Bucs fall to Rams on late field goal Rick Stroud, The Tampa Bay Times, published 15 September 2014 Crunch time came Sunday with 15 seconds remaining in the game, when Bucs rookie Mike Evans felt his back crushed by the hit of safety T.J. McDonald, tackled after catching a 29-yard pass at the Rams 32. There was plenty of time for quarterback Josh McCown to spike the ball and kicker Patrick Murray to try what would have been about a 50-yard field goal to win the game. "I was a little disoriented trying to get up," Evans said. :14 … :13 … :12 "It kind of boggled me a little bit," he said. :11 … :10… :09 … :08 "I was trying to get up and get on the ball," he said. But Evans, like the Bucs' season under first-year coach Lovie Smith, couldn't get off the ground. Evans was injured on the play, and because the Bucs had no timeouts, referee Jeff Triplette ended the game with a 10-second run-off, the Bucs losing 19-17. Of course, that doesn't begin to tell the story of how many chances the Bucs had to win. Or that they lost All-Pro defensive tackle Gerald McCoy to a broken left hand. And starting middle linebacker Mason Foster to a shoulder injury. It was a day when the Bucs (0-2) saw both a field goal and a punt blocked (by McDonald), which led to six Rams points; made another backup quarterback look like a Pro Bowl gunslinger; played as if they were afraid to trust their veteran quarterback after a red zone interception in the second quarter; wasted a 144-yard rushing effort by Bobby Rainey; and saw Smith go to the locker room at halftime with three timeouts in his pocket. "I know all the guys are going to say the game wasn't lost on one play," Evans said. "But to me, I'm the guy that could have changed that. We could have put ourselves in position to win, could have kicked a late field goal and gotten the win. It was just unfortunate." One week after losing to the Panthers and their backup quarterback, Derek Anderson, the Bucs made Austin Davis, the Rams' No. 3 quarterback, look more lethal. Davis, a second-year pro from Southern Miss making only his second NFL start, passed for 235 yards and led the Rams on the winning drive late. After Murray put the Bucs ahead 17-16 with a 36-yard field goal with 5:15 left, Davis drove the Rams 71 yards in 12 plays to set up Greg Zuerlein's 38-yard field goal with 38 seconds remaining. McCown connected with Rainey for 19 yards to the Tampa Bay 39 and spiked the ball to stop the clock with 20 seconds left. Then came his 29-yard completion to Evans, who tried to get off the field with the help of trainers. "We got ourselves back in position at the end, and it's unfortunate we didn't handle the situation as well as we needed to there at the end," Smith said. "You don't just lose a football game on one play at the end. I feel like we had so many opportunities that we didn't capitalize on." McCown, who ran for two touchdowns, made the biggest mistake in the game, which was delayed 51 minutes by lightning late in the first half. With the score 7-7 and the Bucs facing first and goal at the 9, McCown was flushed out of the pocket and tried to throw back across his body to Vincent Jackson. But the pass was intercepted by safety Rodney McLeod. "I just have to throw that one away and make a better play another day," McCown said. Surely, Smith took note of it. In eight red zone plays after that interception, the Bucs did not attempt a pass. That included a toss to Rainey on third and 7 from the 9 that gained just 3 yards. On the next play, E.J. Gaines blocked Murray's 24-yard field goal. "That's what we called at the time," Smith said of the third-down call. "It didn't work, right? We'd like to have that play over. That's on us as coaches. We can call a better play in that situation." McCown admitted he expected a pass to be called. "I was a little surprised," he said. "But you have to trust the call, and we had gotten a big chunk of yards on that run before." Smith also decided not to use any of his timeouts late in the first half, when the Rams were driving to take a 10-7 lead on Zuerlein's 35-yard field goal with 39 seconds left. "I felt we needed to go in there without anything else happening," Smith said. "That doesn't have anything to do with faith in anybody else." While Sunday's game ended with Evans unable to get off the field, the Bucs won't know which players will be on it Thursday night when they play at Atlanta. Five starters on defense have been lost to injury, and running back Doug Martin (knee) did not play Sunday. "We're 0-2," Smith said. "And we don't have a lot of time to feel sorry for ourselves with Atlanta coming up quick."