Which players dominated the Buccaneers?

Which players were most productive against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers? Barry Sanders, Brett Favre and...Wade Wilson?

By Sander Philipse Jul 4, 2013, 11:21am EDT

Which quarterback is the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' nemesis? That's a question Football Perspective answered for every NFL team, and the result isn't surprising: it was Brett Favre, if you measure it by total passing yards. But what does the rest of the top 10 look like? And what happens when we look at other positions, too?

The greatness of Wade Wilson

Brett Favre was the most productive passer against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers by most measures, but he certainly wasn't the most efficient. That's what happens when you face one of the best defenses in NFL history twice a year. Drew Brees and Matt Ryan didn't exactly do that, so they're not that far behind and likely to overtake Favre's records.

Brees is just 1,113 yards short of topping Favre's total yards, so that will probably take, what, 1.5 games? The touchdown record is as good as gone, too: Brees needs just four more to get that one. Ryan's much further off, and the Bucs have actually done well against him. 10 touchdowns and 10 interceptions in 10 games with barely over 200 yards per game -- that's fairly awful. In fact, the Falcons offense always seems to struggle against the Bucs. Of course, they still won seven of those games.

But the quarterback who was most dominant against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers? Wade Wilson of Vikings fame. Anyone remember him? A well below-average passer for most of his career who somehow crushed the Bucs, winning 8 games and losing just one, throwing for a ridiculous 9 yards per attempt, 14 touchdowns and 6 interceptions. Of course, doing that against the 1980s Buccaneers is basically the equivalent of stomping on some kittens.

Interestingly, the only player in the top 10 to not be a division rival is Joe Montana.

									Passing
Rk	Player	From	To	Tm	G	W	L	T	Cmp	Att	Cmp%	Yds	TD	Int	Rate	Y/A	AY/A
1	Brett Favre	1992	2005	GNB	23	15	8	0	474	774	61.24%	5125	37	23	84.3	6.62	6.24
2	Drew Brees	2004	2012	TOT	15	9	6	0	356	527	67.55%	4012	33	14	99.9	7.61	7.67
3	Tommy Kramer	1978	1989	MIN	15	12	3	0	249	416	59.86%	2852	18	14	80.9	6.86	6.21
4	Jake Delhomme	2002	2010	TOT	13	10	3	0	202	335	60.30%	2465	16	15	80.3	7.36	6.30
5	Lynn Dickey	1977	1985	GNB	9	5	3	1	179	285	62.81%	2216	8	19	68.4	7.78	5.34
6	Joe Montana*	1979	1993	TOT	9	8	1	0	190	275	69.09%	2106	11	6	95.8	7.66	7.48
7	Matt Ryan	2008	2012	ATL	10	7	3	0	181	298	60.74%	2069	10	10	78.8	6.94	6.10
8	Wade Wilson	1984	1994	TOT	9	8	1	0	144	219	65.75%	1959	14	6	104.0	8.95	8.99
9	Jim McMahon	1982	1996	TOT	10	9	1	0	142	224	63.39%	1831	10	8	89.0	8.17	7.46
10	Jim Harbaugh	1988	1994	TOT	11	6	5	0	130	216	60.19%	1694	8	6	85.7	7.84	7.33

Provided by Pro-Football-Reference.com: View Original Table

You can find the full list here.

Barry Sanders dominates

The Bucs weren't very lucky with the running backs in their division. Barry Sanders and Walter Payton for the entirety of both players' careers? What a disaster. Both were a joy to watch, but also incredibly frustrating to watch. Especially Barry Sanders.

Unsurprisingly, those two players dominate the list -- but no one else really racked up yards against the Bucs. Ted Brown comes close, but at 65 yards per game he's hardly dominant. Eric Dickerson certainly was, but played just 6 games against the Bucs.

Interesting note: The modern-day backs in the top 10 aren't exactly doing much against the Bucs. None of them top 80 yards per game. That's partly a result of a shift to a passing game and the lack of feature backs in the division. In fact, it's mostly that, because the Bucs were awful at stopping the run from 2008 to 2011. So yeah. Luck, I guess.

									Rushing
Rk	Player	From	To	Tm	G	W	L	T	Att	Yds	Y/A	TD
1	Barry Sanders*	1989	1998	DET	19	12	7	0	392	2195	5.60	14
2	Walter Payton*	1977	1987	CHI	20	16	4	0	407	1629	4.00	11
3	Ted Brown	1979	1986	MIN	14	10	4	0	196	907	4.63	8
4	Deuce McAllister	2001	2008	NOR	11	6	5	0	195	795	4.08	3
5	Eric Dickerson*	1984	1991	TOT	6	5	1	0	154	768	4.99	10
6	Robert Smith	1993	2000	MIN	13	6	7	0	175	756	4.32	2
7	Neal Anderson	1986	1993	CHI	14	10	4	0	172	752	4.37	13
8	Terry Allen	1991	2001	TOT	9	5	4	0	151	707	4.68	4
9	DeAngelo Williams	2006	2012	CAR	12	7	5	0	141	675	4.79	8
10	Michael Turner	2008	2012	ATL	9	6	3	0	153	649	4.24	8

Provided by Pro-Football-Reference.com: View Original Table

You can find the full list here.

Wide receivers galore

Two Hall of Famers, one more who's almost certainly going to make it into the Hall and three more with at least solid credentials make the wide receiver list. Wide receivers loved beating up on the Bucs, I guess. Which is weird, because the Bucs have historically had a pretty good pass defense. If we ignore the games they played in the '80s -- like we do with most things from the '80s.

Steve Smith is probably going to overtake Cris Carter, soon, who mostly seems to have lived off volume rather than big plays. James Lofton's numbers stand out, too: he averaged three more yards per catch than anyone else in the top 10.

									Receiving
Rk	Player	From	To	Tm	G	W	L	T	Rec	Yds	Y/R	TD
1	Cris Carter*	1988	2001	TOT	25	14	11	0	114	1416	12.42	10
2	Steve Smith	2002	2012	CAR	20	11	9	0	91	1311	14.41	6
3	Sterling Sharpe	1988	1994	GNB	14	9	5	0	83	1114	13.42	12
4	James Lofton*	1978	1991	TOT	16	9	6	1	63	1089	17.29	4
5	Anthony Carter	1985	1993	MIN	15	12	3	0	67	909	13.57	5
6	Marques Colston	2006	2012	NOR	13	8	5	0	73	909	12.45	4
7	Herman Moore	1992	2000	DET	14	9	5	0	72	892	12.39	4
8	Brett Perriman	1988	1996	TOT	15	10	5	0	62	888	14.32	3
9	Roddy White	2005	2012	ATL	16	9	7	0	68	880	12.94	2
10	Jake Reed	1994	2002	TOT	16	9	7	0	57	854	14.98	4