The Tampa Bay Buccaneers cleared one main hurdle this season in getting their first signature win towards the Green Bay Packers final week, enjoying one among their greatest video games within the previous decade. The following hurdle: how they deal with profitable on a weekly foundation with a rising goal on their backs as they’ve emerged as a favourite within the NFC. They dealt with enterprise towards the Las Vegas Raiders, who had an additional week to organize, with a 45-20 win on the highway.
Tom Brady threw for 369 yards and 4 touchdowns — he now has 559 passing TDs, surpassing Drew Brees (558) for the profession TD passes mark. This wasn’t an error-free efficiency for the Bucs. They began off sluggish as a protection. Their second-half struggles that plagued them earlier within the 12 months resurfaced within the third quarter, earlier than a three-TD scoring explosion within the fourth. The Bucs enhance their report to 5-2 to keep up their NFC South lead.
QB breakdown: Brady didn’t want his protection to get issues going like he did when the Bucs have been down 10-0 final week. In opposition to the Raiders’ single-high security appears within the first half, he had a ton of success on crossing routes with tight finish Rob Gronkowski, producing features of 26 and 28 yards. After a QB sneak for a TD within the first quarter, Brady hit Gronkowski within the nook of the left finish zone on a back-shoulder fade, similar to they did final week, to make it 14-10. Then simply earlier than halftime with :25 remaining, Brady fired a missile to Scotty Miller for a 33-yard landing to make it 21-10.
In complete, Brady accomplished 33 of 45 passes for 369 yards and 4 touchdowns with a fifth on the bottom and no interceptions. He was not sacked as soon as, and the Bucs’ pink zone numbers have been again on observe after flopping towards the Bears, going 4-of-5 in that division.
Promising pattern: Coming off the Bucs’ 11-penalty efficiency towards the Bears in Week 5, Bruce Arians informed his gamers, “It’s important to get the job achieved otherwise you received’t be the one doing the job,” inside linebacker Devin White stated. It seems they’ve taken it to coronary heart. After delivering a zero-penalty efficiency for simply the second time in franchise historical past final week towards the Inexperienced Bay Packers, the Bucs adopted that up with simply 4 penalties towards the Raiders this week.
A pair of these penalties have been expensive, although. An offsides penalty on Shaq Barrett negated what would have been a Mike Edwards interception within the third quarter. Then on the very subsequent play, Sean Murphy-Bunting was slapped with a holding name, establishing a 44-yard reception by Nelson Agholor and a 1-yard landing strike to Darren Waller to make it a one-score recreation.
Greatest concern: Professional Bowl broad receiver Mike Evans hasn’t been in a position to absolutely observe with an ankle damage he suffered in Week 4 and was focused thrice with only one catch. If he’s that damage — which it seems he’s — there’s no motive to play him towards the 1-6 Giants subsequent week when a rematch with New Orleans might resolve the NFC South in two weeks. In reality, he was nonetheless enjoying when the Bucs had a two-TD lead, which is baffling.
