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Antonio Brown's first Buccaneers TD finishes off another blown Falcons lead

Antonio Brown scored his first touchdown since Week 2 of last season and it was a crucial one. The 46-yard score was the game-winner for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in another episode of the Atlanta Falcons blowing a large lead.

The Buccaneers won, 31-27, to keep their playoff chances alive. They rallied from a 17-0 first-half deficit.

Brown catches game-winning score

Brown’s 46-yard touchdown from Tom Brady gave the Buccaneers their first lead of the game with 6:19 on the clock. It was Brown’s first touchdown with the Buccaneers and his first of 2020.

The touchdown capped a four-play drive in response to the Falcon’s field goal that temporarily gave them the lead back, 27-24. Given the Falcons’ history, it seemed unlikely the three-point margin would hold.

Brown catches first TD since 2019

Tom Brady and Antonio Brown.
Tom Brady and Antonio Brown united again to give the Buccaneers a win. (Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)

Brown’s last NFL score was also from Brady. He caught a 20-yard touchdown pass in Week 2 of the 2019 season when both were with the New England Patriots. It was the veteran’s only game of the year.

He missed the rest of the 2019 season and much of the 2020 season while suspended. The Patriots released Brown, 32, after sexual assault and rape allegations against him came out publicly. The NFL ensured he would stay out of the league by threatening to place him on the commissioner’s exempt list if a team signed him.

He was available to play in the beginning of Week 9 this year and came to a one-year deal with the Buccaneers in October despite coach Bruce Arians bluntly saying in March the team would not sign him.

Sunday was Brown’s sixth game in a Buccaneers uniform. He had five catches on seven targets for 93 yards.

Falcons blow a 17-0 lead vs. Brady

Brown’s touchdown was the final blow to what is becoming a standard Falcons experience. Atlanta went up, 17-0, on two red-zone touchdown passes by Matt Ryan and a 32-yard field goal by Younghoe Koo.

Out of the break, the Buccaneers got on the board with a Leonard Fournette score. He rushed for 49 yards on 14 carries with two touchdowns. Ryan answered with another touchdown to put Atlanta back to a 17-point lead, 24-7.

Tampa Bay added two touchdowns within the final four minutes of the third quarter to trail by three and Succop erased the deficit with a 27-yard field goal at 11:10 of the fourth.

The Falcons social media team immediately knew what that meant.

Koo hit a 52-yard field goal, but 8:22 was too much time to leave Brady and the Buccaneers.

It’s the fourth game the Falcons have lost a lead of 16 or more points since the infamous Super Bowl LI when they squandered a 28-3 lead to Brady’s New England Patriots.

Brady threw for 390 yards and two scores, the other one going to Chris Godwin. Ryan threw for 356 yards and three touchdowns to Calvin Ridley, Russell Gage and Hayden Hurst.

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