Buccaneers Like Being Offensive : NFC: Tampa Bay scores as many points in 27-10 victory over the Detroit Lions as it had in first three games combined.

Coach Sam Wyche knew that sooner or later good things would happen for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. And on Sunday, after three losses in which the Buccaneers managed only 27 points, they finally did.

Tampa Bay scored as many points in its victory against Detroit as it had in three listless losses to Kansas City, the New York Giants and Chicago. Reggie Cobb ran for 113 yards--seven more than the entire Buccaneer team had managed in those first three losses.

“Patience is a tough attribute to hang on to,” Wyche said. “We knew that this was a better team than our record suggests. We’re a better team than we’ve played so far. We hadn’t played the way that I knew that they were going to.”

Tampa Bay fell behind 10-0 and it looked like simply another sad Sunday for the Buccaneers. Then Michael Husted kicked a 52-yard field goal on the last play of the first half and suddenly the Tampa Bay offense came alive in the second half.

The NFL’s lowest scoring team scored three third-quarter touchdowns to turn the game around. Craig Erickson completed 14 of 25 passes for 210 yards and two touchdowns, and Cobb began rushing the ball well.

Detroit (3-2) entered as the NFC Central Division leader but that might have been misleading since the three victories came against teams with a combined record of 1-11.

“We’re still 3-2 and atop the division if you want to look at it that way,” Lion linebacker Chris Spielman said. “No matter what happens next week, we’re still in first place.”

Detroit Coach Wayne Fontes was hoping Andre Ware was the answer at quarterback. However, the Lions struggled after moving 80 yards in five plays on their first possession to take a 7-0 lead on a 20-yard touchdown run by Barry Sanders.

Sanders, the NFL’s leading rusher, ran for 50 yards on the drive and finished with 130 yards in 22 attempts.

Erik Kramer replaced Ware with five minutes left in the third quarter and wasn’t any more effective. He overthrew Herman Moore on his first series and Tampa Bay’s Joe King intercepted a pass to set up another Buccaneer touchdown.

Erickson, in his third NFL start, threw touchdown passes of 15 yards to Courtney Hawkins and 37 yards to Ron Hall.

Ware completed five of 14 passes for 56 yards. Kramer completed 11 of 24 passes for 120 yards.