The Tampa Bay Buccaneers will go into the half having defended their 10-7 lead. The 17-point first quarter was followed by a second quarter with no scores in what was a very hard-fought battle for both defenses.

The Buccaneers have been led by quarterback Josh Freeman who has connected one eight of his 14 passes for 121 yards and a touchdown. 94 of those yards came in the fast-paced first quarter. His touchdown pass fell into the hands of a sliding TE Dallas Clark from 11-yards out. WR Mike Williams leads all Buccaneer receivers with three catches for 46 yards.

Doug Martin has also hauled in one pass on a screen that he brought up field for a 26-yard gain. He has added 48 yards on his 15 carries.

Lavonte David leads the team with five total tackles. He and three other defensive players have registered tackles for a loss so far in the game.

Denver Broncos’ quarterback Peyton Manning has 108 yards passing with one touchdown, connecting on 11 of his 15 throws. His touchdown pass, oddly enough, went to DT Mitch Unrein who was brought in as an extra blocker on the play. WR Demaryius Thomas had 55 yards receiving on three grabs while TE Jacob Tamme has added 26 yards on three catches.

Knowshon Moreno has put up 45 yards on eight carries, his long going for 16 yards. The other two Denver RBs Ronnie Hillman and Lance Ball have combined for three carries and -3 yards against the league-leading run defense of the Bucs.

CB Chris Harris leads the Broncos with five total tackles. The high-powered pass rushing duo of LB Von Miller and DE Elvis Dummervil has yet to record a sack in the game.

The Denver Broncos will receive the ball first in the second half, down 10-7.

The Buccaneers ended another Denver Bronco drive, getting their offense on the field for the first time of the second half.

The defense looked to have made their second straight three-and-out against Peyton Manning and company after allowing a 9-yard first down run followed by two straight stuffs that resulted in losses. However, Peyton Manning had snapped the third-down play early, catching the Buccaneers with too many men on the field, giving them a first down.

A long 28-yard shot to WR Demaryius Thomas put the Broncos offense in Buccaneer territory with a first down. But then the defense held their ground. The first down run went for six yards. A second down play was called back from a holding penalty and the ensuing try was a run for a loss of two yards. The third down play went for no gain, forcing the Broncos to punt for the second time of the day.

The Buccaneers will begin their next drive with 10:36 remaining in the half from the eight yard line.

The Buccaneers offense is churning again! After forcing a Bronco three-and-out, the Broncos got the ball back at their 30-yard line.

To start the drive, Doug Martin took the handoff and danced his way to a two-yard gain. DT Mitch Unrein, who scored the Broncos touchdown, was called for illegal use of hands that gave the Bucs a first down.

The Buccaneers then went back to their patented long-yardage game as QB Josh Freeman let one fly down the middle and into the arms of WR Mike Williams. The pass went for 40 yards and into Bronco territory.

Two consecutive handoffs to Doug Martin gave the offense another first down at the 11-yard line. And the Bucs didn’t stall in the red zone this time. On a designed roll-out, Josh Freeman left the pocket to his right and found Dallas Clark in the end zone on a sliding grab. The touchdown is his third in four game. It is Clark’s 50th career touchdown pass and comes against his former quarterback Peyton Manning’s team.

The Buccaneers kickoff went into the end zone and was taken out to the 19-yard line. The Bucs lead the Broncos 10-7 as we near the end of the first quarter.

The Buccaneers put their first points on the board as an immediate answer to the Broncos first strike of the game.

The drive began at the 20-yard line and was immediately jump-started by a 5-yard Doug Martin run and 15-yard facemask penalty on the play. The Buccaneers took one strike downfield that fell incomplete before unleashing their rookie running back again.

QB Josh Freeman found him on a screen pass on the left side and Martin turned it up field, stiff arming and breaking tackles for a gain of 26, bringing the ball into Denver territory at the 34-yard line. He took the next carry off the left tackle again following his blockers and displaying his footwork for a gain of nine.

The offense was able to make their way to the red zone on a Luke Stocker 11-yard reception, but only made it as far as the 14-yard line, setting up a 31-yard attempt. His kick sailed through the uprights making the score 7-3.

The Buccaneers were forced into a three-and-out on their first possession of the game and punted it away to the Broncos.

After a 17-yard return, QB Peyton Manning and the Broncos set up at the 35-yard line. They opted to go to the air on seven of their 10 plays, with Manning connecting on eight of them largely right over the middle, hitting TE Jacob Tamme twice for 16 yards.

The Buccaneer were flagged three times. Once for pass interference, once for too many men on the field and once for illegal touching that added 15 yards to the drive.

From the one-yard line after a 12-yard Knowshon Moreno run, the Broncos lined up with an extra blocker, Defensive Tackle Mitch Unrein. Manning dropped back and hit his extra blocker who rolled out along the goal line. It is the first catch and the first touchdown for Unrein, vindicating anyone who was tormented 13 weeks ago for picking him up in their fantasy leagues.

The Buccaneers will begin at the 20-yard line after another touchback.

The Buccaneers lost just their second coin toss of the year. Denver gave their best Tampa Bay impression and defered, giving the Buccaneers the ball first.

The opening kickoff flew into the end zone and was taken for a touchback.

The Buccaneers will start the game with the ball at the 20 yard line.

When the Buccaneers’ offense has smelled blood in 2012 it has almost always gone in for the kill.

Tampa Bay’s offensive numbers  in “scoring territory” are outstanding this year.  The Buccaneers rank third in the NFL in red zone efficiency, which is sorted by touchdown percentage.  The Bucs have had 33 drives that traveled inside their opponents’ 20-yard line in 2012, and 22 of them have found the end zone, for a red zone percentage of 66.7%.  Only the Saints (73.5%) and Patriots (67.3%) have been better, and only eight NFL teams are even over 60.0%.

The Bucs rank a little lower, but still quite high, when considering goal-to-go situations.  In that category, Tampa Bay is eighth in the NFL in touchdown percentage, having punched it in on 14 of 18 opportunities.  That’s an excellent TD rate of 77.8%, which ranks just above their Sunday opponent, Denver (75.0%).

And yet… Continue reading →

Just over one hour until the Buccaneers square off with the Broncos at Mile High in Denver. Should the Buccaneers win this game, they will complete a four-game sweet in their interconference games for the first time in team history. Here are the inactives for each team this week.

Denver Broncos: WR Brandon Stokley, QB Caleb Hanie, CB Tracy Porter, FB Jacob Hester, C/G C.J. Davis, TE Julius Thomas & DE Robert Ayers

Tampa Bay Buccaneers: RB Michael Smith, LB Najee Goode, G/T Derek Hardman, WR David Gilreath, WR David Douglas and DT Matthew Masifilo.

With three seconds remaining, after getting 9-yards closer on a Dallas Clark reception that made it out of bounds, Josh Freeman dropped back and rolled out to his left. He bought enough time for his receivers to make it down to the end zone, stepped up and heaved a 60-yarder into the sea of hands.

The ball fell incomplete. End of ball game. Falcons 24 – Buccaneers 23.

The game was close throughout. The biggest lead of the day was six points and the lead changed six times. This snaps a Buccaneer four game winning streak, making them 6-5. The Atlanta Falcons improve to 10-1.

Tampa Bay Buccaneer quarterback Josh Freeman had a solid day passing. He hit on 19 of his 30 passes for 256 yards. In one of the more surprising plays of the game, WR Mike Williams caught a lateral and let it fly to fellow WR Vincent Jackson. That play adds 28 yards passing to Williams’ three receptions and 28 yard receiving.

RB Doug Martin didn’t have the yardage that many predicted he would put up when facing a Falcon defense that surrenders 130 rushing yards per game. Martin ended the day with 50 yards on 21 carries. His longest went for 10 yards. The Dougernaut did break into the end zone twice, both times from one yard out.

Both WRs Vincent Jackson and Tiquan Underwood caught five passes. Jackson ended the day with 96 yards and a long of 31, while Underwood collected 77 yards with a long of 39.

K Connor Barth made three of his four field goal attempts. He hit from 22, 42 and 48 yards out, missing a 56-yard try.

Defensively, LB Lavonte David again led the team with eight total tackles. Tied with him was S Ronde Barber who also leaves the game with one more interception to his name, the 47^th of his career.  This game marks his 210^th consecutive start, which ties him for seventh in NFL history. CB E.J. Biggers recorded six tackles of his own, and had a key sack and forced fumble on third down with the game winding down.

The Atlanta Falcons were led by quarterback Matt Ryan who ends the day with 353 yards passing, one touchdown and one interception. Ryan completed 26 of his 32 pass attempts. His leading receiver was Julio Jones who ended the day with six catches and 147 yards. 80 of them came on a one-play scoring drive in the third quarter. TE Tony Gonzalez finished with five catches and 62 yards while Roddy White’s 5 receptions went for 57 yards.

The Falcons had relative success rushing on the NFL’s leading rush defense, finishing with 79 yards on the ground. RB Jacquizz Rodgers led the team rushing with 49 yards and a score. He also added 30 yards receiving. RB Michael Turner had a TD of his own while rushing for 17 yards on 13 carries.

Falcon K Matt Bryant made one field goal on the day from 31 yards away, but missed on two attempts, one from 22 and one from 48. Bryant came into the day having made 89.3% of his field goals this season.

LB Stephen Nicholas led the team in tackles with 7 while three more tied with six a piece. Both CB Dunta Robinson and DE Kroy Biermann registered a sack on the day.

The Buccaneers will head to Denver next Sunday to face the Denver Broncos. The game kicks of at 4:05 ET.

The Buccaneers defense has made the stop and will get the ball back to the offense for one more shot at taking the win. Matt Bryant’s second missed field goal of the day will give them the ball at the Falcon 38-yard line with eight seconds left.

The Atlanta drive began with 3:32 left and exhausted all of the Buccaneers timeouts. Matt Ryan converted on a big third-down play to extend the drive and limit the Buccaneers time.

The Buccaneers have eight seconds in the game to either get out of bounds in field goal range or cross the goal line.