Tampa Bay Buccaneers 13 Denver Broncos 16 Saturday 5 October 2008 at Invesco Field
SCORING TB 4:28-1Q Bryant FG33 DEN 14:56-2Q Prater FG55 DEN 2:21-2Q Prater FG40 TB 0:00-2Q Bryant FG31 DEN 5:41-3Q Stokley 10 pass from Cutler (Prater kick) DEN 12:24-4Q Prater FG27 TB 2:02-4Q Hilliard 7 pass from Garcia (Bryant kick)
The winning streak came to an end in Denver although Jeff Garcia came off the bench to give some hope with a 13-play 90-yard scoring drive in the final minutes that brought the Bucs to within three. But the rally fell short and the lack of decent field position the entire game came back to haunt Tampa Bay in the end.
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS RUSHING BUCS: Dunn 11-74, Graham 10-59, Garcia 1-6. BRONCOS: Pittman 6-39, Young 10-38, Cutler 5-16, Hall 5-13. PASSING BUCS: Griese 19-13-88-0-0, Garcia 17-13-93-1-1. BRONCOS: Cutler 34-23-227-0-1. RECEIVING BUCS: Bryant 7-58, Graham 5-21, Hilliard 4-29, Clayton 3-26, Dunn 3-13, Gilmore 1-12, Smith 1-11, Stovall 1-9, Bennett 1-2. BRONCOS: Stokley 6-52, Scheffler 4-65, Marshall 3-25, Royal 3-23, Pittman 2-22, Hall 2-17, Martinez 1-12, Graham 1-10, Young 1-1. INTERCEPTIONS BUCS: none. BRONCOS: Thomas 1-11. KICK RETURNS BUCS: Jackson 1-16. BRONCOS: Hall 2-47, Martinez 1-0. PUNT RETURNS BUCS: Jackson 4-19. BRONCOS: Royal 3-31, Martinez 2-9. SACKS BUCS: none. BRONCOS: Ekuban 1-8, Dumervil 1-5, Williams 1-0.
STARTERS OFFENSE DEFENSE LT 70 Penn DE 93 Carter LG 78 Sears DT 98 Sims C 52 Faine DT 95 Hovan RG 75 Joseph DE 90 Adams RT 65 Trueblood WLB 55 Brooks TE 81 Smith MLB 51 Ruud WR 89 Bryant SLB 59 June WR 80 Clayton LCB 31 Buchanon FB 44 Storer RCB 20 Barber RB 34 Graham SS 23 Phillips QB 8 Griese FS 36 Jackson PLAYED 3 Bryant, 7 Garcia, 9 Bidwell, 10 Jackson, 19 Hilliard, 25 Talib,26 Allen, 28 Dunn, 29 Bennett, 43 Mack, 48 Economos, 50 McCoy, 54 Hayes, 57 Hayward, 58 Black, 71 Haye, 79 Mahan, 85 Stovall, 86 Stevens, 88 Gilmore, 91 White, 97 Wilkerson, 98 Sims DID NOT PLAY 76 Zuttah INACTIVES 11 Johnson, 12 McCown, 21 Piscitelli, 35 Askew, 69 Davis, 77 Lee, 84 Galloway, 96 Peterson
COMMENTARY CREW Chris Myers and Tim Ryan
GAME REPORTS Roy Cummings reports from Invesco Field Martin Fennelly was channel hopping from Denver to Chicago How Rick Stroud saw the game unfold Gary Shelton offers his opinions on the defeat The dean of Florida sports writers, Tom McEwen The defense played well, until late on The five plays that changed the outcome Tom Jones' excellent two cents column Game notes and anecdotes Scott Smith's official game report The play-by-play and gamebook