Brady makes a late touchdown pass and the Bucs run away with the win

Fred Goodall, The Associated Press

TAMPA, Fla. — Tom Brady completed a one-yard touchdown pass to Cade Otton with nine seconds remaining to give the Tampa Bay Buccaneers a 16-13 win over the Los Angeles Rams in a messy game between the last two Super Bowl champions on Sunday.

Brady took possession of the ball with 44 seconds left and found takers on five of his six throw-ins for 60 yards. The seven-time Super Bowl champion avoided his first four-game losing streak in 20 years and beat the Rams for the first time in four attempts since joining the Bucs (4-5) in 2020.

“We needed it and we got it. We fought until the end, Brady said. The defense played well. We made a few attacking plays. […] Hopefully that gives us some confidence that we can win again next week and hit .500, which would be good for us for the rest week.”

Cooper Kupp had a major with a 69-yard catch in the second quarter and Matt Gay had field goals for 26 and 35 yards after halftime for the Rams (3-5). The Los Angeles roster looked like they could hold their own when they stopped Brady on the field with just under two minutes left.

But Matthew Stafford, who threw for 165 yards and a touchdown, missed the clock on the Rams’ final possession.

“That’s what you want on offense, isn’t it? You want the opportunity to kneel, and we’re four or five yards away,” Stafford said.

“Tom is a hell of a player. He did an excellent job. I think our defense played well tonight, added Stafford. It’s a lot to ask to see them do that twice late in the game. We had our chance, but we couldn’t take it. It’s really disappointing.”

Brady finished the night completing 36 of 58 passes for 280 yards, becoming the first player in NFL history to throw for more than 100,000 career yards.

He crossed the line on a 15-yard delivery to Leonard Fournette, which incidentally allowed Ryan Succop to score the last of his three placements.

« What matters is winning, » Brady said. I never cared about any of that. »

The 45-year-old quarterback started the day with 164 yards to get to reach the plateau no one would have imagined possible when he entered the NFL as a sixth-round pick in 2000.

Brady, who holds almost all of the Goodell Circuit passing records, passed the mark in his 374th career game, including the playoffs.

He also set two other late-game records: he passed Peyton Manning for most game-winning possessions and tied Manning with his 43rd comeback in the fourth quarter.

Stafford finished with 13 completions in 27 chances and was not the victim of an interception. Kupp, who plays despite a sore ankle he injured the previous week in a loss to the San Francisco 49ers, caught eight passes for 127 yards.