As it always is, it’s tough to find bright lights in a game that ended the way the Washington game did by a score of 16-3, but there were still some performances that deserve to be recognized, albeit not many.
RB Peyton Barber
Barber ran tough as nails during that game. He was involved in a heavy rotation with Shaun Wilson and Jacqiuzz Rodgers, but Barber’s 61 yards on 13 carries came through a lot of determination. Though his use didn’t come out to a win, he was as good as you can ask at 4.7 yards per carry against Washington.
S Andrew Adams
With the NFL using tight ends as mismatch players outside of the line of scrimmage, that makes for some tough matchups for defenders. Sometimes you’ll see teams try to use linebackers one-on-one with tight ends, there times you’ll see them avoid man coverage all together.
The Bucs chose to use safety Andrew Adams as the one-on-one player against tight end Jordan Reed and he played him very well, I thought. Reed still caught some tough passes, but Adams played him tight all game long. he can be an option like that when the Bucs face top tight ends in the future.
S Justin Evans
Though Evans didn’t have a takeaway – none of the team did, stop expecting it to happen, it’s not going to – he did lead the team in tackles with nine, and he had some key tackles that were one-on-one in open space. He kept the score from being even worse than it could have been.
WR Chris Godwin
Ok, so maybe most of it came in garbage time, but Godwin still went over the 100-yard mark against Washington, and was the Buccaneers’ leading receiver.
Godwin needs to be more involved in the offense. He’s too good to be standing on the sidelines on crucial third downs and even on rushing plays, too, as we know how good of a blocker he is.