Tampa Bay Losses End in Shutout of Cardinals

For the first time in 10 weeks, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers walked off the field saluted as heroes Sunday.

“It was good to finally win one,” Coach Leeman Bennett said after Tampa Bay parlayed three long field goals by rookie Donald Igwebuike and a grudging pass defense into a 16-0 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals.

“It’s been a long time coming and the football team had battled hard every Sunday,” Bennett said of his first victory as coach of the Buccaneers (1-9).

The defeat was the fifth in the last six games for the slumping Cardinals (4-6) and the setback is a low point in their season.

“It certainly is,” said Cardinals’ Coach Jim Hanifan. “But you have to give credit to our opponent. We would like to extend that to Tampa Bay.

“They scrambled, they hung in there, and did the things it takes to win,” he added.

James Wilder ran for 120 yards in 29 carries and Steve DeBerg completed 11 of 27 passes for 196 yards as Tampa Bay won for only the ninth time in its last 42 games. Tight end Jimmie Giles continued his standout play and caught six passes for 134 yards.

Igwebuike, a native of Nigeria who played football and soccer at Clemson, kicked field goals of 46, 47 and 50 yards.

“Tampa Bay had nothing to lose and everything to gain,” said St. Louis quarterback Neil Lomax. “It’s the little mistakes that kill us.”

A crowd of 34,736, third smallest in the franchise’s history, stood and cheered at the end of the game as the popular disco song “Celebration” blared from stadium speakers.

St. Louis, coming off a 21-10 victory over Dallas, sputtered offensively all day long as Lomax completed 21 of 33 passes for 197 yards and was intercepted twice.

Cardinals placekicker Jeff Atkinson missed field goal attempts of 45 and 42 yards, and the Buccaneers defense preserved the second shutout in the club’s 10-year history by recovering an Ottis Anderson fumble at the Buccaneers 10 with 6:08 to go.

The last shutout came on Dec. 16, 1979, when Tampa Bay beat Kansas City, 3-0, to clinch its first NFC Central Division championship.