the bucs played against tennessee titans in the super bowl.
the bucs played against tennessee titans in the super bowl.
who did the bucs play in the super bowl?
tennessee titans
the bucs went on to rout gruden’s former team, the oakland raiders, by a score of 48–21 in super bowl xxxvii. gruden’s familiarity with the raiders’ players and playbook paid off, as john lynch and other bucs players recognized some of oakland's formations and plays at crucial points in the game. the bucs became the first team to win the super bowl without any picks in the first two rounds of the previous spring's nfl draft, having traded these picks to the oakland raiders for the rights to acquire gruden. gruden became the youngest head coach to win a super bowl.
history of the tampa bay buccaneers
the poor 2009 record of tampa bay was in part due to a youthful, inexperienced team (barring a few exceptions such as 35-year-old cb ronde barber, the last remaining member of the 2002 super bowl team), and it was hoped that they would improve with time. the buccaneers got off to a 2–0 start in 2010 by beating cleveland and carolina, but both proved weak opponents and they could never handle pittsburgh, a team only two years removed from its 2008 super bowl win, losing 38–13. following their bye week, they beat the bengals in cincinnati 24–21. after the road victory in cincinnati, the bucs came home to face the defending super bowl champion saints, who were struggling after a loss to the arizona cardinals in which the cardinals did not score an offensive touchdown, but capitalized on new orleans turnovers. a victory would have helped the bucs towards first place in the nfc south; however, they were blown out 31–6. the next week saw another home deficit against the st. louis rams with the bucs trailing 6–17 at halftime. strong defense shut down the rams’ offense in the second half, and with two field goals and a late touchdown pass to carnell “cadillac” williams, the bucs topped the rams 18–17. after the game with the team standing at 4–2, head coach raheem morris would famously state, “we’re the best team in the nfc.” the following week, the bucs would make good on morris's claim by defeating the arizona cardinals on the road in a game where they led 31–14, fell behind late 35–31, then retook the lead 38–35 and sealed the victory with an aqib talib interception of cardinals quarterback derek anderson near the end zone. with the bucs and the atlanta falcons tied for first place in the division at 5–2, a matchup in atlanta gave the bucs a chance to take sole possession of first place. trailing 27–14 in the second half, bucs returner micheal spurlock returned a falcons kickoff for a touchdown to put the bucs within a touchdown of the lead. the game came down to fourth down attempt to score from the falcons 1 yard-line. rookie running back legarrette blount was stopped up the middle and gave the falcons the close victory. following the tough loss, the bucs came home and defeated the carolina panthers 31–16 before going on the road against the san francisco 49ers and pitching a 21–0 shutout. the next week, the bucs road game against the baltimore ravens, their fourth game away from raymond james stadium in five weeks, was moved to a late start, and the bucs lost a hard-fought defensive struggle 17–10. finally returning home the next week, the team sported their throwback creamsicle uniforms and honored coach john mckay at halftime in a home contest against the falcons on national television. with a great defensive performance and two interceptions of falcons quarterback matt ryan, it seemed the bucs would get revenge on the falcons for their loss four weeks ago, leading 24–14 deep in the second half. but falcons returner eric weems returned a kick for a touchdown and the falcons scored offensively to take a 28–24 lead. quarterback josh freeman attempted the late comeback as he had against the browns, bengals, rams, and cardinals, but was denied with a brent grimes interception. at 7–5, the bucs’ playoff hopes seemed less assured, and the team had yet to defeat an opponent with a winning record, while several key starters had been lost for the season. in a rainy outing at washington, the bucs prevailed 17–16 thanks to a botched extra-point attempt by the redskins, but lost to the detroit lions at home in overtime to break the lions' historic road losing streak. needing help to make the playoffs as a wild-card team, the bucs routed the eventual nfc west champion seattle seahawks 38–15 in tampa. with the last week of the regular season on the slate, the bucs needed to defeat the new orleans saints in the superdome, then hope for the defeats of the green bay packers and the new york giants by the chicago bears and washington redskins, respectively, as both teams held playoff tiebreakers over the buccaneers. the saints planned to fight the bucs equally hard, as a victory and a falcons loss to the carolina panthers would give them the #1 seed in the nfc. the game was close and hard-fought throughout the first half, but two key turnovers by the bucs defense, a barrett ruud forced fumble of saints running back julius jones near the bucs' goal line and an interception of saints quarterback drew brees near the end of the half, gave the bucs the slight edge. a saints field goal in the fourth quarter cut the tampa bay lead to 20–13, but with the falcons holding a large lead over the panthers, saints coach sean payton chose to sit brees and put in backup chase daniel. the bucs held on and won the game 23–13, finishing the season with a 10–6 record, their best since 2005. however, the packers and giants both won close games as well, thus sending the eventual super bowl champion packers to the playoffs. for the second time in three years, the bucs had finished with a winning record, yet missed the playoffs. the season marked a 7-game improvement over the previous one, and was highlighted by the superb play of second-year quarterback josh freeman and a strong rookie class led by gerald mccoy, arrelious benn, mike williams, cody grimm, and legarrette blount. no buccaneers were selected to the pro bowl, but left tackle donald penn did play in the game as a replacement for green bay's chad clifton, marking penn's first appearance. raheem morris finished second in ap nfl coach of the year voting, and mike williams finished second in offensive rookie of the year voting.
history of the tampa bay buccaneers