It was a disappointing afternoon on the scoreboard, as the Detroit Lions took down the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Raymond James Stadium by a score of 24-21, but that didn’t mean it was all gloom and doom. There were a handful of performances that deserved praise, including some from the youth of the team.

RB Peyton Barber

The Bucs running game started fine with a few good Doug Martin runs, but as the first half went on, Martin’s efficiency tanked.

After a costly fumble by Martin in field goal range, he was replaced by Peyton Barber. Barber, who had the Bucs only 100-yard rushing game of the season last week in Green Bay, came in and played well to finish out the game with 58 yards on 12 carries. Barber even had a 16-yard run that set up the game-tying touchdown.

It’s clear that Barber is the team’s most effective running back at this point, and he should be treated as such moving forward.

LB Lavonte David

Lavonte David is having an All-Pro year.

Not only did David finish the game with 14 tackles, which was most on the team, he also added another forced fumble and fumble recovery to his yearly total. David’s fifth fumble recovery is the most in the NFL and his fifth forced fumble is second most in the NFL.

Throw in that David has stepped up as an accountable, vocal leader when this team has needed it with all those performances and his year deserves as high of praise as you can give a linebacker.

WR Chris Godwin

When in doubt, throw it to Godwin.

Godwin should have been starting a month ago, but due to the log-jam of talent on the receiving chart, he’s not. After DeSean Jackson missed on connecting with Winston a few times deep, including one that went for an interception, it appeared that Godwin came in and got some of his reps in the middle of the game.

Godwin made the most of them by leading the team in receiving with 68 yards on five catches. Not only does Godwin do the dirty work, he does the clean work, as well – I’m not sure if that’s a thing, but you know what I meant.

OL Leonard Wester

Everyone loves a fat guy touchdown.

On the Bucs final touchdown of the game, Dirk Koetter went into his bag of tricks and called a jumbo package that included Wester as an eligible receiver on the goal line.

The result was Wester going one-for-one on NFL targets with a touchdown on his career. (Wester now has more receiving touchdowns this season than Adam Humphries.)

It’s a play that doesn’t happen too often, and a moment Wester will never forget. Thank goodness he caught the ball, though. Can you imagine if he would have dropped it? The other offensive linemen would’ve never let him live it down.

TE O.J. Howard

On an afternoon where Cameron Brate was silent, Howard stepped up to the plate.

Howard had 54 yards on four catches, which was right behind Godwin for second most on the team. Howard even found himself some pay dirt getting into the end zone for the fifth time this season. Howard, like Godwin is doing it all for the Buccaneers as just a rookie. He was the headliner of the stout rookie class and he’s living up to it.