Tampa, Raiders into division finals
Johnson threw for 170 yards and two touchdowns and Mike Alstott rushed for two scores in the first half as the Buccaneers built a 22-point lead en route to a 31-6 rout of the 49ers in Tampa on Sunday.
In Oakland, NFL MVP Rich Gannon passed for 189 yards and two touchdowns in the second half when the Raiders seized control in a 30-10 victory over the New York Jets.
The Raiders advanced to the AFC championship game for the second time in three years and will meet the Tennessee Titans next Sunday.
The game was tied 10-10 at half-time, and Chad Pennington - the NFL leader in quarterback rating - was outplaying Gannon, who led the league with 4,689 passing yards. Pennington completed 14-of-21 passes for 98 yards and a touchdown while Gannon was 6-of-10 for 94 yards.
But the second half was another story. While Gannon directed four scoring drives and hit Jerry Porter and Jerry Rice with touchdown passes of 29 and nine yards, respectively, Pennington completed just 7 of 26 passes and was intercepted twice.
Gannon finished 20-of-30 for 283 yards.
It marked the second straight year the Jets were eliminated from the playoffs in Oakland. Last January, the Raiders rolled to a 38-24 victory over the Jets in the first round.
“We knew they were going to come after them, and they did early,” said Raiders coach Bill Callahan.
The Bucacaneers’ win was the most lopsided in post-season history for the club, which advanced to the NFC championship game for the second time in four years. They will travel to Philadelphia, who knocked the Bucs out of the playoffs each of the previous two seasons in the first round.
“We have some demons up there that would be nice to erase,” said Bucs cornerback Ronde Barber.
The inability to beat the Philadelphia Eagles and get into the endzone in the playoffs was why the Bucs fired Tony Dungy and paid the hefty price of four draft picks and $8 million to Oakland for coach Jon Gruden.
After failing to get a touchdown in their previous three postseason games under Dungy, the Bucs reached the endzone four times in six possessions in the first half, when they more than doubled the 49er in yardage, 217-94.
Tampa Bay ran 43 plays, compared to 21 for San Francisco, and converted eight of 10 third-down conversions.
“It was as good a performance the first 25 or 30 minutes as we've had all season,” Gruden said.
Johnson showed no ill effects from a back injury that sidelined him for the last two games of the season, engineering TD drives of 74, 77, 52 and 26 yards in the first half. He hit Joe Jurevicius with a 20-yard touchdown and connected with tight end Rickey Dudley on a 12-yard scoring play in a 21-point second quarter.
“I felt great,” said Johnson, who last played on December 15. “We worked all season to get to this point and we had a great game plan today.”
The 49ers pulled off the NFL’s second-biggest playoff comeback last week, rallying from a 24-point deficit to beat the New York Giants 39-38. But they didn't have a chance against the NFL’s No. 1 defence, committing four turnovers and managing just a pair of field goals by Jeff Chandler.
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
