The Tampa Bay Buccaneers welcome the defending Super Bowl Champion New England Patriots into Raymond James Stadium tonight for the national anthem and a little football. Odds makers have installed the Patriots as 5-point favorites, but this year’s model has a few chinks in the armor, especially the league’s lowest-ranked defense.
For the first time since 2012, the Tampa Bay Rowdies are headed to the postseason. The Rowdies clinched their spot in the USL Cup Playoffs and moved up to second place in the Eastern Conference standings with a 3-2 win over New York Red Bulls II on Wednesday night at Al Lang Stadium. A goal from Joe Cole and a brace from Marcel Schäfer booked Tampa Bay’s ticket to the postseason. “We played really, really well,” Rowdies Head Coach Stuart…
The good news is the Rays improved on last year’s on-field performance by 12 games in 2017. The bad news is they still finished at 80-82 and miss the playoffs for the fourth consecutive season. Despite the improvement, the team made some significant changes this week on the major league coaching staff. With some coaches who spent more than a decade with the team now gone, Manager Kevin Cash has who he wants around him.
Jameis Winston threw for 332 and three touchdowns without an interception, and Nick Folk kicked a 34-yard field goal as time expired to give the Tampa Bay Buccaneers a 25-23 victory over the winless New York Giants on Sunday. Folk redeemed himself after missing two field goals and an extra point earlier in the day, booting the winner after Winston answered Eli Manning’s second TD pass of the day with an impressive drive that began at his 25.
Blake Snell struck out a career-high 13 in seven innings Sunday and the Tampa Bay Rays beat the Baltimore Orioles 6-0 in a season wrap-up. The Rays won their last four games to finish at 80-82, a 12-game improvement over last season.
A little more than one season removed from a winless season, the University of Central Florida Knights have returned the Associated Press Top 25 poll. A day after an impressive 40-13 romp over Memphis, UCF came in at No. 25. The 3-0 Knights are one of four Florida teams in the top 25. It is their first time in the rankings since the end of the 2013 season.
New Orleans Saints players, coaches and staff knelt before the start of the national anthem but stood in unison once it began ahead of their game against the Miami Dolphins at London’s Wembley Stadium on Sunday.
