The Bucs won their first playoff game since Super Bowl XXXVII but not without some scares from the underdog Washington team that had QB Taylor Heinicke starting only his second-ever game.   Tampa Bay racked up over 500 yards of offense against the No.2 defense in the NFL with Tom Brady passing for two scores and Leonard Fournette leading the way on the ground in a very impressive offensive display.
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS RUSHING BUCS:  Fournette 19-93, Brown 1-22, Vaughn 5-21, Miller 1-8, Brady 3-(-2). FOOTBALL TEAM: Heinicke 6-46, Gibson 14-31, McKissic 2-5, S.Sims 2-4. PASSING BUCS:  Brady 40-22-381-0-2. FOOTBALL TEAM: Heinicke 44-26-306-1-1. RECEIVING BUCS:  Evans 6-119, Godwin 5-79, Brate 4-80, Fournette 4-39, Brown 2-49, Miller 1-15. FOOTBALL TEAM: C.Sims 7-104, McLaurin 6-75, Thomas 5- 74, S.Sims 3-33, McKissic 2-8, Gibson 2-4, Sprinkle 1-8. INTERCEPTIONS BUCS:  Murphy-Bunting 1-0. FOOTBALL TEAM: none. KICK RETURNS BUCS:  Mickens 2-26. FOOTBALL TEAM: Johnson 1-31. PUNT RETURNS BUCS:  Mickens 2-16. FOOTBALL TEAM: S.Sims 0-0. SACKS BUCS: David 1-11, Nelson 1-6. FOOTBALL TEAM: Payne 2-14, Sweat 1-2.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers 31 Washington Football Team 23 Saturday 9 January 2021      at Fed Ex Field
SCORING TB 11:49-1Q Succop FG29 TB 2:51-1Q Brown 36 pass from Brady (kick blocked) WAS 12:59-2Q McKissic 2 run (Hopkins kick) TB 10:03-2Q Godwin 27 pass from Brady (run failed) TB 1:50-2Q Succop FG23 WAS 11:46-3Q Hopkins FG36 WAS 2:14-3Q Heinicke 8 run (pass failed) TB 13:32-4Q Succop FG38 TB 9:11-4Q Fournette 3 run (Succop kick) WAS 4:51-4Q S.Sims 11 pass from Heinicke (Hopkins kick) TB 2:49-4Q Succop FG37
GAME REPORTS Rick Stroud reports on his first Buccaneer playoff game in 13 years John Romano offers his opinions on the victory in Washington With two peers sidelined, Leonard Fournette flourishes in backfield Six days after injury, Mike Evans sets Bucs playoff receiving record How the Washington Post saw the game unfold Scott Smith’s official game report Click here for the play-by-play and the NFL gamebook
COMMENTARY CREW Mike Tirico and Tony Dungy
GAME HIGHLIGHTS Click on the boxes below to view the big plays Sean Murphy-Bunting’s diving interception set up the first Buccaneer touchdown Which was a scoring strike from Tom Brady to Antonio Brown In the second quarter, Brady threw another one, this time finding Chris Godwin
STARTERS OFFENSE DEFENSE LT 76 Smith DE 93 Suh LG 74 Marpet DT 56 Nunez-Roches C 66 Jensen LOLB 90 Pierre-Paul RG 65 Cappa LILB 51 Minter RT 78 Wirfs RILB 54 David TE 84 Brate ROLB 58 Barrett TE 87 Gronkowski DB 23 Murphy-Bunting WR 13 Evans LCB 24 Davis WR 14 Godwin RCB 35 Dean QB 12 Brady SS 31 Winfield RB 28 Fournette FS 33 Whitehead PLAYED 3 Succop, 8 Pinion, 10 Miller, 18 Johnson, 26 Adams, 29 Smith, 30 Vaughn, 32 Edwards, 41 Bucannon, 43 Cockrell, 48 Cichy, 49 Gill, 62 Larsen, 72 Wells, 73 Haeg, 79 O’Connor, 81 Brown, 85 Mickens, 91 Potoa’e, 92 Gholston, 94 Davis, 97 Triner, 98 Nelson DID NOT PLAY 11 Gabbert, 27 Jones INACTIVES 4 Griffin, 17 Watson, 25 McCoy, 36 Miller, 64 Stinnie, 82 Auclair, 95 Ledbetter CovID List - 45 White, 96 McLendon.