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TAMPA, Fla. -- With seven seconds to go in a nail-biting season opener against the Dallas Cowboys on Thursday night -- the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ first game as defending Super Bowl LV champions -- coach Bruce Arians turned to the one player he knew he could count on to deliver in the clutch. It wasn’t seven-time Super Bowl champion quarterback Tom Brady, because he had already taken the Bucs as far as he could, to Dallas’ 18-yard line. It was kicker Ryan Succop, activated less than a week before from the reserve/COVID-19 list, still dealing with the remnants of an infection. “I’m starting to feel better now. It was a little rough there for a few days,” said Succop, who’s vaccinated. “I still have a cough and can’t smell anything. Other than that, I’m fine.” He was more than fine. On a night when field goal kicking was at a premium (Cowboys kicker Greg Zuerlein missed attempts on a 31-yard field goal and an extra point), Succop calmly marched to the dreaded open south end zone at Raymond James Stadium -- a spot where many kicking careers have ended for home-team kickers because of a challenging crosswind, and launched a 36-yard field goal through the uprights for the 31-29 win.  “We needed to get out there and do something for the team to help us win,” Brady said. “We had to put ourselves in a position, and then Ryan made the kick. That makes it really good when the ball goes through the uprights.”
“Yeah, it was special,” said Succop, who re-signed with the Bucs this offseason on a three-year deal worth $12 million. “Never doubt with Ryan,” added Arians, who told him after the game to go catch a 2:30 a.m. ET flight to son Cooper’s sixth birthday party in Nashville, Tennessee, that Succop inadvertently scheduled for Friday, not realizing there’d be at a team meeting due to an unusual week of scheduling. He’d told Arians three or four days ago, “I’d rather be at my son’s birthday. I’ll be at the meeting if you need me, but if I can go, I’d love to go.” “I kind of honestly thought he forgot about it,” Succop said. “As soon as we made the kick, I came off the field and he gave me a big hug and said, ‘It’s going to be a heck of a birthday party tomorrow.’” The theme? Buccaneers. With a Super Bowl-themed cake. Because Cooper just started playing football and had a flag football game last week. His dad will get to watch him this week. Cooper couldn’t stay up late enough to watch the ending Thursday night, though. “He was petitioning with Mama all week,” Succop said laughing. “Mama let him stay up until halftime. ... After the game, I saw my wife had texted me, and she’s like, ‘I’m so bummed I made him go to bed at halftime. He’s gonna be so mad when he wakes up.” Succop had some challenging practices this summer -- including days of multiple misses. But Arians insisted that when it came time for games, he’d deliver, just as he did last season, when he made 90.3% of his field goals during the regular season (the second-best mark in franchise history) and going 9-for-9 on field goals with just one missed PAT in the postseason. However, skepticism is warranted, as kicking has been anything but certain in Tampa Bay, whose tortured post-Martin Gramatica/Matt Bryant history includes 10 kickers suiting up since 2010, and with a collective 77.8% field goal percentage from 2001 to 2019 -- the worst in the NFL. They also drafted two kickers -- Roberto Aguayo in the second round of the 2016 draft and Matt Gay in the fifth round of the 2019 draft -- with both being waived the following year. Plus, prior to Succop, the last time the Bucs had the same kicker start in back-to-back seasons was Connor Barth, from 2010 to '12. From 2013 to '20, they used a new kicker in each of their season openers. But now they feel like they have dependability. “He’s a solid pro. He had a great year last year. Came in, took a little while to get it going, but we’ve got all the confidence in the world [in him],” Arians said. “I don’t believe in jinxes, and I don’t think he does either, so he’s never really struggled at that end at all.”
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