New England Patriots vs. Tampa Bay Buccaneers, A Full Breakdown
On Sunday night, the New England Patriots hosted the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in a showdown that many had been looking forward to. Because not only was it the Patriots versus the Buccaneers, it was Tom Brady versus the Patriots. With the Buccaneers winning the Superbowl last season, and with a strong start to this season as well, most expected the Buccaneers to sweep the Patriots aside. However, it didn’t turn out to be quite so simple. This game was a close one all the way until the clock hit zero. In the end, though, the Buccaneers did come out on top, with the final score being 19–17. Let’s take a look at how each team scored their points.
With neither team scoring in their first drives, we head into the Buccaneers’ second offensive series, where they opened the scoring with a field goal. The attempt was from 29 yards out and was converted without a fuss. However, that wasn’t the main talking point of this drive, as Tom Brady completed a 28 yard pass to Mike Evans to tie Drew Brees for all-time passing yards in the regular season, the record being 80358 yards. Brady then completed a 4 yard pass to officially surpass Brees before the field goal was converted.
On the Patriots’ next drive, the Buccaneers defense turned up the intensity and managed to come away with the ball through an interception. The Buccaneers would drive pretty far down field, but failed to make anything of that defensive gift after kicker Ryan Succop would miss wide right from 36 yards.
It wasn’t too long after that before the Patriots came back to steal the lead, with rookie Mac Jones putting together an impressive display of passing from deep within their own territory all the way into the end zone. The final pass of the drive was caught by tight end Hunter Henry, and the Patriots led 7–3.
The Buccaneers remained resilient, though, taking three points back before the end of the first half. The drive was looking promising, with Brady connecting with Chris Godwin for a couple nice plays, but they were eventually brought to a halt, and had to settle with the field goal. This meant that the first half finished with the Patriots up 7–6.
The third quarter got a little more interesting. First, the Patriots lost the ball after a fumble by running back J.J. Taylor. The Buccaneers couldn’t get anything out of this, though, so the ball returned to the Patriots soon after. Also in the third quarter, the Buccaneers managed to steal the lead back once again, after almost losing the ball. on a failed punt return. They kept it, though, due to a penalty against the Patriots. The drive took 8 plays, and was finished off by running back Ronald Jones, who took it in from the eight-yard line. This put the Buccaneers up 13–7.
That wasn’t the end of the third quarter, though. On their next possession, the Patriots left the Buccaneers stunned with a touchdown created through six consecutive completed passes by Mac Jones, which brought the Patriots to the one yard line. The drive was then finished off with one more completed pass to the back of the end zone. This made the score 14–13.
The Buccaneers would try their hardest to find their way into the end zone once again, but the closest they came was the five yard line. They were then halted by the Patriots defense, and had to settle for another short field goal. This made the score 16–14, with the Buccaneers leading in the fourth quarter.
This was not the end of the drama of course. With just under 8 minutes left in the game, the Patriots marched their way down the field, getting to the ten yard line after receiver Jacobi Meyers threw and completed a 30 yard pass with receiver Nelson Agholor. They were stopped short of the end zone, however, and had to settle for their own short field goal conversion. This gave the Patriots a lead of 17–16, with just a few minutes remaining in the game.
On the following drive the Buccaneers found their way down field, making their way through a number of flags being thrown onto the field for penalties against both sides. They would only make it to the Patriots’ 30 yard line, but that turned out to be close enough. With 2 minutes and 2 seconds remaining, Ryan Succop just managed to convert a 48 yard field goal, giving the Buccaneers a 19–17 lead.
With the game seemingly at its end, the Patriots had to do all they could to keep the drama alive. They began marching their way down field yet again, and like the Buccaneers, they were doing with a number of flags being thrown. They made it to the Buccaneers’ 39 yard line before being stopped short. On fourth down they had a decision to make. They could either go for the 56 yard field goal, or they could go for a fourth down conversion. They decided to go for the field goal, but a loud pang that reverberated throughout the stadium signaled that the ball had bounced off the goal post and the game was over. The Buccaneers had won it, 19–17.
This game was back and forth until the very end, with excitement and talent and scrappiness all around. It was just as a showdown like this should be, and it ended with Tom Brady and the Buccaneers as the victors. If you want more big game analyses like this one, then make sure to stick around. Big games are happening all the time, and we will be covering them right here.
