The Tampa Bay Buccaneers entered Week-10 losers of two in a row, and five of their last six. After winning the coin toss and electing to receive, the offense moved quickly downfield, but Ryan Fitzpatrick threw an errant throw towards the corner of the end zone, and Josh Norman came up with an interception to retrieve the ball for the Washington Redskins.
After drives failed for the Redskins and Bucs following the turnover, the Bucs on a forward pass over the line of scrimmage from Fitzpatrick on third down, Washington was able to move ball into Buccaneers territory in eight plays, including a 16-yard carry from Adrian Peterson. The Bucs defense finally held, and Dustin Hopkins came in to put the Skins ahead 3-0 on a 43-yard field goal.
The Bucs would mount what should have been a scoring drive of their own, but Chandler Catanzaro’s struggles would continue as he missed the 30-yard field goal that would have tied the game with just over eight and a half minutes to play in the half.
After another stand for the Buccaneers defense, the offense would once again move deep into Washington territory, and this time Catanzaro would hit the 33-yard field goal to tie the game up at 3-3 with just over two minutes to play in a very fast moving, yet almost actionless first half.
In a final two minutes that seemed to take as long as the game’s first quarter plus, Washington was again able to move the ball into Bucs territory and kick a go-ahead field goal as Hopkins was good from 43 yards for the second time to put Washington ahead 6-3 with 20 seconds remaining in the half.
The Redskins offense couldn’t get anything going to start the second half, but the Buccaneers could as they were able to once again get within field goal range, but this time it was a 48-yard field goal that Catanzaro couldn’t connect on, so the score remained 6-3.
After the second Catanzaro miss of the afternoon, Alex Smith got the Redskins offense moving, and had them on the brink of scoring as the game entered its final frame. When Washington was facing a 3rd-and-5 from the 6-yard-line, Smith was afforded what seemed like a minute and a half in the pocket and found Josh Doctson in the back of the end zone for a touchdown to put Washington ahead 13-3 just moments into the fourth quarter.
Fitzpatrick all but sealed the Buccaneers’ fate moments later when he threw the ball over the middle on the first play of the following drive which was intercepted by Greg Stroman. Four plays later, Hopkins came in and hit the 26-yard field goal to stretch the lead to 16-3.
The Bucs were still in position to take a lead with two touchdowns, but after mustering just three points in the first three quarters, it didn’t look likely with just over 12 minutes remaining.
Fitzpatrick had the Bucs moving on the following drive when he found Jacquizz Rodgers over the middle for a solid game, but Ryan Anderson punched the ball out from behind, and Ha Ha Clinton-Dix recovered it in the end some to give the ball back to Washington with just under 11 minutes to play.
Just when it looked like the Bucs might pull closer, Fitzpatrick was sacked inside the Redskins 5-yard-line and fumbled the ball back to the Redskins to put the final nail in the Bucs coffin on a woeful day against a banged up Redskins team.
After some formalities, the game wrapped up with a final score of 16-3 in what was as uninspiring a performance as the Buccaneers had all season.