Tom Brady rallied the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in a 19-17 win over the Patriots on a rainy Sunday night on his return to New England.
Brady made 22 of 43 passes for 269 yards with no touchdowns, but he designed the fourth quarter to beat his former team. Ronald Jones added an 8 yard scoring run for defending Super Bowl champion Tampa Bay, 31.
Brady broke Drew Brees’ NFL record for passing yards and became fourth quarterback to win all 32 NFL teams, along with Brees, Brett Favre and Peyton Manning.
New England had a chance to win, but Nick Folk’s 56-yard field goal attempt hit the left vertical less than a minute before the end of the game. The Patriots are 13th for the first time since 2001.
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Patriots rookie Mac Jones finished with 31 of 40 passes for 275 yards and two touchdowns.
The Buccaneers were injured by several mistakes in defense as well as by the irregular play of the special teams, which was characterized by bad punts, a missed first field goal and costly penalties.
But Tampa was able to play in time to stay in the game, including Antoine Winfield Jr. who played a J.J. Taylor-Fumble, restored by Richard Sherman, to thwart a promising streak early in the third quarter.
When Tampa Bay failed in 17-16, Brady and the Buccaneers took control on their own 25 and took just seven games to get to the Patriots 30, a 48 yarder with 2:02 left.
Leading 76, the Patriots cleared and Matt Slater appeared to be regaining a fumble from Jaydon Mickens, but an unsportsmanlike penalty against Slater broke the game.
The Bucs took control, finishing an eight-game, 52-yard drive with an 8-yard scoring run by Ronald Jones.
Reacting to their next possession, the Patriots used six straight passes from Jones to drive the Bucs 1.Jones then found Jonnu Smith behind the end zone to give the Patriots the 1,413 lead.
Tampa marched on their next drive to the Patriots 8th 16-14.
New England took control with 7:58 remaining in the game and quickly moving across the field, entering the red zone with a trick game that ended with that Catcher Jakobi Meyers threw a 30 yards at Nelson Agholor. The unit stalled there and the Patriots fell back on Nick Folk’s 27-yard field goal in 17-16.
Brady was greeted with cheers during the pregame before going into the field with a series of boos on the first Buccaneer drive of the evening.
Some cheer returned on his second offensive drive of the evening as he completed a 28-yard pass to Mike Evans to beat Brees’ 80,358-yard mark and become the NFL’s regular season pass guide.
The pass helped set up a 29 yard field goal to put the Bucs 30 in the lead.
The Tampa Bay Defense put pressure on Jones on the Patriots’ next drive. Linebacker Devin White let Jones run free in the middle. He forced him to rush a pass that was tipped by Ross Cockrell and intercepted by Winfield.
The Patriots made the questionable mistake, stopping the Buccaneers in third place just inside the red zone. The Buccaneers attempted another field goal, but this time Succop dodged from 36 yards.
New England used the injured Tampa Bay defense to take the lead just before half-time.
The Bucs came into the night with two serious injuries, with cornerback Jamel Dean (knee) and linebacker Jason PierrePaul (shoulder) both missing.
Sherman signed a one-year contract with Tampa Bay on Wednesday, replacing Dean in the starting XI.
But Sherman looked slow at times. Marked for pass disruption in the second quarter, he gave Kendrick Bourne a 16-yard reception.
Carlton Davis III also received a whistle for a third-down pass malfunction during an 11-game Patriots 74-yard march that was crowned by an 11-yard touchdown pass from Jones to Hunter Henry Put New England at the top of 73.