T'Was the Night Before Saturday

 T'was the night before Saturday and all on the screen,

The Tampa offense to start was a well-oiled machine.

The passes were thrown by Mahomes with great care,

It's like the Erie defenders were not even there.

Receivers were open again and again,

And soon the Cubans were up already by ten.

Erie was shook, the whole team was down,

But Geno responded with a touchdown to Brown.

The Cubans tried to fill my stocking with coal,

Responding with a Cairo Santos field goal.

As halftime drew near Erie started to click,

Pulling ahead on a touchdown and point after kick.

Aaron Jones pulled up lame, enter the Duke in to play,

Who dropped bombs like he was flying the Enola Gay.

Oh that Duke he ran left, oh that Duke he ran right,

Erie just couldn't tackle him as he ran through the night.

Late in the fourth Duke found the end zone,

As Erie coaches and players all let out a groan,

Geno tried to rally Erie back into the fight,

But a late offside call seemed to turn out the light.

A turnover on downs with three minutes to go

One Tampa first down would put an end to the show.

But what to my wondering eyes should appear?

A pick on third down by Mike Hilton, oh dear!

Soon the down was fourth, with a long way to the goal,

But harketh, a catch by reserve Keelan Cole!

Erie pressed on with the legs of James Conner,

Speeding through Cubans like Dasher and Donner.

With one tick to go and nerves a'plenty,

Robbie Gould kicked the ball to tie it at twenty.

The coin it was tossed, a fifty-cent piece I believe,

It landed on tails, and Tyrod said, "We'll receive!"

The ball it was Erie's, but things soon looked bleak,

For Geno's left hamstring it seemed he did tweak.

Needing to score in the most awful way,

Erie lad James Conner continued to save the day.

Oh his helmet how it twinkled, his legs bore the stress,

As he busted through Cubans like the Polar Express.

As he plowed into the end zone on a run to the right,

He yelled, "Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!"

2021 Erie 26, 2021 Tampa 20
	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	OT	Total
2021 Erie	0	14	3	3	6	26
2021 Tampa	10	3	0	7	0	20

Scoring Plays
Qtr	Clock	Team	Scoring Description(Extra Point)	Score
1	7:48	2021 Tampa	D.Mooney 2 yd. pass from P.Mahomes (C.Santos kick)	7-0 TAM
1	2:24	2021 Tampa	C.Santos 34 yd. field goal	10-0 TAM
2	11:42	2021 Erie	A.Brown 4 yd. pass from G.Smith (R.Gould kick)	10-7 TAM
2	6:36	2021 Tampa	C.Santos 43 yd. field goal	13-7 TAM
2	1:45	2021 Erie	C.Patterson 10 yd. pass from G.Smith (R.Gould kick)	14-13 ERI
3	9:54	2021 Erie	R.Gould 43 yd. field goal	17-13 ERI
4	4:12	2021 Tampa	D.Johnson 17 yd. run (C.Santos kick)	20-17 TAM
4	0:01	2021 Erie	R.Gould 29 yd. field goal	20-20 TAM
5	6:06	2021 Erie	J.Conner 6 yd. run	26-20 ERI

Other Highlights
Qtr	Clock	Team	Event	Player	Yards
1	7:12	2021 Erie	Pass	John Bates	32
2	9:54	2021 Tampa	QBSack	Trey Hendrickson	-6
2	8:06	2021 Tampa	QBSack	Cameron Jordan	-7
3	7:30	2021 Tampa	Fumble	Duke Johnson
3	2:42	2021 Tampa	QBSack	Kendall Fuller	-10
4	6:54	2021 Tampa	QBSack	Trey Hendrickson	-4
4	2:00	2021 Erie	Intercept	Mike Hilton	10

Team Statistics
	2021 Erie	2021 Tampa
First Downs by Rush-Pass-Pen-Total	14-18-3-35	5-13-0-18
Third Down Efficiency	4-11-36%	7-14-50%
Fourth Down Efficiency	1-4-25%	2-2-100%
Red Zone Efficiency (pts-poss-pct)	24-28-86%	17-21-81%
Total Offense-Plays-Avg Yards Per Play	486-79-6.2	313-56-5.6
Total Net Yards Rushing	211	105
Total Rushes	35	16
Average Per Rush	6.0	6.6
Passes Completed/Attempted	27/44 (61.4%)	22/36 (61.1%)
Net Yards Passing	275	208
Avg Yards Per Pass	6.3	6.5
Sacked/Yards Lost	0/0	4/27
Punts/Average	2/32.0	2/54.5
Punts Received/Return Yardage	1/-3	0/0
Kickoffs/Returns	2/46	1/26
Interceptions/Returns	1/10	0/0
Penalties/Yards	5/25	3/43
Total Fumbles/Fumbles Lost	1/0	1/1
Time of Possession	36 mins 1 secs	27 mins 53 secs
Average Drive Start	ERI 23	TAM 30

Passing Stats
	Att	Comp	Yds	Comp %	Yds/Att	TD	TD %	INT	INT %	Long	Sack	Rating
2021 Erie
Geno Smith	38	23	249	60.5	6.6	2	5.3	0	0	32	0/0	97.4
Josh Allen	6	4	26	66.7	4.3	0	0	0	0	15	0/0	75.7
2021 Tampa
Patrick Mahomes	36	22	235	61.1	6.5	1	2.8	1	2.8	29	4/27	77.9

Rushing Stats
	No	Yds	Avg	Long	TD	2 Pt Conv	Fumbles/Lost
2021 Erie
James Conner	20	143	7.2	18	1	0	0/0
Boston Scott	10	50	5.0	11	0	0	0/0
Geno Smith	3	13	4.3	7	0	0	0/0
C. Patterson	2	5	2.5	6	0	0	0/0
2021 Tampa
Duke Johnson	8	76	9.5	27	1	0	1/1
Aaron Jones	6	32	5.3	18	0	0	0/0
Patrick Mahomes	2	-3	-1.5	-1	0	0	0/0

Receiving Stats
	No	Yds	Avg	Long	TD	2 Pt Conv
2021 Erie
John Bates	6	61	10.2	32	0	0
Michael Pittman Jr.	5	41	8.2	14	0	0
Antonio Brown	4	58	14.5	26	1	0
C. Patterson	4	42	10.5	14	1	0
Ricky Seals-Jones	3	40	13.3	15	0	0
Marquez Valdes-Scantlin	2	7	3.5	9	0	0
Keelan Cole	1	11	11.0	11	0	0
James Conner	1	10	10.0	10	0	0
Boston Scott	1	5	5.0	5	0	0
2021 Tampa
Tyler Higbee	6	45	7.5	13	0	0
Foster Moreau	5	58	11.6	17	0	0
Darnell Mooney	3	43	14.3	29	1	0
Tyler Lockett	3	39	13.0	18	0	0
Courtland Sutton	2	24	12.0	14	0	0
Duke Johnson	2	21	10.5	14	0	0
Aaron Jones	1	5	5.0	5	0	0

Field Goals and Extra Points
	1-19	20-29	30-39	40-49	50+	Totals	% Made	XPs
2021 Erie
Robbie Gould	0/0	1/1	0/0	1/1	0/0	2/2	100	2/2
2021 Tampa
Cairo Santos	0/0	0/0	1/1	1/1	0/0	2/2	100	2/2

Punting
	No	Avg	Net	Tb	Inside 20	Long	Blocked
2021 Erie
Sam Koch	2	32.0	32.0	0	2	34	0
2021 Tampa
Michael Dickson	2	54.5	56.0	0	1	61	0

Kickoff Returns
	No	Yds	Avg	Long	TD
2021 Erie
Godwin Igwebuike	1	26	26.0	26	0
C. Patterson	1	20	20.0	20	0
2021 Tampa
Travis Homer	1	26	26.0	26	0

Punt Returns
	Ret	FC	Yds	Avg	Long	TD
2021 Erie
Easop Winston Jr.	1	0	-3	-3.0	-3	0
Freddie Swain	0	1	0		0	0
2021 Tampa

Individual Defense
	Tackles	Sacks	Fum Rec
2021 Erie
Kendall Fuller	6	1	0
Quandre Diggs	6	0	0
Zach Cunningham	5	0	0
Harrison Smith	4	0	1
Ronald Darby	4	0	0
Vita Vea	4	0	0
Bobby Wagner	3	0	0
Trey Hendrickson	2	2	0
Cameron Jordan	2	1	0
A.J. Klein	1	0	1
Adetokunbo Ogundeji	1	0	0
Mike Hilton	1	0	0
2021 Tampa
J. Owusu-Koramoah	10	0	0
Duron Harmon	10	0	0
William Jackson III	8	0	0
Josh Bynes	7	0	0
Micah Kiser	6	0	0
Folorunso Fatukasi	4	0	0
Sione Takitaki	4	0	0
Dean Lowry	3	0	0
Marlon Humphrey	3	0	0
Stephon Gilmore	2	0	0
John Johnson III	2	0	0

Interceptions
	No	Yds	Avg	Long	TD
2021 Erie
Mike Hilton	1	10	10.0	10	0
2021 Tampa

Game Story

James Conner led the way to victory as the visitors from Erie defeated Tampa by the score of 26 to 20. Conner rushed for 143 yards and added a touchdown. Geno Smith passed 38 times for 249 yards and 2 touchdowns. Erie controlled the ground game, out-rushing Tampa 211 to 105 yards. They controlled the ball for 42:25. Tampa got ahead early outscoring Erie 10 to 0 in the first quarter