The Tampa Bay Buccaneers will play their 50th season in 2025, extending a rich history that includes two Super Bowl championships, multiple figures inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame and countless moments that live on forever in the memory of Buccaneers fans. While the 50th season gives the Buccaneers organization and its fans an opportunity to celebrate all of its significant achievements of the past, it is also an optimistic look forward at what is yet to come for the NFL's 27th franchise.
As the Buccaneers continue to chase championships and set new team records, it will find that the bar has been set very high in many categories. As we prepare for the arrival of Tampa Bay's 50th season, we will be looking at some of the most impressive team and individual achievements over the first 49 years. Today, we remember the highest-scoring games ever produced by the Buccaneers.
The Five Highest-Scoring Games in Buccaneers History
We start off with a rather misleading list, as our "top five" is actually going to be eight games along. That's because, including the postseason, there is a six-way tie for third place.
- Buccaneers 55, Rams 50, at Los Angeles, Sept. 29, 2019
The first time the Buccaneers ever cracked 50 points in a game, this one was a showcase for the high-flying receiving tandem of Mike Evans and Chris Godwin, who combined for 16 catches for 261 yards and three touchdowns in a wild shootout that included 982 combined yards of offense for the two teams. On his way to his first Pro Bowl season, Godwin racked up 172 of those yards, a total he has only topped once in his career, and two scores. It was Jameis Winston distributing the ball, as he threw for 285 yads and four scores, also hooking up with Cam Brate for a touchdown.
The Buccaneers built an 18-point lead by the start of the fourth quarter, but Jared Goff and the Rams kept it close at the end, with Goff throwing for 517 yards and two scores. However, the Rams' passer was also picked off three times, and in the fourth quarter he lost a fumble that former Ram Ndamukong Suh picked up and returned 37 yards for the clinching touchdown. Shaq Barrett had the sack that caused that fumble and he also picked Goff off earlier in the contest.
- Buccaneers 51, Saints 27, at New Orleans, Oct. 13, 2024
This high-scoring contest was the dramatic conclusion to one of the most bizarre weeks in franchise history. The impending arrival of Hurricane Milton in the Bay area forced the Buccaneers to leave for New Orleans on Tuesday, five days before the scheduled game at the Superdome and do their entire week of preparation on the road. Many players and coaches brought their families and even pets with them to stay in the team hotels in New Orleans.
The Buccaneers wasted no time in proving that being uprooted for the week would not be a problematic distraction on Sunday, racing out to a 17-0 lead that included a Baker Mayfield-Godwin touchdown on the opening drive and a 59-yard interception return for a touchdown minutes later by Antoine Winfield Jr. The visitors appeared to have the game in hand until a disastrous second quarter that included three turnovers and a 27-point onslaught by the Saints.
However, the Buccaneers righted their ship in the third quarter and scored the final 27 points of the game to win running away. In addition to Mayfield's four touchdown passes, the Bucs' rushing game produced 277 yards and two scores, with Sean Tucker, whose NFL career to that point had consisted of 40 yards from scrimmage, racking up 192 yards from scrimmage and two touchdowns. Tucker would be named the NFC Offensive Player of the Week for his efforts. As a team, the Buccaneers produced 594 yards of total offense, the highest single-game total in franchise history.
3t. Buccaneers 48, Panthers 14, vs. Carolina, Dec. 29, 2024
The first home game on the list (and the games tied for third will be listed in reverse chronological order), this one is also the first true blowout of the group. Locked in a tight race with Atlanta for the NFC South crown, the Buccaneers wasted no time in putting the Panthers in a deep hole, building a 27-7 lead with one minute left in the first half.
With rookie sensation Bucky Irving producing 190 yards from scrimmage and both Mike Evans and rookie Jalen McMillan catching a pair of touchdown passes, the Buccaneers rang up 551 yards of offense and 33 first downs, that latter total tying the team's single-season record for a non-overtime game. Mayfield was practically flawless, completing 27 of 32 passes for 359 yards, five touchdowns and no interceptions. As is a common theme in these highest-scoring games, the Bucs' final tally was helped by a non-offensive touchdown. Late in the third quarter, Joe Tryon-Shoyinka blocked an attempted punt by Johnny Hekker and linebacker J.J. Russell returned it 23 yards to the opposite end zone.
3t. Buccaneers 48, Falcons 25, vs. Atlanta, Sept. 19, 2021
In this one, the Bucs raced out to a 14-point lead as Tom Brady twice hit buddy Rob Gronkowski with touchdown passes in the game's first 16 minutes. Hours later, the Bucs would pull away for the 23-point lead when a far less likely source produced back-to-back touchdowns. That would be safety Mike Edwards, whose 31 and 15-yard pick-sixes in the fourth quarter allowed him to join Hall of Famer Ronde Barber and Super Bowl hero Dwight Smith as the only players in franchise history with two defensive touchdowns in the same game.
Brady threw five touchdown passes, also connecting with Evans on two scores, and the Buccaneers' defense picked Matt Ryan off three times. Compared to most of the games on this list, Tampa Bay's total offensive output was a relatively modest 341 yards.
3t. Buccaneers 48, Saints 40, at New Orleans, Sept. 9, 2018
What a way to start the 2018 season! The two teams' combined 88 points was the most ever scored in a Week One game in NFL history, and what looked like a potential blowout became a nail-biter that went right down to the closing seconds.
Starting for a suspended Winston, Ryan Fitzpatrick produced some of his patented "Fitzmagic," throwing for 417 yards on 21-of-28 passing and connecting on four touchdowns against no interceptions. DeSean Jackson caught a 58-yard scoring pass on the Bucs' fourth play from scrimmage and later added a 36-yard touchdown that gave the Bucs a seemingly unsurmountable 48-24 lead with 12 minutes to play. Evans also hauled in a 50-yad touchdown in the third quarter. But Drew Brees, who threw for his own 439 yards and three scores, rallied the home team with a pair of long touchdown drives in the latter half of the fourth quarter, each one ending in a successful two-point conversion.
With the Saints now within one score but out of timeouts, the Bucs needed one more first down to get into victory formation and kneel out the clock without putting the ball back in Brees's hands. Facing a third-and-11 at the Tampa Bay 24, Fitzpatrick took off on a rare scramble and managed to get just past the first-down markers to put the game away.
3t. Buccaneers 48, Raiders 21, Super Bowl XXXVII in San Diego, Jan. 26, 2003
Tampa Bay's offense, led by Brad Johnson, Michael Pittman and Keenan McCardell, was good in the franchise's first Super Bowl appearance, but it was the Buccaneers' legendary defense that pushed this game into the ranks of the highest-scoring in team history. The Bucs set still-standing Super Bowl records with five interceptions and three pick-sixes. Smith had the first of those three defensive scores when he stepped in front of Jerry Rice and stole a Rich Gannon pass for a 44-yard pick-six, capping a run of 34 unanswered points by the Buccaneers as they built a 31-point lead in the third quarter. Smith would later score again off a tipped pass in the final seconds of regulation, and in between those two plays NFL Defensive Player of the Year would put the "dagger" in the Raiders with a clinching 44-yard score.
The Buccaneers' defense also sacked Gannon, the NFL's reigning MVP, five times, including two by Simeon Rice. That limited the Raiders' top-ranked offense to 269 total yards, including just 62 in the first half as Tampa Bay built a 20-3 lead. Mike Alstott scored the first touchdown of the game on a two-yard run in the second quarter and Johnson hit McCardell on short scoring passes on either side of halftime.
Oakland did mount a bit of a rally in the second half, fueled in part by a touchdown off a blocked punt plus Gannon's deep scoring passes to Rice and Jerry Porter. But Brooks cut across the middle of the field and jumped a pass intended for Marcus Knight with a little over a minute left, and his sprint untouched to the end zone set off a wild celebration on the Buccaneers' sideline.
3t. Buccaneers 48, Saints 21, vs. New Orleans, Dec. 23, 2001
Yes, it's the Saints against and, yes, there was a defensive score involved.
This one was a bit more unexpected than all the 40-point games of recent years, when the Buccaneers have consistently fielded one of the most explosive offenses in the NFL. Tampa Bay also scored 41 on Minnesota earlier in the season but otherwise only topped 24 points in one other contest. Brad Johnson threw touchdown passes to Warrick Dunn, Dave Moore and Karl Williams, and Alstott racked up 101 rushing yards and a score of his own.
Ronde Barber tied a team record with three interceptions, returning the last one 36 yards for a score to finish the beatdown, and future Super Bowl MVP Dexter Jackson also picked Aaron Brooks off while Rice sacked him twice.
3t. Buccaneers 48, Falcons 10, vs. Atlanta, Sept. 13, 1987
A total anomaly on this list, this marks the only game before the turn of the millennium in which the Buccaneers scored at least 48 points, and all of it was on offense – seven touchdowns with one missed extra point. This also remains the third-highest scoring margin in a Buccaneers victory in franchise history.
This was Steve DeBerg's finest day over two separate stints as a Buccaneer. He was the first Buccaneer quarterback ever to throw five touchdown passes in a game, a franchise record that has since been matched but never exceeded. He completed 24 of 34 passes for 333 yards and was not intercepted as the Bucs rushed out to a 27-3 lead by halftime and built that up to 41-3 by early in the fourth quarter.
The Buccaneers finished with 30 first downs to just 13 for Atlanta and converted on 14 of its 16 third-down attempts. The overall yardage margin was 460 to 197. This game still equals the Buccaneers' record for most points scored in a season opener and boasts the team's best margin of victory in a Week One contest.
