Tampa Bay Buccaneers 17 Atlanta Falcons 20 Sunday 29 November 2009 at the Georgia DomeFOX COMMENTARY CREWDick Stockton and Charles Davis
Close but no cigar as the young Bucs fell in the final seconds in Atlanta despite one of their best defensive performances of the season. The Falcons completed a 59-yard scoring drive in the final minute after Connor Barth had missed a 51-yard field-goal attempt that would have put the Bucs up by seven. After starter Matt Ryan had been replaced by Chris Redman, the Tampa defense recorded six sacks and held the Falcons to just 238 yards until the final drive. Josh Freeman played turnover-free football and had a pair of scoring passes as the Buccaneers built their lead. "We did our job well today," Ronde Barber said. "We flew around and it was like Buc ball again. We played well enough to win. Until the end."
GAME SCORINGATL 10:44-2Q Elam FG45ATL 6:31-2QNorwood 22 pass from Redman (Elam kick)TB5:40-2Q Bryant 42 pass from Freeman (Barth kick)TB0:20-2QBarth FG39TB11:43-3QWilliams 8 pass from Freeman (Barth kick)ATL 6:42-3Q Elam FG37ATL 0:23-4Q White 5 pass from Redman (Elam kick)
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICSRUSHINGBUCS: Williams 10-30, Ward 13-29, Freeman 2-14, Graham 1-0.FALCONS: Turner 12-33, Norwood 6-22, Snelling 4-8, Weems 1-7, Redman 2-4, Mughelli 1-0.PASSINGBUCS: Freeman 29-20-250-0-2, Johnson 1-0-0-0-0.FALCONS: Ryan 3-2-15-0-0, Redman 41-23-243-0-2.RECEIVINGBUCS: Winslow 7-81, Bryant 3-91, Stovall 3-26, Stroughter 3-19, Graham 1-15, Williams 1-8, Stevens 1-6, Ward 1-2.FALCONS: Gonzalez 9-83, Jenkins 7-80, White 5-57, Norwood 2-28, Weems 2-10.INTERCEPTIONSBUCS: none.FALCONS: none.KICK RETURNSBUCS: Smith 2-43.FALCONS: Weems 4-76.PUNT RETURNSBUCS: Smith 1-21.FALCONS: Weems 1-18.SACKSBUCS: White 2.5-18.5, Crowder 1.5-10.5, Barber 1-6, Black 1-1.FALCONS: Babineaux 1-5.
VIDEO CLIPSFreeman hooks up with Antonio Bryant on a 42-yard scoring passCorey Lynch blocks a Falcon punt inside the Atlanta 10-yard lineFreeman’s second TD pass of the game to Cadillac Williams