Hey, it's "Trivia Tuesday!" Has anyone thought of that before? I should trademark it.
Of course, here on Buccaneers.com we're doing trivia every day of the work week, all throughout the month of April. I post a Daily Bucs Trivia installment each day at 10:00 a.m. and then come back and update it with the answer at 4:00 p.m. ET. There's no prize, just the pride you'll get from knowing your team and its history well. And this isn't multiple choice; you'll have to figure out the answer for yourself.
Today we're talking about players – maybe former Bucs, maybe even current Bucs – who don't like to go too many games without making a trip to the end zone. Guys like Mike Evans and Mike Alstott and Mike Williams and some other dudes not named Mike. You probably know that the A-Train is the Bucs' all-time leader in touchdowns and that Evans is number-one in scoring receptions, but either of those questions would have been too easy.
Now, it's possible that either Alstott or Evans is the answer to the upcoming trivia question, but if you've been following along this month you know that I don't usually make it that obvious. What I want you to search for today is the Buccaneer who, through 2019, has scored the most touchdowns per his overall games played with Tampa Bay.
Bucs Daily Trivia Question, April 14:
Which player in Buccaneers history has scored the most touchdowns in terms of number of games played per score?
So we're looking for the lowest number here. As an example, Chris Godwin has scored 17 touchdowns in 46 games played as a Buccaneer, so he scores at a rate of one every 2.71 games. Godwin has actually scored 17 touchdowns in his last 31 games after getting none in the first 15 games of his rookie season, so his rate is getting better fast. Still, it's better than, say, Cadillac Williams, who had 24 touchdowns in 70 games, or one every 2.92 outings.
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One note: There were two players near the top of the list who only played in the three replacement games in 1987. I chose to not include them in the results as that seemed unfair. Somebody had to score the touchdowns the Bucs got in those three games and whoever it was would have artificially inflated rates thanks to their tenures, which were very short by necessity. Otherwise, the top dozen or so players on the list are all pretty recognizable names for the average Bucs fan.
So is it Alstott or Evans, or did somebody else have a lower rate of games played per touchdown? Come back at 4:00 p.m. ET for the answer!
Answer: Okay, so this wasn't a misdirection about the A-Train. The answer is not Mike Alstott, who is the team's all-time touchdown leader but ranks "only" sixth in touchdowns scored per game. His 71 touchdowns came in 158 games, giving him one for every 2.23 games played.
Nor is the answer Mike Evans, though it almost is, and maybe Evans will get that record eventually, too. He is second on the list, with 49 touchdowns in 90 games, or one every 1.84 games. Which is really, really good.
The all-time leader in this stat I made up, however, is what you would expect: A player with a shorter career but a burst of touchdowns in that short time. And that's Lars Tate, a running back who played the 1988 and 1989 seasons for the Bucs and is best known for that time he dived over a big pile of players against the Cardinals, rolled over the mound, landed on his feet and kept on going for a 47-yard touchdown.
That was one of 17 touchdowns in those two seasons and 30 Buccaneer games for Tate, giving him a rate of one every 1.76 games. Here's the top six on the list:
1. Lars Tate: 17 TDs in 30 games, one every 1.76 games
2. Mike Evans: 49 TDs in 90 games, one every 1.84 games
3. Keenan McCardell: 15 TDs in 30 games, one every 2.00 games
4. Errict Rhett: 25 TDs in 52 games, one every 2.08 games
5. Mike Williams: 25 TDs in 52 games, one every 2.16 games
6. Mike Alstott: 71 TDs in 158 games, one every 2.23 games
By the way, if you extend this list to every player who scored at least one touchdown for the Buccaneers, the player at the very bottom, the one who needed the most games per touchdown scored, was cornerback Brian Kelly. Kelly, a very good and underrated Buc who was a starter on the Super Bowl team and that defense's leading interceptor in 2002, had one touchdown in 130 games played as a Buccaneer.