Even though they came away victorious, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers still had quite a few members of their team that could have played better, or at least made their win over the Cleveland Browns less of a nail biter.
These were our most disappointing player performances from the Bucs 26-23 win over the Browns.
LT Donovan Smith
Sheesh, it was a rough day for the Bucs’ left tackle. Smith had multiple penalties on the day, and didn’t fare well against Myles Garrett off the edge. Smith gave up two sacks in the game, one of which was a fumble by Winston.
Bucs Run Game
The Bucs’ run game just isn’t what it needs to be. Running backs Peyton Barber and Ronald Jones are having to work way too hard for every yard they get. The offensive line seems to struggle the most when the team calls zone blocking concepts, which is suppose to be where Jones thrives as a runner. Regardless of what’s called, the unit just is not executing as a whole.
TE Cam Brate
Brate had a couple of nice catches in the game, but a costly fumble as the first half came to a close almost blew it for the Buccaneers, especially knowing how the Browns came back later in the game.
Brate struggled to get separation throughout the day, and another fumble that was almost a fumble, but was overturned.
QB Jameis Winston
Winston finished the game with 365 passing yards, but he had two interceptions and a fumble, which were the main reasons why the team lost the turnover battle by three.
This was a classic game where you wonder if Winston really is the franchise quarterback this team can win with game-in and game-out. Did he make some nice play, yes. But did he also make way too many plays that hurt the team, yes.
Both don’t exist this consistently with winning quarterbacks in this league.
K Chandler Catanzaro
Do not even begin to tell me that Catanzaro deserves to keep his job after making that final 59-yard field goal in over time.
For the second week in a row, Catanzaro put his team in a hole by missing an extra point — an extra point! On top of that, with the game on the line, at the end of the 4th quarter, he botched an easy 40-yarder to win. Both the extra points and the field goal at the end of regulation had all the pressure on them and he crumbled. That last field goal had no pressure; he knew he didn’t have a job.
Kickers are only as good as they are trusted.
Catanzaro can’t be.