The game was on the line when Craig Woodson predicted what the Tampa Bay Buccaneers would do.

Standing in the center of the backfield, the Patriots rookie safety had his eyes on tight end Cade Otton. When the ball was snapped, he broke to the right. Woodson was about 10 yards behind Otton when Baker Mayfield threw the ball.

The rookie safety sprinted downhill, colliding with the tight end and breaking up the would-be first-down catch.

“Shoot, game on the line, I’m trying to do whatever I can to get this team get the win,” Woodson said. “Third down, I saw the concept coming. In that type of coverage, you’ve just got to be ready. Once the quarterback threw the ball, I just tried to go over there and make a play.”

That was a key moment in Sunday’s Patriots upset win over the Buccaneers. That play also marked the second pass breakup for Woodson.

The fourth-round pick has been an instant starter for Mike Vrabel’s defense. Last weekend, he stepped up with the biggest play of his early NFL career. That third-down stop led to a fourth-down stop for the defense, as the Patriots held off the Buccaneers for their seventh-straight win.

After the game, veteran safety Jaylinn Hawkins brought up Woodson’s name unprompted in the visitors’ locker room.

“He made a hell of a play. I was so happy for him to make that play,” Hawkins said. “He had two big back-to-back plays. In a game like this, as a rookie, it shows a lot. I’m beyond proud of him and the player he’s being and the player he’s becoming.”

This season, the Patriots revamped their defense under Vrabel. The safety position was completely overhauled. The team released veteran starter Jabrill Peppers in training camp. Two weeks ago, they traded last year’s starter, Kyle Dugger, to Pittsburgh.

The moves left the Patriots to rely on Hawkins, last year’s backup, and Woodson, a rookie.

In Vrabel’s scheme, they want safeties who are athletic enough to provide coverage in the secondary while being smart enough to know where to go and help their teammates. Woodson enters this week third on the Patriots in tackles (47) to go with three pass breakups and a fumble recovery.

His performance on Sunday earned praise, but it wasn’t perfect. The rookie allowed an 11-yard touchdown at the end of the game to Tez Johnson. After the score, Vrabel asked his assistant coaches if Woodson messed up.

They told him, he didn’t.

“Well, I think he’s comfortable. I think he’s been available, which is really important,” Vrabel said. “Finding some ball production, breaking passes up. They made a really good play on him (Sunday) in the end zone, which was – I was asking, “Hey, did he look back? Did he go with the wrong hand?” Guys upstairs are like, “No, he didn’t look back. It’s a perfect ball, and it beat him in the end zone.”

“But I think you see him becoming more comfortable, willing to trigger and tackle in this league, so critical on the back end to eliminate those big plays in the running game or short passes. They’ve done a good job of that.”