The Tampa Bay Buccaneers scored the games first 10 points on Sunday and appeared to be ready to crush the Carolina Panthers. Then, the Panthers scored the games next 21 points and had an 11 point lead with just over 6:00 remaining in the fourth quarter.
From there, the Buccaneers wouldn’t be denied. With 4:03 remaining, Connor Barth kicked his second field goal of the game to cut the Panthers lead to 8. The Panthers offense was back on the field with a chance to seal the game. The Panthers got two first downs but were forced to to punt the ball back to the Buccaneers with just over a minute remaining in the game.
Josh Freeman was standing at his own 20 yard line down by 8 points with 1:02 on the clock and no timeouts in his pocket. An unnecessary roughness penalty on the Panthers got the Buccaneers going and five plays later Freeman hit Vincent Jackson in the back of the end zone for a touchdown. The score brought the Buccaneers to within 2 points with only :12 seconds on the clock. Freeman used play action to free Jackson for the two point conversion that tied the game.
In overtime, the Buccaneers didn’t mess around. Freeman found Dallas Clark in the end zone for a game winning touchdown. Despite being down 11 points late, the Buccaneers had defeated the Panthers 27-21.
Next week, the Buccaneers (6-4) will host the Atlanta Falcons, and the Panthers (2-8) will play the Eagles on Monday Night Football.
