After three weeks away from Raymond James Stadium, the 6-2 Bucs made their return Sunday afternoon to host the 7-2 Patriots, who came in looking to stay perfect on the road this season and earn their seventh straight win overall.

Meanwhile, Tampa Bay was looking for a fourth win in its last five games and its first-ever win over New England at Raymond James Stadium.

It started well for the Bucs, as they went right down the field and scored a touchdown on their opening possession to take a 7-0 lead. They then controlled much of the first quarter, only for the Patriots to get an explosive play to tie the game at 7-7 right at the end of the opening 15 minutes. Tampa Bay then grabbed a 10-7 lead halfway through the second, but New England took advantage of a game-changing sequence to put the home team in a deep hole.

After scoring on the final play of the first half to take a 14-10 lead, the Patriots doubled up with a touchdown on their first drive in the third quarter, creating an 11-point lead that the Bucs would be chasing the rest of the afternoon. They would get within five and had multiple chances to take the lead, but the offense couldn’t come through. Even when Tykee Smith intercepted Drake Maye in the end zone with five minutes to go to set the offense up with a chance to win it, Baker Mayfield and Co. couldn’t come through.

And just to put the dagger in deeper after a fourth-down miss by the offense, the defense let TreVeyon Henderson run for a 69-yard touchdown to put the game away, sending the Bucs to 1-3 after bye weeks under Todd Bowles and dropping them to 6-3 on the season.

Here’s a recap of all the action from Sunday afternoon’s letdown of a return to Ray Jay:

Patriots 28, Bucs 23

The Patriots won the coin toss and elected to defer, giving Baker Mayfield and the Bucs offense a chance to strike first. They did exactly that, with a good mix of the run game and a couple of big completions from Mayfield to Emeka Egbuka. The first of those was a 24-yarder across midfield to the New England 37-yard line, and then Mayfield capped off the six-play, 65-yard drive with a 21-yard touchdown pass to a wide-open Egbuka. Just like that, Tampa Bay was up 7-0.

That drive didn’t come without a cost, though, as left guard Ben Bredeson picked up a hamstring injury and left the game and would not return.

Bucs WR Emeka Egbuka – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

Rain began to fall ahead of the Patriots’ first possession, and it clearly effected second-year quarterback Drake Maye as he misfired on three straight plays after a fourth-down conversion, leading to a punt.

A couple of chunk runs by Sterling Shepard and Sean Tucker got the Bucs’ next drive near midfield before Mayfield missed a couple of throws, including one on third down to force a Riley Dixon punt.

Maye and the New England offense started their next drive at their own 6 and didn’t go much of anywhere, leading to another punt. But after Tampa Bay punted it right back following a third-down sack by K’Lavon Chaisson, the visitors ended the first quarter by tying the game up. Maye found Kyle Williams, who got by Benjamin Morrison and was off to the races for a 72-yard touchdown. Seemingly out of nowhere, it was a 7-7 game.

The defenses continued to control the game for much of the second quarter before the Bucs offense finally found a little bit of something about halfway through it. Tez Johnson got in on the action with a 12-yard catch, then Cade Otton picked up 11 before Mayfield fired a 31-yard completion to Egbuka down to the Patriots’ 20. But the drive stalled there, leaving the home team to settle for a 36-yard Chase McLaughlin field goal to get the lead back at 10-7.

Maye and the Patriots responded with the best drive of the day, with the young quarterback spreading the ball around to Stefon Diggs, Mack Hollins and DeMario Douglas to get the drive going before a 26-yard pass from Maye to Douglas on 3rd & 7 got New England into the red zone.

Bucs OLB Chris Braswell and Patriots QB Drake Maye – Photo by: USA Today

That set up a frustrating sequence for the Bucs defense, as it got three straight stops from the goal line as the clock ticked down to 2 seconds in the quarter. But after a timeout, Maye found an open Diggs in the end zone to give the visitors a 14-10 lead heading into the locker room. The 14-play, 78-yard drive took the final 7:16 off the clock in the second quarter. To make matters worse, New England was set to get the ball out of halftime.

And the Patriots did exactly what they were looking to do, doubling up to start the third quarter. TreVeyon Henderson broke free for a 55-yard touchdown run on the second play of the drive and with the PAT, it was a 21-10 advantage for Mike Vrabel’s team.

The two teams traded punts from there, with the second pinning the Bucs at their own 8. But they did well to get down the field, with Egbuka drawing a defensive pass interference call on Christian Gonzalez before making an 11-yard catch into Patriots territory. A 12-yard run by Tucker, a 13-yard catch by Otton and an 11-yard run by Kameron Johnson got the ball to the 10-yard line, and three plays later, Mayfield found Tez Johnson for a 10-yard touchdown to cut into the deficit. The two-point conversion try was no good, though, so the Patriots’ lead was 21-16.

Bucs QB Baker Mayfield – Photo by: USA Today

The Patriots offense came back looking to respond and got across midfield after Vita Vea missed a third-down sack and Benjamin Morrison allowed a completion to Mack Hollins, but on an eventual 4th & 5 attempt, Zyon McCollum came up with a diving pass breakup to get the ball back over to Mayfield and the offense.

The Patriots carried their 21-16 lead into the fourth quarter, though, and had a chance to build on it after a Sterling Shepard offensive pass interference penalty nullified a fourth-down conversion and forced the Bucs to punt. Tampa Bay’s defense continued to do its part, though, forcing another punt to get the ball back to Mayfield and the offense with 10:12 left.

The offense couldn’t do anything with that chance, though, and a short 32-yard punt by Riley Dixon made the situation even worse. It then looked like the Patriots had the dagger, with Maye finding Hollins for a 54-yard gain down to the Bucs’ 8-yard line on 3rd & 14. But just when it looked like the best Tampa Bay could hope for was to hold New England to a field goal to make it an 8-point game, Tykee Smith made a momentum-changing play, intercepting Maye in the end zone.

The Bucs offense then went to work with 5:17 left, getting out near midfield with a 16-yard completion from Mayfield to Otton. The drive then got across the 35 with an 18-yard run by Tucker and inside the 30 with a short pass to Otton. That brought the game to the two-minute warning ahead of a 3rd & 3 at the 27-yard line.

Bucs TE Cade Otton – Photo by: USA Today

On the eventual 3rd & 3, Mayfield threw a dangerous pass to Otton that fell incomplete, bringing up 4th & 3. And on fourth down, pressure got to Mayfield and all he could do was desperately throw the ball away to Rachaad White, who was dropped for a loss.

All wasn’t lost, as Tampa Bay still had three timeouts and needed a stop to have one more shot at it. But that never came, as TreVeyon Henderson broke free again, going 69 yards for a touchdown to give New England a 28-16 lead and put the game away.

The Bucs did get another touchdown from Mayfield to Tez Johnson with 33 seconds to go, but after an unsuccessful onside kick, the Patriots finished off a 28-23 win.

Baker Mayfield finished the day with a rather misleading stat line, going 28-of-43 for 273 yards and three touchdowns. Emeka Egbuka was the leading receiver, catching six of his 13 targets for 115 yards and a touchdown. That gave the rookie his third 100-yard receiving day of the season, while fellow rookie Tez Johnson also finished with two touchdowns. Cade Otton was a big factor as well, catching nine of his 12 targets for 82 yards.

The Tampa Bay defense played well for stretches of the game, but the midgame sequence that featured the Drake Maye touchdown pass to Stefon Diggs at the end of the first half and the 55-yard TreVeyon Henderson touchdown run to start the second half made a massive difference. Maye finished the day 16-of-31 for 270 yards, two touchdowns and an interception while Henderson ran 14 times for 147 yards and two scores.

The Bucs (6-3) will now hit the road for back-to-back away games, with the first coming next Sunday in Buffalo against the Bills (6-3). Kickoff is set for 1:00 p.m.