Pats defeat Bucs
The defending Super Bowl champion New England Patriots tried to avoid falling below .500 Thursday night in a game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
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 last-second loss to Carolina, despite Brady turning the ball over twice — on his first interception in eight regular-season 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 5-yard TD 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 rallied Tampa Bay late with an 18-yard TD pass to Cameron Brate that trimmed New England’s lead to 16-14 with 2:09 remaining. He marched the Bucs 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 Bucs kicker Nick Folk.
Folk missed two field goals and an extra-point before beating the New York Giants on a lastsecond kick last week. He missed three more field goals Thursday night, including a 31-yarder that would have cut a ninepoint deficit to six in the closing minutes.
Sponsor cuts ties with Newton
Dannon, the maker of Oikos yogurt, cut ties with spokesman Cam Newton on Thursday following what the company perceives as "sexist" comments the Carolina quarterback made to a female reporter.
Company spokesperson Michael Neuwirth released a statement saying it was "shocked and disheartened" at the former league MVP's behavior and comments toward Jourdan Rodrigue ,a Charlotte Observer reporter.
When Rodrigue asked Newton about wide receiver Devin Funchess' route running Wednesday, Newton laughed and said, "It's funny to hear a female talk about routes. It's funny."