This Time, Mistakes Go Tampa Bay’s Way

A rare victory on the West Coast, a career performance by Trent Dilfer, and suddenly, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are on their first winning streak in the Tony Dungy era.

The Buccaneers rattled San Diego’s playoff chances with a 25-17 victory Sunday, only the second time in 21 games that they’ve won on the West Coast.

“This is a great win for us,” said Dungy, who is 3-8 in his first season as head coach. “Normally in November and December, [the Chargers] are coming through and winning these games. It’s big stuff for us to come out here, make some mistakes, face some adversity, but still win the ballgame.”

The Buccaneers were coming off a 20-17 overtime victory over the Oakland Raiders.

Six days after beating Detroit, 27-21, in an exciting Monday night game, the Chargers (6-5) got a tough shot of reality. They were held to only three points in the final 49 minutes, 12 seconds, and Tampa Bay turned two interceptions of Stan Humphries into 10 points in a span of 2 1/2 minutes in the fourth quarter.

“It’s an embarrassment to the players,” safety Kevin Ross said.

“It was apparent early in the game that we were missing,” said Coach Bobby Ross, who complained to his players at halftime about their lack of intensity.

Donnie Abraham’s interception set up Michael Husted’s 27-yard field goal to pull the Buccaneers to 17-16 with 8:32 left, and John Lynch’s pickoff and 25-yard return set up Errict Rhett’s one-yard dive with 6:02 left for a 22-17 lead.

Dilfer completed 30 of 40 passes for 327 yards, with one interception. The yards, completions and completion percentage (.750) were career bests for the third-year pro.

“We’ve crumbled under adversity in the past,” said Dilfer, who threw only five touchdowns and 24 interceptions in his first two seasons. “What we’ve been able to do lately is maintain our poise, stick together and keep believing that the game is never over.”