Tampa Bay Buccaneers 20  Houston Texans 23 Saturday 21 December 2019        at  Raymond James Stadium
The turnovers came quick and early in this one, Jameis’ first pass being returned for a touchdown, the next drive being one that set up a fieldgoal and a third before the end of the first quarter.  Yet without Mike Evans and Chris Godwin, the Bucs fought back and only went down by a fieldgoal to the Texans.   One last drive resulted in another pick whilst Cameron Brate dropped a 4th down reception on the way to a potential clinching fieldgoal attempt.
SCORING HOU 14:12-1Q Roby 27 interception return (Fairbairn kick) HOU 11:29-1Q Fairbairn FG32 TB 0:56-1Q Gay FG50 HOU 9:22-2Q Hyde 1 run (Fairbairn kick) TB 1:57-2Q Jones 4 run (Gay kick) TB 0:13-2Q Watson 8 pass from Winston (Gay kick) HOU 9:30-3Q Fairbairn FG25 TB 1:13-3Q Gay FG41 HOU 7:11-4Q Fairbairn FG37
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS RUSHING BUCS: Jones 14-77, Winston 2-16, Barber 5-13. TEXANS: Watson 7-37, Hyde 17-27, Johnson 2-4. PASSING BUCS: Winston 48-25-335-4-1. TEXANS: Watson 32-19-184-1-0. RECEIVING BUCS: Perriman 7-102, Watson 5-43, Howard 3-46, Ogunbowale 3-34, Jones 3-32, Brate 2-17, Hyman 1- 31, McElroy 1-30. TEXANS: Stills 5-57, Hopkins 5-23, Fells 3-27, Carter 2-44, Fuller 2-11, Johnson 1-12, Hyde 1-10. INTERCEPTIONS BUCS: Dean 1-31. TEXANS: Roby 1-27, Reid 1-18, Addae 1-4, Joseph 1-0. KICK RETURNS BUCS: Ogunbowale 5-74. TEXANS: none. PUNT RETURNS BUCS: Schnell 2-3. TEXANS: Carter 1-10. SACKS BUCS: Pierre-Paul 3-16, Murphy-Bunting 1-7, Nassib 1-0. TEXANS: Mercilus 2-3, Dunn 1-3.
COMMENTARY CREW Rich Eisen, Joe Thomas and Nate Burleson
STARTERS OFFENSE DEFENSE LT 76 Smith DL 93 Suh LG 74 Marpet DT 50 Vea C 66 Jensen OLB 90 Pierre-Paul RG 65 Cappa ILB 54 David RT 69 Dotson ILB 45 White TE 80 Howard OLB 58 Barrett WR 19 Perriman CB 35 Dean WR 17 Watson LCB 33 Davis WR 18 Hyman RCB 26 Murphy-Bunting QB 3 Winston SS 39 Adams RB 27 Jones FS 34 Edwards PLAYED 8 Pinion, 9 Gay, 15 Grayson, 24 Stewart, 25 Barber, 29 Smith, 36 Stewart, 37 Wilkins, 44 Ogunbowale, 51 Minter, 52 Dawkins, 56 Nunez-Roches, 71 Watford, 72 Wells, 79 O’Connor, 83 Schnell, 84 Brate, 86 McElroy, 92 Gholston, 94 Nassib, 96 Acho, 97 Triner. DID NOT PLAY 4 Griffin, 98 Nelson INACTIVES 12 Godwin, 41 Daniels, 64 Stinnie, 70 Hawkins, 87 Leggett, 88 Hudson, 91 Allen.
GAME REPORTS Jameis Winston can't help himself, and clearly the Bucs can't either The Bucs' five-step approach to ruining a month of good vibes Fasten your seatbelts Tampa Bay, Winston is on the brink of history Cameron Brate: 'I couldn’t come through when we needed it' How Florida Football Insiders saw the game Scott Smith’s official game report Click here for the play-by-play and the NFL gamebook
GAME HIGHLIGHTS Click on the boxes below to view the big plays Ronald Jones had the first Buccaneer touchdown of the game Jamel Dean’s interception was part of a wild first half Justin Watson brought the Bucs level just before half-time