ROAD WARRIORS
Buccaneers win 31-26 at Green Bay to reach Super Bowl
GREEN BAY, Wis. — Tom Brady has a new team, in a new town. The destination is the same: another Super Bowl
At home, too.
The man with six NFL titles will become the first quarterback to play a Super Bowl on his team’s home field. He owes the Tampa Bay defense that sacked Aaron Rodgers five times, and a curious late call on fourth-and-goal by the Packers as Brady and the Bucs beat top-seeded Green Bay 31-26 for the NFC title Sunday.
“It’s great to get another road win and now we got a home game, and who’d ever thought a home Super Bowl for us,” Brady said. “But we did it.
“”I thought the defense was spectacular. They’ve done that all year.”
The Bucs (14-5) will face either the Kansas City Chiefs or Buffalo Bills at Tampa’s Raymond James Stadium on Feb. 7. No, a host team in the Super Bowl has never happened in 54 previous games.
“We’re coming home,” said Bucs coach Bruce Arians, who began his coaching career in 1975 at Texas Tech and will make his first trip to the Super Bowl as a head coach. “We’re coming home to win.”
Brady is back in his first year at Tampa Bay after reaching this stage nine times with the New England Patriots. He went 20 of 36 for 286 yards and three touchdowns, but also threw three interceptions as Tampa Bay squandered most of an 18-point lead. Shaquil Barrett and Jason Pierre-Paul combined for five sacks to help the Bucs hang on for their franchise-record eighth consecutive road victory.
It’s quite a step up for a team that had one winning record in the last nine seasons.
The Bucs snapped Green Bay’s seven-game winning streak. They were aided by a strange decision from Packers coach Matt LaFleur with just over two minutes remaining in a 31-23 game.
After three straight incompletions had the Packers facing fourth-and-goal from the 8, the Packers elected to kick a field goal to get within five.
“Anytime it doesn’t work out you always regret it, right?,” Packers coach Matt LaFleur said. “It was just circumstance of having three shots and coming away with no yards. And knowing that you not only need the touchdown but you’d need the two-point. The way I was looking at it is we essentially had four timeouts with the two-minute warning, we knew we needed to get a stop.”
Tampa Bay then ran out the clock on the Packers (14-4).
“I understand the thinking - above two minutes with all of our timeouts – but it wasn’t my decision,” Rodgers said.
The Packers lost in the NFC championship game for the fourth time in the last seven seasons. Green Bay hasn’t reached the Super Bowl since its 2010 championship season.
Rodgers went 33 of 48 for 346 yards with three touchdowns and one interception, but fell to 1-4 in conference championship games as a starting quarterback. The Packers had the NFL’s best red-zone offense this season, but they twice settled for field goals after having a first-andgoal Sunday.
“I’m just pretty gutted,” Rodgers said. “It’s a long season. You put so much into it to get to this point. We had our chances.”
Tampa Bay took command in the middle portion of the game.
After Sean Murphy-Bunting intercepted a Rodgers pass and Tampa Bay converted a fourth-and-4, the Bucs were at Green Bay’s 39 with 8 seconds remaining. The Bucs passed up a long field-goal attempt, and Brady found receiver Scotty Miller down the left sideline for a 39-yard touchdown catch with just 1 second remaining.
The Packers got the ball to start the second half, and Aaron Jones caught a short third-down pass. He took a huge hit from Jordan Whitehead that knocked the ball loose. Devin White recovered and ran 21 yards to the Green Bay 8.
One play later, Brady found a wide-open Cameron Brate to extend Tampa Bay’s lead to 28-10.
The Packers rallied as Brady threw interceptions on three straight drives for just the second time in his career. Green Bay cut the lead to 28-23 late in the third quarter on Rodgers’ touchdown passes to Robert Tonyan and Davante Adams.
Twice in the fourth quarter, the Packers got the ball with a chance to take the lead after Jaire Alexander picked off Brady passes deep in Green Bay territory. Both times, the Packers went three-and-out against Tampa Bay’s fierce defense.