Jordan Love Throws Two TDs as Packers Hold Off Buccaneers 17-14, Dropping Tampa Bay to 0-4

TAMPA, FLA. — The Green Bay Packers did not play a clean game on Sunday. Jordan Love threw a fourth-quarter interception, Kaleb Johnson fumbled inside the Tampa Bay 5-yard line, and the offense managed all of 275 total yards. None of it mattered. Love threw two touchdown passes — including the go-ahead score to Tucker Kraft on a play reversed from incomplete to touchdown — and the Packers' defense intercepted rookie quarterback Jalon Daniels twice in a 17-14 win over the Buccaneers at Raymond James Stadium.

Green Bay (2-2) is now 2-0 on the road. Tampa Bay (0-4) is the NFC's last winless team, off to its first 0-4 start since 2014. Per the Associated Press, only the 1992 Chargers have ever overcome an 0-4 start to reach the playoffs — which tells you just about everything about where the Buccaneers' season stands in early October.

The difference was a reversal. Leading 10-7 at halftime, the Packers opened the second half with an eight-play scoring drive, and Love's 2-yard pass to Kraft — initially ruled incomplete — was reversed into a touchdown, restoring a two-score lead at 17-7 with 10:32 left in the third quarter. Tampa Bay never got closer than three the rest of the way.

A rookie's first start

Daniels, an undrafted rookie, made his first career start in place of Baker Mayfield, who missed a game for the first time in his three-plus seasons in Tampa Bay because of a dislocated thumb, per the AP. Daniels finished 19-of-27 for 148 yards with a touchdown and two interceptions, adding 55 rushing yards on eight carries.

There were obvious rookie moments — two first-half interceptions that led directly to 10 Green Bay points — and genuine composure. Daniels led a 12-play, 84-yard touchdown drive in the second half, capping it with the first touchdown pass of his career, a 10-yarder to Kenneth Gainwell that cut the deficit to 17-14 with 14:49 remaining in the fourth quarter. The Buccaneers outgained the Packers in first downs (19-15) and ran more plays (61-55), but the mistakes kept erasing the production.

The defense closes it — twice

Green Bay's defense did the heavy lifting all afternoon. Evan Williams jumped a route to intercept Daniels at the Packers' 32 on Tampa Bay's second drive, and the Packers turned the takeaway into a 16-play, 68-yard march that chewed more than nine minutes off the clock, capped by Love's 2-yard touchdown pass to Matthew Golden for a 7-0 lead. Sean Tucker answered with a 2-yard rushing touchdown to tie it at 7-7 with 5:13 left in the half, but Edgerrin Cooper intercepted Daniels just before halftime and Trey Smack's 58-yard field goal sent Green Bay to the locker room up 10-7.

Cooper's afternoon ended early in the second half when he grabbed the back of his leg without contact and was carted off the field — the one sour note on an otherwise stout defensive day, and an injury worth monitoring in Green Bay.

In the fourth quarter, the Packers twice handed Tampa Bay a lifeline and twice watched the defense snatch it back. Johnson's fumble inside the Buccaneers' 5-yard line with just over nine minutes left, forced by Tykee Smith, killed a would-be insurance drive. Then Jacob Parrish intercepted Love with 4:22 remaining to give Tampa Bay the ball near its own 15 with a chance to win it.

Instead, the Bucs went nowhere. Coach Todd Bowles passed up a 65-yard field-goal attempt by Chase McLaughlin — who made one from that distance last year, per the AP — and Daniels' fourth-down throw fell incomplete. Tampa Bay advanced to the Packers' 46 on its final drive but was turned away on downs with 1:25 remaining, Williams again supplying the decisive pressure, and Love's kneel-downs ended it.

By the numbers

Love's final line: 22-of-30, 197 yards, two touchdowns, one interception. Kraft was his most reliable target with six catches for 42 yards. The Packers rushed for a season-high 86 yards despite losing Chris Brooks in the first quarter. Remarkably, Tampa Bay won much of the stat sheet — more first downs, nearly identical yardage (283-275), more plays, 141 rushing yards — but the two first-half interceptions, the fumble at the 4, and zero points off two fourth-quarter takeaways told the real story. Good teams turn takeaways into points; the 2026 Buccaneers are not a good team right now.

What's next

At 2-2 with a 2-0 road record, the Packers sit in the thick of the NFC North race with their defense rounding into form. For Tampa Bay, the math is now historical: one team in the Super Bowl era has started 0-4 and made the playoffs. The Buccaneers need Mayfield's thumb to heal, Daniels to grow up fast, or something else entirely — and they need it soon. Our NFL Week 5 preview breaks down where both teams go from here, Sunday's full Week 4 takeaways round up the rest of a wild afternoon, and Monday night's Falcons-Saints showdown closes out the week tonight.