Tampa Bay Buccaneers 20 Dallas Cowboys 26 Sunday 18 December 2016 at AT&T Stadium NBC COMMENTARY CREW Al Michaels and Cris Collinsworth
GAME SCORING TB 5:54-1Q Aguayo FG 25 DAL 14:56-2Q Bailey FG27 DAL 12:34-2Q Elliott 2 run (Bailey kick) DAL 6:24-2Q Prescott 2 run (Bailey kick) TB 1:52-2Q Aguayo FG34 TB 11:44-3Q Humphries 42 pass from Winston (Aguayo kick) TB 4:12-3Q Brate 10 pass from Winston (Aguayo kick) DAL 13:31-4Q Bailey FG40 DAL 9:35-4Q Bailey FG38 DAL 2:58-4Q Bailey FG33
And then the good guys finally lost. The five-game winning streak ended in a nationally-televised game in Dallas but the Bucs gave the 12-2 Cowboys all they could handle and led going into the fourth quarter thanks to a pair of second half touchdown passes from Jameis Winston. Unfortunately he also threw three picks albeit all understandable due to game situations and the Tampa defense was unable to stop the rookie offensive duo of Prescott and Elliott all night long. One final Buc drive inside the final minute ended with Winston’s third pick on 4th down.
GAME REPORTS Rick Stroud leads with the roller-coaster ride that Jameis produced Tom Jones reports on a day when the Bucs proved they mattered again Game grades - more marks being handed out to the Buccaneers Greg Auman’s notes column leads with the return of Adam Humphries Scott Smith’s detailed game report Click here for the gamebook and the play-by-play
STARTERS OFFENSE DEFENSE LT 76 Smith LDE 91 Ayers LG 64 Pamphile DT 93 McCoy C 68 Hawley DT 98 McDonald RG 74 Marpet RDE 92 Gholston RT 78 Cherilus MLB 58 Alexander TE 88 Stocker WLB 54 David TE 84 Brate SLB 51 Smith WR 89 Shepard LCB 28 Hargeaves WR 13 Evans RCB 24 Grimes QB 3 Winston SS 37 Tandy RB 22 Martin FS 30 McDougald PLAYED 9 Anger, 11 Humphries, 15 Huff, 16 Martino, 19 Aguayo, 21 Verner, 23 Conte, 26 Robinson, 29 R Smith, 34 Sims, 35 Elliott, 43 Barber, 45 Cross, 48 DePaola, 52 Lynch, 53 Glanton, 57 Spence, 62 Smith, 66 Wester, 70 Siliga, 82 Myers, 96 Russell, 97 Spence DID NOT PLAY 8 Glennon INACTIVES 4 Griffin, 17 Dye, 32 Rodgers, 67 Hughes, 69 Dotson, 75 Lambert, 77 Benenoch
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS RUSHING BUCS: Martin 16-42, Winston 1-6, Sims 3-4. COWBOYS: Elliott 23-159, Prescott 4-20, McFadden 3-10, Whitehead 2-(-4). PASSING BUCS: Winston 35-17-243-3-2. COWBOYS: Prescott 36-32-279-0-0. RECEIVING BUCS: Brate 5-73, Evans 4-59, Sims 3-15, Humphries 2-49, Martino 1-25, Shepard 1-19, Cross 1-7. COWBOYS: Witten 10-51, Bryant 8-82, Beasley 4-48, Williams 3-30, Elliott 3-29, Dunbar 2-20, Butler 1-21, McFadden 1-(-2). INTERCEPTIONS BUCS: none. COWBOYS: Heath 1-19, Jones 1-7, Scandrick 1-0. KICK RETURNS BUCS: Huff 3-55. COWBOYS: Whitehead 3-72. PUNT RETURNS BUCS: Humphries 0-0. COWBOYS: Whitehead 1-0. SACKS BUCS: David 1-6, Gholston 1-6, Siliga 1-3. COWBOYS: Irving 2-14, McClain 1-7, Collins 1-2.