 |
| |
|
 |
 |
|
|
|||||||||||||||||
|
Sapp: 'There was nothing they could do' Posted: Sunday January 26, 2003 11:54 PMUpdated: Monday January 27, 2003 12:24 AM
SAN DIEGO (AP) -- When he was done praising the Steel Curtain and the Doomsday Defense, Warren Sapp was ready for a definitive statement -- one that would define his Tampa Bay Buccaneers as the best unit in NFL history. "We had to have that championship before we could say anything," Sapp said Sunday night after a 48-21 romp over the Oakland Raiders in the Super Bowl. "Now you can put us in the same sentence as the Ravens and the Steel Curtain. "But I don't think any of them faced the kind of offense like we did. None of them went into the Super Bowl and played the No. 1 offense. And we put a stranglehold on them." Although the Raiders made a belated comeback in the fourth quarter, they never really got on track against the league's stingiest defense. The Bucs had a fearsome pass rush all game, and although Sapp had only two tackles and one sack, he applied constant pressure in the middle.
Oakland ran for all of 19 yards, mostly because Sapp made the Raiders one-dimensional. That led to five interceptions, three of them returned for touchdowns, and five sacks. Raiders quarterback Rich Gannon, the NFL's most valuable player this season, called it a "nightmarish performance." Sapp was right in the middle of that nightmare. "We had an inferno going," said Sapp, who probably needed an inferno to light the foot-long cigar he was carrying around. "There was nothing they could do to us. Nothing. "Once we dig that hole, we drag you in and then pour dirt on you." |
|
|||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||
