Buccaneers vs. Vikings: Highlights, game tracker and more

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers faced the Minnesota Vikings in Week 3 of the 2017 NFL season. Here are all of the highlights from the game.

Sunday marked only the second game of the 2017 NFL season for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. They saw their Week 1 contest postponed due to Hurricane Irma. As such, they’re certainly still trying to figure things out, as are we. On Sunday in Week 3, they’ll travel to US Bank Stadium to face the Minnesota Vikings and a defense that was sure to test them.

The question, however, was how much the Vikings offense would be able to test the Bucs defense. Sam Bradford was ruled out for the second-straight week, putting Case Keenum back at the helm. After scoring nine points in a bad loss last week to Pittsburgh, though, no one could’ve expected Keenum to show up like he did.

With the Minnesota defense getting after Jameis Winston, the Buccaneers offense was severely limited in what they could do. Put simply, nothing was working. And that then allowed the Vikings to control the game. They were running the ball well with Dalvin Cook, but it was Keenum shining.

Cook opened the scoring to go up 7-0, which was answered by a Tampa field goal. However, the veteran quarterback then exploded for two beautiful drives and touchdown passes in the second quarter. When Tampa had no answer, that put the home team in firm control.

Of course, Winston and the Bucs didn’t quit. They came out firing in the second half, putting up 14 points in the third quarter. However, Keenum and Cook continued to pick apart the Buccaneers defense. They scored 10 points of their own to maintain their lead.

After the second score for Tampa Bay in the third quarter, it looked like the Bucs might be getting momentum to go on a run. However, Winston’s old turnover woes popped up at the worst time. That killed momentum and set up another field goal. On the next Tampa drive, it was another poor decision by Winston and another pick that all but sealed their fate and gave Minnesota an impressive — albeit highly unexpected — win.

Highlights

Next: NFL Week 3: One burning question for each team

With Keenum at the helm, it’s hard to take too much away from this game. That’s not what the Vikings offense should look like, and doesn’t really test the Buccaneers. Even still, seeing Tampa’s offense against the Minnesota defense is a worthwhile Sunday event.