After an impressive victory last week over the Atlanta Falcons, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers headed to Jacksonville looking to win back to back games for the first time in 2019. The Jacksonville Jaguars entered week 13 in a tailspin. Following a 4-4 start, the Jaguars came in losers of three straight games. Tampa Bay looked to build on last week’s defensive performance. The Bucs held Matt Ryan to under 300 yards passing while forcing an interception, 6 sacks, and a fumble recovery for a touchdown. (Check out our recap of last week’s win here)
The Tampa Bay defense wasted little time setting the tone of the game against Jacksonville. On the Jaguars’ first offensive possession, starting quarterback Nick Foles threw an interception under pressure right into the hands of Bucs’ rookie linebacker Devin White. The interception was the first of White’s career. The turnover set the Buccaneers up at their own 31 yard line. The ensuing 8 play, 69 yard drive was capped off by the first of Peyton Barber’s 2 rushing touchdowns of the day.
On the very first play of the Jaguars’ next possession, Shaq Barrett forced a fumble on a sack of Foles. Devin White scooped up the loose ball and raced 14 yards for the touchdown. Tampa Bay went for 2 after the score due to a penalty on Jacksonville and Barber took the handoff up the middle to convert.
Shaq + Devin = ♥#GoBucs | #TBvsJAX pic.twitter.com/eHzgEXqq3w
— Tampa Bay Buccaneers (@Buccaneers) December 1, 2019
Up 15-0 and in control of the game, the Bucs’ defense continued to frustrate Foles. With Jacksonville driving in the second quarter and set up at the Tampa Bay 11, Carl Nassib sacked Foles and forced a fumble. The ball was recovered by Ndamukong Suh and the Bucs were on the move again. After a 27 yard completion to Chris Godwin set Tampa Bay up at the Jaguars 1 yard line, Peyton Barber again found the end zone following the lead blocking of Vita Vea. The Bucs added a field goal before halftime and led 25-0 heading into the locker room.
Minshew provides second half spark for Jacksonville
The final stat line for Nick Foles was not pretty. The former Super Bowl MVP went 7/14 for 93 yards, with 1 interception. He also left responsible for losing 2 fumbles. Jacksonville received the second half kickoff and rookie Gardner Minshew entered the game to a roaring crowd.
In the 3rd quarter with the Bucs driving, Jameis Winston was sacked by Andrew Wingard. Winston fumbled in the process and the ball was recovered by D.J. Hayden. Minshew then led Jacksonville into field goal range and Josh Lambo finally got the Jaguars on the board from 53 yards.
The Tampa Bay offense was mostly quiet in the second half. Jacksonville was on the move again when the 3rd quarter came to an end. Then, on the first play of the final quarter, Minshew hit D.J. Chark Jr. for 30 yards down to the Tampa Bay 7 yard line. Two plays later, the Jaguars found the end zone on a 3 yard touchdown pass from Minshew to DeDe Westbrook. Jacksonville opted to go for 2 to bring the deficit to 14 points. Minshew scrambled left and hit Westbrook again in the back of the end zone to close the gap to 25-11.
Murphy-Bunting seals win in defensive gem
With just over 6 minutes to go, the Jaguars were in position to bring the game to within 7 points. From the 2 yard line, Minshew looked for Westbrook in the end zone but Westbrook was unable to reel in the pass. The ball was tipped and ended up in the hands of Sean Murphy-Bunting.
The Bucs would add one more field goal by Matt Gay to win by a score of 28-11.
The victory gives Tampa Bay back to back wins for the first time in 2019.
Up next
The Buccaneers return home next week to face the Indianapolis Colts on 12/8 at 1:00PM.
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