Just 16 days before opening up the regular season at home against the Commanders, the Bucs took the field at Raymond James Stadium Friday night to close out the preseason against the Dolphins. After taking a 17-0 lead in the first half, Tampa Bay let Miami back within 17-14 before finishing off a 24-14 win. With the Bucs’ starters getting their first taste of action this preseason, Baker Mayfield and the offense got started from their own 30-yard line after a touchback on the opening kickoff.
After a few Rachaad White runs equaled a first down, the big play of the drive was a 28-yard completion from Mayfield to rookie Jalen McMillan, who made a phenomenal catch near the sideline. After a review, the catch stood and one play later, White got into the end zone to give the Bucs a 7-0 lead. Preseason games included, that was Tampa Bay’s first opening-drive touchdown in 23 games, with the last coming in Week 18 of the 2022 season.
That was clearly enough for head coach Todd Bowles, who went right to the second-team offense after the Buccaneer defense forced a Miami three-and-out. After Tampa Bay went three-and-out on its first possession with Kyle Trask under center, Bowles also turned to the second-team defense for the Dolphins’ second drive. After a bit of movement from the visitors, rookie outside linebacker Chris Braswell shut the drive down first with a pressure and then with a third-down sack.
The Bucs went nowhere on their next drive, but the defense kept the 7-0 lead intact with a fourth-down stop on the Dolphins’ next possession. That gave Trask and the offense good field position and despite only going 24 yards in six plays, Tampa Bay extended its lead to 10-0 early in the second quarter on a 51-yard field goal from Chase McLaughlin. The defense nearly made it 17-0 even after a long kickoff return by Miami’s Malik Washington, as Earnest Brown IV got to Mike White for a sack-fumble that was returned 48 yards for a touchdown by Antonio Grier Jr.
, only for the play to be reversed after review as White’s arm was going forward. Still, it was another fourth-down stop for Tampa Bay’s defense near midfield. The offense turned that starting field position into more points, with rookie Kameron Johnson getting in on the action and picking up a fourth-down conversion before Trask unloaded a beautiful throw off of play-action to find Ryan Miller for a 10-yard touchdown.
With that, the home team went up 17-0 in the first half. The Dolphins finally responded with a punch back of their own, working their way down the field before Skylar Thompson hit Hayden Rucci for a 20-yard touchdown pass to get the visitors within 17-7. That’s where the score remained as the two teams hit the locker room at halftime.
Out of the break, neither offense could muster up anything positive on their initial possessions. But the Dolphins then put together a lengthy drive against the Bucs third-team defense, capping off an 11-play 76-yard drive that took 7:47 off the clock with a 1-yard touchdown pass from Skylar Thompson to Kyric McGowan. That got Miami within 17-14 just 1:08 before the end of the third quarter.
Early on in the fourth quarter, Sean Tucker got things going again for the Tampa Bay offense. A 12-yard run and a 27-yard catch set up a 1st & Goal at the 3-yard line. He couldn’t punch it in from there and Trask missed on third down, but Todd Bowles elected to go for it on fourth down and it paid off.
Trask fired a dime to Tanner Knue for a 2-yard touchdown, with the undrafted rookie making a great over-the-shoulder catch to make it a 10-point lead again with 11:46 to go. The Bucs defense then came up with yet another fourth-down stop on the Dolphins’ next possession, but the offense couldn’t build on the lead from there. Miami then got the ball back with 5:08 to go and moved the ball a bit, but an Antonio Grier Jr.
interception stopped any momentum. From there, Tampa Bay finished off its preseason-closing 24-14 win. Baker Mayfield and the starting offense only got one drive on the night, but they looked ready for the regular season in that limited action.
Mayfield finished 3-0f-3 for 54 yards, while Rachaad White ran four times for 16 yards (4.0 avg.) and a touchdown.
Cody Thompson continued his impressive month and preseason, leading the offense with six catches on seven targets for 43 yards. With John Wolford out, Kyle Trask played from the second offensive possession all the way through to the end and finished his preseason on a high note, throwing for 141 yards and two touchdowns on 17-of-24 passing. C.
J. Brewer had a standout game for the second straight week, posting a quarterback hit, a tackle for loss and a pass knockdown at the line of scrimmage to solidify his strong case to make the Bucs’ 53-man roster out of training camp. Chris Braswell also had a good night, coming up with the defense’s lone sack.
With the win, the Bucs finished their preseason slate 2-1 and will now shift focus to roster cutdown day on Tuesday. Then, it’ll be full speed ahead toward the Sept. 8 regular season opener against the Commanders at Raymond James Stadium.
Kick Off The Bucs’ 2024 Season On PewterReportTV With Pewter Pregame & Pewter GameDay Join Pewter Report’s Scott Reynolds and Matt Matera for a 30-minute Pewter Pregame LIVE at 9:00 a.m. ET on PewterReportTV.
Pewter Pregame will always be at 9:00 a.m. ET on every game day this season regardless of the kickoff time.
If you can’t catch the show live it will be archived on PewterReportTV for you to watch any time prior to kickoff. Then tune in to Pewter GameDay as Matera and a member of the Pewter Report staff will offer up special LIVE in-game analysis for all three hours of the Bucs vs. Commanders game starting at 4:25 p.
m. ET on PewterReportTV. This article first appeared on Pewter Report and was syndicated with permission.
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