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RECAP: Buccaneers Fall Flat in San Francisco for Tom Brady's Homecoming

Amidst all the chatter of Tom Brady returning to San Francisco to face his hometown 49ers, Tampa Bay's quarterback had what was arguably his worst performance as a member of the Buccaneers.

Collin Haalboom

In this story:

It wasn't pretty. In fact, it was ugly. 

Real ugly. 

It was a good old-fashioned beat down of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at the hands of a rookie, third-string quarterback, Brock Purdy, and a talented San Francisco 49ers team.

The very first drive of the game resulted in a Deebo Samuel touchdown, which if anything, was a sign of things to come. Earlier on that opening drive, a fantastic safety blitz by Keanu Neal was negated for a helmet–to–helmet hit on San Francisco's quarterback, Brock Purdy. This ended up being costly, and although Keanu Neal's aggressiveness has been a welcome addition for a banged-up Bucs' secondary these past couple of weeks, there was no need for Neal to go high on the play considering he had a free run at Purdy. 

7-0, 49ers. 

With the Bucs' first chance to respond on offense, after a solid drive consisting of several first downs, Brady threw a 66-yard touchdown pass to Mike Evans which was called back due to a Donovan Smith holding penalty. Shortly thereafter, on third down, Bucs' head coach, Todd Bowles, inexplicably opted to send out his accurate but light-footed kicker, Ryan Succop, to attempt a 55-yard field goal. It didn’t come anywhere close to the uprights.

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On the following possession for San Francisco, an eight play 62-yard drive by Brock Purdy resulted in the quarterback putting an exclamation mark on the drive with a rushing touchdown.

14-0, 49ers. 

The Bucs responded with a drive that consisted of a predictable screen pass to Chris Godwin, a check down to White, and an incompletion on third down with the pocket collapsing before another punt by Jake Camarda.

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The man with the illustrious title of 'Mr. Irrelevant', Brock Purdy picked up right where he left off on the next drive, eventually connecting on a 27-yard touchdown pass to Christian McCaffrey, which upon video review, revealed that McCaffrey bobbled the ball. It didn't appear to be clear whether he was able to regain possession prior to getting both feet in bounds. It was an impressive recovery by Logan Ryan who was initially burned on the play, but managed to knock the ball loose. After the review, the officials ruled it a touchdown. 

21-0, 49ers. 

With five minutes remaining in the first half, and the 49ers just passed midfield, Deebo Samuel took a handoff up the middle, and was folded up awkwardly when gang tackled by Rakeem Nunez-Roches and Devin White. Unfortunately, Samuel had to be carted off the field, and it appears to be serious injury suffered by the San Francisco star. 

The play resulted in a fumble, which was recovered by the Bucs, who then took over at their own 40-yard line.

With just under four minutes left in the game, Tom Brady connected on a 30+ yard pass to Chris Godwin to bring the Buccaneers into the red zone. Two plays later, on third down, Brady was furious with the officials after Godwin appeared to be dislodged from his route illegally, without a flag. On 4th and one, the Bucs stayed in shotgun to go for it from the San Francisco 9-yard line, and Brady missed a wide open Mike Evans in the endzone – firing the ball at his feet – resulting in a turnover on downs.

With San Francisco marching down the field yet again, Buccaneers’ defensive end Anthony Nelson dropped into coverage and picked off Purdy. But in a cruel twist of fate, and true to the way things have gone for the Bucs’ this season, the play was called back for a terrible defensive holding call on Carlton Davis – one that the announcers and officials expert all agreed was a bad call on the broadcast. 

On the very next play, Purdy delivered a 32-yard touchdown pass to Brandon Aiyuk who was wide open after burning Jamel Dean on a double move. 

28-0, 49ers.

The best way to summarize what was a first half from hell for the Buccaneers, is to take a quick look at Brock Purdy’s numbers heading into the locker room. 

The last pick in the 2022 NFL draft went 14/18 for 185 yards passing, with 2 passing TD’s, a rushing TD, and a quarterback rating of 146.5 against the Buccaneers’ top-5 scoring defense. 

Halftime. 

One bright spot for the Bucs was Deven Thompkins. He was effective as a punt and kick returner for most of the game. Bringing some juice to a role that had previously been nothing but vanilla. 

Thompkins started the second half off with a big return, taking the ball all the way to the San Francisco 44-yard line.

Just a few plays later, under duress in the pocket, Brady overshot Mike Evans on another poorly delivered pass attempt which resulted in an interception. To make matters worse, Brady appeared to have suffered a hand injury on the previous play.

San Francisco responded quickly, with Christian McCaffrey taking a handoff to the house from the Buccaneers' 39-yard line.

35-0, 49ers. 

On the Buccaneers' ensuing drive, they were able to march the ball into San Francisco territory. With Scotty Miller streaking down the far sideline on third down, Brady under shot the speedy receiver, forcing a fourth down. The Bucs converted 4th down on a pass from Brady to Fournette over the middle. On the next play, Brady threw an interception to 49ers linebacker, Dre Greenlaw, in the middle of the field. 

With 2:48 left in the third quarter, the Buccaneers finally found the end zone. That said, it was more of an accident than a well executed play. Godwin couldn't secure a pass in the front of the end zone, which popped into the air, and Russell Gage found himself in the right place at the right time, plucking the ball just before it hit the turf, and rolling into the end zone.

35-7, 49ers. 

After the Buccaneers' traded ugly possessions with a mostly second string San Francisco 49ers team for the majority of the fourth quarter, the clock eventually struck zeros. For Bucs fans, the final whistle more than likely resulted in a feeling of relief, knowing it wouldn't be possible for their team to experience any more embarrassment at the hands of a team that is expected to be a suitor for Tom Brady's services next season. 

For the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, this season has seen a lot of really poor play and execution. Their quarterback had not been a source of that poor play, by any means. 

Until today. 

Tom Brady was inconsistent, inaccurate, and very shaky throughout the vast majority of this football game. His two interceptions, and countless missed throws throughout the contest clearly support this claim.

That said, it's not Tom Brady's fault that the Buccaneers are collapsing before our very eyes. Considering what's gone on around him, whether it be the litany of injuries, penalties, or terrible coaching decisions that have plagued this team, he's been fighting an uphill battle all year. Although Tom Brady did not play well today, he's played more than well enough for this Buccaneers' team to have a lot more wins than they do.

The craziest part about all of this? The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are still sitting in first place in the NFC South, and are set to host a home playoff game at Raymond James Stadium within next month or so.

If the playoffs started today, the Bucs would host the 10-3 Dallas Cowboys in that first-round wild card game. 

Although it feels like the football gods want to see Tom Brady play at least one more postseason game in his illustrious career, the Bucs are going to have to correct an extensive list of issues if they have any hope of not being embarrassed in that game. 

And if today's performance in San Francisco is any indication of what is to come, then I wouldn't put my money on the Buccaneers' hanging onto their current spot atop the NFC South. 

I guess they'll have to take it one week at a time, and work to build some positive momentum to close out the season. Hopefully that process won't be as ugly as what we saw today at Levi's Stadium in San Francisco. 

For continued coverage of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, make sure to follow Collin Haalboom on Twitter, and subscribe to the Bucs Banter YouTube channel! 

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Collin Haalboom
COLLIN HAALBOOM

Prior to joining BucsGameday and Sports Illustrated, Collin's written content was provided through Bucs Banter, and NFL Draft Lounge. He is also the creator and host of the Bucs Banter Podcast. He is a graduate of the Communication Studies program at McMaster University, where he was also a varsity basketball player, and later an advanced scout. He lives with his wife and two children in Hamilton, ON. You can follow Collin on YouTube and Twitter.