There Is No Room at Top for Buccaneers

The Minnesota Vikings and Tampa Bay Buccaneers showed again it’s easier to ignore off-the-field turmoil than hide mounting problems on the field.

Minnesota (6-2) pulled out of a first-place tie with Green Bay (5-2) and Tampa Bay (5-3) in the NFC Central with a 10-6 victory over the Buccaneers, who limited the usually high-powered Viking offense to one touchdown for the second time this season.

The victory was the fourth in five games for the Vikings, who didn’t admit to being distracted by the release Thursday of Coach Dennis Green’s autobiography, “No Room For Crybabies.”

In the book, Green outlines a plan to take over controlling interest in the team and threatens to sue the team’s owners if they don’t sell to him.

“The accounts written in the paper are inaccurate. I never said what I will do. I said what I might do,” Green said.

What can’t be disputed is that Tampa Bay, on a three-game losing streak, is struggling with Trent Dilfer at quarterback. The Buccaneers were outgained, 253-80, in the first three quarters and had only one prolonged drive that resulted in their lone touchdown--Dilfer’s two-yard pass to Reidel Anthony in fourth quarter.

“Nothing really worked today and I’m as disappointed after this game as I’ve been all season,” said Dilfer, who was 15 of 29 for 188 yards.

Minnesota struggled after losing leading rusher Robert Smith to a sprained ankle. Charles Evans scored the only Viking touchdown at the end of the third quarter, though he didn’t appear to get the ball across the goal line on his one-yard dive.