Last night the New England Patriots faced off against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the first matchup of week five. As usual in the NFL, this was a key game for both teams involved. The Patriots did want to come out of the game with a losing record and also possibly fall further behind the Buffalo Bills. Meanwhile, a win would help the Buccaneers make some noise in their division and keep pace with the Falcons and Panthers.

What happened in the first half

On the first drive of the game Patriots quarterback, Tom Brady threw an extremely uncharacteristic interception.

The rest of the quarter resulted in three punts by Tampa Bay and one by New England. However, they did get a 27-yard Stephen Gostkowski field goal to take a three-point lead.

The Patriots opened the second quarter with a punt, and then some offense got going. Tampa Bay had an 11 play, 68-yard drive that was capped off with a one-yard touchdown run by Doug Martin. He had five carries for 38 yards on this drive while the rest of the game he only received eight carries.

New England then countered with there own eight-play, 75-yard drive that ended with a five-yard touchdown pass to Chris Hogan to take a seven-point lead.

Tampa Bay then went three and out, which the Patriots capitalized on with a 23-yard-field goal. Due to consecutive roughing the passer calls, the Bucs were able to attempt a 56-yard field goal before halftime, which Nick Folk missed wide right.

How the second half went down

Most of the second half was an uneventful and sloppy affair for both teams.

Tampa Bay opened with a three and out, which the Patriots capitalized on with a 45-yard field goal to take a nine-point lead. The Patriots did nothing on their next three drives, going fumble, punt, punt.

However, Tampa Bay could not capitalize as they also punted once and missed a 49 and 31-yard field goal. With 4:26 remaining in the game, the Buccaneers finally mounted a nine play, 74-yard drive, scoring on an 18-yard pass to tight end Cameron Brate.

The Bucs then tried an onside kick with 2:09 remaining and managed to stop the Patriots, who had a decision to make. Did they punt to pin Tampa back or kick a field goal to take a five-point lead but possible give them better field position on a miss?

In the end, head coach Bill Belichick trusted his kicker and Gostowski nailed a 48-yard field goal to give the Patriots a 19-14 lead. The Bucs then drove down with 1:10 second and no timeouts, with Jameis Winston spiking the ball at the 19-yard line with three seconds remaining.

However, his pass to the end zone fell incomplete, and the Patriots came away with the victory.
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