SEATTLE — Tampa Bay’s Gerald McCoy wanted no part of getting praise for pushing the team with the best record in the NFC to overtime.
He’s tired of the losing and the Buccaneers found a new way to let a victory get away on Sunday.
“After a game like this you don’t want to say, ‘Oh we were playing good, we almost had them,’” McCoy said. “It doesn’t matter. We lost the game. I’m tired of losing. I’m tired of losing. We have to stop finding ways to beat ourselves. We just somehow find a way to not win. I don’t know.”
Steven Hauschka kicked a 27-yard field goal with 8:11 left in overtime, and the Seahawks overcame a 21-point deficit to beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 27-24 on Sunday.
It was the largest deficit overcome in Seahawks history while the Bucs were left to lament yet another way they’ve lost in a season that continues to slide downhill. Tampa Bay fell to 0-8 for the first time since 1985 when the Buccaneers started the season 0-9.
“When you have a team down like that, you’ve got to choke them out,” Bucs cornerback Darrelle Revis said. “Because great teams come back. And they are a great team.”
The Bucs weren’t intimidated by Seattle’s noisy home field where the Seahawks entered having won 11 straight. They pushed Seattle around at the line of scrimmage, watched Mike Glennon manage the game well and saw Mike James rush for a career-best 158 yards.
But Seattle’s defense started getting stops in the second half, the Seahawks overcame two Russell Wilson interceptions in the red zone and Marshawn Lynch shook off a sore knee and feeling ill to have his best game of the season.
Wilson finished 19 of 26 for 219 yards and touchdowns of 16 yards to Jermaine Kearse late in the first half that started Seattle’s rally, and a 10-yard TD to Doug Baldwin with 1:51 left that pulled the Seahawks even at 24. He stood in against countless blitzes from the Bucs defense and made key completions in the second half. Lynch finished with 125 yards on 21 carries.
Seattle tied the franchise record with its 12th straight home victory, which coincides with Wilson being a perfect 12-0 at home as Seattle’s starter.
“A good football team came back and beat us,” Tampa Bay coach Greg Schiano said. “We had opportunities to contain the quarterback and we didn’t. We have to get that down. That’s something that we have to get.”
Glennon was 17 of 23 for 168 yards and two touchdowns. He managed the game almost flawlessly in the first half, but could not sustain drives in the second half and gave Seattle a chance to rally.
Wilson was 15 of 18 passing in the second half and overtime and ran for a 10-yard touchdown late in the third quarter. He threw a bad interception on Seattle’s first drive at the Bucs 14 and was intercepted at the goal line in the fourth quarter when Keith Tandy tipped Wilson’s pass for Baldwin and pulled in the interception.
Despite the mistakes, Wilson was steady. He got started at the end of the first half by hitting Kearse to get Seattle on the board and found Baldwin beating a blitz by the Bucs to pull Seattle even at 24.
