Tampa Bay Buccaneers don’t care about style points, survive for victory over Giants

Tampa Bay Buccaneers don’t care about style points, but still find a way to earn victory vs. New York Giants

It may not have been pretty but the Tampa Bay Buccaneers found a way to get the job done against an extremely motivated New York Giants team Monday night.

The Buccaneers got the scoring started with a 37-yard field goal from Ryan Succop to take a 3-0 early lead and after a punt from the Giants on their opening drive, it looked as if Tampa Bay would have an opportunity to take control of the game early.

Unfortunately, that didn’t happen.

Ronald Jones II fumbled, giving the Giants the ball at the Bucs’ 12-yard line and New York would punch it in for a touchdown just three players later to take a 7-3 lead.

The two teams exchanged punts for much of the first half before the Giants went on their longest drive of the game (10 plays, 77 yards) and scored a touchdown to take a 14-3 lead with just a minute remaining in the second quarter.

The Bucs were able to tack on a field goal before halftime and then added another field goal on their first drive of the second half to cut into the lead and make it 14-9 with 10:00 remaining in the third quarter.

With 6:00 remaining in the third quarter, Tom Brady connected with Rob Gronkowski for a 3-yard touchdown pass to give the Bucs the lead. Tampa Bay attempted a two-point conversion, but couldn’t convert and that put the score at 15-14.

Just when the Buccaneers had regained the lead and seemingly grabbed momentum, the Giants went on a 9-play, 56-yard drive that ended with a field goal, giving New York a 17-15 lead heading into the fourth quarter.

The Giants got the ball back and were driving when Sean Murphy-Bunting came up with a big-time interception at the Tampa Bay 35-yard line. From there, the Bucs went on a 66-yard drive that ended with Brady finding Mike Evans for a touchdown giving Tampa a 22-17 lead with just 9:02 remaining. The Bucs added a field goal from Succop with 3:41 left to make the score 25-17, but the game wouldn’t end there.

The Giants drove down the field and capped it off with a beautiful touchdown pass from Daniel Jones to Golden Tate, bringing them within two. Having to go for two, Jones threw a pass to his right to Lewis that was broken up by rookie Antoine Winfield Jr., sealing the win for the Buccaneers.

Stat Leaders & Analysis from the Buccaneers vs. Giants matchup

Passing: Tom Brady 28-of-40 for 279 yards and two TDs.

Rushing: Leonard Fournette 15 carries for 52 yards

Receiving: Mike Evans 5 receptions for 55 yards, 1 TD; Rob Gronkowski 4 receptions for 41 yards, 1 TD; Jaydon Mickens 5 receptions for 36 yards.

Analysis:

It was clear that the Buccaneers came out flat on both sides of the ball and it took the team a while to wake up.

The most frustrating part of the night for the offense was the fact that the Buccaneers couldn’t get anything going up the middle on rushes and how the Tampa wide receivers couldn’t create any kind of separation between them and the Giants’ defensive backs. The result was a long night of ugly offense in which they couldn’t get much of anything going.

Defensively, the Bucs forced a couple of turnovers- which were absolutely needed- but they were out of position on some big plays and couldn’t get to Jones despite sending blitzes throughout the night.

In the end, Tampa found a way to win and that’s all you can ask for. This Giants team was motivated and the defense played pretty well, but the Bucs just found a way to make a few more plays and that’s a credit to the leadership and focus of this team, even if they did come out a little flat overall.

The Buccaneers will be back in action this Sunday for a massive divisional matchup against the New Orleans Saints in Raymond James Stadium.