The Bucs lost Thursday Night 19-14, to the defending world champion, New England Patriots. They started slow, and even after an early interception, that didn’t quite energize the Bucs crowd, considering, the struggling Bucs offense made the struggling Patriots defense look good on Thursday Night. The Bucs would eventually score on a diving touchdown from Doug Martin, and the Patriots took it from there until taking a 16-7 lead to the fourth quarter with them.
The Bucs offense continued to struggle down 16-7 as there was still chemistry woes with Winston and Jackson on Thursday Night, but when Winston finally hit Jackson there were signs of life in the Bucs offense. The Bucs finally scored late in the fourth quarter on a touchdown pass from Winston to Cameron Brate, to cut the deficit to two in the fourth quarter. However, the kicking game really turned in the Patriots favor as Nick Folk missed three field goals on Thursday Night, on a very controversial decision on fourth down and one with Folk already missing a field goal. Dirk Koetter decided to kick anyway and Folk missed his second field goal of the night.
The Bucs tried an onside kick after they finally scored in the fourth quarter. The kick barely traveled ten yards, and the Bucs were offsides and fortunately they held the Patriots to three and shortly got the ball back and the Bucs did put together a potential game-winning drive. Unfortunately the Bucs late rally wasn’t enough as the Bucs fall to 2-2 on the season.
The Bucs will travel out west to take on the Arizona Cardinals, a team that slaughtered them a year ago. They’ll get back to the drawing board with a week and a half to correct mistakes and get ready for the long ride out to Glendale.
Edited by: Crystal Morgan
