Buccaneers Defeat Titans 20-6 in Week 10

A screen to RB Chase Edmonds lost yards and a short pass to Godwin left the Bucs in third-and-six and WR Trey Palmer couldn’t haul in a flag route pass that would have moved the chains. The Titans got the ball back at their 24 after the next punt. Henry bashed up the middle for eight yards to start the drive but the Titans gave 10 back on consecutive false starts. A blitzing White broke up Levis’s next pass and a short completion to TE Chig Okonkwo couldn’t pick up the necessary yardage on third-and-12. Ryan Stonehouse’s 55-yard punt pushed the Bucs back to the 15.

On the second play of the Bucs’ next drive, Mayfield fired a hard pass down the middle and Evans extended for a 15-yard gain. A sweep left by White was good for five yards on the next first down, and Mayfield converted a third-and-two with a precise 15-yard sideline pass to Evans. That got the ball across midfield to the Titans’ 43, and a perfectly-executed screen to White did the rest, as he sprinted untouched up the left sideline for a 43-yard touchdown. That gave the Bucs their first lead of the game, 7-3, with a little under six minutes left in the first half.

Both Winfield and David got their hands on the next pass by Levis but neither could pull it in for the pick. The Bucs blitzed again on third down and this time S Christian Izien disrupted Levis’s throwing motion, leading to an incompletion. A 55-yard punt and a 16-yard return by Thompkins put the ball at the Bucs’ 31.

Mayfield faked a handoff and rolled left on the next play but couldn’t get around Denico Autry on the corner and lost a yard, but his 13-yard pass over the middle to Godwin did the trick. An end-around pitch to Thompkins was good for six yards to the midfield stripe and an Edmonds handoff over left guard made it third-and-one. Mayfield kept it on third down and his teammates helped push him over the line to gain as the two-minute warning arrived. Two plays later, Mayfield scrambled for two yards and fumbled a the end of the run, with Tristan Wirfs recovering for the Bucs. On third-and-five from the Tennessee 41, Mayfield threw on target to Evans on the right numbers but the receiver couldn’t hang on and the Bucs punted it down to the seven with 36 seconds left in the half. The Titans ran one play to kill the rest of the clock.

The Bucs had possession to start the second half and gave it to White on the first two plays for a total of seven yards. Otton showed great concentration on a pass in heavy traffic and pulled in the ball for a first down at the 38. White made something out of nothing on the next snap, getting out of a tackle in the backfield and reversing direction to the right, getting around the corner for a gain of 11. Mayfield had to play defense on the next play when his pass was deflected straight up in the air, and he was able to bat it away so Garror couldn’t intercept it. Palmer made an incredible twisting catch on a fly route on the next play but the Titans challenged the ruling and it was determined that he didn’t maintain possession through contact with the ground. That made it third-and-10 at the Bucs’ 49 but Mayfield immediately went deep again and this time Evans was able to haul it in as he slid to the ground at the Titans’ seven-yard line. Two plays later, Evans bobbled and dropped a pass in the back of the end zone, making it third-and-goal. After incompletion, the Bucs sent out McLaughlin to boot a 25-yard field goal.

After a touchback, Levis took a deep shot on the first play but it was just out of Westbrook-Ikhine’s reach. Levis did convert a third-and-four, however, with a short pass to Spears, who spun around two defenders and got all the way to the 46. David dropped Henry for a loss of four, and two plays later, on third-and-11 David broke up a pass that he nearly intercepted. The ensuing punt went into the end zone for a touchback.

Two White runs left the Bucs in third-and-five but Evans broke free on a quick slant and got all the way across midfield for a gain of 27 yards. Two plays later, Godwin ran a buttonhook out to the right and Mayfield hit him for 17 more. Facing a third-and-three at the Tennessee 22, Mayfield fired down the middle of the field to Evans, who caught the pass at the five yard line and dragged CB Kristian Fulton the rest of the way into the end zone to increase the Bucs’ lead to 17-3 with three minutes left in the third quarter.

The Titans’ next drive got an early boost from an unnecessary roughness flag on Anthony Nelson on a Levis scramble. A defensive holding call on CB Jamel Dean erased another good defensive play and moved the ball into Bucs territory, and Henry’s eight-yard run up the middle took it to the 40. A tunnel screen to Spears on third-and-two moved the chains down to the 27, and Levis found Okonkwo on the next third down to make it first-and-goal at the six. Levis’s pass on first down was deflected and nearly intercepted by Dean in the end zone, and Kancey dropped Henry for a loss of three on second down. Good coverage in the end zone led to an incompletion on third down and the Titans brough on Folk to hit a 27-yard field goal that cut the Bucs’ lead to 17-6 with 13 minutes left in regulation.

After a touchback, Mayfield threw a wide screen to Palmer on first down and he weaved through defenders for a gain of 15. Another deep shot in Evans’ direction was out of his reach, and a holding call made it second-and-20. However, a defensive holding call on the Titans refreshed the Bucs’ downs, as did an illegal contact call drawn by Evans on the next play. Two White runs kept the clock moving but gained only four yards but Mayfield kept the drive alive by popping out of the huddle to the left and finding enough open grass to get a first down at the Tennessee 47 as the clock hit 10 minutes left. Mayfield shoveled a pass to Thompkins in motion and he found the right corner for a gain of five. Edmonds bounced a handoff out to the right and made several impressive cuts to get to the 33, and a facemask flag took it down to the 18. Edmonds was dropped for a loss of four on the next play and White got them back plus one on his next play. On third-and-nine, Mayfield looked for Otton in the left corner of the end zone but it was incomplete. McLaughlin hit a 35-yarder to restore the Buccaneers’ two-touchdown lead with seven minutes to play.

Two plays into the Titans’ next drive, Levis scrambled away from pressure and threw a dart on the run to Phillips for a gain of 23. After another downfield incompletion, Levis was hit by Watts as he threw, leading to a high pop-up of a pass that Winfield easily intercepted and returned to the Tennessee 42. The drive went nowhere and ended on a sack of Mayfield by Harold Landry back at the 50-yard line.

The Titans got good field position when Jake Camarda shanked his punt out of bounds at the 30, and then needed one play, a 29-yard screen pass to Phillips, to get into Bucs territory. Two incompletions later, on third down at the Bucs’ 39, the pocket collapsed on Levis and he was sacked for a loss of seven by Yaya Diaby. Levis tried to throw it deep down the sideline to Hopkins on fourth down but he was well covered by Dean and the ball was turned over on downs with 3:32 left.

The Bucs ran it three times to bring the clock down to the two-minute warning, then punted again, with Camarda’s low kick taken out of bounds at the 21. A couple of underneath completions got the ball to the 34 but also took a minute off the clock. The Titans’ next four passes were incomplete and the Bucs kneeled once to run out the final seconds.