Buccaneers Reach the Break-Even Point

All along, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers insisted they would never give up on their season.

“We could have mailed it in a long time ago,” receiver Keenan McCardell said Sunday after the Super Bowl champions beat the Houston Texans, 16-3, to keep their slim playoff hopes alive. “We lost three straight. Everybody was writing us off. But we’ve hung in there.”

The victory gave the Buccaneers (7-7) their first two-game winning streak and lifted the defending champs to .500 for the first time in six weeks.

To earn one of two NFC wild-card berths, they’ll probably have to win remaining games against Atlanta and Tennessee, and get lots of outside help.

Thomas Jones ran for 134 yards and a touchdown in his second start for the Buccaneers, who have won three of four since ending a three-game skid that left them in danger of not reaching the playoffs for the first time since 1998.

Martin Gramatica had field goals of 36, 23 and 26 yards.

The Buccaneers played without defensive tackle Warren Sapp, sidelined because of a sprained foot, but Houston (5-9) wasn’t able to take advantage and had only 107 yards. The Texans got a 38-yard field goal from Kris Brown in the third quarter.

Houston played for the second week in a row without injured quarterback David Carr and is still looking for its first touchdown with rookie Dave Ragone running the offense.

Ragone was nine for 17 for 64 yards and was sacked five times. Domanick Davis returned to Houston’s lineup after sitting out the previous week, but was held to 56 yards in 16 carries.

Brad Johnson was 17 for 28 for 237 yards and no interceptions for Tampa Bay. McCardell had five receptions for 59 yards, including a 14-yard catch that put him over 1,000 yards for the fifth time in his career.