Tampa Bay Buccaneers 16 Carolina Panthers 10 Sunday 9 September 2012 at Raymond James Stadium

SCORING TB 5:20-1Q Williams 6 pass from Freeman (Barth kick) TB 1:20-1Q Barth FG36 TB 2:55-2Q Barth FG20 CAR 8:55-3Q LaFell 22 pass from Newton (Medlock kick) TB 7:58-4Q Barth FG40 CAR 2:46-4Q Medlock FG21

GAME REPORTS Roy Cummings reports from Raymond James Stadium Award-winning columnist Martin Fennelly's opinions How Rick Stroud saw the game unfold Gary Shelton weighs in with his thoughts Early Bucs offense nice change from last year Freeman, Bucs offense able to protect ball Run defense steps up against Panthers Mike Sullivan talks about debut McCoy leads Bucs' defensive effort Game notes from the season opener The official gamebook including the play-by-play

Greg Schiano’s first game as head coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers was a winning one as the defense held the Panthers to minimal ground yardage and had just enough on their side of the ball to earn victory over their division rivals. Rookie Doug Martin almost hit the 100-yard mark on his debut and Josh Freeman’s touchdown pass to Mike Williams combined with three Connor Barth fieldgoals were all the Bucs needed.

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS RUSHING BUCS: Martin 24-95, Ware 2-14, Freeman 7-13, Blount 3-8. PANTHERS: Pilares 1-10, Newton 5-4, Tolbert 1-2, Williams 6-(-1). PASSING BUCS: Freeman 24-16-138-0-1. PANTHERS: Newton 33-23-303-2-1. RECEIVING BUCS: Jackson 4-47, Martin 4-23, Lorig 4-21, Williams 2-12, Clark 1-33, Blount 1-2. PANTHERS: Smith 7-106, Olsen 6-56, LaFell 3-65, Murphy 3-63, Tolbert 3-8, Williams 1-5. INTERCEPTIONS BUCS: Barber 1-24, A.Black 1-0. PANTHERS: none. KICK RETURNS BUCS: Smith 3-55. PANTHERS: Adams 1-31. PUNT RETURNS BUCS: Parker 1-0. Stroughter 0-0. PANTHERS: Adams 3-28. SACKS BUCS: McCoy 1-8, Bennett 1-2, Barber 1-2 . PANTHERS: Edwards 1-7, Hardy 1-3.

STARTERS OFFENSE DEFENSE LT 70 Penn DE 71 Bennett LG 77 Nicks DT 93 McCoy C 76 Zuttah DT 90 Miller RG 62 Larsen DE 94 Clayborn RT 65 Trueblood WLB 54 David TE 44 Clark MLB 59 Foster TE 88 Stocker DB 20 Barber WR 83 Jackson LCB 25 Talib WR 19 Williams RCB 21 Wright RB 22 Martin SS 24 Barron QB 5 Freeman FS 43 Black PLAYED 9 Koenen, 10 Barth, 18 Stroughter, 27 Blount, 28 Ware, 29 Johnson, 33 McDonald, 34 Smith, 35 Grimm, 37 Tandy, 41 Lorig, 48 Economos, 50 Te'o-Nesheim, 56 Watson, 57 Hayward, 58 Black, 69 Dotson, 86 Noble, 87 Parker, 95 Gibson, 96 Irvin, 97 Johnson DID NOT PLAY 6 Orlovsky, 74 Wallace INACTIVE 17 Benn, 23 Lewis, 26 Gaitor, 31 Biggers, 53 Goode, 79 Meredith, 92 Gilberry

COMMENTARY CREW Ron Pitts Jr and Mike Martz