The 1979 Tampa Bay Buccaneers season saw the team make a dramatic leap from being a winless expansion franchise, perceived as mistake-prone and ridiculed by the rest of the league, to becoming a serious contender for the National Football League (NFL) championship. The Buccaneers added offensive threats to complement their solid defense; a healthy Doug Williams played his first full season and Ricky Bell became the team's first 1,000-yard back, rushing for a career-high 1,263 yards. The 1979 team not only posted their first winning record, but earned a playoff spot by winning the National Football Conference (NFC) Central division. The playoff spot was secured in the final week in a rain-sodden game against the Kansas City Chiefs, with the only score being a 19-yard field goal by Neil O'Do