Bucs – Saints Recap: Turnovers Sink the Ship

Jameis is as Jameis Does

Turnovers continue to plague the Tampa offense. Winston threw four picks and tied his season career-high with six games remaining. The good news, if you can call it that, is that two were definitely not his fault.

Early in the game, Jameis put one right on tight end O.J. Howard, who proceeded to lose the ball, pin the ball to his side, lose it again, try to catch it behind his back, and lose it yet again when hit by a New Orleans defender. Demario Davis scooped it out of the air for the interception. Much later, at the game’s end, Winston was picked off after Mike Evans let up on the play; Evans claimed he’d heard a whistle blow the play dead and didn’t realize his error until the ball was in the air.

That leaves two interceptions that were Winston’s fault, including a crucial pick-six that sealed Tampa’s fate. Winston can only be absolved of so much fault; turnovers have been an issue for him his entire career. Despite this, Arians stood up for his quarterback, saying he discounts about half of Winston’s 18 interceptions due to the receivers’ role. This is good for Winston moving forward and might indicate he’ll be in Tampa beyond this season.

Open Season on Young Buc(k)s

After cutting veteran corner Vernon Hargreaves this week, Tampa expected their young secondary to step up. Today was not their day. Drew Brees completed 80% of his passes for 228 yards and three touchdowns. Growing pains are to be expected with such a young group, but they weren’t helped out much by their defensive line either. Brees wasn’t taken down a single time in the contest despite missing starting guard Andrus Peat. They’ll face another tough test next week with the Falcons. Matt Ryan is back to form and will be throwing to Julio Jones and Calvin Ridley, but Austin Hooper is expected to be out with an MCL sprain.

Evans Making History

Today Mike Evans was pretty average, with four catches for 69 yards. It was historic nevertheless. Evans passed Larry Fitzgerald, Marvin Harrison, and Antonio Brown for the eighth-most receiving yards through the first six seasons of their careers, and is posed to pass A.J. Green next week. He also bested his own team record for the most receiving yards through ten games.

Ro-Oh-No

After strong outings in the past two weeks, Ronald Jones had a poor outing today. He rushed for a mere 13 yards on four attempts and caught two passes to net a single yard. The Buccaneers need a solid presence in the backfield, and Jones remains an unknown quantity at this point. A bad showing doesn’t help his case to keep the starting job. Though he didn’t necessarily do anything too badly, today is one Jones will wish he had back.

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