JACKSONVILLE — The Tampa Bay Buccaneers were shut out for the first time in a preseason game since 1989, falling 19-0 to the Jacksonville Jaguars at EverBank Stadium in a contest played exclusively by reserves on both sides.
“Not good enough,” Head Coach Todd Bowles said. “Anytime you get shut out, you know. I didn’t think we protected the quarterback enough. We couldn’t run the ball. We gave up a special teams touchdown. The defense fought; they made some mistakes but at least they fought. I thought two out of the three phases didn’t show up.”
Rookie quarterback Jalon Daniels, who had directed five scoring drives during the Bucs’ first two preseason games, got the start and played into the third quarter but completed just eight of 15 passes for 57 yards and was sacked three times. Tampa Bay managed only 87 net yards of offense compared to Jacksonville’s 249.
“Lot of miscues, a lot of things that we definitely could have done better,” Daniels said. “Obviously when you go out there and you don’t score any points that’s not something you don’t really want, especially as a quarterback. We haven’t watched the film yet. I do think there were some good things that we did and obviously there were some things that we need to clean up. We’ll look at the film and get better from there.”
Bowles said the team wanted to use the finale to evaluate Daniels against higher-caliber competition. “We definitely wanted to see more of him,” Bowles said. “We wanted to get some more experience. We wanted him to play against the twos as opposed to the threes and fours, get him in there and see how he operated. We wanted to give him a long, lengthy look. He’s shown a lot. We’re going to go back and look at the film. It’s not really the completions, it’s the overall operation. I had to make sure he’s fine with that, and then we’ll come back and look at the film. It wasn’t very good offensively tonight.” Veterans Jake Browning and Connor Bazelak finished the game, combining for four completions on six attempts for seven yards.
Jacksonville’s scoring came on a 61-yard field goal by kicker Cam Little, a one-yard touchdown run by running back DeeJay Dallas in the third quarter and a 67-yard punt return touchdown by wide receiver Michael Wortham late in the fourth period. The Bucs’ previous preseason shutout loss was a 30-0 decision against Indianapolis in 1989.
Eighth-year veteran outside linebacker Anthony Nelson recorded a sack to give him 2.5 quarterback takedowns on the preseason. Undrafted rookie outside linebacker Jack Pyburn added two sacks in the fourth quarter, bringing his preseason total to four with an additional tackle for loss. Rookie cornerback Ayden Garnes started and played into the fourth quarter, finishing with four tackles and a pass defensed.
“I want to be a Buc,” Garnes said. “I put my best effort out there, played as hard as I could and I just want to continue to play football and get better every single week. I’m just hoping I get some good news Sunday night or Monday whenever I hear what the decision is.”
Tampa Bay finished the preseason 2-1 as the league-wide roster cutdown to 53 players looms this weekend.