Tampa Bay Buccaneers' back-to-back Super Bowl aspirations fall short vs. Los Angeles Rams - Tampa Bay Buccaneers Blog- ESPN

TAMPA, Fla. — There will be no NFC Championship Game in Tampa next week, and there will be no shot at a repeat Super Bowl for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers as they suffered a heartbreaking loss late after scoring 24 straight points to knot the score at 27 with 42 seconds left.

But the Bucs’ quest to “go for two,” as coach Bruce Arians called it, for an eighth ring for quarterback Tom Brady and for a second boat parade along the Hillsborough River, has fallen short with a 30-27 defeat to the Los Angeles Rams in the NFC divisional round Sunday.

Tampa Bay clawed its way back thanks to a 55-yard touchdown pass from Brady to Mike Evans and two touchdown runs from Leonard Fournette. But the defense surrendered plays of 20 and 44 yards on the final drive to set up a 30-yard field goal from kicker Matt Gay as time expired.

Now, the San Francisco 49ers, who handed the top-seeded Green Bay Packers a stunning defeat in some of the coldest temperatures ever recorded at Lambeau Field on Saturday, will travel to SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles — the site of Super Bowl LVI — for a rematch of the Niners' Week 18 overtime victory. That game allowed the Bucs to move into the No. 2 seed and bump the Rams to No. 4, which meant a cross-country flight to Tampa for Sean McVay and his team, who are now 3-0 against Brady and Arians over the past two years.

The only other time both of the NFC's No. 1 and No. 2 seeds were wiped out in the divisional round was 2008.

Brady, who finished 30-of-54 for 329 yards, one touchdown pass and one interception, was pressured heavily Sunday and struggled to connect with his weapons on third down.

His seemingly bulletproof offensive line that played 1,769 snaps together since his arrival suffered not one, but two