Bucs Overcome Bills

The Bills’ 21-point second-half comeback fell short as Buccaneers receiver Breshad Perriman caught a 58-yard pass from quarterback Tom Brady to beat Buffalo 33-27 in overtime on Sunday. The game-winning touchdown was the 700th of Brady’s career (regular-season and playoffs combined) and helped Tampa Bay to a 10-3 record — second-best in the NFC behind the Cardinals (10-2).

With the loss, the Bills (7-6) are the 7 seed in the wild card race and the Indianapolis Colts move up to No. 6. It’s the second consecutive loss for quarterback Josh Allen and the Bills, who dropped an important divisional matchup last week to rival New England 14-10.

Allen, who had 417 total offensive yards, had a walking boot on his left leg in postgame and said he will have further tests on the unspecified injury on Monday.

The Bills scored 17 unanswered points with 11 minutes left to go in the game to tie it at 27-27 and send the game to overtime. However, they were unable to capitalize on the first possession of overtime, handing the ball to the Buccaneers who drove 94 yards down the field in six plays to seal the victory.

As the second quarter came to a close, Brady threw his 7,143rd career completion — the most in NFL history — on a 20-yard pass to Mike Evans on third-and-3 to set up a 1-yard TD run for himself two plays later. It was the team’s third TD of the half, putting them up 24-3 heading to halftime. Brady passed Drew Brees for the record. The rushing TD is Brady’s tenth TD scored since turning 40 and is tied with Jerry Rice for the most TD after age-40 in NFL history.

After a dominant first half, Tampa Bay didn’t find the end zone in the second half of the game, with their sole score a 24-yard field goal. Brady barely avoided a red-zone interception on a throw behind Cameron Brate. The QB finished 31 of 46 for 363 passing yards and two passing touchdowns, in addition to his rushing TD.

Buffalo stormed back in the second half as Allen, who led the team with 109 rushing yards on 12 carries, kicked off the scoring with an 18-yard rushing TD in the third quarter. Allen then threw two touchdowns on back-to-back drives in the fourth, the first a 15-yard pass to Dawson Knox with 9:07 left to go and the second a 4-yard pass to Gabriel Davis at the 4:53-minute mark. A 25-yard field goal capped off the comeback to force overtime.

After completing 12 of 20 passes for 130 yards and one interception in the first half, Allen ended the day with 308 passing yards, two touchdowns and one interception on 36-of-54 passing. He is just the fourth player of all time to have 300-plus passing yards and 100-plus rushing yards.