Another meaningless win for the Bucs in August, but we’ll take it.
The Buccaneers started the game with the first possession and a three-and-out. Ryan Fitzpatrick could not duplicate his stellar performance from the previous week against Miami. However, he did not play terrible, either. He finished the night with five completions on 13 attempts and a total of 46 passing yards.
Jameis Winston entered the game in the second quarter and was on fire right off the bat. He connected well with Mike Evans and DeSean Jackson on long balls. He had one Touchdown pass to Chris Godwin and another one to Rookie Justin Watson. The Touchdown to Godwin was typical of Winston. He bought himself extra time escaping from defenders in the pocket and then threw it off his back foot into a seemingly crowded area. Some would call it an ill-advised pass, but Jameis is known for making dangerous decisions. Fortunately, in this case, Godwin was able to leap high and haul it in for the score. On a side note, there was a flag on the field for defensive holding on the play, so a turnover would have been overruled. Whether Jameis knew that the penalty would have gone against Tennessee is doubtful, on the other hand. Additionally, Winston could have had a third Touchdown as he connected with Godwin in the end zone on a 3rd & 18 play, but the scoring play was nullified due to a holding penalty caused by the offensive line. Winston finished with a very impressive 13 completions on 18 attempts for 226 yards and two Touchdowns.
The Buccaneers offense remained relatively quiet in the second half, which was quarterbacked by Ryan Griffin, who played decent, connecting with Sergio Bailey for a Touchdown.
Chandler Catanzaro made all three of his field goals and all three of his extra points. He even had another field goal, yet it was nullified because of a penalty. Fortunately, the kicking game seems to be going in the right direction.
At the running back position, Peyton Barber solidified his position as the starter in the backfield. He ran hard, again, gaining 32 yards on only 6 attempts. Yet, Rookie Ronald Jones continued to struggle. On his four carries he only managed a total of 2 yards and has yet to figure out how things work at the next level. In his first two games as a Buccaneer, he now has a total of 12 carries for only 11 yards. The fact that Jacquizz Rodgers entered the game before Jones is concerning, as well. Hopefully, Rodgers will get it together soon.
Defensively, Rookie MJ Stewart had a fabulous game, again. He recorded two forced fumbles, one of them resulted in a turnover, as it was recovered by Lavonte David. Unfortunately, Stewart was forced to leave the game early because of a foot injury.
