Tom Brady and Bruce Arians knew that this was a game they had to have. And they got it. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers used a late game surge to beat the Panthers, 46-23 at Bank of America Stadium on Sunday afternoon.
A Tight First Half
The Bucs fell into a hole early, after a quick fumble by Ronald Jones. The Panthers converted on that turnover by punching it in the endzone via a Teddy Bridgewater touchdown pass to Colin Thompson. But after that, the Bucs responded. Tom Brady threw a dot to Cameron Brate for a Tampa Bay touchdown. Immediately after that, DJ Moore caught two passes for 20 yards or more on what was a four play scoring drive for the Panthers. In case you’re wondering, the second pass he caught was a touchdown. That made the score 14-7 in favor of the Panthers. Then, both teams traded field goals.
After that, Tom Brady drove his team down the field in an impressive fashion. He capped off a nine play 75 yard drive with a 3 yard touchdown pass to Mike Evans. It would not be fair if we didn’t mention Brady’s 44 yard pass to Rob Gronkowski to set them up at the 4 yard line. The game was tied at 17 heading into the half.
Cruise Control
After driving the Bucs down to grab three points at the start of the half, Tom Brady’s job was as easy as it has ever been before. Just hand the ball off to Ronald Jones. Ronald Jones took a handoff from the two, and went 98 yards to the house. That was the longest run in Buccaneers history. The Buccaneers fortune only got better. After a quick interception by Jason Pierre-Paul, the Bucs could not cash in at the goal line, so they took three. But, they had extended their lead to 12. And after another turnover on downs by the Panthers, the Bucs got another field goal on the board heading into the fourth.
The Panthers started off the fourth quarter with a bang. On the ensuing kickoff, Trenton Cannon returned the kick 98 yard to the Tampa Bay four. Then, Bridgewater sneaked it in for a touchdown. The two point conversion failed, and the lead was cut to 9. The Bucs responded with a 9 play, 75 yard drive that ended with six. This came courtesy of a Tom Brady QB sneak into the endzone. The Bucs would later tack on one more touchdown, this time to Rob Gronkowski before it was all set and done.
Up Next:
The Bucs will be tested by the Los Angeles Rams on Monday Night Football from Tampa Bay. Kickoff is at 8:15 PM EST on ESPN.