The final season at the Georgia Dome kicks off Sunday, when the Atlanta Falcons host the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in an NFC South clash.
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Dirk Koetter makes his debut as Tampa Bay’s coach, and his success working with Winston as the offensive coordinator previous year has prompted high hopes for the quarterback’s second pro season. The Titans may have momentarily done that, at least for a week or two, with key linebacker Derrick Morgan leaving the game with a left hamstring injury. Three of those drives came after kickoff touchbacks and thus covered 75 yards.
Though Evans had a quiet first half, catching just one pass for five yards, he exploded in the third quarter with four receptions and 94 receiving yards.
Oh it was worse past year, but still the Bucs went 6-6 before Kwon Alexander got busted for ingesting anti-Roger Goodell juice, and the walls caved in with four straight losses.
Jameis Winston is no longer a rookie. He racked up 95 yards on 5 catches, and showcased his improved hands that were so heavily advertised during the offseason.
The touchdown gave Tampa Bay a 17-13 lead they would not lose and momentum that carried into the second half.
But Winston shook off that miscue with a 4-yard TD pass to Myers, and went to work again with less than two minutes to go in the first half.
Winston has 268 yards and 4 TDs.
“We didn’t get the stop right away on defense”, Quinn said.
The ex-Falcons coach is excited about the trip, though not because he’s facing his old team for the first time since being fired two seasons ago. The Raiders defeated the Saints 35-34 when they went for a two-point conversion with 47 seconds left. He didn’t practice for almost two weeks, but he insisted that the ankle was fine after the 31-24 loss to Tampa Bay on Sunday. In 2015, Winston showed his potential to succeed in the NFL.
To make Sunday’s collapse worse, second-year quarterback Marcus Mariota threw an interception he should have known better than to throw that was returned for a touchdown while coughing up the ball a second time on a botched handoff that also resulted in a defensive score. That’s the main thing.
“You always face former coaches and former teammates, week in and week out”. After beginning the day 3 for 7, with back to back overthrows to open receivers in the end zone, Winston led three consecutive touchdown drives, all in no-huddle, a strategy loved by the players. There was a breakdown between the quarterback and receiver, as Jackson broke outside while Winston’s threw to the inside.
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Mike Smith is headed back to Atlanta, this time as defensive coordinator of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Olivia is a multi-faceted reporter who has worked with a variety of media outlets including Fox Sports, Tampa Media Group and PBS.
