Barry Sanders ran into a swarm of red jerseys every time he received the ball and by shackling the league's most successful running back, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers emerged victorious over the Detroit Lions in the playoffs.
Stopping Sanders, only the third man to rush 2,000 yards in a single season, was the Bucs' top priority and they succeeded superbly. Sanders can turn a game decisively with a couple of scintillating bursts, but on Sunday his longest run was only 15 yards in the third quarter and it led to nothing as Scott Mitchell's fourthdown pass to Herman Moore fell incomplete. Sanders, who had 14 consecutive 100 yard games coming into Sunday's NFC wild card play-off, finished with only 65 yards on 18 carries.
"The key was not to allow the big play. We know he was going to get five-yard, 10-yard gains, but we stopped him from breaking away," said John Lynch, who tackled Sanders head-on in the fourth quarter.
The big running plays came from the Bucs, finally enjoying the fruits of success after 14 losing seasons on the trot. Tampa's killer blow came in the third quarter when Mike Alstott shot through a huge hole up the middle, broke a couple of tackles and strode off for a 31-yard touchdown. That gave Tampa a 20-0 lead.
The Lions managed to get 10 points, but by then the Bucs were already looking ahead to their next game, a daunting rematch with the supremely confident Green Bay Packers, the defending champs, in the chilling cold of Green Bay.
In the other NFC match-up, the Minnesota Vikings will take on the 49ers in San Francisco after pulling out a victory in the last 90 seconds against the New York Giants on Saturday. It all points to a showdown between Green Bay and San Francisco for the NFC title.
In the AFC wild card game, Dan Marino wrote another chapter in his long history of play-off frustration. Now 37, Marino increasingly looks like one of the best quarterbacks to never flaunt a Super Bowl ring. Miami harboured great hopes with the arrival of supercoach Jimmy Johnson. But with an ineffective running game, the team has again become a one-man band around Marino and with no stellar receivers to support him, Marino simply cannot win on his own.
So it went against the New England Patriots, who came out with a simple game plan - blitz Marino relentlessly. With receivers capable of big plays, Marino might have punished the Patriots for throwing defenders at him. That was not the case. Lamar Thomas had two catchable fourth-quarter passes glance off his hands, one after Marino stepped out of a defender's grasp. Miami gained only 42 rushing yards.
Chad Plummer threw for a touchdown and ran for another score and Cornelius Bonner caught two touchdown passes as Cincinnati ended the longest Division I-A post-season drought with a 35-19 victory over Utah State in the inaugural Humanitarian Bowl last night. Deontey Kenner, who rotated at quarterback with Plummer, completed 10-of-15 passes for 125 yards and one touchdown for Cincinnati, who had not played in the post-season since a 14-13 loss to West Texas State in the 1951 Sun Bowl. The Bearcats had not won a bowl game since a 33-13 victory over Toledo in the 1949 Glass Bowl.Plummer, voted the game's Most Valuable Player, completed 5-of-10 for 61 yards while rushing 15 times for 53 yards.
