A couple of seasons back, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers suffered a tough loss to the Houston Texans on a game-winning score. This past Monday, the Buccaneers’ QB and his squad turned the tables with a dramatic final series.
Mayfield orchestrated an lengthy impressive drive that culminated with Rachaad White sprinting into the end zone from two yards out with only six seconds remaining. The Tampa rallied to top the Texans by a margin of one point. The latest outcome stood in stark difference to the franchises’ most recent matchup in H-Town back in 2023, when Stroud connected with Dell for a last-second score to snatch a 39-37 triumph.
“We expected a tough contest, and it’s nice to end up on the right part on this occasion,” the QB commented.
Mayfield accumulated for over two hundred yards and a pair of scores for the Bucs, who improved to 2-0 on the early season. A key impressive scramble on fourth down kept the final drive alive.
“That represented a excellent display of clutch execution,” Bucs head coach Bowles remarked. “Our QB on the fourth-and-10, using his legs to pick up the first down. That kind of ignited the entire drive from there.”
In the Buccaneers’ first game, Baker threw a late TD throw to the rookie with 59 seconds remaining to seal a narrow victory over the Falcons. He now matches Williams (from four decades ago) as the only Tampa Bay QBs to open a season with back-to-back clutch possessions.
The home team (winless) looked to have seized a late lead when they grabbed a five-point advantage on a long touchdown rush by the star running back with 2:10 left. Houston went for the extra points but Stroud was tackled. The second-year QB passed for 207 yards and a touchdown but struggled to advance the attack effectively for the majority of the latter portion.
“We had plenty of opportunities to win this game and we came up short on the necessary executions essential to execute,” Texans head coach Ryans stated.
The home side had registered the opening score of the contest when they took an first-quarter edge on Nico Collins’ twenty-nine-yard TD catch. This points was preceded when the QB connected with the back for a twenty-seven-yard reception on a short throw the snap earlier. The Bucs tied the game at seven apiece when the QB tossed a medium-range scoring pass to Miller on their opening possession.
The rookie caught a short touchdown catch with around ten minutes to go in the first half to place the Buccaneers ahead fourteen to ten. Egbuka, a rookie, joined the 6th receiver since the NFL-AFL merger with 3 TD catches in his initial two contests.
The home team was down by four and had not put up points in the final thirty minutes when the punter’s punt was blocked by Jakob Johnson and the Texans pounced on the football on the Buccaneers thirty-five with approximately seven minutes left. The Texans were unable to drive the ball and kicked the kicker’s 53-yard kick that cut the lead to 14-13 with a little more than time remaining to play.
Houston end Danielle Hunter created a loose ball and notched a pair of tackles for loss to bring him to one hundred and one point five in his ten-season professional journey.
The Buccaneers are now 2-0 for the 5th season in succession, the most active streak in the league.
