Winston needs to settle in, but strong finish provides hope 
Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Jameis Winston throws against the Minnesota Vikings during the first half of a preseason NFL football game Saturday, Aug. 15, 2015, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Jim Mone) Martin Fennelly Published: August 16, 2015 TAMPA — It was the day after Jameis Winston’s first game as a Buc. There might be as many as 19 to follow, with accompanying dissections, before the end of Winston’s rookie season — the good, the bad, the ugly.At least he didn’t play scared.Winston was all over the road in Minnesota, only he did it in reverse: bad, ugly, then good. I guess that’s something to lean on at this point.So Lovie Smith did.“I like the way he finished,” Smith said.Mainly in a two-minute drill that led to a Bucs touchdown just before halftime, a couple of sure throws and a Winston 8-yard run for six points — after a slow start, bad misses, then a 40-yarder to Vincent Jackson for Winston’s first completion, but later a Winston interception.All over the place.Nothing surprising there.Nothing to stay up at night worrying about.Unless you don’t like the sacks or Winston’s throws under pressure, which point toward what might well be a horrific Bucs offensive line, and that was before right tackle Demar Dotson was hurt late in the first half. Knee sprain. Probably worse. Ouch.OK, stay up and worry.Back to Jameis. 9-for-19, 131 yards and the pick.So let’s go to the Jameis-Marcus scoreboard.We know what No. 1 did. Good. Bad. In between.Then there’s No. 2: Tennessee rookie Marcus Mariota, taken right behind Jameis in the draft.Mariota was spectacular the first two weeks of training camp, throwing zero interceptions while Winston made a pile of them.Then came Tennessee’s preseason opener at Atlanta. Mariota threw a pick to end his first drive in an NFL uniform. Next drive, he fumbled and Atlanta ran it in for a touchdown.But Mariota rallied, leading Tennessee on a 90-yard TD drive. He finished 7-for-8 passing. He finished strong. Likewise Winston. Well, strong enough.“Yes. You’d like all of your players, the first time they go on the football field, to be perfect, get off to a good start and have it go their way throughout,” Smith said. “But that’s not the case. But what we saw from (Jameis), facing a little adversity early on, hung in there. Looked in his eyes on the sideline. He was anxious to continue to get reps. As much as anything, the script we’d drawn up was for him to finish strong. We felt like he did that.”Maybe Winston and Mariota will keep going back and forth, up and down, until the tiebreaker, the Sept. 13 season opener here.Can’t wait.But that Dotson was in this game late in the first half says a lot, because he was in there to try to protect Jameis, who played the entire half.“We wanted to do what we could to protect our quarterback,” Smith said.The scary thing is that Winston rushed some throws, just like his final season in Tallahassee, when he threw off the back foot a lot because Florida State’s offensive line was no match for the 2013 Seminoles O-line, at least to start the season. Winston went from 40 TDs and 10 picks in his 2013 Heisman season to 25 TDs and 18 interceptions in 2014. Some bad habits.It’s hard to see how that will get better if the Bucs’ offensive line isn’t better than last season. I’m not sure new Bucs offensive coordinator Dirk Koetter can scheme his way around that. He’ll need to try.And Winston will need to settle down and in.Smith liked one thing more than anything.“How he finished. I mean, that’s pretty much it. He made the right checks and things like that. He looked comfortable in the pocket, especially at the end. He threw some good balls at the end.”He added, “Just got to keep him protected.”Right now, there’s nowhere to hide.
