Cade Klubnik got his first NFL start Thursday night with Geno Smith held out for precautionary reasons over ankle soreness, and the rookie fourth-rounder actually looked the part, leading scoring drives on both of his series before the Bucs pulled away for a 24-16 win. But the story fans actually cared about had nothing to do with Klubnik's stat line.
The officials in Jets/Bucs just called a FG good that appeared to have gone wide by 25 yards
That's the claim that ricocheted around football Twitter late Thursday night: a field goal that looked nowhere close somehow got waved good by the officiating crew. It's worth noting the clip attached to the loudest version of that complaint online isn't actually game footage — it's a Madden simulation of a tied 10-10 game, deployed as a joke rather than a literal replay of the call in question.
A 4th-and-10 field goal sails through the uprights in a simulated NFL video game clip, captioned as a jab at the officiating.
The actual on-field product had legitimate juice, too. Klubnik found Garrett Wilson for gains of 21 and 11 yards on the opening drive, setting up a 37-yard field goal, and Wilson's hands were a running theme of the broadcast — including a warmup-drill grab clean enough that Barstool joked he'd get the Jets a pick before their actual secondary does.
Garrett Wilson snags a one-handed catch during pregame warmups before jogging to the sideline.
Braelon Allen opened the scoring with a 31-yard touchdown run in the first quarter, but it was Allen's other job Thursday that had fans nervous — the Jets kept sending him out on kick return duty, and one long runback with Tampa Bay defenders in pursuit had people begging the team to shut that down before he gets hurt in a preseason game that means nothing.
Jets kick returner Braelon Allen fields a kickoff and sprints upfield with Buccaneers defenders in pursuit, scoreboard reading Bucs 0, Jets 3.
Tampa Bay tied it at 10 before halftime on Ayden Garnes' 47-yard interception return touchdown off Bucs QB Bailey Zappe, the kind of turnover that had Barstool piling on Zappe's night in real time.
A Buccaneers defender picks off a pass and returns it for a touchdown as teammates celebrate, tying the game 10-10.
From there Tampa Bay pulled away, getting a third-quarter score from Josh Williams and a late touchdown from Jalon Daniels to close it out at 24-16. It's Week 1 of the preseason, so nobody in the building is losing sleep over the final score — but between a controversial kick, a rookie QB flashing early and a receiver making everyone else look silly in shorts and a helmet, this was about as loud as a meaningless August game gets.