchard will come in to do the punting now.
And with the rain, it's always going to be a bit scary.
JT Smith is the neat man back at the 40-yard line.
We already mentioned he's had two returns this year for touchdown.
And now Dana Napsinger says we want a drier ball.
So they ball the whistle and they'll get a new football on.
We're going to see a lot of that this afternoon.
Just underway, second quarter, 14-21 remaining.
The Bucks and Chiefs.
The Bucks had a good chance to score.
They had the ball down at the 15-yard line of Kansas City.
And then the field goal attempt.
The snap went right through Tom Blanchard's hand.
And it ended up with nothing.
We're ready to go.
Napsinger, good snap, good right, and it's almost blocked.
Blanchard, it was partially tipped.
JT Smith, a fair catch in the 40.
The referee says it was partially tipped.
And therefore no penalty.
He called it immediately.
The referee called it immediately.
So it is a 30-yard front that time by Tom Blanchard.
And he's nearly got it blocked.
With the score, Tampa Bay nothing, Kansas City nothing.
We'll be back.
Steve Grogan has just hit Horace Ivory on a six-yard touchdown pass.
So New England now leading Minnesota 7-6.
That game is in the first quarter at New England.
Baltimore 10-0 over the New York Giants.
That's at the end of the first quarter at East Rutherford.
San Francisco 7, Atlanta 3.
That's at the end of the first quarter.
Nothing in on the Cleveland Cincinnati game or the Buffalo Pittsburgh game.
Both of those contests are in progress.
On Saturday, in case you missed it, the Jets over Miami 27-24
and Green Bay finished with an 18-13 victory over Detroit.
So the New York Jets finished the season at eight wins and eight losses.
The Miami Dolphins, who have already clinched the AFC East,
finish at 10-6.
Green Bay, with that victory over Detroit, ends its season at 5-11.
And Detroit, with one of its worst records in the club's history,
finishes at two wins and 14 losses.
Jerry Green was the man who nearly got in there to block that punt of Tom Blanchard.
But luckily enough, he didn't do so.
So Kansas City has good field position to begin their drive.
First and 10 at their own 40-yard line.
14-02 remaining in the first half, and we have no score.
The ranking of scores, Mark Baltimore has got three more points
and they lead the Giants 10-0 in the first period.
Minnesota trails New England 7-6 in the first period.
San Francisco 7-3 over Atlanta, also in the first period.
We had a couple of games played yesterday.
Green Bay beat Detroit, and the New York Jets ended up 8-8 on the season
as they beat Miami.
It's not like Lou Michaels got a year extension on his contract.
That's one of those win the contract, keep the contract going.
It is really coming down now.
The rain seems to be coming down a little bit harder.
And it is first and 10 for Kansas City at the 40-yard line.
The Buccaneers defensively, Wally Chambers, Randy Crowder,
and Leroy Selman across the line.
David Lewis, Dewey Selman, Richard Wood, and Cecil Johnson are the linebackers.
Jarrett White and Danny Reese at the corners, and Jeffrey Brown, Mark Cotting, are the safety.
And the crowd is up in arms about something, I think a long time out.
So the Chiefs break out of the huddle.
JT Smith to the left side, and Henry Marshall lines up to the right side.
The Baccalaureate splits, Ted McKnight, and Earl again.
Play fake. Fuller has caught it.
Leroy Selman has it at the 33-yard line.
That will be a sack.
Leroy Selman wrapping.
And Cecil Johnson was in there just to make sure.
So a loss is marked at the 34-yard line.
They really marked it up a little bit, I thought.
That is the 11th sack of the year for Leroy Selman, who by the way, of course,
is a member of the 1979 MFC Pro Bowl team, a starter at right defensive end.
And certainly that's the 38th sack for the Bucs.
They really haven't done much in the way of turnovers.
That interception was the first one since Jereth Weiser stepped it against the New York Giants four weeks ago.
Curtis Jordan, the nickelback, on second and 15 from the 35-yard line.
McKnight, the handoff, and Wally Chambers has him at the 35-yard line.
Wally simply dove over his man and made the tackle.
Brings up a third down, and still about 15 yards to go.
So the Buccaneers defensively are really doing a job.
So I would like to welcome our listeners around the world who are listening to today's game
over the American Forces Radio Network, which serves over 300 stations in 20 countries around the world.
So we're international.
Would you like me to say something in Polish or something?
Yeah, let's get a little Polish.
Some of the Eastern European countries.
Third and fourth day in from the Kansas, 30-36, the fuller dropping deep to pass.
Big right, gets away from it, and throws.
The pass is overthrown, intended for Tony Samuel to tie it in at the Buccaneer 40-yard line.
Again, the Buccaneer pass rush is better than we've ever seen it.
Landy Clowder put on the big rush along with Wally Chambers.
Yeah, those three guys, there was no blitzing that time,
and the five-blockers for the chiefs plus the back could not keep them out.
They were just pushing.
All three men were double-teamed, and they still put enough pressure on Fuller to force them out of the pocket.
Again, very, very bad wet conditions of all just get it to a very harmless season ground over the head of the receiver.
Bob Ruff to do the fronting now.
It's a high snap, but he's going to get it away, and he booms this one.
Holy mackerel, Danny Reese all the way back at the 8-yard line.
Takes it there to the 10.
Danny to the 15, and up close to the 19-yard line.
Bob Ruff really nailed that one.
57 yards on the front by Bob Ruff, who came in today as the National Football League leading cutter.
So 12 minutes and 36 seconds remain here on the first half of play.
Tampa Bay nothing, Kansas City nothing.
Again, we will have live updates for you on the Chicago-St. Louis game from Soldier Field,
where the temperature, the wind chill factor, is minus 9.
And that certainly could have as much an effect on that game as the rain is on this game.
Speaking of the Bears, George Hallis Jr., the president at 12, passed away today,
and I think the Bears will really have something to play for on his behalf of his memory.
First and 10 at the 19-yard line for the Buccaneers,
Ekwood and Bell in the backfield, and Ricky Bell gets the call across the 20, up to the 22-yard line.
And the stop made by the middle of the Kansas City line, Art still in there.
He's made about every tackle this afternoon, it seems like, for Kansas City.
He's one of the better defensive linemen of the National Football League, and only in his second year.
Morris Owens now coming in to flanker, and he replaces Larry Muckert.
A lot of people thought that the key matchup was a big me,
Darryl Carlton at the right to offensive tackle, number 70 against Art Still,
because Still is the power in their defense, and Darryl Carlton's got to play good football.
Second and seven, Tampa Bay 23-yard line, Morris Owens to the left, Ike Eagans, split right.
Dillon Ekwood in the backfield now.
Handoff, Jerry Ekwood, across the 25, and he's driven back.
And the tackle made by Mike Bell, so it brings up a third down play now, third and about four.
Larry Muckert comes back in, carries in the play now from John McKay.
We've not seen the ball thrown in the air at all, or well, very much today, very seldom.
And the ones that are going to be put up are going to be very safe passes, because it is raining, the ball is wet.
And Doug Complain at a couple of six, and Doug's 0 for 2, and very, very strong on the ground so far.
Third down and four, Buccadere 25, the motion goes Larry Muckert to the right side now.
Doug Williams to pass on third down, he's got protection, unloads it complete to the 35,
breaking free to the 36-yard line goes Jerry Ekwood, and that's good enough for a Buccadere first down.
Out of the backfield, a kind of high percentage passes, 11 yards on the completion.
Mark, it was a very slow, slow-moving play.
I saw Jerry Ekwood, I happened to watch him, and he kind of checked blocks and really didn't do much,
and then just drifted along, encircled out of the backfield from the left-hand side,
and was just not quite into the middle, but a little simple slip of the wrist by Doug Williams, and a good completion.
Ekwood comes very near breaking loose for a long gainer of that play.
Manu Malayuna on the tackle, first down, pitch back to Ekwood,
and he is horse-collared about the 36-yard line by Sylvester Hicks, the right defensive end.
Very little of any gain that time, brings up second down and about 10 yards to go.
10-16 remaining in the half, we have no score from Tampa Stadium.
Speaking of Manu Malayuna, Jay Randolph was telling me when he did a Kansas City-Seattle game,
he had his hands full with him at Teotihuacopo or whatever, that's one of your favorites.
Manu Tuiyasatopo, something like maybe all rookie teams.
That's the mouthful talking about both of those guys.
Larry Mucker and Ike Higgins both line up to the left side now, and second at 10.
I think the rain has shifted, the wind is kind of blowing it in here, we're getting bits and pieces of it.
Mucker goes in motion to the right side, play fake, Doug Williams just gets it away,
and the receiver, Jerry Ekwood, slipped and fell down at the 45-yard line.
The coaches are calling for some kind of penalty, but Jerry simply fell down,
and Doug Williams nearly got waylaid, he was lucky to get the football away,
and it brings up a third down at 10.
Kansas City brings on their pass prevent, Tim Collier comes in the game.
Cal Peterson was coming from the left linebacker spot, and it's interesting to look at the statistics.
The leading sacker for the defense is Whitney Paul.
Whitney Paul just went on injured reserve with a broken arm, but he's the leading sacker with nine,
so that indicates they do bring their backers a great deal.
Also running an extra downline, I think it's Don Ferry, who started at those tackles.
Third and 10 from the Buccaneer 36-yard line, the back flip.
Rolling out to the right side is Doug Williams on the keeper, designed play,
he's up to the 45, he's not going to get to the sixth, second effort, he made a shot here!
Up to the 45-yard line, it looked like he was about two yards short,
and he simply threats out that six-foot-four inch frame, and he may have picked up the first down.
That'll be very close, and those of the ball have to get just across the 45-yard line,
and let's see if he got it.
They will mark it down, it was a designed rollout by Doug Williams, a bootleg,
and we're going to take a look at the sixth as they are marked down,
it looks like it is first down for the Buccaneer!
Good second and third effort that time by Doug Williams,
as he picked it up on his own.
First and 10 out to the Tampa Bay 46-yard line,
and we have 9.23 remaining in the first half, and the clock is running.
Jimmy Giles was an excellent block that time, pinning hard still into the line of scrimmage,
and Doug kind of left Greg Roberts who was out in front of him,
and allowed Herb Christopher a chance to come in and make a tackle,
but you mentioned he stretched his long six-foot-four inch body,
and just got the nose of the ball past the first down six.
Two tight ends in, Obradovich and Giles, Morris Owens, the lone wide receiver,
Johnny Davis and Ricky Bell in the backfield on first down.
Handoff goes to Bell, he's hit right at the line of scrimmage, and dropped by Hart still again,
and Hart is really winning the battle over Darryl Carlton right now.
Brings up a second down and nine, 8.48 remaining here in the first half, no score.
And the field continues to get soaked, but again, it is a very, very good field as far as drainage is concerned,
and it would be quite a while before we really saw a lot of squash out there.
I remember the Atlanta Falcon game last year was like that though.
Second and nine from the Buccaneer 47-yard line.
Wide receivers, Hagan and Mucker to either side now, Bell and Davis in the backfield.
Doug Williams, the count, handoff deep to Bell.
He's trying to get off the left side, and he is not going to make it.
He is stuck.
Tom Howard on the tackle along with Gary Spaney, the inside right linebacker.
And now the Buccaneers are faced with another third down, long situation.
And the Chiefs fling in their pass prevent defense now.
Tim Collier comes on the field along with Don Perish as they go to four down linemen.
And Mike Bell comes in at right defensive end.
The Bucs have made three out of six third down conversions, and that's, again, a pretty good percentage.
Looks like they detected something with the rush, and that's why Doug kept the ball last time on the third and long situation.
Third and ten from the Bucc-46.
Eckwood and Bell are now the running backs.
They are split behind Doug Williams.
Getting good protection.
Over the middle out there is Jimmy Giles.
It's intercepted by Tim Collier at the 25, across the 30, 40.
Midfield down to the 45, Collier to the 40, and he's all the way down to the Buccaneer, 34 yard line.
Big made, Darryl Carlson on the tackle.
Double coverage on the tight end.
Jimmy Giles and Tim Collier merely stepped up, and I believe we got an injured player down.
It looks like Darryl Carlson.
Yeah, that would be real trouble, and it looks like Revis is also limping.
Dave Revis limping off the field.
Boy, you lose those two guys, and you got real problems.
Big Meade is laying down on the turf at about the 34 yard line.
He is replacing Charlie Hanna, who's on injured reserve, would not be eligible until the NFC championship game, should the Buccaneers make it that far.
I think we'd see Darryl Austin replace Darryl at the right offensive tackle.
Phil at the score, Tampa Bay nothing, Kansas City nothing.
We'll be back.
On the scoreboard of the National Football League, in the second quarter, Stan Buck a one yard run, so it's Atlanta 10, San Francisco 7.
At New England, as we told you earlier, Grogan to Ivory for that six yard touchdown pass.
New England now leading by the score of 7 to 6.
That's at the end of the first quarter.
In the first quarter, Brian Syp to Logan for a 33 yard touchdown pass.
Cleveland out in front of Cincinnati, 6 to nothing.
Bradshaw to Swan for a 20 yard touchdown pass, and Pittsburgh is leading Buffalo 7 to nothing.
That's at the end of the first quarter.
Also in the National Football League, getting underway in about 10 minutes or so, Philadelphia will be at Houston.
St. Louis will be at Chicago, a very pivotal game as far as that NFC centralization race is concerned, as we have already explained.
Later, Washington is at Dallas, and that game will be heard over many of the same AFRTS stations.
New Orleans will be at Los Angeles, and Seattle at Oakland.
Monday night, Denver is at San Diego.
Darryl Carlton is up and off on the sideline under his own power, so that is good news, and we'll try to get the word.
He's still standing up along the sideline, trying to shake it off.
So we'll try to get the initial word for you on Darryl Carlton and whether he'll be back in there.
But Kansas City has excellent field position, first and 10 at the Buccaneer 34 yard line, and this is the first big break of the game.
It looks like Darryl took a shot on the right shoulder and maybe to the head when he went down on the turn.
Henry Marshall to the left side, JT Smith is flanked right.
The running backs behind the rookie Steve Fuller are Earl Gant and Seth McKnight.
On first down, Fuller, play fake, over the middle, fifth and almost intercepted by Danny Reese.
Nearly intercepted by Reese at the 18 yard line, a pass well overthrown, and it brings up second down at 10 for Kansas City.
7-14 remaining, second quarter, Seth McKnight comes off the field now, and Horace Felton out of Southeast Louisiana,
in his second year, a free agent, played in the Canadian Football League, is on the field.
Second and 10, 34 yard line, Steve Fuller to pass, getting pressure, swings it out to Gant, 35, 30, Gant down over 25 yard line,
very close to the first down, Leroy Salmon on the stop, sitting on where they mark it down, just inside the 25 yard line.
That will make it a bit short of the first down, and it brings up third and about one.
Bill Kohler comes on the field now for the Buccaneers, and he replaces Wally Chambers.
So Bill Kohler is on, and he lines up there along with Randy Crowder and Leroy Salmon.
As Wally comes along the sidelines now, third down and about a yard, 6.33 o'clock running.
Inside is Henry Marshall.
McKnight back in, McKnight gets the handoff, and the first down, he breaks free, gets down to the 19 yard line.
He got away from Cedric Brown, and Mark Conte had to make the tackle, but it is a Kansas City first down,
all the way down to the Tampa Bay 18 yard line.
Well, you know, Cedric didn't just try to stop him in the hole and didn't really put his arms around for a tackle.
He instead lowered his shoulder, and McKnight was able to bounce off, and necessitated Mark Conte coming over
to actually grab him and bring him down. Wally Chambers is now back in, and Bill Kohler coming out.
It looked like he was just shaken up a little bit, but Wally is very much back in there.
J.P. Smith back in at a wide receiver. Gamp and Belton are now the running backs,
from first and 10th of the 19 yard line. Gamp and Belton are behind Steve Fuller.
Handoff play fake, and Fuller goes down, and will be down at the 24 yard line.
David Lewis put on a tremendous pass watch that time as they shot the linebacker,
and it's going to bring up second and long. Randy Clowder also with a good pressure.
Second down at about 16 yards to go now for Kansas City,
and a big first down play for that Buccaneer defense.
Yeah, both they squeezed him, David from the left side, and Randy, although he was the nose man,
he took a loop to the right hand side, to the left offensive side, and they put equal pressure on forcing him to go down.
Curtis Jordan, the nickel back in there now, on second and 16 from the Buccaneer 25 yard line.
5'16 remaining in the half. Steve Fuller inside handoff.
Down to the 20, and about the original line of scrimmage.
So, Neural Gantt, tackle made by Richard Wood.
So, it's going to bring up a third down at about 10 for Kansas City.
Wouldn't it be nice if they come away with absolutely nothing.
Neural Gantt looks like quite a politician. He's in there picking up the Bucs defensive man.
He picked up Cedric. He picked up Richard Wood. He must want to be a nice guy about it.
You don't usually see too much of that.
He's a rookie, maybe that's the reason, out of Missouri, if that's where I'm by choice.
Then we march over the left, J.T. Smith.
This flank to the right side, 4'37 on third down and 8 from the 17.
Fuller to pass. Out of the backfield to Gantt.
He is hit. Gets away from one man, but not the other.
Great play. David Lawson from the initial contact.
And then Danny Reeks came in to finish it off.
Randy Clatter also helping out. The ball is back at about the 22 yard line.
Lots of five on that play.
So flank to fourth down, 13.
And we're going to see one of the old men of this team, Yon Centero,
to attempt a field goal. And the field is really becoming kind of soggy now.
There's some puddles out of the field in the middle.
The holder is Steve Fuller, the quarterback, remember.
It will be a 39 yard field goal attempt by Yon Centero.
Fuller to hold it.
The tap is a good one. Get a root block.
Still carrying though, and it is not going to be the blocked field goal.
Nothing going, and the Buccaneers will take over.
And that fires up the crowd.
Blocked by Leroy Goleman. Leroy Goleman with the score.
Tampa Bay nothing, Kansas City nothing.
We'll be back on the Buccaneer Radio Network.
You may have heard mentioned on the Buccaneer Network that Chicago Bears president George Halus Jr. died.
Now we emphasize this is George Halus Jr., the son of George Halus Sr.
But anyway, George Jr., dying of a heart attack at the age of 54,
his father is the owner of that National Football League team, Chicago Bears.
Halus Jr. had a role in the Bears' operation for 30 years, and he became president of the team in 1963.
And that's the year that Bears won their last NFL championship.
Halus Jr. also was a member of the executive committee of the National Football League Management Council.
So George Halus Jr., dead of a heart attack at the age of 54.
Two games of the National Football League on Saturday.
The Green Bay Packers over the Detroit Lions 18-13 at Pontiac, Michigan,
with Todd Burney kicking four field goals and Eric Torgelson running one yard for a touchdown
to give the Packers an 18-13 season-ending victory over the Lions.
So let's see if that fires up the offense.
Darrell Carlton is back in there at right offense attack, and that is good news.
So he was just shaken up.
Joey Eckwood and Ricky Bell will be in the backfield for Doug Lee.
And first and 10 is a 22-yard line.
Let's see if this range-o crowd can get fired up again for this offense and really get this team going.
The Buccaneers on their first offense at drive,
they were all the way down to the Kansas City 15-yard line and came away with nothing
and a bad handling of the snap on the field goal attempt.
But Kansas City's field goal was blocked by Leroy Selman.
First and 10 from the 22-yard line.
Eckwood is in the slot.
In motion goes Larry Mocker to the right side.
And off Ricky Bell. He's got room to the left side.
Can he turn the corner? Yes. 25.
Up to the 28-yard line goes Ricky Bell, forced out by M.L. Carter, the right quarterback.
3.33 remaining here in the first half of play.
It has been raining. It started about an hour before game time and has not let up.
Second down, 3. Pick up a 7 that time by Ricky Bell.
He has 14 carries for 60 yards already.
He needs 74 to reach 1,200 on the season.
So he's 14 shy and 1,200 would be a great year for Ricky.
Morris Owens in his flanker and the split at Ikegan.
Close to the left side now. Eckwood again in a wing position to the left.
Morris Owens goes in motion right side.
Hand off up the middle to Ricky Bell and he can't fight off Mike Bell.
So the two Bells ring each other at the 30-yard line.
It's going to bring up third down at about 2.
The Buccaneers will like to get down so you'll get something on the scoreboard going into the locker room at halftime.
3.15 on the clock running.
You know in weather like this you want to get any kind of score at all.
You don't exactly if you get a touchdown or a field goal or something like that, you can't exactly sit on it.
But very often one or two scores can hold up just because it's so tough to get an offense going in this kind of stuff.
So the Chiefs go with four down linemen.
Manu Maliguta comes out of the game for Kansas City.
It is third down at 2 from the 30-yard line.
In motion out of the backfield goes Ricky Bell.
The pitch goes to Joey Eckwood.
That's up side. 35-40. He's got a little midfield.
He's got the football. He's got the football and Kansas City has it.
Jerry Eckwood, the ball simply fell out of his arm.
And Kansas City's M.L. Carter, the right cornerback, makes the recovery.
A huge hole and Jerry Eckwood went all the way down to the Kansas City 28-yard line.
And the ball simply came out of his arms.
A 44-yard run. I don't believe anybody touched it.
No, I think he had a blocker, Jim O'Bradovich, if I'm not mistaken.
And O'Bradovich, when he were rumping elbows and he looked like he tried to change hands, the ball popped loose.
And he simply lost the football.
Boy, the Buccaneers continue to make crucial turnovers.
We've had an interception, now the fumble.
And all are what appear to be good offensive drives for the Buccaneers.
So they continue to make the kind of mistakes that have cost them football games the last three weeks.
The defense has been really holding its own.
They've been playing outstanding, but you just can't leave them out there forever.
And you've got to give them a little blow.
They do their job and they like to sit down and take a rest.
And all of a sudden, the ball's turned over.
They've got to strap the hats back on and come on out and try and hold again and force the turnover or force the Chiefs to kick the weight to them.
You know, John McKay has said about his defense that they have not scored off of big plays.
They have not forced a big play where they have scored on an interception, a fumble recovery like Leroy Selman did earlier in the year.
Earlier in the year.
Mike Washington's touchdown against Baltimore was a factor.
This might be the kind of game where they really need that type of score.
No doubt about it.
I think they've turned the ball over 11 times the last two weeks and they haven't turned it over.
But once the defense hasn't turned it over, I don't think he meant a derogatory towards the defense.
But they were getting the big plays, the Leroy Selman recovery for a fumble, for a touchdown against Detroit, if I recall.
And then Mike Washington's 49-yard interception for a touchdown.
You've got to get that kind of stuff, Mark.
You've got to get a block kick into the end.
And you've got to get an easy touchdown every so often because you just can't depend on slugging it out game after game after game.
And maybe an easy touchdown, maybe a pickoff, a bobble, somebody takes it off the quarterback's hand or something.
And that may be what it's going to take.
It is first and 10 Kansas going to get their own 20-yard line.
Two 30-yard remaining here in the first half of play.
No score.
Five receivers, Marshall and Smith to either side.
McKnight and Camp are the running backs.
And off goes McKnight.
And he's flipped up and dropped by Mark Contney to strong safety.
Excellent play by Mark Contney.
Mark, that was just a super tackle by one of the fine tacklers in football and his support has a strong safety outstanding.
New England continues to lead Minnesota 7-6 in the second period.
Cleveland have the early lead.
Pittsburgh 14 and nothing over Buffalo also in the second period.
Second 11 from the Kansas at 827-yard line.
We're going to get very close to the two-minute warning now.
2-0-4 on the clock running.
B Fuller in motion goes Henry Marshall.
And off goes to Ted McKnight.
He tries to turn the corner.
He's flipping on the field.
He's not going to get much of anything.
Mark Contney again on the stop.
We are at the two-minute warning with the score.
Tampa Bay nothing.
Kansas City nothing.
We'll be back.
We told you about the Packers-Lyons game and the fact that Detroit finishes at 2-14.
The one good bit of information out of that is that the Lions are absolutely assured of the first choice in next year's college football draft.
The other game played on Saturday, the New York Jets and the Miami Dolphins.
And Bruce Harper caught a 72-yard touchdown pass from Richard Todd and then set up another touchdown with a 52-yard kickoff return to lead the New York Jets to a 27-24 victory over the Dolphins.
That win is the Jets' fourth straight and it enables them to end the season at 8-8.
The Dolphins, who already had quenched the AFC Eastern title, will take a 10-6 record into the playoffs.
The Dolphins appear to be driving for a winning touchdown or at least a game-tying field goal in the closing seconds, but quarterback Don Strauch fumbled inside the Jets' 10-yard line with 36 seconds left.
Earlier, the Dolphins scored on a 20-yard pass from Strauch to rookie Tony Nathan, a 3-yard smash by Larry Zonka, a 1-yard plunge by backup fullback Bob Torrey, and a field goal.
It is beginning to get a bit flashy down there on the field.
We noticed that on the last series by Kansas City.
It is 3rd and 10.
The ball at the Kansas City 28-yard line, Curtis Jordan on the extra man now in the secondary for Tampa Bay, replacing Cecil Johnson.
As we are down to a minute 55 in the first half, no score.
And both teams have had a shot, had a field goal.
Kansas City was blocked by Leroy Selman.
The Buccaneers was missed because they never got it off.
It was a bad snap, or not a snap, but the ball was mishandled by Tom Blanchard.
Mark, we keep talking about the mishandling.
It was also a little bit wide, so we'll give part of it to Blanchard and part of it to Steve Wilkins for the snaps.
It was a little bit wide.
Henry Marshall to the left, JT Smith to the right, tight end Tony Samuel's foot's left now.
Fuller hands off McKnight.
He gets a beautiful tackle made at the 33 by Curtis Jordan, saving a possible long gainer by Deb McKnight.
Brings up a punting situation now.
And the area that Bob Breck will have to stand in as we look down is a bit wet.
It's back to some water standing.
And Danny Reich will be the deep man.
There's a timeout call by the Buccaneers.
Let's call 15 seconds for station identification on the Bucks radio network.
This is the American Forces radio and television service.
The Buccaneers called their first timeout.
They want to save the clock and hopefully get down to at least field goal range before this half ends.
A minute 44 to go.
It is fourth and sixth for Kansas City.
Danny Reich standing back at his 15-yard line.
Grubbs' last punt was 57 yards.
He really nailed it his last time.
But he's standing in a kind of sloshy area today.
That's right.
Reich is a little more respected.
Awaiting the snap now.
Grubbs keeps the towel on his hand and just tosses it away.
Good snap.
Grubbs gets it away.
Very high punt once again.
Danny Reich over at the 20, takes it there.
Turns inside at the 25 and goes down at the 27-yard line.
That's where the Buccaneers take over.
With a minute 33 remaining here in the first half.
46-yard punt and a seven-yard return by Danny Reich, who holds the National Football League record for most punt returns in a season.
He broke that earlier this year.
Broke Eddie Brown's record.
He's now up to 68.
He started with 64.
It's an ongoing record.
We saluted him last week when he broke the record.
But not a lot of NFL records held by many of the Bucs.
And certainly Danny is the first record holder for the Bucs.
Well, we noticed that Jerry Eckwood remains in the backfield for the Buccaneers.
Which is always kind of nice.
First and 10, 27-yard line.
In motion goes Larry Mucker to the right side.
Pitch left to Ricky Bell.
Gets good blocking.
But he's going to be hauled out of bounds by Gary Svante.
Inside right linebacker.
I tell you, they call a penalty on Cedric Brown earlier.
Svante was tossing Ricky around there with about five yards out of bounds.
He brings up a second down and nine.
The clock stopped with a minute 23 remaining in the first half.
Morris Owens in, replacing Larry Mucker.
He'll carry in the play from John McKay.
The rain continues to fall.
And it is taking its toll on the field.
Good drainage or not.
They're starting to get a little bit of standing water,
particularly between the 40s, the 45-yard line, and between the hash marks.
Ike Hagens to the left side.
And Morris Owens flanks right.
The back's in an eye.
Bell and Eckwood.
Doug Williams takes a deep drop.
Screen pass set up beautifully.
30, 35, 40.
And a first down for the Buccaneers.
Jerry Eckwood on the screen pass up to the 44-yard line.
And the Bucs are going to call for the client out.
They're second.
I still made the tackle.
He was all the way downfield to make it.
They have excellent speed.
And with a minute 12 to go, the Bucs will call their second time out.
Doug Williams coming across to the sideline now.
It is first and 10 at the Tampa Bay 44-yard line.
So they still have a ways to go to get in field goal range.
Jerry Eckwood also coming out after a fine block.
It looks like Rigsdale is getting some instructions going to go in.
But Eckwood with a fine block on that leading the way.
Steve Wilson also.
So it worked out beautifully.
The Buccaneers have not used that screen pass a great deal this year.
But it was used effectively in the games that they have used it.
Also the backs coming out of the backfield have been very effective against San Francisco.
Jerry Eckwood and George Rigsdale were very effective on those types of passes.
Yeah, right at the end of the game, Rigsdale was, excuse me,
Mike Ray was using them a great deal and just showed what they were capable of doing
if they were able to do it a little more often.
Rigsdale in the wing position.
In motion goes Moore, it's going to the right now.
And first down and 10.
Doug Williams dropping deep to pass.
Swings it out to Jimmy Diles.
A big tight end up to the line of skirmishes and that's all.
Still again on the tackle.
And a minute one and the clock continues to run.
They'll probably go without a huddle.
Doug Williams is asking whether he should take a time out.
McKay waves it off.
They've got one time out remaining.
They're going to have a very quick huddle.
They've got enough time, 50-50 seconds.
They're bringing another player in.
Johnny Davis quickly on the field and they've got to get somebody off.
George Rigsdale is running off the field.
Plenty of time though, 18 seconds will be a 30-second clock.
Second and nine, 44-yard line.
Hand off inside to Bell.
Turnels to the midfield, down to the 45-yard line.
And that's going to be good enough for a first down.
Art Still again on the tackle and a time out with 29 seconds.
29 seconds remaining here in the first half.
The Buccaneers have it first and 10 at the Kansas City 45-yard line.
Well, they've got no time outs remaining, 29 seconds.
Ricky Bell with 75 yards.
He has passed the 1,200 yards.
He's got 1,201 and our hand off to Ricky Bell.
A great, great season and certainly I know he wants to continue on
into the playoffs and perhaps his strong running and fast catching
and blocking is going to leave the Bucs there.
Right now, Mark, with 29 seconds, you've got time for a lot of stuff.
Certainly you're going to have to use somewhat of your out-of-bounds type offense.
You're going to have to use some short stuff.
Getting out of bounds, getting as much yardage as you can.
I don't think he can throw any passes up the middle.
If he does, he's got to literally have an additional play called.
He's got to be able to go without a huddle of any kind,
particularly if he does complete the pass.
And as we look down at that field, it is really, really becoming a quagmire
very, very quickly.
A lot of standing water in between the 20s.
A lot of it.
But so far, Doug has kept his footing.
We haven't seen a lot of flipping going on, so the footing must be pretty good.
First and 10 at the Kansas City 45-yard line,
wide receivers to either side for Doug Williams.
He looks left, close one out, and it is out of bounds.
A little too much on at that time, and it was ruled out of bounds.
The pass was caught, and Mike Haggins was being pulled out from underneath the bench.
He flipped all the way underneath the team bench that time.
ML Carter was over there to defend the play.
Second down, 25 seconds to go.
You know, it's funny when you have a situation like this.
Sometimes you get some muscle pulls because your footing gives out for you,
but generally you don't get hurt that in games like this because of the lack of velocity.
Nobody is able to come up with full speed because of the bad footing.
You get a lot of sliding, a lot of flipping, but really not that intense hitting.
Eckwood and Bell now in the backfield.
Second down at 10, Kansas City 45-yard line.
Sit back to Jerry Eckwood.
He can't find anything, and they have no time out, so we may not get another play.
They're going to have to hurry.
Don Perry from the tackle.
Kind of a strange call.
Third down and about 10 yards to go.
12 seconds, 11.
And they may not even have time to line up for a field goal even if they get it off.
They're not going to be able to.
Williams close one out, out of bounds, intended for Hagan.
Three seconds left on the clock.
Well, now he's got a fourth down.
He's going to have to, can't punt it, so he's just going to have to take a,
well, Gordon Jones is coming in, so they're going to go for the old bomb.
A.O. Mary to the end zone.
We've seen that a number of times this year.
Well, since the rule has changed now, you can legally tip the ball forward,
sideways, or anything to another receiver.
In the old days, if one receiver tipped it, another receiver couldn't touch the ball
or tip the ball unless an intervening opponent touched it.
But now they've changed it, and so you see an awful lot of this at the end of the game
and the end of the second half.
Gordon Jones, then a flanker.
Dropping back is Doug Williams.
There he goes.
A.O. Mary.
Down there is the tight end, Jimmy Giles, and it falls incomplete.
And that's the end of the first half.
Triple coverage on Giles.
Actually, no other wide receiver got downfield.
Giles was there all by himself.
That's the end of the first half with a score.
Tampa Bay nothing, Kansas City nothing.
We are ready for third quarter action, and deep for the Buccaneers to receive is Ike Hagan.
The kick by Centeroon, line driver coming over for it is Danny Reese at the 10-yard line.
He's going to dive to the 20, Reese dives to the 29-yard line,
and I want to tell you that field is very, very wet.
It is 7-0.
The Chicago Bears are leading the St. Louis Cardinals in the first quarter.
We will have some live updates for you a little bit later here in this quarter.
And the Bucs come back out offensively, and we will set it for you.
Ricky Bell and Johnny Davis are the running backs.
Jimmy Giles, the tight end.
Ike Hagan is at one wide receiver.
And the flanker is Larry Mucker.
And it will be interesting to see what the offense is.
Now racing on the field is Jim O'Drattevich.
So they suddenly decided to change plays here in midstream as Ike Hagan comes off the field now,
so they stick with two tight ends.
Bell and Davis, first and 10, 29-yard line, just underway third quarter.
Larry Mucker in motion to the right.
Handoff Bell up the middle, gets three or four yards, up to about the 33-yard line.
Tackle made by Don Perish, the nose tackle.
Defensively for Kansas City, starting this half arch-still, Don Perish and Mike Bell on the defensive line.
Gal Peterson, Frank Manomaliuna, Gary Spani and Tom Howard, the linebackers.
Gary Green, M.L. Carter at the corner.
Gary Barberow, Herb Christopher, eye of the safety.
And we notice that we check the offensive line for the Buccaneers.
And Darrell Carlson, as we said, is still in there at right tackle for Tampa Bay.
But at left tackle, we have Darrell Austin in place of Dave Rebbitt.
Handoff Ricky Bell, 35, up to about the 38-yard line.
Or Jerry Eckwood, rather, I'm sorry.
It's getting tough to see the numbers down there.
Mike Bell on the tackle.
We were looking at the left side.
It is Darrell Austin at left tackle, replacing Dave Rebbitt.
And again, one of the reasons Dave Arch-Still had a superb first half on that side of the field.
Arch-Still was in it about every tackle.
Of course, he is normally on Darrell Carlson's side.
So Dave Rebbitt is out of there.
We'll check and see if there is a reason for it and let you know.
It is 3-1 from the 38-yard line.
Bell and Eckwood in the backfield.
Handoff goes to Ricky Bell this time.
He tries to fling it out.
He'll not do it.
He's got it in the left corner back.
So that will bring on the putting unit.
And this is going to be a hold your breath moment.
Tom Blanchard had one nearly blocked in the first half.
And the field is in such horrible shape now.
It has to be just a perfect snap coming up here from David Absicker.
So they manage JT Smith.
He's standing back at about the 30-yard line.
And the glare off of the water, the lights and the glare on the field,
is really kind of tough to see up here now.
Tom Blanchard standing back at about his own 20-yard line.
Awaiting the snap from David Absicker.
And it's a good snap.
No pressure.
Blanchard gets it away.
It's a wobbler.
Smith backing up at about the 25-yard line.
Takes it there.
Gets it to 30.
And he is blocked out hard by Danny Reese at the 34-yard line.
So a punt of 38 yards that time by Tom Blanchard.
And Kansas City goes on offense.
Billy Cesar got him there.
So it's a score.
Tampa Bay nothing.
Kansas City nothing.
We'll be back.
Superstar OJ Simpson has reached the end of the line.
The man they call the juice hanging him up after his San Francisco 49ers
play the Atlanta Falcons in their NFL finale.
And despite the fact he's gained more than 11,000 yards in his career,
Simpson probably will only get a handful, if any, at all on Sunday.
Knee problems over the past few seasons have robbed OJ of his slashing moves
and blazing speed that once made him the most dangerous running back in football.
So instead of going out in glory, he'll be leaving us a reserve on a team that's currently 2-13.
But even the injuries in the 49ers' mediocre showing can't dim OJ's achievements
or equip some of his record-setting performances.
It may be quite a while before anyone can touch Simpson's 1973 record
of gaining 2,000 yards in a season or his all-time high of six 200-yard games.
And despite the current group of good running backs,
it could be some time before anyone else can win four rushing titles in five years,
as Simpson did during the mid-1970s.
So this may be a 40-day and 40-night routine.
It is still coming down here at Tampa Stadium.
And right after this first offensive play, we're going to check in with Virgil Carter in Chicago
to get an update on that Chicago-St. Louis game.
The last score we gave you was 7-0 to Bears.
It's first-and-10 Kansas 30-34 yard line.
Getty, Walters, Redmay, Condon, and Simmons on the offensive line.
The tight end is Sony-Samuels.
In the backfield is Gantt and McNight.
Steve Fuller at quarterback on first down.
Handoff, Earl Gantt.
David Lewis on the tackle.
And absolutely nothing.
Randy Clouder, picked him up.
So let's now, we're going to check in in Chicago with Virgil Carter
and get an update on the Bears and St. Louis game.
Well, apparently we're having some technical problems there,
but it is 14-0 to Chicago Bears out in front,
and we'll try to see what happened there and get things going.
So it is second down and 10 now.
Earl Gantt limped off the field for Kansas City.
Steve Fuller dropping back to pass.
Plenty of protection.
Fires over the middle.
Complete.
The ball is loose and intercepted.
Richard Wood, and an interception.
His second of the day.
The ball was tipped away off the fingertips of Henry or Tony-Samuels.
A good hard hit by Cedric Brown.
It forced the ball loose,
and Richard Wood had the concentration to pick it off.
That's his third of the season, his second of the day.
A very, very hard hit and a very alert.
That man Wood hitting the ball.
I don't know if he had not, if it would have been a fumble,
because he might have had it long enough,
but it's through the intercept and very, very alert
by the Bucks' specialty, your second, excuse me, defensive team,
coming up with another big play.
Mike Haggins and Larry Mucker both to the left side.
Jim O'Gradovich is lined up to the right side.
The long running back is Ricky Bell, so they go with two tight ends.
Handoff goes to Bell up the middle, not very much to the 40-yard line.
The tackle made there by Frank Manumaliuna.
It'll be amazing if I don't slur that before the day is over.
It's second down and about seven.
The ball up the Kansas City 40-yard line.
The rain's still coming down, and the field looks like a river.
Morris Owens is in at Flanker, replacing Larry Mucker.
Seems like it's getting a little more intense talking about the rain.
The field is absolutely quagmire, but the play is also extremely intense.
11-08 remaining third quarter.
No score to Bucks and Kansas City.
Ricky Bell, the long running back once again.
He gets the handoff off the right side, flipping his way,
and he's brought down right at about the line of scrimmage by Arch Still,
the left defensive end, who has had himself a great day.
So that's going to bring up a third down play.
You know, we watched Darrell Carlton in that particular play,
and Darrell looked like he had a hand on Phil's shoulder pad
and really maintained pretty good position
and still was powerful enough to string it out and throw Darrell off,
but Carlton made a pretty good block that play.
Mucker and Hagens to the left side now, again Jimmy Giles now lining up
as a wide receiver to the right.
Doug Williams rolling right to pass, flip, gets it away, and it is ruled.
He may have been ruled down. I think they blew the whistle.
Doug unloaded it, but I think the whistle had blown.
Arch Still had him at his grasp, and I want to tell you,
Arch Still is going through Darrell Carlton like putter.
Big Me just can't hold him up very well.
It looked like a roll type, and it looked like Doug rolled right into the area
where Big Me was blocking.
I don't know if Obradovich was supposed to block,
but Jimmy Giles was very definitely in the clear from a wide receiver to the...
He was flipped to the right, and he was wide open.
Well, the punt. Here we go again.
Tom Blanchard back at his own 40-yard line.
They didn't have figure to do the snapping,
and it's a high snap, but Blanchard would get it away.
A wobbler going to go out of bounds.
We got a penalty flag, I think, are doing.
Yeah, yeah, penalty flag dropped,
and it may well be a penalty roughing the kicker.
David Lewis was batting Gary Green, the man who did it,
and that's going to get the Bucks an automatic first down,
and that could be one of the biggest breaks of this football game.
It will give Tampa Bay an automatic first down with 9.57 to go,
third quarter, no score from a rain soak,
and I do mean rain soak Tampa Stadium,
and it's still coming down,
and there's no indication it's ever going to let up.
The other important game, 14-0, Chicago leading St. Louis.
We had some technical problems in checking in with Virgil Carter.
I don't know if we'll be able to get him on or not,
but we'll certainly keep you up to date with the score at any rate,
and Gary kind of hit him.
Gary was actually going for the ball and couldn't hold up his momentum.
He also got a block by David Lewis, but it doesn't matter
because he's got to maintain his own momentum.
Number 24, he hurtled the blocker right down.
He hurtled the blocker, says Jerry Seaman, and that's the reason.
First and 10 Bucks at the Kansas City 40-yard line.
That's where it all started,
and the crowd is really getting fired up now.
Larry Muckner to the right, Ike Higgins to the left,
Bela Neckwood, and Doug Williams loses the football.
A penalty flag goes down, and all in all, it was a complete mess.
Jimmy Giles jumped very, very quickly and prematurely,
and as soon as he jumped, the whistle blew, and it's a dead ball.
Block drive, number 88, pass it.
Well, Doug Williams now is going to get some rye, or a towel, rather.
He's getting a towel from Frankie Pappello.
It brings up a first down and 15 now for the Buccaneers,
9.57 to go third quarter.
This should be one of those games, Dave, where a field goal wins it.
Well, that's true, and it's a shame.
We've mentioned it a couple times, and we don't really want to harp on it,
but a little bit of a problem with the snap in the hole
and Neil O'Donoghue's first kick, and O'Donoghue tried a very, very good play on his part,
tried to scramble off to his left, came fairly near breaking it
and coming up with a first down, but ran a little bit short.
So it is first and 15. Bela Neckwood, our split.
Morris Owens is in at a flanker. Two tight ends remain.
And Owens goes in motion. Handoff goes to Jerry Eckwood,
and he is nailed very, very hard by Gary Sainey,
the inside right linebacker, all the way back to the 48-yard line of Kansas City.
Sainey came in there absolutely untouched.
He must have slipped the gap because it looked like the play was going to be strung out,
but Sainey had a full head of steam when he hit Eckwood,
and Eckwood really didn't have a chance.
So Mucker and Hagan's on the field now at his second down at 18
as the Bucks are strided out at the Kansas City 40-yard line,
and now they are back 8 yards.
It is going to be tough getting anything going.
Racing off the field is Jerry Eckwood.
And I think the Bucks have got all sorts of problems.
Obradovich is now racing on, and Ducks call the timeout.
Well, nobody knew what was happening. They called the play.
Jerry Eckwood ran off the field. Jim Obradovich suddenly ran on the field.
I don't think anyone knew what the heck the play was.
Now we're going to try it again, are we? Okay.
We're going to try to check in again in Chicago with Virgil Carter
to get an update on the Bears in St. Louis. Virgil?
Virgil, we're ready for the Tampa 3 Bucks.
They've got all the Bears in the first half.
There's two minutes to go in that period.
The Bears have scored from 70 yards out on their first possession.
Check that up on a 68-yard scoring drive like that.
They have 8 out of 9 in those two drives.
Walnut-Payton is running well.
We've got a lot of Chicago Bears here today at Soldier's Field in Chicago.
This is Virgil Carter reporting.
Okay, thank you, Virgil.
Again, the quality sounded like he was in Timbuktu somewhere, instead of Chicago.
So we'll again try to work on it and see if we can't get it fixed
because the phone line is not very good in Chicago,
but again, Virgil's saying right now it's all Chicago Bears.
I don't think the Buccaneers were counting on anything differently anyway.
It is second down at 18.
The ball at the 48-yard line of Kansas City.
As it continues to rain, the field is very, very wet.
Standing water almost all over the place.
Jim Obradovich is then lined up as a wide receiver.
Hagan's a mucker to the left side now.
Ricky Bell alone running back.
The pitch right to Ricky Bell.
He gets it at midfield, cuts inside to the 45,
and Ricky Bell still on his feet to the 43.
The ball flips out of his hands and it's out of bounds.
Don Perish made the tackle.
And it's going to bring up a third down at about 12 now for Tampa Bay.
I'm sure you've been involved in games like this in your career
in the American Football League, Dave.
What do you do offensively?
Well, you've got to be fairly conservative.
You've got to use basic stuff.
In fact, I played in a game in Kansas City in the old stadium before Arrowhead,
and we had six inches of rain during the course of the game,
and the field was a lot worse than this.
In fact, the players were up to their ankles because of the crown there in Kansas City,
but you've just got to be fairly basic.
However, Lance Alvers had a big day,
and the winning cut down was going on in reverse, so who knows?
You talk about basic and anything happens.
Any score is a good start in a game like today.
Darryl Austin comes in at center now for Tampa Bay.
Darryl Austin is in at center replacing Steve Wilson.
Doug Williams, bootleg to the left.
He's got room, 35.
Doug's still in his seat, and he's forced out of bounds short of the first down
at the 36-yard line.
Again, a good play at bootleg.
Gary Piper of the free safety was over there to make the stop,
and it brings up a fourth down.
So Don Blanchard comes on the field again.
8.09 remaining, third quarter.
We have two score, the Buccaneers in Kansas City,
and what a thing to happen to a game so important.
You know, that was a fine play, but I think it could have been better
if he had a pass-type option.
There were no threats, no receivers in the area,
and the defensive backs, when they noticed that he was bootlegging,
they automatically came up.
They had no worry of a receiver, and I think it would have been more effective.
Dan Amapsinger gets the snap.
Blanchard angles for the sideline, and he may have it.
It is, let's see how they roll it.
Touchback.
They roll it at touchback.
Very, very close.
It's hard to say.
We have absolutely no angle at all on it.
A beautiful punt, though, by Tom Blanchard,
but it just didn't quite hug the corner,
and the Chiefs take over first and 10 at the 20-yard line.
For the score, Tampa Bay nothing, Kansas City nothing.
We'll be back on the Buccaneer radio network.
George Hallis, Jr., the president of the Chicago Bears of the National Football League,
died Sunday of a heart attack at 54.
A spokesman for the Bears says Hallis, the son of Bear founder George Hallis, Sr.,
suffered the fatal coronary at his home on the city's near north side.
Hallis died only a few hours before the Bears were revived
for their first division championship in 16 years,
playing traditional rival St. Louis at Soldier Field.
The Pittsburgh Pirates say that all-pro linebacker Jack Hamm
will not play again this season because of an ankle injury he sustained
at last Monday night's game at Houston.
The Steelers say the team Dockers made the decision Saturday.
Besides missing all postseason games,
Hamm will also sit out the Pro Bowl game in Honolulu January 27th.
He was chosen for the AFC team for the seventh straight season
and is the only NFL linebacker to be named to the Pro Bowl each year since 1973.
OK, let's get back to Rainey Tampa Stadium in Tampa Bay.
Bucks champion Dave Kucerick back with you at Tampa Stadium
with eight minutes and two seconds remaining in the third quarter.
No score. Kansas City has it first and 10 at their own 20-yard line.
At halftime, the Chiefs were held at 56 yards total offense,
while the Bucks had 159.
Ricky Bell was the leading ball carrier at halftime with 75 yards on 18 carries,
so just not much offense at all in this game.
Defensively for the Buccaneers, the same defense you've seen in there.
Of course, Danny Reid starting in place of Mike Washington.
For Kansas City, Mike Williams is in,
the number eight draft choice of Ricky out of New Mexico
replacing Earl Gant who is injured.
So McKnight and Williams are split behind Steve Fuller.
Hits back to Williams. Williams looking for room, finds a little bit,
gets all the way out to the 29-yard line before Cedric Brown makes the stop.
A follow-up of David Lewis that time and picked up an extra four or five yards.
Lewis had a blocker in his hands and was unable to throw him loose,
and all he was able to do was throw a shoulder at him.
He was not able to in any way grasp or try and tackle.
We've received word that Steve Wilson has a groin injury and should return,
but that's the reason Gerald Austin is now snapping at the center position.
The Chiefs have Forrest Felton in the game replacing Williams.
Forrest Felton, and he is in there along with Ted McKnight.
On second down and one for the Kansas City 29.
In motion is Henry Marshall, handoff McKnight.
He's bunched up, going to be very close to the first down.
Randy Clatter, the initial hit, and they stop the clock with 7-11 remaining.
This program is authorized under rights granted by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers
and WDAE Radio solely for the entertainment of our audience.
A reproduction of a use of the descriptions and accounts of this game
without the express written consent of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and WDAE is prohibited.
It is third down, by the way.
The announcers are chosen in cooperation with the Bucs and WDAE.
Third down and about a yard to go.
It's a 29-yard line.
Big play on this offensive series for Kansas City.
McKnight and Williams, two tight ends in the game for Kansas City.
In motion goes Henry Marshall, the handoff, and first down for Kansas City.
So Ted McKnight, he bumped off Leroy Selman and picked up the first down.
So the Chiefs keep the football and keep it going.
6.36 remaining here in the third quarter.
This wishes to Mrs. Dewey Selman.
Catherine, who again as Dick Ripon mentioned at the top of the show,
gave birth to little girl Shannon Nicole Selman.
And congratulations to Dewey.
The running backs are McKnight and Williams on first down and ten
at the 33-yard line of Kansas City.
Pitch back goes to Williams.
He slips, loses the footing, gets back up, and Richard Wood makes the tackle.
Let's see where they mark it down.
At about the, maybe short of the line of scrimmage, a loss of about a yard of the play.
He was nearly still for about a three or four-yard loss,
but he was able to regain his footing.
So that's an indication that he is getting very, very slippery out there.
Second down and 12 now for Kansas City, 5.43 to go, third quarter.
Incidentally, Mark, that last first down they made was only their fourth.
So they really have, the defense has really bottled up Kansas City.
The weather's had a big factor, but the defense is playing super.
The back just went behind the rookie from Clemson, Steve Fuller.
He's going to try to pass.
He's getting glitz.
And Mark Cutney's got him.
He lost the football, but I believe the whistle is long.
The whistle is long.
It was a good call.
He was bound.
Mark Cutney on the safety blip, getting Steve Fuller all the way back to about the 20-yard line.
Interesting on that play.
Cutney came up and faked, and then he started to go back.
And he started, just as he timed it, just about the time the ball was snapped,
and Fuller was watching David Lewis who was bushing from the side that he was able,
David Lewis was coming from the left side.
Fuller was able to see him, but he had no idea.
Cutney had a deadbeat on him, and it was another very, very key play
by the defense Mark Cutney on that tackle.
Curtis Jordan on the nickelback.
Horace Felton in the game along with Mike Williams.
And off goes to Williams.
He's caught, gets away from one man, and now it's brought down by Jarrett White
at about the 23-yard line.
Brings up a punting situation, so the pressure now reverses and goes to Bob Brooks.
Danny Reese is calling for some rise, and he's yelling at the sidelines,
but that's him.
Nobody's looking at him.
And now he gets a foul from one of the Buccaneer players on the sidelines.
Bob Brooks standing back, actually Bob's standing in one of the drier portions
of Tampa Stadium at the 8-yard line.
Well, if it's dry, it's the only dry spot.
Gets the snap, no pressure at all, and he gets away a good punt.
Danny Reese awaits it at the 30-yard line, takes it there.
35, Danny to the 40, really cradling that football.
And the Buccaneers take over first and 10 at the 40-yard line.
A 48-yard punt, 11-yard return with 424 remaining here in the third quarter.
So a timeout with a score.
Tampa Bay nothing, Kansas City nothing.
At Chicago, 5th to Williams on that 11-yard touchdown pass in the first quarter.
And at the end of the first quarter, Chicago leading, St. Louis 14 to nothing.
No other changes in any of the other games at the moment.
San Francisco leading Atlanta 14 to 10 early in the third quarter.
Baltimore 17, the Giants nothing early in the third quarter.
Also early in the third period, Minnesota 13 to 7 over New England.
Cleveland and Cincinnati tied at 6-6 in the third period.
And Pittsburgh leading Buffalo 14 to nothing early in the third period.
Philadelphia's at Houston.
We've had nothing in on that game at the moment.
Later, Washington is at Dallas.
New Orleans at Los Angeles.
And Seattle is playing at Oakland.
And on Monday night, Denver plays at San Diego.
Saturday in the National Football League, the Jets 27, Miami 24.
The Jets 27, Miami 24.
And Green Bay over Detroit on Saturday.
Final score there, Green Bay 18, Detroit 13.
Mark Champion and Dave Kucerich back with you at Tampa Stadium.
We have no score.
Four minutes and 24 seconds remaining in the third quarter.
Interesting question comes up, what if this game ends up in a nothing-nothing tie
and the Bears win, they have a 10-6 record, the Bucks will be 9-6-1.
Well, it obviously goes to overtime, but let's wait until the regulation game is over first.
The back's in an eye, Davidson Bell on first down.
Handoff deep to Ricky Bell, he fumbles the football!
And he recovers it, I do believe.
Ricky got the football back.
And the 35-yard line loss in the play, Madomali Una on the tackle.
Boy, oh boy, that could have been a big play in this game, and luckily Ricky hung on.
The ball simply just flipped out of his hand.
And it's going to be a play like that, probably that's going to decide this football game, the way it's going.
3.55 in the clock running, Ricky Bell comes out and Jerry Eckwood now comes on for the Buccaneers.
Ike Higgins splits to the left side, and Larry McCurry is flanked right.
On second and 13 from the Tampa Bay 37-yard line.
Davidson Eckwood in an eye.
Handoff, Jerry Eckwood gets away from one man, but not the other, and he's locked down.
Hart's still on the tackle.
The fans are booing, but really, it is just almost impossible to get anything going.
It is a very risky thing to even think about throwing the football on a day like this.
It's going to have to be a game that is decided by turnovers, field position on a punt.
And it's just one of those things we have to put up with.
Incidentally, the two plays that Steve Wilson was out briefly with the full groin were the first two plays that he has missed since the Atlanta game in 1977.
So Steve has been a bit of an Ironman out there, and it's good to see him back in, snapping at center.
Running back this time is Ricky Bell.
Wide receivers, McCurry and Higgins.
Jimmy Giles is split out to the right side now on third down and 15.
Doug Williams rolls right.
He close one out long.
It's overthrown, maybe intercepted.
And he is intercepted by Herb Christopher.
I'm a Kansas City Chiefs habit at the 23-yard line.
I don't know where he was throwing the football to be honest with you.
Giles, Mark Giles, first of all, went kind of a very poor out and up move, but it's no big deal because it would have been a fourth down situation.
And I think that's almost better than a punt.
They were third and 15.
I didn't think I'd have dropped it instead of intercepting it, but it has the same effect as a punt.
So it's really no big deal.
Giles didn't make much of a move and they were very worried deep.
I think Doug has got it for old middle-sized stuff and not worried about the deep stuff.
They seem to be giving them the medium passes and not the deep stuff.
Well, we're going to try it again, fans.
We're going to check in with Virgil Carter in Chicago and see if we got a phone line this time.
Virgil?
This is the Soldier Field.
The Bears still lead 14-0.
They had an opportunity to add a field goal to their ranks.
They faked a field goal on fourth and five from about the 15-yard line.
The fake ball part in the pass was no good.
The Cardinals have just picked up their first first down of the ball game, but they're deep in their own territory.
The Bears are playing excellent football.
I guess that was to be expected, so it is Chicago solidly out in front, Dave.
Mark, just one note from statistician Jerry Provenzano.
That was a 42-yard net, the interception, and when you figure that Blanchard has been kicking 34.6 average
and somewhat hazardous, I might add, I think that was a pretty good play.
That was Doug's first pass in the second half.
And we've also been given a note that 8,502 no-shows, 72-126 tickets distributed, actual in-house, 63-624.
Well, the rain, obviously, the back of their first and 10-23-yard line of Kansas City.
Williams and McKnight are the running backs behind Steve Fuller.
Handoff goes to Williams, and he's caught by Leroy Selman and dropped across the 25-yard line.
Pickup of maybe three yards on that play by Mike Williams, a rookie out of New Mexico, eighth round, Rothschild.
Kansas City lost their two top running backs, Arnold Morgato and Tony Reed, and more so than ever this year,
Marv Levy has gotten away from that wing-T offense.
One of the big reasons is he lost his two big backs.
Well, he had a junket early. It wasn't very successful with Mike Livingston running it, and he puts Fuller in it,
and I think the second or third game, and they've been reasonably successful with this young man.
Fuller to pass on second down, getting the protection.
Close one out. It is complete to the tight end, Tony Samuels, but he is out of bounds at about the 28-yard line,
pushed out there by Cedric Brown.
Brings up a third down play, third and about five yards to go now for Kansas City,
with a minute 54, the clock running in the third quarter.
We have no score.
Both teams had a chance at a field goal.
The Buccaneer is missing on, well, the combination of a bad snap and a bad handling of a snap,
and Kansas City's center-roots field goal attempt was blocked by Leroy Selman.
Morris Belton now joins the backfield, replacing Ced McKnight.
It will be Belton and Williams on third and sixth, 27-yard line for Steve Fuller in Kansas City.
And he hands off Leroy Selman.
Hurrah! Mike Williams. Richard Wood helps him out, and again the defense does its job.
And they're going to get a good hand from this crowd.
The ring's so loud. Leroy Selman proving why he should be on the Pro Bowl
and would have been there before had it not been for an injury.
Danny Reese now dropping back to about the 23-yard line.
Bob Crupp standing at about the 12th.
Bob is getting a big advantage.
He's standing in the dry part of the field, which is the south end zone,
the south end zone area, the driest of anything.
The snap is a good one. No pressure.
Crupp hits a line-drive spiral taken by Reese at the 28.
Danny to the 30, cuts up to the 35, and he gets dropped there.
So the Buccaneers take over. J.T. Smith on the tackle.
First and 10, 35-yard line with 39 seconds to go in the quarter.
45-yard punt that time by the NFL's leading runner, Bob Crupp.
So the Buccaneers take over offensively once again.
They have not been able to move the football.
As Dave mentioned earlier, the short passes are going to have to come into play, I think,
because they're going to get downfield.
Well, he's completed the ones he's completed.
Eckwood's got a couple little swing passes and fairly successful.
He's got to go back to that kind of stuff.
Running backs are Davis and Bell behind Doug Wigand.
C. Wilson, by the way, back in at center.
Hand off Johnny Davis off the left side, maybe a yard.
He's corralled by Ken Kramer, the nose tackle, and Gary Spaney, the inside line linebacker.
By Kagan, Jerry Eckwood now come on the field.
With the play on second down and eight from the Tampa Bay 37-yard line.
Johnny Davis comes out along with Jim O'Bradovich.
So Eckwood and Bell now in for John McKay's Buccaneers.
Thirteen seconds in the clock running.
They might just about get this one off just before the quarter.
Second down and eight.
In the slot left is Jerry Eckwood.
Moving in motion Larry Mucker to the right side now.
Two seconds on the clock.
The pitch left to Ricky Bell.
Bell looking for the outside move, gets into the 40.
Down the sidelines.
They have picked up the first down.
They roll him out of bounds at the 46-yard line.
Looks to be enough for the first down.
Good second effort by Ricky Bell.
That is the end of the third quarter here at Tampa Stadium.
With the score at Tampa Bay nothing.
Kansas City nothing.
The Buccaneers indeed got a first down and ten at the 46-yard line at Tampa Bay.
They just announced that 12-year-old Scott Underwood, a winner of the NFC front pass and kick competition.
So he goes to the Zabigge.
He goes to the Tuber Bowl.
That's right.
Incidentally Ricky Bell with a great second effort.
However, he was aided by a fine block by the left tackle.
Big number 75.
Dave Rebbis.
Long Ricky for the last couple yards that were able to get the first down.
On a play like that they kind of negate the interior people by quickly pitching to the back.
The defensive end in that particular play, Mike Bell had no chance because the ball was already outside of him.
Bell was already outside of him as soon as he caught the ball from the pitch from Williams.
So that's what you try and negate certain things as far as the defensive alignment.
So here we go, the final 15 minutes perhaps.
Equitably flat right now.
Bell alone running back in the backfield at any rate.
In motion is Morris Owen.
Hand off deep to Ricky Bell.
Off the left side finds a little room and gets near midfield.
So the tackle made by Thomas Howard.
Pick up on the play of about four that time by Ricky as he is edging toward the 100-yard mark.
As we have told you earlier, he has already gone past 1200 yards of the season.
He was edged out of the Pro Bowl, dotted by Chuck Muncy of the New Orleans Saints.
It's really a feeling that perhaps Ricky should have made the Pro Bowl, but didn't.
Second down and six right in midfield.
14-30 remaining in the football game.
No score.
The Buccaneers and Kansas City Chiefs.
And we have had nothing but rain here all afternoon.
In motion goes Larry Muckers.
To the right side, Doug Pitches left to Ricky Bell.
He gets blocking and out of bounds at the 48.
Tackle made again by Thomas Howard.
So it's going to bring up a big third down play.
Third and about four.
They tried to spring it out, but Kansas City was over there to contain the play.
Will you hold your breath on those pitches with the ball being wet and the rain coming down.
That's true.
Ike Hagans came in and cracked on Thomas Howard, but Howard is considerably larger than Hagans.
And he kind of slapped him off like you slap off a fly and was able to get into the pursuit and make the play.
Again, they negated the charge of Sylvester Hicks, the right defensive end that time.
Jim O'Brannamich comes in.
He's lining up as a wide receiver to the right side now.
So the long running back is Ricky Bell.
Third and three.
Kansas City 47 yard line.
Doug Williams to pass.
Getting protection.
Over the middle.
Got it.
40, 35.
Jimmy Diles to the 30 yard line.
First down for the Buccaneers.
Gary Green, the cornerback.
There's the pass we've been waiting on.
22 yards to Jimmy Diles to tie it in.
And the rain is letting up a little bit here at Tampa City.
It's still coming down, but it is letting up somewhat.
As Dizzy Dean used to say, Mark, it ain't 30.
It's just simple and it's nice and it's easy.
It's very simple passing.
That ball was not in the air more than four or five yards and it comes up with a 22 yard gain.
You don't have to put the ball in the air 20 or 30 yards to gain 20 or 30 yards.
You get the ball in a five or 10 yard pass and you get a guy like Diles or Eckwood to break it and you've got a good gator.
Gary Eckwood back in replacing O'Bradyvich.
Morris Owen goes in motion to the left side now.
On first down, the pitch right to Ricky Bell.
Takes the toss.
Looking for room and he is not going to get anything.
That play was really strung out.
And he may have lost the guard.
Try to throw the block for him and Greg was filled with a turn by about four Kansas City players.
12.54 in regulation time.
I think we have to start saying that. No score. Tampa Bay in Kansas City.
Larry Mucker and Ike Higgins both go to the left side now.
Jerry Eckwood is in a flat position to the left.
Mucker goes in motion, second and 12.
To the Kansas 30-32.
Inside handoff now.
He's trying to turn the corner.
That's all.
30-25.
And down to the 21 yard line.
Jerry Eckwood threw one heck of a block.
Jerry Eckwood simply stood up.
ML Carter, the right quarterback.
And it is a first down for Tampa Bay.
First to 10.
Mucker there.
Right about the Kansas 30-20 yard line.
What a block there by Jerry Eckwood.
It wasn't ML Carter, it was Thomas Holler.
They both, Carter's 42, Holler is 52.
And Carter's a little guy.
Holler's a big guy.
So it was a much better block than we thought.
We thought he was blocking on a defensive back
and he was really blocking on a 235-pound linebacker.
First and 10 at the 20 yard line.
Both line receivers to the left.
And now Morris Owens goes in motion.
Handoff, Bell, straight ahead.
He's caught and dropped at the 19 yard line by Parrish.
Don Parrish for those tackles.
12 minutes and 17 seconds to go in the football game.
Tampa Bay nothing, Kansas City nothing.
The Bucs have their best drive since their opening series
in their football game when they got down to the Kansas City 15.
And the field goal went awry.
Larry Mucker now on with the play.
Second down and eight at the Kansas City 18 yard line.
The rain is flooding up.
It's still coming down, but it is a light rain.
Mucker and Hagens to the left side.
Jerry Eckwood is in the flat position.
And now Mucker goes in motion right.
Williams hands off inside to Ricky Bell.
He moves down close to the 16 yard line.
Pretty obvious what they're trying to set up here.
Gary Spanning, the inside right linebacker, made the stop.
They don't want to take any chances.
Jerry Eckwood comes off.
Jim O'Gradovitz comes on an extra tight end.
On third down and six from the Kansas City 16 yard line.
The Buccaneers heading towards that north end zone.
Wouldn't it be nice if they got into the end zone,
11-11 to go in the football game.
Doug Williams, quick stop, can't find anybody.
Now throws, complete or incidentally, let's see.
They're rolling complete.
They're rolling complete to Jimmy Giles, the tight end at the nine yard line.
And that is another first down for the Buccaneers.
He waited a long, long time to throw the football, Dave.
You're right, Mark.
I think he wanted to throw it, but it didn't look like the receiver was ready.
And then he decided against it.
He took it down, it looked like he was going to run.
Got a lot of pressure from Mark Still, who's been all over the field.
And then he threw it underneath the linebacker, Cal Peterson.
Jimmy Giles coming up with a great catch.
Giles has had an outstanding year, and he continues to catch very, very well in key situations.
First and goal, nine yard line, 10.57 to go.
Eckwood and Bell in the high position, and Larry Mucker goes in motion.
Doug Williams pitches back to Jerry Eckwood.
He finds room down to the five yard line.
And almost lost the football, but recovered it at the four.
Jerry Barberow on the tackle.
Second down and goal from just inside the five yard line.
Well, the clock continues to go.
We've got 10.40 in the fourth period, and Mark is talking about in regulation play.
Getting again, excellent block.
Ricky Bell, Jerry Eckwood and Ricky Bell are changing off, blocking for each other.
The other guy carrying the ball extremely well.
But this is a very, very important drive for the Bucs.
They've got to come out of here with something.
Certainly a touchdown will look very, very strong at this particular point.
But they've got to come out of here with at least three points.
Second and goal.
Eckwood is in the wing position to the right.
Going in motion is Morris Owen.
Hand off Ricky Bell, looking for room, and he's not going to find it.
He is bottled up off the right side of the offensive line by about four Kansas City defenders.
And now it is third down and goal from the five yard line.
Inside of ten minutes, 9.56 from the clock running.
Again, that Chicago score, Chicago 14 and nothing with five minutes to play in the first half.
We're tuning in periodically to Virgil Carter for updates,
but that's what we've been headed by Jerry Provenzano.
And it looks like, well, there was a Kansas City player slightly injured.
I don't think they're going to take a full timeout here.
It's pretty iffy, so we'll not break away because we certainly don't want to miss anything here.
Cal Peterson is the shaken up player.
And so Jerry Flanton, a free agent out of Kentucky, comes on.
Third down and goal to go from the four yard line, 9.45 on the clock running.
Big play of this series and the flat left is Joey Eckwood.
In motion goes Larry Mucker to the right side.
Doug Williams, drop way, Ricky Bell.
And he'll muck it in.
Down to about the two yard line.
It was a good call, a good call.
And now on comes Neil O'Donoghue.
Mark, this is going to be just about like an extra point and it's by no means automatic,
but it's going to be about the regular spot of the extra point.
It's a position literally between the goal posts at about the two yard line.
Neil's probably going to kick it just inside the ten yard line, 8.5, nine yard kick, 19 yard field goal attempt.
Neil O'Donoghue, the rain has wet up a great deal.
Awaiting the snap from Steve Wilson.
It is a low snap, the kick is up.
Good!
The bucket is clean as three to nothing.
Neil O'Donoghue, 19 yard field goal with a score half of a three.
Hands to city nothing.
We'll be back after this word.
Jack Thompson has scored in a five yard run for Cincinnati.
So in the third period Cincinnati now leading Cleveland by the score of 13 to six.
Also it's Pittsburgh 21, Buffalo nothing.
That's late in the third quarter at Pittsburgh.
Minnesota 16, New England 7 in the third period at New England.
Late in the third period at East Druthaford, New York it's the Colts 24, the Giants 7.
San Francisco leading Atlanta 21 to 17.
That's late in the third period at Atlanta.
Chicago 14 to nothing over St. Louis early in the second quarter at Chicago.
Philadelphia and Houston nothing in yet.
Now there's a very good possibility that that game has been changed from a two o'clock Eastern time start to a four o'clock Eastern time start.
But we don't know on that. We haven't heard anything.
We should have at least have had a first period score at this time, but we have nothing in.
So there's the possibility that the Philadelphia Houston game has been changed to a four o'clock Eastern time start.
63 yard drive in 13 plays.
It took seven minutes and nine seconds.
A 19 yard field goal by Neil O'Donoghue to make it three to nothing.
The snap was nearly lost that time.
And Tom Blanchard did a good job to get it down for Neil O'Donoghue.
The deep man is Johnny Durden for Kansas City 850 to go on the football game.
The rain is very, very light now.
So whether that's an advantage for Kansas City, it may well be.
It may give Fuller a chance to throw the football.
The snap was a little, it hit the ground first and Tom did a heck of a job in recovering it.
O'Donoghue in and over and in a deep one.
Durden chasing it, goes through his hands and will be brought off to the 20 yard line.
A boomer and Neil fired up.
And that adrenaline is really flowing.
One big blue star for Neil O'Donoghue.
He'll make it a green star for the Irish Shamrock.
But Neil is really pumped up.
The snap was bad and Neil adjusted.
He didn't, he looked like he was hitting a little chip wedge.
Instead of taking a full swing as he normally would because of the timing,
he just popped it up real quickly because he thought there would be some rush.
And it was right through the middle, right through the heart.
And recently Bill Kohler in left defensive end replacing Wally Chambers.
First and 10-20 yard line for Kansas City.
McKnight and Williams are behind Steve Fuller.
On first down.
In motion goes Henry Marshall.
Play fake, Fuller to pass on first down.
He is caught and gets away.
They throw it, almost intercepted.
Well it was waiting on the whistle to blow, normally they do.
Jarrett's White nearly intercepted.
But Steve Fuller was able to keep his momentum going ahead.
I think that's why they did not blow the whistle.
Because they almost caught him from behind.
Leroy Settleman had not been for a good last second block by Rod Walters that kept him away.
He would have really put the hit on Steve Fuller.
Second and 10, 8.38 to go is a football game, 3-0 Tampa Bay.
Williams and McKnight are behind the quarterback, Steve Fuller.
He's passing on second down.
Looking fire, incomplete.
Looks like he was trying to get it to his running back Mike Williams.
But Richard Wood was right there.
While they were complaining, Fuller went over to the referee and they were really complaining because it looked like Richard Wood might have hit him.
But he's in the blocking position at that particular point.
Richard Wood banged him real good.
But he's in the backfield and it's perfectly legal.
Curtis Jordan not replacing Cecil Johnson.
It was a good call.
Third down and 10 for the 20, the crowd yelling defense.
Some 64,000 here this afternoon.
And the Buccaneers, Wally Chambers back in there now.
Replacing Bill Kohler.
Third and 10, 8.33 to go in the game, 3-0 Tampa Bay.
Wide receivers to either side now.
Steve Fuller takes the deep drop.
Getting good protection.
Double pump.
Gets away for one man.
Now he's going to have to run it.
He goes down short of the first down and 25.
Excellent coverage downfield by the Buccaneers secondary.
And Wally Chambers getting up slowly.
Lifting.
He's the guy who forced the play.
Yeah, he just literally took that defense off into tackle.
If Bob Simmons is playing for injured Jim Nicholson and he took him right in the back.
He jumped over at the last second and really forced Fuller out of the pocket.
Fuller stumbling, not really able to gain his composure or his footing.
And he fell well short bringing up the putting situation.
7.53 on the clock running.
It is forced down.
It snaps the grunt.
He's going to get it away.
It's a long liner.
The wobbler hits it midfield.
Danny Reese picks it up at the 40 and dives forward to the 44-yard line.
And that's where the Buccaneers take over.
Excellent field position with 7.42 to go.
35-yard punt and a four-yard return by Danny Reese.
The score, Tampa Bay 3, Kansas City nothing on the Buccaneer Radio Network.
At the end of the third quarter, Minnesota leading New England by the score of 16-7.
That's at the end of the third period.
In college basketball on Saturday and throughout the week, let's do this.
Let's take a look and see how the top-ranked teams did over the past week.
Number one, Indiana beat Georgetown by seven points but lost to Kentucky by nine points.
Kentucky beating the top-ranked two-shoes, 69-58.
Duke beat Pennsylvania 70-57.
Third-ranked Ohio State beat West Virginia, Cal Poly Pomona, and Holy Cross.
Fourth-ranked Notre Dame beat UCLA and St. Joseph's of Indiana.
Fifth-ranked Kentucky beat South Carolina, Kansas, and Indiana.
Sixth-ranked UCLA lost to Notre Dame and lost to DePaul.
Seventh-ranked LSU beat Maine.
Eighth-ranked North Carolina beat Detroit.
Ninth-ranked Purdue beat Nebraska.
And tenth-ranked DePaul beat Texas, Northern Illinois, and UCLA.
Motion Larry Mucker to the right side.
The handoff goes to Bell.
Bell to the 45.
Ricky shoots his way to midfield and he slithers along the field with a 49-yard line.
Thomas Howard, the right linebacker.
Good. First down pick up by Ricky Bell to midfield.
Again on the play of about six yards.
Seven-twenty-three.
The clock running.
Tampa Bay three.
Kansas getting nothing on the 19-yard field goal by Neil LaDonahue.
Johnny Davis in the lineup now replacing Ricky Bell.
Bell gets the breather over 100 yards once again.
The Bears are leading day 21-nothing now.
Yeah, with almost a minute and a half left to go, Walder-Payton is short,
so now they lead 21-nothing over St. Louis.
The Bucks remain with two side ends, Ogladovich and Giles.
Davidson Eckwood in the backfield now.
Handoff Jerry Eckwood, and he is hit by Don Perry for those tackles at the 49-yard line.
And now the Buccaneers are faced with a third down three.
As the clock continues to run.
By the way, again, we mentioned it earlier,
but today's game is being broadcast over the American Forces Radio Network.
People are listening to the Bucks game around the world from Europe to Alaska and the Aleutian Islands.
We thank you for listening to the Buccaneers wherever you are in the world.
And season greetings from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
And, of course, we at the Buccaneer Radio Network.
Bell back in. Bell and Eckwood.
He's got to be excited about this game.
6-19 to go. Third and three.
Just across midfield into Kansas City territory at the 49.
Larry Mucker in motion right side.
Pitch left to Jerry Eckwood.
Let's see if he can get the big first down.
He's fighting off tacklers. He's got to be short.
Really fall off. Let's see. We may have had a flag drop. We did.
I think we might have had a face mask.
We got a flag. This one is on the Buccaneer side of the field.
Well, it looks like some of the Bucs people were signaling face masks.
It is.
And that will give the Buccaneers a first down.
It may have been against Gary Green.
Gary Green may have been the guilty party.
And that will give the Bucs a first down with 5.56 to go in this game.
They mark it off five yards. It is not a blatant face mask.
Mark, you were very right when you were saying on the sidelines,
because that official had a lot of help from several players and some coaches and equipment people, trainers.
Everybody on the Bucs sideline pointed it out.
And the field judge in this particular side threw the flag.
He was not as close. He was a little deeper than the normal man, the line judge, the head lineman.
And still he threw it. But he did get a lot of help from the players on the side.
In fact, several Bucs players came out onto the field, and I thought they may be penalized for that.
Looks like, well, we've got some type of a timeout situation here.
And the officials are over.
They're talking about, I believe, the players coming out onto the field.
Or is it the official's microphone not working? I'm not sure what the problem is.
The officials have called the timeout to discuss something.
I think the official's mic is not working.
We are trying to really tell what they're talking about.
We have 5.56 remaining in the football game.
And the penalty was called against 59.
Gary Spanning, the right-inside linebacker for Kansas City.
But it was a big, big penalty.
May well be the biggest of the year for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
That's true, Mark. You know, it's very important.
I don't blame the officials for trying to get this mic situation straightened out,
but this is getting down to the last six minutes of the play.
They want to make sure everything's functioning.
If there's a questionable call, they want to be able to make sure they can explain it properly.
You recall when we played in Minnesota earlier in the season,
the official was the only source of time that we had.
And it's very important that he get that thing working, so that's what he was stopping the clock for.
First and 10, Kansas City 44-yard line for the Buccaneers.
Bell and Davis in the backfield now. In motion goes Larry Mucker.
And the handoff goes to Ricky Bell, and he shoots up to about the 40-yard line,
maybe inside of the 39, fading the tackle.
Second down, five yards to go now for Tampa Bay.
The rain's very, very light now here at Tampa Stadium.
He's a five-second line in.
Ricky Bell is 125 yards and 35 carries, and he's having an outstanding day.
He's past the 1,200 mark coming into the game at 1126.
He's at 1,251 and very, very instrumental in this very time-consuming ground attack that the Bucs have mounted this quarter.
Second down, about five yards to go for the Buccaneers.
The back starts split. Bell and Davis in motion goes Morris Owens.
Handoff, Ricky Bell, a sure handoff, and he is not going to get much.
Down to the 39-yard line, tackle made by Calvin Peterson, who is back in there, and left outside linebacker.
The former Buccaneer, third down, still about five yards to go.
The rain is just about stopped now. The field has soaked up a little bit.
Still very soggy in between the 30s.
But there's not a lot of standing water left, which is indicative of the fine ground keeping they have here.
And they do an excellent job at Tampa Sports Authority, and they keep this field in great shape.
440, the clock running, the Bucs lead at three to nothing, third down and about five yards to go for the Kansas City 38-yard line.
Big play. Handoff, rolling left, Doug Williams for the keeper, cuts up side and he is very close.
Very close to the first down at the 33-yard line. Another bootleg play by Doug Williams, about the third one we've seen today.
First down, Tampa Bay.
And the third, Christopher, the strong safety, made the stop. Boy, I'll tell you what, Doug Williams may have thrown a couple of interceptions today, but he has been a big man on those rollouts.
That's true. I'm sure they spotted something in the defense of Kansas City because they've been fairly vulnerable on that.
They must be charging down or chasing quite a bit because he's run that play three times.
He's gained 20 yards so far and a couple key first downs, and Doug's running has been a big factor keeping a couple drives going.
3.50 and the clock is running here, first and 10, Kansas City 33-yard line, the Bucs heading toward the north end zone.
Let's hope they get there. Davis and Bell. Handoff, Ricky Bell finds some opening, gets to the 30 and down to the 29.
Jerry Fibero, the free safety on the tackle.
It is second down and six yards to go with 3.17 and the clock running.
Mark, I notice Doug is really watching the 30-second clock. It's down to 20 and the Bucs are shuttling a lot of people in, but he's taking maximum time.
That play went off with two seconds to go on that, and he's got to use it up. He's got 10. He's got to get him to the huddle fairly fast now.
Now it's 11 and counting.
Johnny Davis went off the field, so Jerry Eckwood back in on second down and six.
Mark, I see that's the one and Bell, behind Doug Williams. He's using up every second. Another bootleg. He's to the 25. Doug Natalie, 23-yard line.
Close to another first down. I think he may have it.
Well, I'll tell you, he did something that was extremely wise. He went down and stayed inbounds.
He could have got out of bounds and stayed a little way around here on his body mark, but he went down, staying inbounds, bringing up a measurement.
It's going to be very, very close, but the clock is going to continue as soon as this timeout is over for the measurement.
Another bootleg play by Doug Williams, 233. As they said, the clock will start again, and the measurement, he is short by inches.
Just short. It's going to be very, very close.
The Buccaneers will run another play, and as soon as they place the ball down, the clock should start running.
And then they could probably run it down to the two-minute warning. There's 233 to play, and the clock will start as soon as the chains get back.
Second down, and inches to go.
Or rather, third down and inches to go.
Third down and inches. Third down and inches for Tapa Bay.
231 of the clock is now running. Now he's keeping them in the huddle. He says, let's stay here. Let's keep an eye on the 30-second clock.
They're all looking around and looking at both ends. Got plenty of time. The 30-second clock is down to 16 and counting.
I wouldn't be surprised to see Doug go with a quarterback streak, although they do have four defensive linemen.
Davis is back in, along with Ricky Bell. Johnny Davis comes back on.
Third down and just Doug keeps it.
Pulls his way ahead, and he only had to get about a half a foot. So let's see if they give him the forward momentum. If they do, he should have it.
The clock is stopped. 2.04 to go. Two minutes, four seconds here in the football game. Let's see where they place it down.
Do they have another measurement? Let's see.
First down. The Buccaneers pick up the first down, and that'll take it down to the two-minute warning.
They just stopped the clock here, and that should bring it down to the two-minute warning.
Now that offensive line just wedged. Steve Wilson in the middle, naturally. Greg Horton, the left guard. Greg Roberts, the right guard.
They formed a wedge, and Doug just went behind them. What's the score? Tampa Bay 3, Kansas City nothing. We'll be back after this word.
Don Calhoun has scored on a two-yard run. So in the fourth quarter, Minnesota's lead over New England has been cut to just two points.
It's Minnesota 16, New England 14. Walter Payton has scored his second touchdown of the afternoon for the Chicago Bears.
This one a five-yard romp. He scored earlier on a one-yard run. And in Chicago 21, St. Louis nothing.
That game is in the second quarter at Chicago. At the end of the third quarter, Pittsburgh 21, Buffalo nothing.
So to review for you, Pittsburgh 21 to nothing over Buffalo after three. Also after three periods, Cincinnati 13, Cleveland 6.
In the fourth quarter, Minnesota 16, New England 14. Baltimore leading the Giants in the fourth quarter, 24 to 7.
San Francisco leading Atlanta in the fourth quarter, 21 to 17. In the second quarter, Chicago 21 to nothing over the St. Louis Cardinals.
Later, Washington is at Dallas, New Orleans at Los Angeles, and Seattle at Oakland.
Mark champion Dave Kucerich back with you at Tampa Stadium. We are down to the final two minutes. Two minutes stand in the way.
The Buccaneers being the NFC Central Division champions. They lead on the foot of Neil Modani. A 19-yard field goal.
And it's three-nothing. The Buccaneers have it first and 10 at the 22.
Regardless of what happens in this game, our co-most valuable player award winners, the Bad Buck award winners, are Doug Williams and Richard Wood.
The Batman with two. Big interception. And Doug Williams, who has done a job of those bootleg plays, and he just picked up another crucial first down.
And now Tony Davis is coming on the field for the Bucs. Tony Davis. And coming off the field is now Johnny Davis.
By the way, the winner of the trip to the Super Bowl, the name of mascot winner, Captain Crush, is Jim Humbach of Bradenton Beach, Florida.
So he's the winner of the Super Bowl trip via Eastern Airlines. And travel accommodations by Tiny Tigers Travel.
First and 10. 22-yard line. Tony Davis in along with Ricky Bell. They are split behind Doug Williams.
In motion goes Larry Mucker to the right side. And the handoff goes to Ricky Bell inside the 20, down to the 16-yard line.
For the minute 54, Kansas City may have called a timeout. The clock has been stopped. Johnny Davis now coming back on.
Tony Davis from his blocking back with a fine block that time, kicking out, allowing Ricky Bell an opportunity to come on in.
Doug Williams is coming over to John McKay and Bill Nelson for the little offensive discussion, but they're going to be very basic.
Well, the minute 54 remaining here in the football game as the timeout was called there. The Buccaneers leading it 3-0.
You can feel the electricity beginning to build in this rain-soaked crowd. And they are all anxiously awaiting.
They would love a minute 54 to suddenly just disappear from the clock.
That's right, Mark. And it's just been a tribute to the Tampa fans throughout the entire season because this is, I don't think there's a dry rear end in the stadium.
My mind's kind of dry, but Dave Green sat in my seat at halftime and it also got very wet.
I don't think anybody out in that stadium has a dry spot on their body and I don't think many people have left it.
The water was cascading down the stands and it's just been raining and miserable. It's gotten windy and cool and nobody's left it.
I think it's just a tribute to this town, this fine team. They had been struggling three straight weeks.
They should have put it away and couldn't and didn't, but everybody showed up.
And those shows were more than I thought, particularly in lieu of the fact that the game would not be telecast, but the weather was just horrendous and it's been that way.
Much of the game looks like a light mist is still going. The field is dried out slightly, but it's still difficult.
But again, really my hat is off to this Gilbert Tampa fan group. It's unbelievable.
Tampa Bay area, central Florida, central western Florida has just been sensational in the support. Every league game has been sold out.
I agree and especially today they really came to the occasion. Second down and 416 yard line. Bucker flanks wide to the right, two tight ends.
The running backs are Jerry Eckwood and Ricky Bell. Eckwood and Bell in the backfield now.
Second down, handoff goes to the big man Ricky Bell. He's caught, gets away from one man, dives forward to about the line of scrimmage and Kansas City signals for another timeout.
With a score Tampa Bay 3, Kansas City nothing on the Buccaneer radio network.
With the first third of the season in the record books, the National Hockey League shows a slight jump in attendance.
But much of that can be attributed to the four new franchises that came into the National Hockey League from the WHA.
All four of the Old World Hockey Association teams have shown increases in attendance, including a leap of better than 4,800 fans at a game in Edmonton and almost 4,000 in contests in Winnipeg.
All are playing at or near capacity. In contrast, several older teams have suffered reversals at the box office.
The biggest losers, the Boston Bruins and the Atlanta Flames.
Despite having one of the top teams in hockey, the Bruins are down almost 1,400 fans a game.
And the Flames, who are struggling at about a 500 clip, have lost almost 1,700 for contests.
Success on the ice has helped a couple of franchises.
The Minnesota North Stars, this year's surprise team, up about 3,500 a game.
And the Los Angeles Kings, Strong Early, showing there. And that's boosted attendance there by nearly 1,600 a game.
Third down and four. Jerry Eckwood off the right side. He's going to get down to the 15, to the 10, and first down to the Buccaneers at the nine yard line.
Good second effort by Jerry Eckwood. And the Chiefs have it one time out.
I don't know, Jimmy Giles came up with the ball. I do not know if Eckwood fumbled or not, but 120 and counting.
And now the clock has been stopped. Kansas City's final time out. A time out with a score.
Tampa Bay three, Kansas City nothing. We'll be back.
Grogan has just hit Jackson with a 41 yard touchdown pass.
And New England and Minnesota trading off the lead almost every time they score.
It's now New England 21, Minnesota 16. That game is midway through the fourth quarter.
It's being contested at New England.
In college basketball tournament action at the Bull City Holiday Classic Championship game, Fayetteville State over St. Augustine's 95-77.
In the Cougar Classic Championship, BYU 108, LaSalle 106 in triple overtime.
Third place to Santa Clara, Santa Barbara, University of California Santa Barbara 66-61 over Texas A&M.
In the Fighting Illini Classic, Illinois winning the championship 47-40 over Illinois State.
Third place to Eastern Illinois 65-59 over Kentucky State.
In the Golden Gate Invitational Championship San Francisco 68, Oklahoma 61.
Third place to Utah 82-73 over Pacific.
The Kansas City 9 yard line. Joey Eckwood in the backfield along with Johnny Davis. Two tied in. In motion Laurie Mucker. No more timeouts for Kansas City.
Doug simply goes down with it. The quarterback keeper to about the 8 yard line. A minute 16 to the clock running.
Remember Kansas City has no more timeouts and the Buccaneers have three more plays.
So this football game a minute 7, a minute 6 to go.
And I'll tell you what, this crowd is beginning to sense it.
The Buccaneers 58 seconds away from the playoff.
Here we go. The players are really whooping it up on the sidelines. This is what it's like to see.
A bunch of kids down there, they deserve it.
Doug Williams with 40 seconds to go in the football game. Second and goal. Doug Williams a long single county goes down.
That might do it. 31 seconds. 30 seconds.
That's it. The Buccaneers are the NFC Central Division champions and we are popping the campaign.
The Buccaneers have won the NFC Central Division title with an exciting 3 to nothing win over the Kansas City Chiefs here at Tampa Stadium.
They battled the elements. They battled the raid all day long.
And the Buccaneers are Central Division champions. They go to the playoff.
They go to the playoff. That is it.
From Tampa Stadium, we hope you enjoyed it because your Buccaneers are now the NFC Central Division champions.
3 to nothing over Kansas City.