The Bucs reached their fourth NFC Championship game thanks to a great defensive gameplan that shut down Drew Brees and his passing weapons. Four Saints’ turnovers led to 21 Tampa Bay points and the game was put away in the fourth quarter. Tom Brady had a pair of TD passes and even former Buc Jameis Winston throwing a score on a gadget play was not enough to stop Tampa getting revenge for their two regular season defeats.
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS RUSHING BUCS: Fournette 17-63, Jones 13-62, Brady 5-2. SAINTS: Kamara 18-85, Montgomery 4-14, Brees 2-3, Washington 1-2. PASSING BUCS: Brady 33-18-199-0-2. SAINTS: Brees 34-19-134-3-1, Winston 1-1-56-0-1. RECEIVING BUCS: Fournette 5-44, Brate 4-50, Godwin 4-34, Miller 1-29, Johnson 1-15, Gronkowski 1-14, Brown 1-10, Evans 1-3. SAINTS: Sanders 6-48, Cook 5-28, Smith 3-85, Kamara 3-20, Montgomery 1-13, Harris 1-(-1), Hill 1-(-3). INTERCEPTIONS BUCS: Murphy-Bunting 1-36, White 1-28, Edwards 1-1. SAINTS: none. KICK RETURNS BUCS: none. SAINTS: none. PUNT RETURNS BUCS: Mickens 1-13. SAINTS: Harris 2-61, Callaway 1-0. SACKS BUCS: none. SAINTS: Davis 1-10.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers 30 New Orleans Saints 20 Sunday 17 January 2021 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium
SCORING NO 11:30-1Q Lutz FG23 NO 4:39-1Q Lutz FG42 TB 12:57-2Q Succop FG26 TB 11:16-2Q Evans 3 pass from Brady (Succop kick) NO 8:08-2Q Smith 56 pass from Winston (Lutz kick) TB 0:00-2Q Succop FG37 NO 9:43-3Q Smith 16 pass from Brees (Lutz kick) TB 2:22-3Q Fournette 6 pass from Brady (Succop kick) TB 9:52-4Q Succop FG36 TB 4:57-4Q Brady 1 run (Succop kick)
GAME REPORTS Rick Stroud reports on a memorable playoff win in the Bayou For those who doubted Bucs, Bruce Arians had a colorful answer "Playoff Lenny" strikes again, with some help from Ronald Jones Bucs' youth movement upstages Tom Brady-Drew Brees matchup Joey Knight’s notes column from the game Scott Smith’s official game report Click here for the play-by-play and the NFL gamebook
COMMENTARY CREW Joe Buck and Troy Aikman
GAME HIGHLIGHTS Click on the boxes below to view the big plays Sean Murphy-Bunting’s interception set up the opening Buccaneer touchdown of the game Leonard Fournette tied the scores with his scoring reception Devin White had an interception in the fourth quarter to seal the victory
STARTERS OFFENSE DEFENSE LT 76 Smith DE 93 Suh LG 74 Marpet DT 56 Nunez-Roches C 66 Jensen LOLB 90 Pierre-Paul RG 64 Stinnie LILB 45 White RT 78 Wirfs RILB 54 David TE 87 Gronkowski ROLB 58 Barrett WR 14 Godwin DB 23 Murphy-Bunting WR 13 Evans LCB 24 Davis WR 81 Brown RCB 35 Dean QB 12 Brady SS 31 Winfield RB 28 Fournette FS 33 Whitehead PLAYED 3 Succop, 8 Pinion, 10 Miller, 18 Johnson, 25 McCoy, 26 Adams, 27 Jones, 29 Smith, 32 Edwards, 41 Bucannon, 43 Cockrell, 48 Cichy, 49 Gill, 62 Larsen, 72 Wells, 73 Haeg, 79 O’Connor, 84 Brate, 85 Mickens, 88 Hudson, 92 Gholston, 94 Davis, 96 McLendon, 97 Triner, 98 Nelson DID NOT PLAY 11 Gabbert INACTIVES 4 Griffin, 17 Watson, 30 Vaughn, 34 Hagan, 70 Watford, 82 Auclair, 95 Ledbetter