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5 Plays That Made A Difference

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By ROY CUMMINGS | The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 10, 2007

Just as he did a week ago in New Orleans, Bucs coach Jon Gruden took an aggressive approach to his play calling Sunday. Faced with a fourth-and-2 from the Texans' 34 just 4:36 into the game, Gruden decided to go for it. He ran Earnest Graham up the middle, but just as defensive end Mario Williams had done one play earlier, safety Will Demps stopped Graham well short of the first down marker. That allowed the Texans to take possession and 12 plays, 66 yards and 6:19 later, they took a 7-0 lead when Sage Rosenfels hit Andre Johnson with a 4-yard TD pass.

It took Greg White about one quarter to figure out how to beat left tackle Ephraim Salam. Once White had Salam measured, it took him all of about three plays to make him pay. After beating Salam and getting a hand on Rosenfels' shoulder to disrupt a throw on a second-and-6 play from the Texans' 31, White got into the Texans backfield again and fully stripped Rosenfels of the ball one play later. Jovan Haye fell on the loose ball at the Texans' 25 and five plays later, the price the Texans paid for White's play increased as Graham ran into the end zone from 4 yards out to help tie the game.

Houston safety Will Demps caused the Bucs a lot of problems in the first half. He stopped Graham on that fourth-and-2 to kill the Bucs' first drive and he killed off their fourth drive by plowing into receiver Ike Hilliard and forcing a fumble at the end of a third-and-7 play from the Texans' 16 late in the second quarter. Demps recovered the fumble as well and like his first big play, this one set up a Texans touchdown. This one came three plays later, when Kevin Walter caught a pass from Rosenfels and muscled his way into the end zone to give Houston a 14-7 lead.

The Texans have been around for six years. During that time, they have done something four times that the Bucs never have done during their 31 years of existence. We're talking, of course, about returning a kickoff for a touchdown. The fourth of those returns came Sunday when Andre Davis took the second-half kickoff, slowly followed a wedge of blockers for a few yards, then quickly cut outside to the right. Davis raced down the sideline to finish off a 97-yard return that extended the Texans' lead to 21-7.

Greg White had saved the Bucs again. Along with Gaines Adams, he had tracked down a scrambling Sage Rosenfels and stripped him of the ball, creating a fumble that Jovan Haye recovered to keep the Texans from turning a long third-quarter drive into a long third-quarter scoring drive. Three plays later, though, Luke McCown gave the ball right back. A snap from center John Wade that McCown didn't seem ready for bounced off his hand and to the ground. Safety C.C. Brown recovered and four plays later, Houston re-established its two-touchdown lead, Rosenfels hitting Owen Daniels with a 4-yard TD pass.

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