The Buccaneers ran that Bears two-point play—in 2000

The Chicago Bears ran a masterful two-point play last night. It didn’t get them the win against the Minnesota Vikings, but it sure got them a lot of attention and coverage.

And, sure, it was pretty. Just look at this:

Turns out, though, the Bears were far from the first team to run this. In fact, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers did the same thing way back in 2000, with Shaun King at quarterback, Warrick Dunn and Mike Alstott the two runners, and Les Steckel as the offensive coordinator.

All of that was discovered by Scott Roussel of The Football Scoop, who are best-known for covering college football. Watch and enjoy.

The good old days, when the Bucs had a mostly terrible offense but a defense so dominant that it didn’t really matter: the playoffs were coming regardless. Except for that season, because the Bucs actually had a reasonably competent offense that year. Which allowed them to do things like this—not out of desperation, but because they could.

Unfortunately, the Bucs lost that game in overtime, which stopped them from getting a possibly bye week or at least an opportunity to avoid the Philadelphia Eagles in Philly in the first round of the playoffs. And that, in turn, led to their early exit—and eventually, Tony Dungy’s early exit. Which then led to a Super Bowl. It’s weird how things work out.