Buccaneers vs. Panthers final score: Carolina stuns Tampa Bay 20-14
By Josh Hill
The Carolina Panthers didn’t have Cam Newton on Sunday afternoon when they traveled to take on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers but they did have Derek Anderson — which was apparently all they needed to spoil the return of Lovie Smith to Tampa.
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Newton was out but Anderson was in and very much on his game all afternoon long. it’s not surprising that he was able to muster up a multi-touchdown performance as he’s been a starter in the past, but the surprise was that he did so with basically no one of note to throw to.
Kelvin Benjamin recorded his first NFL touchdown on what can only be described as a nasty catch in the fourth quarter.
Yeah, that Kelvin Benjamin guy is pretty good. https://t.co/dqwRbDlPpl
— OBL Post (@OBLpost) September 7, 2014
This catch put the Panthers up 17-0 with 14:53 remaining.
On the Buccaneers side of things, Josh McCown took a lot longer to settle in than many would have liked. Perhaps the lowest moment of the game came when Josh McCown channeled his inner Josh Freeman and threw a fumble-interception hybrid pass to the other team.
But there was bounce back after that, as the Bucs managed to score twice in the fourth quarter to cut the Panthers lead to 17-14. But on the first play of their two-minute drive to potentially win or tie the game, the Bucs fumbled the ball away and subsequently the win.
Carolina escaped Tampa Bay with a huge win as Cam Newton not playing seemed like it could kill their chances. But this is a team that was the No. 2 seed in the NFC last year, so this win may be a continuation of whatever swagger the Panthers captured last year.
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