Sunday October 31, 1993 - Atlanta Falcons vs. Tampa Bay Buccaneers Gameday Report

WON - Tampa Bay Buccaneers 31 Atlanta Falcons 24

There are streaks and there are streaks, but Bucs receiver Horace Copeland is in a zone of his own. The past four passes aimed at Copeland, the mercurial Miami rookie, have turned into touchdowns. Copeland came off the bench in the third quarter to help Tampa Bay build a 31-3 lead by catching scoring passes of 60 and 44 yards on consecutive plays from scrimmage.

At one point, the Bucs were forced to hang on for dear life as Bobby Hebert brought the Falcons back from the dead. Atlanta had the ball at the Tampa 9-yard line late in the fourth quarter, but Chidi Ahanotu batted down Hebert's fourth-down pass to preserve the buccaneers victory.

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GAMEDAY BRIEF

WEATHER: Cold with Snow Flurries - 72°F.| 38°F. - Wind Chill mid 20's

OFFICALS

REFEREE: Jerry Markbreit
UMPIRE: Chad Brown
LINE JUDGE: Dale Orem
SIDE JUDGE: Howard Slavin
HEAD LINESMAN: Terry Gierke
BACK JUDGE: Ken Baker
FIELD JUDGE: Don Hakes
REPLAY OFFICAL: Not Documented

SCORING

BUCCANEERS: 3:37-1Q Workman 42 pass from Erickson (Husted kick)
BUCCANEERS: 6:07-2Q Cobb 5 pass from Erickson (Husted kick)
BUCCANEERS: 0:19-2Q Husted FG34
FALCONS: 5:13-3Q Johnson FG34
BUCCANEERS: 3:53-3Q Copeland 60 pass from Erickson (Husted kick)
BUCCANEERS: 2:21-3Q Copeland 44 pass from Erickson (Husted kick)
FALCONS: 2:00-3Q Rison 53 pass from Hebert (Johnson kick)
FALCONS: 14:50-4Q Rison 9 pass from Hebert (Johnson kick)
FALCONS: 9:37-4Q Pritchard 5 pass from Hebert (Johnson kick)

STARTERS OFFENSE

QB: #7 Erickson
LT: #74 Gruber
LG: #67 Sullivan
C: #61 Mayberry
RG: #62 Beckles
RT: #76 Dill
TE: #82 Hall
TE: #86 Armstrong
WR: #87 Thomas
FB: #46 Workman
RB: #34 Cobb

STARTERS DEFENSE

LDE: #98 Seals
DT: #77 Wheeler
RDE: #75 Curry
MLB: #56 Nickerson
RLB: #51 Thomas
DB: #24 Jones
DB: #44 Anderson
LCB: #35 Mayhew
SS: #23 M. Carter
FS: #41 King
RCB: #29 Reynolds

SUBSTITUTIONS

4 Stryzinski, 5 Husted, 20 Gray, 21 Mack, 27 Bussey, 33 Royster, 40 Anderson, 47 Lynch, 53 Brady,54 Williams, 55 Brownlow, 64 Ryan, 70 McRae, 71 Dotson, 72 Taylor, 83 Moore, 84 Wilson, 85 Hawkins, 88 Copeland, 90 Ahanotu, 93 DuBose, 96 Wilson

DID NOT PLAY

17 DeBerg

INACTIVE

511 Weldon, 37 McDowell, 43 Harris, 50 Burnette, 66 Reimers, 73 Adams, 81 Claiborne

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING

BUCCANEERS: Cobb 18-75, Erickson 3-8, Anderson 9-7, Armstrong 2-5, Royster 2-3.
FALCONS: Pegram 15-68.

PASSING

BUCCANEERS: Erickson 28-18-318-2-4.
FALCONS: Hebert 47-25-277-1-3.

RECIEVING

BUCCANEERS: Anderson 5-51, Workman 4-56, Hawkins 3-45, Copeland 2-104, Cobb 2-19, Wilson 1-23, Armstrong 1-20.
FALCONS: Rison 11-147, Haynes 7-49, Pritchard 4-45, Hill 1-17, Lyons 1-10, Pegram 1-9.

INTERCEPTIONS

BUCCANEERS: Nickerson 1-6.
FALCONS: Eaton 1-0, Sanders 1-0.

KICK RETURNS

BUCCANEERS: Anderson 2-26.
FALCONS: Smith 2-79, Montgomery 1-20, Sanders 1-13.

PUNT RETURNS

BUCCANEERS: Anderson 3-31.
FALCONS: Smith 4-62.

SACKS

BUCCANEERS: Seals 1-8.
FALCONS: Case 1-7, Gann 1-4.