The new era of Tampa Bay football with Tom Brady at the helm got off to a losing start in New Orleans as mistakes
and a pair of uncharacteristic turnovers led to an opening day loss. Brady threw two touchdowns and ran for one
more but despite the defense holding Drew Brees to a much lower-than-usual passing total, the Saints had enough
big plays to give them the victory.
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING
BUCS: Jones 17-66, Brady 3-9, Miller 1-6, Fournette 5-5.
SAINTS: Murray 15-48, Kamara 12-16, Hill 3-13, Harris
1-9, Brees 2-0, Montgomery 1-(-4).
PASSING
BUCS: Brady 36-23-239-2-2.
SAINTS: Brees 30-18-160-0-2, Hill 1-1-38-0-0.
RECEIVING
BUCS: Godwin 6-79, Miller 5-73, Howard 4-36, Jones 2-
16, Gronkowski 2-11, Fournette 1-14, Watson 1-6, Evans
1-2, McCoy 1-2.
SAINTS: Cook 5-80, Kamara 5-51, Thomas 3-17,
Sanders 3-15, Harris 1-17, Hill 1-14, Smith 1-4.
INTERCEPTIONS
BUCS: none.
SAINTS: Jenkins 1-36, Williams 1-17.
KICK RETURNS
BUCS: Edwards 1-0.
SAINTS: none.
PUNT RETURNS
BUCS: Mickens 1-0.
SAINTS: Harris 4-59.
SACKS
BUCS: Pierre-Paul 1-9.
SAINTS: Davis 1-8, Hendrickson 1-5, Granderson 1-2.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers 23 New Orleans Saints 34
Sunday 13 September 2020 at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome
SCORING
TB
7:27-1Q
Brady 2 run (Succop kick)
NO
11:39-2Q
Kamara 12 pass from Brees (Lutz kick)
NO
10:09-2Q
Kamara 6 run (Lutz kick)
NO
0:44-2Q
Lutz FG29
NO
13:13-3Q
Jenkins 36 interception return (Lutz kick)
TB
12:20-3Q
Howard 9 pass from Brady (Succop kick)
TB
2:22-3Q
Succop FG38
NO
11:38-4Q
Sanders 5 pass from Brees (Lutz kick)
NO
8:01-4Q
Lutz FG21
TB
2:41-4Q
Evans 2 pass from Brady (pass failed)
GAME REPORTS
Tom Brady sums up his debut for the Bucs in Rick Stroud’ main column
How John Romano saw the game for his editorial column
Bruce Arians on faux fan noise: It should have been louder
The defense did its part for the majority of the game
Notes on the afternoon
Scott Smith’s official game report
Click here for the play-by-play and the NFL gamebook
STARTERS
OFFENSE
DEFENSE
LT
76 Smith
DE
93 Suh
LG
74 Marpet
DT
50 Vea
C
66 Jensen
DE
92 Gholston
RG
65 Cappa
LOLB
90 Pierre-Paul
RT
78 Wirfs
LILB
45 White
TE
87 Gronkowski
RILB
54 David
WR
10 Miller
ROLB
58 Barrett
WR
13 Evans
LCB
24 Davis
WR
14 Godwin
RCB
23 Murphy-Bunting
QB
12 Brady
SS
31 Winfield
RB
27 Jones
FS
33 Whitehead
PLAYED
3 Succop, 8 Pinion, 17 Watson, 25 McCoy, 26 Adams, 28
Fournette, 29 Smith, 32 Edwards, 35 Dean, 48 Cichy, 51
Minter, 56 Nunez-Roches, 57 Bell, 79 O’Connor, 80 Howard,
82 Auclair, 84 Brate, 85 Mickens, 97 Triner, 98 Nelson
DID NOT PLAY
11 Gabbert, 30 Vaughn, 37 Wilkins, 62 Shipley, 72 Wells, 73
Haeg
INACTIVES
4 Griffin, 15 Grayson, 18 Johnson, 39 Motley, 49 Gill, 64
Stinnie, 94 Davis
COMMENTARY CREW
Joe Buck and Troy Aikman
GAME HIGHLIGHTS
Click on the boxes below to view the big plays
Tom Brady’s first drive as a Buccaneer ended with his first touchdown on an audible sneak
His first Tampa Bay touchdown pass was to OJ Howard in the third quarter
He then hit Mike Evans late on for what was nothing more than a consolation score
