The Tampa Bay Buccaneers cleared one major hurdle this season in getting their first signature win against the Green Bay Packers last week, playing one of their best games in the past decade. The next hurdle: how they handle winning on a weekly basis with a growing target on their backs as they’ve emerged as a favorite in the NFC. They handled business against the Las Vegas Raiders, who had an extra week to prepare, with a 45-20 win on the road.
Tom Brady threw for 369 yards and four touchdowns — he now has 559 passing TDs, surpassing Drew Brees (558) for the career TD passes mark. This wasn’t an error-free performance for the Bucs. They started off sluggish as a defense. Their second-half struggles that plagued them earlier in the year resurfaced in the third quarter, before a three-TD scoring explosion in the fourth. The Bucs improve their record to 5-2 to maintain their NFC South lead.
QB breakdown: Brady didn’t need his defense to get things going like he did when the Bucs were down 10-0 last week. Against the Raiders’ single-high safety looks in the first half, he had a ton of success on crossing routes with tight end Rob Gronkowski, producing gains of 26 and 28 yards. After a QB sneak for a TD in the first quarter, Brady hit Gronkowski in the corner of the left end zone on a back-shoulder fade, just like they did last week, to make it 14-10. Then just before halftime with :25 remaining, Brady fired a missile to Scotty Miller for a 33-yard touchdown to make it 21-10.
In total, Brady completed 33 of 45 passes for 369 yards and four touchdowns with a fifth on the ground and no interceptions. He was not sacked once, and the Bucs’ red zone numbers were back on track after flopping against the Bears, going 4-of-5 in that department.
Promising trend: Coming off the Bucs’ 11-penalty performance against the Bears in Week 5, Bruce Arians told his players, “You have to get the job done or you won’t be the one doing the job,” inside linebacker Devin White said. It appears they’ve taken it to heart. After delivering a zero-penalty performance for just the second time in franchise history last week against the Green Bay Packers, the Bucs followed that up with just four penalties against the Raiders this week.
A pair of those penalties were costly, though. An offsides penalty on Shaq Barrett negated what would have been a Mike Edwards interception in the third quarter. Then on the very next play, Sean Murphy-Bunting was slapped with a holding call, setting up a 44-yard reception by Nelson Agholor and a 1-yard touchdown strike to Darren Waller to make it a one-score game.
Biggest concern: Pro Bowl wide receiver Mike Evans hasn’t been able to fully practice with an ankle injury he suffered in Week 4 and was targeted three times with just one catch. If he’s that hurt — which it appears he is — there’s no reason to play him against the 1-6 Giants next week when a rematch with New Orleans could decide the NFC South in two weeks. In fact, he was still playing when the Bucs had a two-TD lead, which is baffling.
