Just like in 2010, a 2-0 Buccaneer start to the season came to an abrupt halt at the hands of the visiting Pittsburgh Steelers. But this was a lot closer as the Bucs bounced back from a mistake-riddled first half to almost pull off a miracle comeback on Monday Night Football. A Chris Godwin TD was called back as was a DeSean Jackson punt return and Fitzmagic returned for the second half after a poor first 30 minutes.
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS RUSHING BUCS: Barber 8-33, Fitzpatrick 5-27, Humphries 1-4, Rodgers 2-(-1). STEELERS: Conner 15-61, Ridley 3-18, Roethlisberger 4-(-1). PASSING BUCS: Fitzpatrick 50-30-411-3-3. STEELERS: Roethlisberger 38-30-353-1-3. RECEIVING BUCS: Evans 6-137, Howard 6-72, Godwin 5-74, Jackson 3-37, Brate 3-34, Humphries 3-30, Rodgers 2- 18, Wilson 2-9. STEELERS: Smith-Schuster 9-116, Brown 6-50, Conner 5-34, McDonald 4-112, Switzer 3-9, Washington 2-25, James 1-7. INTERCEPTIONS BUCS: J.Evans 1-0. STEELERS: Edmunds 1-35, Dupree 1-10, Hilton 1-0. KICK RETURNS BUCS: Wilson 5-68. STEELERS: Switzer 1-21. PUNT RETURNS BUCS: Jackson 1-0, Humphries 0-0. STEELERS: Switzer 1-16. SACKS BUCS: Pierre-Paul 2-8, McCoy 0.5-5, Curry 0.5-5. STEELERS: Chickillo 1-9, Bostic 1-6, Dupree 1-4.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers 27 Pittsburgh Steelers 30 Monday 24 September 2018 at Raymond James Stadium
SCORING TB 7:21-1Q Brate 4 pass from Fitzpatrick (Catanzaro kick) PIT 5:48-1Q McDonald 75 pass from Roethlisberger (kick failed) PIT 12:14-2Q Boswell FG38 PIT 10:33-2Q Brown 33 pass from Roethlisberger (Boswell kick) PIT 2:50-2Q Dupree 10 interception return (Boswell kick) TB 1:15-2Q Catanzaro FG21 PIT 0:06-2Q Switzer 1 pass from Roethlisberger (Boswell kick) TB 7:07-3Q Catanzaro FG28 TB 11:06-4Q Godwin 4 pass from Fitzpatrick (Catanzaro kick) TB 5:43-4Q Evans 24 pass from Fitzpatrick (Catanzaro kick)
GAME REPORTS Rick Stroud reports on a second-half comeback that fell just short Tom Jones asks the question that everyone will be asking - who is the QB? Jameis will return to a very different Buccaneer offense to the one he left Martin Fennelly pays tribute to Tony Dungy as he enters the Ring of Honor Scott Smith’s official game report Click here for the play-by-play and the NFL gamebook
COMMENTARY CREW Joe Tessitore, Jason Witten and Anthony McFarland
STARTERS OFFENSE DEFENSE LT 76 Smith LDE 97 Curry LG 74 Marpet DT 93 McCoy C 66 Jensen DT 92 Gholston RG 77 Benenoch RDE 90 Pierre-Paul RT 69 Dotson MLB 58 Alexander TE 80 Howard WLB 54 David TE 82 Auclair DB 36 Stewart WR 13 Evans LCB 24 Grimes WR 11 Jackson RCB 33 Davis QB 14 Fitzpatrick SS 23 Conte RB 25 Barber FS 21 Evans PLAYED 7 Catanzaro, 9 Anger, 10 Humphries, 12 Godwin, 16 Martino, 29 Smith, 31 Whitehead, 32 Rogers, 35 Elliott, 38 Wilson, 39 Johnson, 45 Cross, 48 Cichy, 52 Lynch, 53 Taylor, 56 Worthy, 61 Wester, 62 Smith, 84 Brate, 89 Sanborn, 94 Nassib, 95 Clarke DID NOT PLAY 4 Griffin, 57 Spence INACTIVES 17 Watson, 22 Williams, 27 Jones, 50 Vea, 65 Cappa, 67 Liedtke, 91 Allen
GAME HIGHLIGHTS Click on the boxes below to view the big plays Justin Evans’ interception was a true piece of thievery and set up the first Buc TD Which was Harvard to Harvard as Ryan Fitzpatrick found Cameron Brate The fourth quarter comeback attempt began on Fitzpatrick’s scoring pass to Chris Godwin