The people who still believed in the Raiders got up and roared, a mass of contorted bodies and faces, their mouths agape. They met each other's crazed gazes like wobbly pledges at a frat party.
There were six minutes left in the fourth quarter and the Raider Nation finally had a shared experience to write home about.
About then, big Mike Alstott tucked in a floater of a pass in the flat from Brad Johnson, lowered his shoulder and churned forward for enough yards to convert a crucial third-and-7 play. First down.
The clock ticked. Little Michael Pittman then skittered left and then right, eluding all the larger, determined men who wanted to crush him. The clock ticked some more. Another few possessions, the most feared franchise in professional football no longer wore silver and black.
The Oakland Raiders made the Buccaneers wait for their first Vince Lombardi trophy until the final minutes. But in the end, Al Davis' ruffians never mustered the grind-it-out, nasty demeanor needed to win Super Bowl XXXVII.
In fact, the most rugged thing about these Raiders was their loyal legions, the fans still holding onto that "Commitment to Excellence" mantra the last 19 years. The Raiders had not been to a Super Bowl since 1984, and if the 67,603 inside Qualcomm Stadium on Sunday knew anything, they knew the players' names from the stronger, more physical team.
Sapp. Rice. Brooks. Alstott. Pittman.
This was not a game as much as it was a confirmation of how ornery -- and talented -- Tampa Bay can be. In the hyperbolic eight-analysts-talking-at-once matchup of the NFL's No. 1 offense versus the No. 1 defense, the Buccaneers had both on a balmy San Diego evening.
When Derrick Brooks rumbled into the end zone in the final two minutes, and Dwight Smith took another interception all the way in the final seconds and Tampa Bay's 48-21 rout was secure, Keyshawn Johnson began striding along the sideline, then high-stepping and waving his arms for effect. He had six catches for 69 yards in the biggest game of his career.
Pittman carried 29 times for 124 yards -- 34 more yards than his season high. Brad Johnson settled down after an early interception, finishing with 215 yards, and two touchdowns, completing 18 of 34 passes.
This much-maligned offense, the one Jon Gruden thought about revamping in the off-season with more explosiveness, scored at will against Philadelphia in the National Football Conference title game and carved the Oakland defense on Sunday.
Gruden was brought in to upgrade the offense, to take Tampa Bay to another level. Warren Sapp joked about the US$8 million and four draft picks that the Buccaneers paid the Raiders to buy Gruden out of his contract.
"Some people were saying we got taken," Sapp said. "Now, you look at it, we didn't give them enough."
Tampa Bay's offensive line pounded the Raiders, giving Johnson all the time he needed. "We knew we had to dominate the line of scrimmage today in order to win, and we did that," Tampa Bay center Jeff Christy said.
Super Bowl XXXVII was about a lot of things. In the second quarter, it was about Tampa Bay's defense and Pittman's offense. He found nooks and crannies, making the Raiders miss, putting his head down and protecting the football so that his defense's work would not go in vain.
So many observers bought into the notion that the Buccaneers were glad to be here after falling short the last two seasons.
RSS