Philadelphia, Sept 11: The Super Bowl champions Tampa Bay Buccaneers roll to a 17-0 win over the Philadelphia Eagles. Super Bowl champions the Tampa Bay Buccaneers began the new National Football League (NFL) season with a 17-0 win at the Philadelphia Eagles on Monday (September 8). The Buccaneers had closed the Eagles old Veterans Stadium with a win in last season's National Football Conference (NFC) championship game en route to the Super Bowl title and this season they opened the Lincoln Financial Field with a shutout. Playing like the NFL's best defence, the Bucs shackled Donovan McNabb again and Joe Jurevicius made two superb catches in the end zone in a surprisingly easy win. The Buccaneers held just a 3-0 lead at half-time following a 23-yard field goal by Martin Gramatica in the second quarter. But in the second half, the Buccaneers put together two long scoring drives which consumed nearly 16 minutes. Brad Johnson was perfect in both, completing 13-of-13 passes for 119 yards, and Jurevicius capped them with outstanding catches in the end zone.


On the first drive, Jurevicius made a leaping catch in the back of the left corner of the end zone over the outstretched arm of cornerback Lito Sheppard for a 13-yard touchdown, giving the Bucs a 10-0 lead with 3:22 left in the third quarter.

Jurevicius topped that catch with an acrobatic seven-yard touchdown with 7:32 remaining in the fourth quarter. Johnson rolled to his right and fired a pass toward the goal line to Jurevicius, who was covered by cornerback Troy Vincent but tipped the ball up with his right hand to prevent a potential interception and then turned around to make a diving catch in the end zone.


National Football League standings after Monday's game (tabulate under won, lost, tied, points for, points against):


AMERICAN CONFERENCE EAST DIVISION W L T PF PA BUFFALO 1 0 0 31 0 MIAMI 0 1 0 20 21 NEW ENGLAND 0 1 0 0 31 NY JETS 0 1 0 13 16


WEST DIVISION W L T PF PA DENVER 1 0 0 30 10 KANSAS CITY 1 0 0 27 14 OAKLAND 0 1 0 20 25 SAN DIEGO 0 1 0 14 27


NORTH DIVISION W L T PF PA PITTSBURGH 1 0 0 34 15 BALTIMORE 0 1 0 15 34 CINCINNATI 0 1 0 10 30 CLEVELAND 0 1 0 6 9


SOUTH DIVISION W L T PF PA INDIANAPOLIS 1 0 0 9 6 TENNESSEE 1 0 0 25 20 HOUSTON 1 0 0 21 20 JACKSONVILLE 0 1 0 23 24


NATIONAL CONFERENCE EAST DIVISION W L T PF PA NY GIANTS 1 0 0 23 13 WASHINGTON 1 0 0 16 13 DALLAS 0 1 0 13 27 PHILADELPHIA 0 1 0 0 17


WEST DIVISION W L T PF PA SAN FRANCISCO 1 0 0 49 7 SEATTLE 1 0 0 27 10 ARIZONA 0 1 0 24 42 ST LOUIS 0 1 0 13 23


NORTH DIVISION W L T PF PA DETROIT 1 0 0 42 24 MINNESOTA 1 0 0 30 25 CHICAGO 0 1 0 7 49 GREEN BAY 0 1 0 25 30


SOUTH DIVISION W L T PF PA ATLANTA 1 0 0 27 13 TAMPA BAY 1 0 0 17 0 CAROLINA 1 0 0 24 23 NEW ORLEANS 0 1 0 10 27


Bureau Report