The Tampa Bay Buccaneers won the Monday Night Football Game against the New York Giants with 25:23. Daniel Jones brought the guests to winning ways through two nasty interceptions. Shortly before the end, the Giants almost sent the game into overtime, but missed the compensation – also due to a controversial referee decision.
28 seconds before the end of the game, Jones (25/41, 256 YDS, 2 TD, 2 INT, 3 ATT, 20 YDS) found his receiver Golden Tate (2 REC, 31 YDS, TD) on a seam route in the end zone, Sean Murphy-Bunting had his opponent come in his back. The touchdown brought the Giants to 23:25, a successful two-point conversion would have balanced the game and probably sent it into overtime.
When playing from the two-yard line, Jones threw at his running back Dion Lewis (2 REC, 8 YDS, TD), but placed his pass slightly in the back of his teammate. Antoine Winfield Jr. was able to bring an arm to the ball and fend off the pass. However, the Bucs Safety had touched Lewis immediately before. A flag flew into the end zone, but after a short discussion the referees decided differently: No foul, the Bucs won the game.
Previously, Jones had only brought the guests to winning ways through two nasty interceptions. On the first drive after the break, the 23-year-old threw a bad pick directly into the hands of Carlton Davis with a score of 14: 6 for the Giants. Jones had kept the ball in the pocket too long and then made a bad decision under pressure.
Jones repeated this mistake in the fourth quarter. At the opposing 34-yard line, he again did not throw the ball away under pressure, but tried to hit a narrow pass window on the sideline. Jones did not place his ball well, however, with Sean Murphy-Bunting providing the second interception of the game. In return, Tom Brady (28/40, 279 YDS, 2 TD) gave the Bucs a 22:17 lead with an eight-yard pass to Mike Evans.
NFL: Giants Defense uses Brady in the first half
The first half clearly belonged to the hosts. After a field goal by Ryan Succop (4/4 FG, 1/1 XP) at the opening drive of the game and a Giants punt, Ronald Jones (7 ATT, 23 YDS, 4 REC, 23 YDS, FUM) let the ball in the first quarter Fall after a tackle from Blake Martinez. The Giants took over at the opposing twelve-yard line, in a third-and-five Lewis caught Devin White on the wrong foot with a wheel route, his touchdown catch brought New York 7-3 in front.
The defense of the Giants then made life difficult for Tampa Bay. The Bucs could not run the ball well, and James Bradberry and Jabrill Peppers recorded strong defensive actions by knocking passes from Brady. New York’s offense suffered from some missed big plays by Jones on Darius Slayton (5 REC, 56 YDS) and Sterling Shepard (8 REC, 74 YDS), but was able to move the ball. A two-yard run by Wayne Gallman (12 ATT, 44 YDS, TD, REC, 18 YDS) gave Joe Judge’s team a 14-3 lead just under two minutes before half-time.
In return, Brady led his offense to the edge of the opponent’s red zone in a hurry, but with eleven seconds on the clock, Bruce Arians scored the field goal to 14: 6 in a fourth-and-one. In the second half, the Bucs found their way into the game better, also due to Jones’ turnovers.
Brady found Rob Gronkowski (4 REC, 41 YDS, TD) and Mike Evans (5 REC, 55 YDS, TD) with short passes in the end zone. In addition, Succop turned two field goals on a fourth-and-three of the 24 and a fourth-and-one of the 20. At 17:25, the Giants marched 70 yards down the field in the last minutes of the game, but the missed two-point conversion sealed the G-Men’s seventh defeat of the season.
The Giants will meet the Washington Football Team next week before they face the Philadelphia Eagles. The Bucs receive the New Orleans Saints on Sunday night, in the following game Brady and Co. meet the Carolina Panthers.
New York Giants (1-6) – Tampa Bay Buccaneers (5-2)
Result: 23:25 (7: 3, 7: 3, 3: 9, 6:10) BOXSCORE
Giants vs. Buccaneers – the most important statistics
- The Giants had already allowed 38 points this season immediately before half-time, more than five points per game, no team had a higher value. The Bucs also made it into the Giants’ red zone in their two-minute offense, but scored a field goal eight seconds before half-time.
- The Bucs had scored 20 touchdowns in 20 goal-to-go situations this season. This series also continued against the Giants. Brady Gronkowski found himself in the end zone on the first first-and-goal of the game, while Evans caught a Brady pass for a touchdown on the second first-and-goal.
- Brady’s touchdown pass to Mike Evans in the fourth quarter was Brady’s 560th touchdown pass of his NFL career. With this score, Brady moved past Drew Brees again and at least temporarily secured the NFL record. Brees has thrown 559 touchdown passes in his career.
The star of the game: Tom Brady (Quarterback, Tampa Bay Buccaneers)
Brady received only a few open throws against a strongly adjusted Giants defense, but he did not force any throws, often gave his receivers more time through good behavior in the pocket and threw a few precise passes into narrow windows. Near the goal line, Brady made his two passes for two touchdowns, with a little more courage from Bruce Arians at Fourth Down, more touchdowns would have been possible. Strong on the Giants side: Darius Slayton, who won his duels against the Bucs cornerbacks again and again and with a better quarterback under center could easily have given three-digit receiving yards and at least one touchdown.
Flop of the game: Daniel Jones (quarterback, New York Giants)
Despite two touchdown passes, a bad game of the Giants quarterback. Jones threw several open receivers in the first half and thus left some big plays, at least he avoided major mistakes and kept many drives alive with an efficient short passing game. This was no longer the case in the second half: Jones continued to miss long passes to Slayton and also threw two terrible interceptions. Both times Jones held the ball too long and both times he threw it right into the hands of a Bucs defender under pressure. His last good drive including a nice touchdown throw on Tate came too late in the end.
Analysis: Buccaneers vs. Giants – the tactics board
- The Giants started with big problems in the run game. In their first six carries, the hosts took just six yards. Afterwards, New York relied more on pull blocks – with success. The following nine runs in the first half brought an average of more than six yards.
- Tampa Bay initially relied primarily on two-high looks, i.e. defenses with two deep players in coverage. The Giants therefore rely heavily on running and short passing games. Jones got rid of the ball quickly and found open receivers again and again, especially in the flats near the sideline.
- Todd Bowles, Defensive Coordinator of the Bucs, wasn’t as aggressive in the first half as you are used to from his units. At a third-and-seven in the second quarter, however, he let six men rush, Devin White initially deceived that he would let himself fall into coverage. The linebacker broke unblocked through the O-Line and brought Jones down, the bag made a field goal impossible due to the loss of space, the Giants had to punt.
- The Giants had obviously identified Jamel Dean as a weak point in Tampa Bays Defense. New York let Sterling Shepard and especially Darius Slayton run double moves against the corner again and again, the receivers won several of these duels and had quite a few chances of big plays. Daniel Jones threw his receivers every time.
- The Giants used an unusual punt-return tactic several times: New York did not set up a returner and thus had a rusher on the line of scrimmage. Bradley Pinion had his problems with that: Pinion’s punts in these situations came to an average of only 35.5 net punt yards.
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