Overtime proved elusive for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and painful for the Jacksonville Jaguars.
That’s the Week 7 Florida NFL roundup in a nutshell.
The Bucs lost to the New Orleans Saints 35-28 after appearing to have scored a game-tying touchdown as time expired.
Unfortunately for Tampa Bay, receiver Mike Williams was pushed out of bounds before re-entering the end zone to catch what would have been a game-tying score.
The Jags lost a 26-23 OT decision and two key starters at Oakland.
Running back Maurice Jones-Drew (foot) and quarterback Blaine Gabbert (non-throwing shoulder) both exited with first-half injuries.
Jones-Drew has been ruled out for this week’s game at Green Bay and could be sidelined longer. Gabbert might be able to play against the Packers.
The Miami Dolphins didn’t lose a game or any players — they were on their bye week.
Here’s a closer look at the past weekend:
Saints 35, Buccaneers 28: Williams’ catch after running out of bounds was the final disappointment for the Bucs. But there were others.
A play earlier, Josh Freeman connected with Vincent Jackson on what appeared to be a 9-yard scoring pass. Jackson’s foot, however, landed out of bounds by a couple of inches.
Perhaps even more frustrating than the final two plays was what occurred late in the third quarter.
Freeman and Jackson connected on a 95-yard pass play that put the ball on the 1. The Bucs ran four plays that ended unsuccessfully with New Orleans taking over at their own 5.
Instead of the score being 28-28, the Saints drove down and took a 35-21 lead.
Another tough moment happened when the Bucs were flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct during a 51-yard Garrett Hartley field-goal try. Officials ruled they audibled a shift of their formation, which is in violation of NFL rules.
The rules allow for a physical shift on such plays but prevent teams from using "words designed to disconcert an offensive team at the snap," which several Bucs players admitted doing just that by using the words "shift'' and "move.'' Game gallery »
Raiders 26, Jaguars 23, overtime: Despite losing Drew and Gabbert in the first half, the Jags built a 14-point lead early in the third quarter.
The Raiders used a semi hurry-up offense to rally, tying the score on Carson Palmer’s 1-yard sneak with 3:34 remaining in regulation. The score was set up by Aaron Ross’ 24-yard pass interference penalty in the end zone.
Jacksonville won the OT coin toss, but a no gain and a sack preceded a completion to Cecil Shorts, whose fumble led to Sebastian Janikowski’s 40-yard game-winning field goal.
The Drew and Gabbert replacements hardly were impressive. Rashad Jennings ran 21 times for 44 yards. Chad Henne completed 9 of 20 passes for 71 yards. Game gallery »
Dolphins (Bye): Miami entered its bye week tied for first in the AFC East with a 3-3 record.
Tampa Bay quarterback Josh Freeman threw for 420 yards by completing 24 of 42 passes with three touchdowns and no interceptions
With Freeman directing, the Bucs offense has gained 976 yards and scored 59 points in the past two games.
Jacksonville’s Cecil Shorts, whose fumble in overtime helped set up Janikowski’s 40-yard field goal.
Shorts was fighting for extra yards when he fumbled after being hit by Oakland’s Lamarr Houston. While the desire for more yards is commendable, you can’t turn over the ball there.
Bucs coach Greg Schiano on what appeared to be Mike Williams’ TD catch with 5 seconds remaining in regulation: "I'm thinking about overtime — who's going to do the coin toss, and how we're going to do and all that. That quickly left my mind when I saw the one official's hat off. It doesn't take a genius to figure out what that equals."
Bucs WR Williams on the game’s final play: "I've got to be strong enough to stay inbounds. That's on me. We have the game tied. We see the flag down. I was thinking it was pass interference or something, and they said it was illegal touching. Game over."
Bucs LT Donald Penn on his team failing to score a TD starting with first-and-goal from the 1: “Was it critical? We lost by seven. How could it not be?"
Bucs DT Roy Miller: "We are just sick of being in these tight games. We're just sick of it. If you look back on all the games we lost, they were all pretty close. This is just another one that is sickening."
Jaguars coach Mike Mularkey after his team’s overtime loss: “Well, we’re consistent, that’s for sure. Unfortunately it hasn’t been on the positive side, it’s been on the side of not finding ways to win these games.”
Jaguars WR Shorts, whose fumble in OT set up Oakland’s game-winning field goal: “I just have to protect the ball. The coaches always preach [carrying it] high and tight. When I was trying to get up field and get some extra yards, somebody I didn’t see knocked it out.”
Jaguars backup QB Chad Henne, who replaced injured Blaine Gabbert, on the Raiders defense: “They’re going to pin their ears back and come. So maybe [they’re] thinking I’m a veteran quarterback and [they wanted to] see if I can handle it or not. We’ve got to get better at protecting.”
• The Jaguars’ started five drives outside their own 40-yard line, but those just led to three Josh Scobee field goals, a punt and a turnover on downs.
• The Jaguars’ went 1 of 15 (6.7 percent) on third down against Oakland. That was the worst third-down rate, with 15 or more attempts, in the team’s history. Twice — vs. Tennessee in 2010 and at Pittsburgh in 1999 — the Jaguars went 3 of 15.
• Jacksonville has lost three straight and fallen to 1-5 for the second time in franchise history.
• The Freeman-to-Jackson 95-yard pass play was the longest in Bucs’ history.
• Each of Miami's past four games have been decided by four points or fewer.
• Only one of Tampa Bay's six games has been decided by more than seven points, a 38-10 victory over Kansas City on Oct. 14.
• The Bucs rank 31st out of 32 teams in pass defense, allowing 323 yards per game to go with seven plays of 40 or more yards, tied for most in the NFL.
#Jaguars are having a coming out party in Oakland and the #Raiders seem content to be the piñata.
— Bill Romanowski (@billromanowski) October 21, 2012
Our Take: The party ended and the piñata didn’t break.
Tampa Bay at Minnesota (Vikings favored by 7): The Bucs must get past Sunday’s loss quickly as they visit Minnesota on Thursday night.
Although some key offensive plays got a lot of attention, Tampa Bay’s defense yielded touchdown drives of 80, 80, 79 and 72 yards on four consecutive first-half possessions.
True, Christian Ponder isn’t Drew Brees, but the Vikings do have running back Adrian Peterson.
Miami at N.Y. Jets (Jets favored by 1): The Dolphins return to work to face their division rivals at MetLife Stadium.
Miami lost to New York 23-20 in OT at Sun Life Stadium in Week 3 when Dan Carpenter missed two field-goal tries.
The Jets are coming off a tough 29-26 OT loss at New England.
Thanks partly to the bye week, running back Reggie Bush should be close to 100 percent recovered from a knee injury suffered in the first meeting with the Jets.
Jacksonville at Green Bay (Packers favored by 13): While the Jaguars will be without Jones-Drew, the Packers won’t have veteran defensive back Charles Woodson, who will be sidelined six weeks with a broken collarbone.
The Jaguars are a 13-point underdogs, and that’s tied for the second-largest spread of the season. New England lost straight up to Arizona as a 13.5-point favorite in Week 2.
