On the first play of the Buccaneers’ second offensive possession, running back Doug Martin picked up 5 yards and Tampa Bay moved an additional 15 yards on a defensive facemask penalty.
From the 40-yard line, quarterback Josh Freeman threw a short pass to Doug Martin as the Broncos blitzed, and Martin was sprung for a gain of 26 to the Denver 34-yard line.
Martin followed the big gain with a run for 9 yards, and then Freeman found tight end Luke Stocker for 11 yards and a first down inside the Denver 20.
From there, the Denver defense came up with a stop, forcing Tampa Bay to kick a short field goal. It first stuffed Martin for a loss of 1 and then forced two incompletions.
Kicker Connor Barth converted on the 31-yard field goal to make it 7-3 with 4:41 remaining in the first quarter.
The 9-play drive covered 66 yards and used up just more than four minutes of clock.