Connor Barth kicks overtime field goal to lift Tampa Bay to victory

ATLANTA, GA (BUCS) — A week after they failed to finish off a win they thought was in their hands in Washington, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers went a full 60 minutes – and then some – to knock off the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday in the Georgia Dome.

The Buccaneers’ 23-20 overtime victory against their division rivals was not secured until first-year defensive end Howard Jones pressured QB Matt Ryan into a fourth-down incompletion with six minutes left in overtime. That came just two minutes after K Connor Barth hit a 31-yard field goal to cap a 68-yard drive on the opening possession of the extra period.

Jones also sacked Ryan and forced a fumble that the Falcons recovered two plays later, as a Buccaneer defense that did not force a punt in nearly five quarters came up with the big plays it needed at the end. Between Jones’ two big moments, CB Alterraun Verner broke up a third-down pass intended for WR Justin Hardy.

“Coach just said, ‘Get off the ball,'” said Jones of the conversation just before the game’s final play. “Everyone’s like, ‘Get off the ball, this is the last down, everyone go for it, everyone get after it.’ I was just trying to get him on the ground, just doing everything coach taught me during the week since I got here.”

The Buccaneers improved to 3-4 with the victory, including a 2-2 record on the road. Most significantly, they are now 2-1 in division play, with two road wins already under their belts.

Atlanta forced overtime with a 40-yard touchdown drive ending in Ryan’s eight-yard pass to WR Julio Jones in the back of the end zone with 17 seconds to play. The Falcons inherited a short field after the Buccaneers went for it on fourth-and-one and QB Jameis Winston came up short on a dive at the end of a scramble. The Bucs had also failed to convert a third down that would have allowed them to run off the clock with Doug Martin’s dive over the top on the previous play.

Jones’ touchdown completed a 17-point Atlanta comeback after Winston’s own four-yard touchdown run in the third quarter. The play called for Winston to make a third-down pitch to RB Charles Sims, but the rookie quarterback recognized that it wouldn’t work and made a heady adjustment.

“That was a designed shovel pass; we’ve scored on that two times this year,” said Winston. “Things broke down and I trusted my O-Line and got it in there. I just followed them right in there and that was a blessing. That’s want-to. We needed this win so we went out there and took it.”

The Buccaneers nearly took it on the first possession of overtime, as a touchdown would have ended the game and not given Atlanta chance to match or tie a field goal. Winston converted three third downs to keep the drive alive, one on a 14-yard pass to WR Mike Evans on third-and-10, then faced one more third down from the Falcons’ seven-yard line. Rookie WR Adam Humphries got open in the end zone on a hook route but Winston skipped his pass to him.

“I want to score [a touchdown] because I don’t want to give them a chance,” said the young passer. “That was our mentality. We wanted to score and not give them a chance. We would have scored if I had made the throw to Adam on third down. Before the play I told him, ‘Adam, hook it up.’ He said, ‘I got you.’ I didn’t make the play. I’m disappointed in myself for that, but the way that we overcame everything, it was a great team win.”

Indeed, by settling for Barth’s field goal the Buccaneers once again needed a final game-winning stop from their defense. This time, they got it.

“My whole attitude in that situation was ‘redemption,'” said Winston. “Last week the defense thought it was their fault – no, it wasn’t their fault – but you’re going to come back and play harder and play stronger, and they won that game for us.”

Added Jones: “Coach in the locker room at halftime [said], ‘Keep pushing, keep pushing, don’t let down, keep pushing.’ And that’s all we tried to do, just go out and keep pushing.”

For the third straight game, Winston was efficient with the football, completing 16 of 29 passes for 177 yards, one touchdown and no interceptions. He has not turned the ball over in that three-game span and operated well on Sunday despite missing pass-catchers Louis Murphy, Vincent Jackson and Austin Seferian-Jenkins. Winston’s one touchdown pass was to undrafted tight end Cameron Brate, a 20-yard strike shortly before halftime.

The Buccaneers were determined to run the ball, even against Atlanta’s second-ranked run defense, and they managed to get 117 yards and a score on 32 hard-charging carries. Martin ran 23 times for 71 yards but got some very big yards in overtime and near the end of regulation.

Tampa Bay’s defense surrendered 496 yards but was opportunistic enough to keep Atlanta off the scoreboard for much of the afternoon. The Buccaneers recorded all four of the game’s takeaways on a trio of fumble recoveries and rookie LB Kwon Alexander’s second-quarter interception. All 20 of the Buccaneers’ points in regulation came on drives following turnovers.

Alexander also had a fumble recovery in the first half to go with a team-high 11 tackles. His strip of Jones and recovery in the second quarter was one of the game’s biggest plays, and it was part of an emotional afternoon for Alexander, who suffered a family tragedy on Friday.

You’ve got to give a special shout-out to everybody for being a teammate to Kwon Alexander. What happened to him and his family, and for us to overcome that as a team and fight for him and get a win for him, that’s important.

Atlanta scored first with a short Matt Bryant field goal on the game’s opening drive, chewing up half of the first quarter but settling for three as the Bucs’ defense got a stop inside the 10. Jones accounted for much of the drive with three catches for 47 yards.

The Bucs got to midfield on their first drive before punting but were right back in possession at the edge of the red zone moments later. Jones caught a slant over the middle and split the defense to get 35 yards; however, just as Jones crossed the 40, Alexander caught him from behind and simply stripped the ball out of his grasp. Alexander than ran it back to the Atlanta 21 for a 20-yard return. Winston took two cracks at the end zone but just missed Evans and Humphries and the Bucs settled for Barth’s 38-yard field goal to tie the game with two minutes left in the opening period.

The Bucs turned a second Atlanta turnover into another field goal, though they had to work a little harder for it on offense. A 28-yard misdirection pass to TE Cameron Brate was the big-gainer in a 10-play, 73-yard march that stalled at the five-yard line. Barth hit a 23-yarder to put the Bucs on top with 3:32 left in the first half.

Tampa Bay’s defense recorded a third takeaway shortly after the two-minute warning and this time the offense capitalized with seven points. On consecutive throws, Winston converted a third-and-14 with a 20-yard strike to Evans and then put the ball in the end zone with a 20-yard seam pass to rookie TE Cameron Brate. That gave the Bucs a 13-3 lead they took into halftime.

Tampa Bay scored first in the second half, too, thanks to a fourth Atlanta turnover. The Falcons had driven well into Buccaneers territory with their first possession of the half, but a botched handoff between Ryan and Freeman led to a fumble that DT Henry Melton recovered for the visitors at their own 24. Two pass-interference penalties on Atlanta CB Desmond Trufant, the second for 39 yards, and a 21-yard scramble by Winston set up the rookie quarterback’s own four-yard touchdown run up the middle.

The Falcons cut the Bucs lead back to 10 points on the ensuing drive, marching 80 yards on 10 plays to set up Jacob Tamme’s seven-yard touchdown catch with 15 seconds left in the third quarter.

Additional notes and in-game details:
– K Connor Barth is now 9-9 on field goal attempts since returning to the Buccaneers’ roster three games ago. Dating back to his last two games with the Denver Broncos last season, including the playoffs, he has made 15 straight.