PRO FOOTBALL : Loss to Packers Puts Bucs in Position to Draft No. 1

The crowd threw lemons at the Tampa Bay Buccaneers Sunday and offered its loudest cheers not for the home team’s lone touchdown in a 21-7 loss to the Green Bay Packers, but to the news that Indianapolis had won again.

The loss left the Bucs (2-13) tied with the Colts, a 24-14 winner over Buffalo, for the worst record in the NFL.

If both teams close the season with losses next week, Tampa Bay is assured of having the No. 1 pick in the 1987 NFL draft because it has played a weaker schedule than Indianapolis.

“It’s not a position I’m very happy about,” Buccaneer Coach Leeman Bennett said after Randy Wright, Gerry Ellis and Paul Ott Carruth ran for touchdowns to help the Packers (4-11) win for the third time in their last five games.

“I haven’t given the draft a lot of thought yet,” Bennett added. “I thought we would win this ball game. If I knew we were going to lose it, perhaps I’d given it more thought.

“I don’t think any of us in this room go into the game with the idea that we’re going to lose, regardless of the draft choice,” Bennett continued. “We go to St. Louis (next week) with the idea that we’re going to play and win the ball game.”

Wright, the Packers’ quarterback, scrambled six yards for a 7-0 lead late in the second quarter. Ellis and Carruth scored on runs of two and one yards, respectively, in the second half.

The Green Bay defense also sacked Tampa Bay quarterback Steve Young seven times with seven different players.

The loss before a Tampa Stadium crowd of 30,099 was the sixth straight for the Bucs.

There has been speculation that Bennett will be fired after the season, and a report aired on CBS’s “NFL Today” Sunday said Buccaneer owner Hugh Culverhouse has offered the job to Alabama Coach Ray Perkins. Culverhouse denied the report.