Mitchell Carries Cardinals Past the Buccaneers, 30-19

For one week anyway, Stump Mitchell removed the pressure from St. Louis Cardinal management for trading away the club’s all-time leading rusher, Ottis Anderson.

Mitchell ran for two touchdowns, and Neil Lomax threw a pair of scoring passes Sunday, giving the Cardinals their first victory of the season, a 30-19 win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Mitchell gained 126 yards in 20 carries, scoring on runs of 3 and 31 yards.

Mitchell, who rushed for 1,000 yards last season while Anderson spent much of the year injured, took the spotlight this week when Anderson was traded to the New York Giants.

Lomax, who has struggled with the absence of receivers Roy Green and Pat Tilley to injury, threw touchdown passes of 30 yards to running back Earl Ferrell and 38 yards to Chas Fox.

“We’re not a good football team and we deserved to be 0-5,” Lomax said. “J.T. Smith, Earl Ferrell and Stump have been carrying the ball club offensively.”

Lomax completed 17 of 27 passes for 228 yards.

Tampa Bay quarterback Steve Young was 15 of 29 for 260 yards and led the Buccaneers in rushing with 47 yards in 10 attempts.

Both teams have 1-5 records.