Thu. Mar 28th, 2024
Kansas City Chiefs v Tampa Bay Bucs
Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images

A game to forget for several Bucs

It’s hard to repeatedly tame an offensive mastermind like Andy Reid, as well as the best QB around in Patrick Mahomes, as the Bucs harshly found out against the Kansas City Chiefs Sunday night.

A turnover on the opening kickoff knocked the defense off-kilter and they could never recover en route to a 41-31 defeat.

The offense was forced to open up the playbook for the first time and generally looked good, but several defenders experienced a night to forget. We’ll recap some top performers…

Offensive Top Performer: WR Mike Evans

Evans beat up on players worse than him and caught two touchdowns on his signature corner fades — a normally mediocre play that hardly works for 99% of other teams but is near-indefensible against him. No. 13 also became the team’s all-time leader in career scrimmage yards as part of his 8-catch, 109-yard night.

As usual, him just being his awesome self. Give your best players the ball and good things happen.

Chris Godwin came back from injury (again) and continued to look good (again). He finished with 7 catches for 55 yards and should’ve had another long reception that was erased by penalty. Him being back to his normal self will be imperative for this offense to function efficiently.

Tom Brady hopefully showed HC Todd Bowles and OC Byron Leftwich that he is, in fact, still Tom Brady and that he can competently carry a high-volume passing offense. He looked excellent completing 38 of 51 passes for 363 yards and three touchdowns with only 1 sack despite the clearly slanted game flow.

Defensive Top Performer: S Mike Edwards

Edwards has been balling out to begin the season as he looks to prove himself as a full-time starter for the first time. He, like most others, had some rough spots but in general it was more good than bad with 12 combined tackles and a sack.

Keanu Neal stepped in most of the contest for an injured Logan Ryan and held up alright, making 6 tackles — including one for loss on a run stuff. Not being a total liability in what essentially was a spot start deserves a nod.

Sean Murphy-Bunting played his first defensive snaps of the year and managed an interception off Mahomes, which falls perfectly in line with his mostly-bad-but-occasionally-opportunistic ethos. On a night where Mahomes was basically perfect, the takeaway does deserve respect.

Special Teams Top Performer: K Ryan Succop

Succop made all of his kicks and didn’t do anything to actively ruin his team’s chances to win. Can’t say the same for most of his special teams companions.

Hopefully better times next week.

By admin