Dateline: Saturday April 24, 1986. Tampa Bay won a hard fought defensive battle against Memphis Saturday afternoon. Both teams struggled on offense with less than 100 yards rushing and 7 turnovers combined. John Reeves threw 49 times, completing only 21, and throwingg 2 interceptions. Perhaps Tampa should have changed their gameplan for this game. Greg Boone ran 9 times for 56 yards, including 2 over 10 yards and first downs plus a long of 31. He also fumbled the ball twice, losing one, so that’s a consideration as well.
Reeves’ counterpart on Memphis, the talented but sometimes error prone Walter Lewis threw for one touchdown. However, he completed only 9 passes of 26 attempts and threw 3 interceptions. Memphis’ defense kept Tampa out of the end zone for much of the game, trailing only 12-10 and with possesion until Eric Wilson covered the botched snap for the go ahead touchdown. Memphis also had a chance to take the lead, but the kick went wide.
Memphis travels to New Orleans. Tampa is off to Chicago.
