The New England Patriots came to Tampa Bay a few days early so that they could hold some joint practices with the Buccaneers. It also allowed them to catch some Florida sunshine and take in area attractions with their families. They finished the trip off with a preseason game on Friday night at Raymond James Stadium that saw the Bucs end up on top 30-28.
While the practices and such seemed to go well the game did not especially for the New England offensive line, and specifically Marcus Cannon, whose poor play led to what should be unacceptable hits on starting quarterback Tom Brady. RB Stevan Ridley also failed at times in getting the blitz picked up.
One such hit led to a yet another sack and forced fumble, the third in three games by Patriots quarterbacks and the second alone for Brady, although this time they kept possession.
Despite the miscues, Brady had a fairly efficient half as he and his receivers work to get their timing down and he works on getting in some much needed reps.
Tampa Bay jumped out to a 14-0 first quarter lead on the strength of two drives. The first drive was capped by Doug Martin punching it in from one yard out to cap an 8-play 64-yard drive to start the game.
The defense on the first Tampa Bay drive was overmatched. While the interior run defense was good the pass defense left a lot to be desired.
New England’s first offensive drive went three and out and on their second drive Brady ended up throwing a pick six to defensive back Mark Barron and a 14-0 Buccaneer lead. Another poor blocking job by the offensive line led to the bad throw and the points.
New England’s offense finally got on the board in the second quarter when Ridley plunged in for a score after setting it up with a 29 yard run on the drive to cut Tampa Bay’s lead to 14-7.
Later in the quarter Ridley got stuffed on a fourth down attempt as Bill Belichick once again worked on situational football whenever the chance presents itself in the preseason.
After a pair of Buccaneer field goals the teams went to locker room at half with Tampa Bay leading 20-7.
In the third quarter the Bucs added yet another field goal to go up 23-7 while late in the quarter the Patriots were able to put a touch down on the board. New England scored with less than a minute left in the third when Brady hit Rob Gronkowski with a TD pass in which the massive tight end just manhandled his defender who was left helpless to watch Gronk spike the ball as they cut the lead to 23-14.
Former UConn quarterback Dan Orlovsky saw some playing time with Tampa Bay and even threw a fourth quarter 8 yard TD pass to WR Sammie Stroughter to increase the Bucs lead to 30-14 midway into the final quarter.
The Patriots answered quickly in just under 3 and half minutes second year third string QB Ryan Mallett led the team on a scoring drive that was finished off when he threw to Jeremy Ebert, the rookie from Northwestern, for a 3 yard TD with 4:13 remaining in the game.
With just a two minutes remaining New England got the ball back and Mallett led them on a drive that saw them get all the way to the Tampa Bay 8-yard line. They used their final timeout with 0:50 seconds to play and a 3rd and five call hanging in the balance.
A defensive holding penalty moved the ball to the 4 and gave New England a 1st down. Mallett then found WR Jesse Holley in the end zone for a 4 yard strike with 0:33 seconds to play to get the final score to 30-28.
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Game Notes
The Patriots started their Top 3 rookies DE Chandler Jones, LB Dont’a Hightower and S Tavon Wilson.
Patriots offensive starters
- LT Solder
- LG Mankins
- C Connolly
- RG Thomas
- RT Cannon
- TE Gronkowski
- TE Hernandez
- QB Brady
- RB Ridley
- WR Lloyd
- WR Edelman
Patriots defensive starters
- DE Ninkovich
- DT Wilfork
- DT Love
- DE Jones
- SLB Hightower
- MLB Spikes
- WLB Mayo
- CB McCourty
- CB Arrington
- S Wilson
- S Gregory
This was the 10th preseason meeting between the two teams.
The Buccaneers lead the preseason series 8-2.
This is the second consecutive season the teams have met in Tampa during the preseason.
Nine of the ten meetings have been played in Tampa Bay.
RB Shane Vereen and RB Spencer Larsen both suffered injuries in the first half as did CB Kyle Arrington.
In the third quarter S Stephen Gregory suffered an injury that doesn’t appear serious in nature.
Jeff Demps made his Patriots debut and returned a kick off from deep in the end zone to the 16-yard line.
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photo credit: ap photo
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