Fo’, fo’, fo’: Four TDs for Fournette
INDIANAPOLIS — Tom Brady came to town in a new uniform.
He followed the same old script — turning mistakes into points and leading his team on another lastminute scoring drive.
This time, Leonard Fournette broke a tie with a 28-yard run with 20 seconds left to give the Buccaneers a critical 38-31 comefrom-behind victory, Brady’s first against the Colts since joining Tampa Bay.
‘‘Not a lot of love lost, I think,” Brady said, referring to his rivalry with the Colts. “It was good to win.”
For Brady, it seemed as if nothing changed.
He improved to 16-4 all time against the Colts, leading the Bucs (8-3) to a second consecutive victory while relying on his supporting cast to do most of the heavy lifting.
Fournette carried 17 times for 100 yards and three scores and caught Brady’s only TD pass of the game for a career-high four touchdowns. Ronald Jones II gave the Bucs their first lead, 28-24, on a one-yard run late in the third quarter, and Rob Gronkowski caught seven passes for a season-best 123 yards.
Yet when Brady got the ball with 3:29 left and the score tied at 31, he again proved to be the maestro who makes Colts fans cringe.
The difference Sunday was turnovers. Indianapolis (6-6) had five, and Brady made them pay every time except for the interception on the game’s last play.
And somehow despite all the errors, the Colts still had a chance to force overtime when Isaiah Rodgers returned the final kickoff 71 yards to the Bucs’ 32-yard line with 20 seconds left. But Carson Wentz’s first pass fell incomplete, and the second was picked off near the goal line.
“It is frustrating,” Wentz said after going 27-for-44 for 306 yards with three touchdown passes and two interceptions. “I don’t know how many times we can turn the ball over against a good team like that and still score that many points. It’s not going to happen.”
The Colts led at halftime, but the Bucs swung the momentum when Shaquil Barrett sacked Wentz early in the second half, ripped the ball out and recovered it at the Bucs’ 35.
Six plays later, Fournette scored on a four-yard run.
Antoine Winfield outfought Michael Pittman Jr. for the ball on Indianapolis’ next series, and Brady wasted no time converting that mistake into Jones’ go-ahead score. Tampa Bay settled for a short field goal after Nyheim Hines fumbled a punt return.
The Colts finally tied the score on Jonathan Taylor’s four-yard run with 3:29 left — more than enough time for Brady & Co. to create another perfect ending.
“It was great capping off the game like that with a punch,” Fournette said. “It got scary at the end, but it’s a team sport. We came together and made it happen.”
Taylor ran 16 times for 83 yards and caught four passes for 14 yards — finishing three yards short of a record-breaking ninth consecutive game with 100 or more yards from scrimmage and a rushing touchdown.
Bucs linebacker Devin White played despite being listed as questionable with a quadriceps injury and returned in the second half after hurting his hip in the first half.
Defensive tackle Vita Vea left briefly after losing a tooth, and starting cornerback Jamel Dean did not return for Tampa Bay after injuring his right shoulder in the first quarter.
Colts defensive tackle DeForest Buckner, a 2020 All-Pro, left late in the first half with an injured right knee but returned at the start of the third quarter.