Buccaneers blow 18 point lead, lose to Giants 32-31

After a dominating first half, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers managed to blow an 18 point lead and lose in heartbreaking fashion to the New York Giants.

It’s a Bucs life, I guess. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers drop to 1-2 on the season after a devastating loss to the New York Giants at home. In a game that featured an 18 point lead, a rookie quarterback, and the injury to the Giants’ best player, the second half looked like a complete lock for the Buccaneers.

Then the third quarter happened.

Rewinding to even before the third quarter, however, the Buccaneers were forced to live with a 12-0 lead after rookie kicker Matt Gay missed both extra points on the first two scores. In a bounceback game, Mike Evans could not be contained, well until the Buccaneers stop looking his way.

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Jameis Winston had a blazing first half, and a decent second half, until the Buccaneers decided to stop throwing the ball after one bad interception. The play calling in the second half got way too conservative, and as the cliche goes, the Bucs were playing not to lose, and not to win.

In the first half of the game, Evans had over 150 yards receiving and three touchdowns, while Winston looked very much in rhythm. The Giants came out and scored on their first drive of the second half, and from there on out, the Bucs tried to control the clock to keep the ball on the ground; in exchange, they sacrificed their biggest contributors to their lead, and their lead altogether.

The defensive secondary looked completely shellshocked in the second half, featuring Vernon Hargreaves getting beat on multiple occasions, and the lack of awareness to turn around in coverage as the rookie Daniel Jones was tucking the ball and running. The defensive front, once again, played to the tune of five sacks and a ton of pressure, but the back half did not hold up their end of the bargain.

A defensive bright spot in this one, edge rusher Shaquil Barrett continues his torrid pace, topping his three sack performance a week ago with four today, including a strip sack. Carl Nassib added a ton more pressure and recorded a sack and a fumble recovery of his own.

The second half was all Jones, as the rookie looked poised and determined in his first career start in the NFL. Jones torched the Buccaneers’ defense with 336 passing yards and two scores through the air, but crushed them with his legs as well, running for an additional two touchdowns, including the game-winner.

Props to Winston and the Bucs’ offense on the last drive, however, as he connected on back-to-back strikes to Chris Godwin and Evans to get the Bucs inside the Giants’ ten yard line. After an unusual delay of game and a kneel down, the Bucs trotted out their rookie kicker, looking to redeem himself for the game winner.

Wide right.

Gay left five points on the board for the pewter and red as they suffered a heartbreaking defeat to the Giants. They will look to bounce back next week as they travel to Los Angeles to take on the defending NFC Champion Rams.