Patriots hold on at the end
TAMPA, Fla. — Tom Brady threw for 303 yards and one touchdown, and New England’s porous defense showed signs of improvement Thursday night in a 19-14 victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
The Super Bowl champions rebounded from a lastsecond loss to Carolina, despite Brady turning the ball over twice — on his first interception in eight regularseason games and a fumble on one of Tampa Bay’s three sacks.
Neither of the mistakes led to points for Tampa Bay (2-2), which was unable to do much offensively until the fourth quarter.
Brady threw a five-yard touchdown pass to Chris Hogan in the second quarter, and Stephen Gostkowski kicked field goals of 27, 23, 45 and 48 yards for the Patriots (3-2).
Jameis Winston, who threw for 346 yards, rallied Tampa Bay late with an 18yard touchdown pass to Cameron Brate that trimmed New England’s lead to 16-14 with 2:09 remaining. He marched the Buccaneers from his 25 to the Patriots’ 19 before throwing an incompletion on the final play.
It might not have come down to a last-second drive if not for another poor performance by Tampa Bay kicker Nick Folk.
Folk missed two fieldgoal tries and an extra point before beating the New York Giants on a last-second kick last week. He missed three more field-goal attempts Thursday night, including a 31-yarder that would have cut a nine-point deficit to six in the closing minutes.
Tampa Bay coach Dirk Koetter said he talked to general manager Jason Licht about Folk’s job status after the game. “You don’t want to make any rash decisions,” he said. “These last two weeks haven’t been what we’re looking for, and Nick would be the first to admit that.”
Said Folk: “Bad week. Starting last Sunday. Bad week.”