The Bucs suffered their third consecutive loss and their first on the road of the 2023 season in a pretty one-sided Thursday night game in Upstate New York. The Tampa defense was unable to stop Buffalo most of the game either on the ground or through the air. The first Buc touchdown came after a deflected pass was intercepted in Bills territory and the other came late and included a pair of 4th down penalties to keep the drive alive. A Hail Mary on the final play fell incomplete.
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS RUSHING BUCS: R.White 9-39, Mayfield 3-19, Godwin 1-14, Edmonds 3-5, Vaughn 1-1. BILLS: Cook 14-67, Allen 7-41, Murray 5-7. PASSING BUCS: Mayfield 42-25-237-0-2. BILLS: Allen 40-31-324-1-2. RECEIVING BUCS: R.White 7-70, Godwin 5-54, Otton 4-27, Evans 3- 39, Palmer 3-22, Edmonds 2-16, Jarrett 1-9. BILLS: Davis 9-87, Diggs 9-70, Shakir 6-92, Kincaid 5- 65, Cook 1-6, Murray 1-4. INTERCEPTIONS BUCS: Gholston 1-0. BILLS: none. KICK RETURNS BUCS: Thompkins 2-44. BILLS: Shakir 1-9. PUNT RETURNS BUCS: Thompkins 1-0, BILLS: Harty 4-49. SACKS BUCS: Nelson 1-10, Diaby 1-2. BILLS: Epenesa 1-6, Oliver 1-6, Johnson 1-1.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers 18 Buffalo Bills 24 Thursday 26 October 2023 at Highmark Stadium
GAME SCORING BUF 0-3 8:04-1Q Bass FG37 BUF 0-10 11:03-2Q Allen 13 runn (Bass kick) TB 3-10 7:40-2Q McLaughlin FG57 TB 10-10 6:46-2Q Godwin 3 pass from Mayfield (McLaughlin) BUF 10-17 2:40-2Q Kincaid 22 pass from Allen (Bass kick) BUF 10-24 10:40-4Q Davis 4 pass from Allen (Bass kick) TB 18-24 2:44-4Q Evans 24 pass from Mayfield (Otton pass)
GAME REPORTS Bucs' hapless offense no match for Josh Allen, Bills Mike Evans caps Bucs' most bizarre scoring drive of season Game notes and anecdotes Some takeaways from the Buccaneer performance Scott Smith’s official game report Click here for the play-by-play and the NFL gamebook
STARTERS OFFENSE DEFENSE LT 78 Wirfs DL 94 Kancey LG 64 Stinnie NT 96 Gaines C 70 Hainsey OLB 9 Tryon-Shoyinka RG 69 Mauch ILB 54 David RT 67 Goedecke ILB 45 White TE 88 Otton OLB 7 Barrett WR 10 Palmer CB 24 Davis WR 13 Evans CB 35 Dean WR 14 Godwin S 29 Izien QB 6 Mayfield S 23 Neal RB 1 White S 31 Winfield PLAYED 0 Diaby, 4 McLaughlin, 5 Camarda, 8 Dennis, 18 Jarrett, 21 Vaughn, 22 Edmonds, 26 Merriweather, 27 McCollum, 30 Delaney, 32 Hayes, 41 Kieft, 49 Gill, 52 Britt, 56 Senat, 60 Leverett, 73 Walton, 77 Skule, 83 Thompkins, 87 Durham, 90 Hall, 91 Greene, 92 Gholston, 97 Triner, 98 Nelson DID NOT PLAY 2 Trask, 15 LeCounte INACTIVES 26 Merriweather 44 Tucker, 50 Vea, 58 Watts, 71 Feiler, 79 O’Connor, 89 Wells
NFL RESULTS - WEEK 8 Tampa Bay 18 Buffalo 24 NY Jets 13 NY Giants 10 Dallas 43 LA Rams 20 Minnesota 24 Green Bay 10 New Orleans 38 Indianapolis 27 Miami 31 New England 17 Philadelphia 38 Washington 31 Carolina 15 Houston 13 Jacksonville 20 Pittsburgh 10 Seattle 24 Cleveland 20 Denver 24 Kansas City 9 Baltimore 31 Arizona 24 Cincinnati 31 San Francisco 17 LA Chargers 30 Chicago 13 Tennessee 28 Atlanta 23 Detroit 26 Las Vegas 14
COMMENTARY CREW Al Michaels and Kirk Herbstreit
NFC SOUTH STANDINGS Atlanta Falcons 4-4 New Orleans Saints 4-4 Tampa Bay Buccaneers 3-4 Carolina Panthers 1-6
GAME HIGHLIGHTS Click on the boxes below to view the big plays In his 161st Buccaneer game, DL William Gholston got an interception Which set up Baker Mayfield to Chris Godwin for the first touchdown Mike Evans somehow caught a deflected pass on 4th down to give the Bucs late hope