After losing back-to-back games, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers found themselves victorious on Sunday against the Atlanta Falcons, 21-15. The team looked way more in sync again with Brady leading the offense to score early on and the defense continued to show poise as they have done all season.
Leonard Fournette and Tom Brady Shine with Their Best Performances
The major stimulant to the Buccaneers’ success offensively was the connection between Brady and Fournette. Brady had his best game of the season with 351 yards and a touchdown pass to Fournette. Fournette had 83 of Brady’s yards on 10 catches along with the touchdown reception mentioned before.
When passes failed on deep routes and double moves by Tampa receivers did not work out, the go-to for Brady became the dump-off to Fournette. This allowed the Bucs’ running back to create yards by being physical with the Atlanta defense which he did all game. Fournette performed well on the ground with 56 yards and a touchdown to get the scoring going in the game.
Head coach Todd Bowles on Fournette’s outing: “He played tough. He ran hard and blocked hard… he stretched a few first downs and even when he was behind the sticks he broke a few tackles for us. Everything he did today we needed.”
Rookie Rachaad White also got in on similar “dump-off” plays. He finished with three catches for 28 yards and also had 14 yards on the ground.
The Bucs receivers all had great games as well. The team is still without Julio Jones, who is still suffering from a knee injury, and Breshad Perriman, who was favoring a leg injury. But, Chris Godwin had arguably his best performance since last year’s late season injury with six catches for 61 yards. Tight end Cade Otton also impressed with six catches. Furthermore, Mike Evans had four receptions for 81 yards and came up big for Brady with a diving catch in the first half to extend the drive.
The ability to extend drives unlike the previous two games was huge for the Bucs in this victory and it helped the defense to hold the Falcons attack and gave them room for error.
Defense Performs Well Again After Lapse Last Week
Following a game were the defense gave up 41 points to the Kansas City Chiefs, the Bucs did not give up any points to Atlanta until the fourth quarter. They also held the Falcons to under 50% on third downs, forcing them to punt a lot of the time.
The pressure on quarterback Marcus Mariota was relentless. The Bucs got to him five times for sacks. Antoine Winfield Jr., Deadrin Senat, Logan Hall, Vita Vea, and Joe Tyron-Shoyinka all got to the Atlanta passer at some point. The team also put up ten QB hits in the game.
The Falcons ended up scoring all 15 of their points in the fourth but the tenacity and constant pressure throughout the game had Mariota and his offense rattled.
Up Next
With the win, the Buccaneers gain complete control of the NFC South and now sit in first place. Next week, Tampa Bay travels north to Pittsburgh where they will take on the Steelers in Acrisure Stadium. Kickoff is at 1:00 p.m. E.T.