The Tampa Bay Buccaneers got the ball to start the second half and immediately began attacking the Denver Broncos with short, quick passes with a high degree of success. After two quick passes that put them in Broncos territory, John Franklin-Myers broke through the backfield and tackled Baker Mayfield for a loss of 7 yards.

He was again pressured into forcing an errant throw and on third-and-17 Mayfield was forced to go short and the wide receiver was tackled for no gain to force the punt. Denver could do nothing inside their own 10-yard line and quickly punted the ball back with two near interceptions by Bo Nix, but disaster was averted.

Dondrea Tillman recorded his first NFL sack after being promoted to the active roster with Baron Browning going to the injured list this week, leading to another Buccaneers punt in the third quarter.

From their own six yard line, it looked like the Broncos’ next offense would be a quick three-and-out, but Bo Nix found Lil’Jordan Humphrey for a big catch and run for a first down to get them out of the shadows of their own end zone. Despite not having any run game support, the rookie quarterback led this offense on the road here in Week 3.

Bo Nix was nearly sacked and stripped on the next play, but went in for a 22-yard sprint to get the Broncos within scoring range. Nix would have seven carries for 45 yards and a touchdown on the day to that point.

The drive should have ended with another sweet loss of five yards on a pitch to Jaleel McLaughlin. Teams focus so easily on that play that they probably should have taken it out of the playbook. Fortunately, back-to-back offsides by the Bucs defense gave Denver a third-and-4 instead of a third-and-14 to end the third quarter.