Sunday’s matchup between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Houston Texans has the makings and feel of an old school, drag em’ and knock em’ out street fight type of game.
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Backup running back Alfred Blue shouldn’t have gashed the Tampa Bay Buccaneers defense the way he did, to the tune of 139 yards on 31 carries and a touchdown.
Buccaneers kicker Kyle Brindza contributed to Houston’s cause, missing three field-goal attempts in the second half after nailing a 58-yarder in the first half.
However, Jackson was quiet for the rest of the afternoon, ultimately finishing with just two catches for 40 yards on four targets, leaving him at 501 career receptions for 8,509 yards and 55 touchdowns.
The 1-1 Washington Redskins were hoping to move to 2-1 to compete with the NFC East division leading Dallas Cowboys, and at the same time all but eliminate one of their main rivals from contention for the postseason.
-RUSHING OFFENSE: D. The Bucs never got anything going against the Texans front seven in the run game.
Coach Bill O’Brien saw improvement from Mallett.
It was the first win on the season for the Texans, who didn’t look much better, but didn’t turn the ball over. He found Murphy again two plays later for a 19-yard gain, but the offense stalled, and Tampa Bay was left empty-handed when Brindza missed from 33 yards.
J.J. Watt had three quarterback hits, but the Bucs stopped the Houston star’s streak of seven consecutive games with at least one sack.
“I think he understood how we wanted to manage the game better today”, O’Brien said. That said, Jameis, we are talking about a player (Watt) who used a rookie QB posting a selfie on Instagram three hours before the game as motivation last season, and J.J. damn near killed poor ol’ Zach Mettenberger.
Brindza’s third miss on a 57-yarder late in the final period. Evans had 68 receptions for 1,051 yards and 12 touchdowns last season.
Running back Arian Foster, tackle Duane Brown and guard Brandon Brooks are hopeful to play Sunday.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are encouraged by the way Jameis Winston is performing, even if the young quarterback’s progress isn’t reflected in the team’s record. Who will win this game? “We’ll be fine on the defensive side of the ball”.
It wasn’t the prettiest looking win, but the fact that the Texans walked out of NRG Stadium victorious was all that mattered.
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“All the things that losing teams do, we did today”, Tampa Bay head coach Lovie Smith said. The defense did a good job of handling the Bucs’ huge receivers, and Johnathan Joseph had one of the best games in his career.
