ST. LOUIS - The St. Louis Rams want to party again like it's 1999.

The Greatest Show on Turf won the Super Bowl that season, and the kind of big plays that marked that team's championship highlighted Monday night's 28-21 victory over Tampa Bay.

A defense that had only two takeaways in five games got four against the Buccaneers, including Adam Archuleta's 93-yard fumble runback. Torry Holt, a rookie in '99 and now an All-Pro receiver, had two long touchdown receptions.

One week after a sensational comeback win in Seattle in which the Rams began to look like, well, the Rams, Archuleta believes the team is ready to go on a roll.

"We need some consecutive wins," the safety said. "We have had a couple of tough games and we've been battling the entire season. We're just trying to get on a run."

Archuleta ran untouched down the sideline after stripping Michael Pittman of the ball. It was the biggest of a bunch of takeaways, giving the Rams a 21-14 lead.

"That's something we wanted to establish as a defense," Archuleta said. "We hadn't been getting turnovers through the preseason and the first few games."

Holt, who had a 52-yard TD reception on the first series, got the winning points on a 36-yard pass, beating double coverage with 10:46 remaining. Holt finished with six catches for 124 yards.

He'd like nothing better than to have the Rams of 2004 turn into the Rams of five years ago.

"We put it together tonight for some big plays," Holt said. "I wish we could wind it back to '99 and make it look easy. But now it's a challenge to us as football players and as a team to get those big plays.

"If it was like back in 1999, that'd be great. But those days have passed. Now we really have to rely on our skills and what we do in training camp and practice. If we grind and grind, eventually we are going to get some breaks."

Still, you have to capitalize on such breaks, and the Rams (4-2) did so Monday to move into sole possession of first place in the NFC West, a half-game in front of the Seahawks.

Marc Bulger threw for 264 yards and Marshall Faulk's 1-yard run gave him 100 career touchdowns rushing, the sixth player in league history to do that. Top draft pick Steven Jackson split backfield chores with Faulk and contributed 78 yards overall.

The game stayed close in part because Brian Griese and Michael Clayton had big nights for Tampa Bay (1-5).

Griese finished 27-of-40 for 286 yards and Clayton had eight receptions for 142 yards.

The Bucs got to the St. Louis 15 on the final drive, but Aeneas Williams forced Tim Brown's fumble and Jerametrius Butler recovered.

Archuleta made his steal midway in the third quarter, one play after Ian Gold's 31-yard interception return put the Bucs at the St. Louis 15.

Bucs coach Jon Gruden challenged the play to no avail.

"I think everybody in America could see he was down," Gruden said of Pittman.

"It's very frustrating," Pittman said. "I had one of the biggest turnovers and I feel bad about it. I feel like I let my teammates down.

"Turnovers killed us."

Yep.

But there also was a fumble then helped the Bucs. Greg Spires' second sack of the game shook Bulger, who lost the ball at his 20. Anthony McFarland recovered and it led to Will Heller's 1-yard TD catch, tying it 21-21 heading into the fourth quarter.

Earlier, Mike Alstott's 1-yard TD run on the Bucs' first offensive series was set up by Clayton's 19- and 9-yard catches. In the second quarter, Clayton beat DeJuan Groce deep for 44 yards, setting up a third-down 5-yard toss to Pittman for a 14-7 lead.

But Tampa started giving away the ball, and eventually the game.

On third down from the Tampa Bay 7, John Wade's snap never made it to Griese, even though the quarterback was set up behind center, not in the shotgun. Leonard Little dived on the ball for St. Louis at the 5.

It took the Rams four running plays to get into the end zone, with Faulk stretching the ball over the goal line.

Jeff Wilkins, who sprained his left ankle in the first half, missed two field goals for St. Louis. Martin Gramatica missed two for Tampa Bay.