Tampa, who improved their record to 6-10 and almost making it into the wild card last year, continued to show signs that they are an up and coming team poised to take over the NFC south. Winston showed no signs of a sophomore slump in yesterday’s game against the Falcons. He threw for 281 yards, four touchdowns, and was sacked no times.
The offensive line had a hiccup or two, but those are easily correctable. It seemed that the Buccaneers utilized every offensive weapon they had yesterday. Winston spread the ball out to just about every receiver he had and Charles Sims and Doug Martin proved the one-two punch is still very relevant.
Mike Smith’s new defense had a few questionable calls yesterday, but that’s part of the learning process of a new defensive scheme. Otherwise, the defense looks exciting and promising. Gerald McCoy had a heck of an opening game, along with pals Robert Ayers Jr, who leads the team in sacks, and Kwon Alexander, who tackled everyone holding a football. Lavonte David played well as per the norm and the new corners did well in shutting down Sanu and Julio Jones, despite what you may think you’ve seen.One real issue I can find with yesterday’s game is the fact Tampa was up 31-13 and allowed the Falcons to bring the score back to within a touchdown, that is something that needs to be fixed and fixed right now. Tampa cannot afford to jump up in the score only to be defeated in the end. Not this year and not ever again.
