TAMPA, Fla. — The Tampa Bay Buccaneers defeated the Atlanta Falcons 21-15 as the home side returned to winning ways on Sunday at Raymond James Stadium.
The Bucs are now 3-2 through give games and lead the NFC South division.
Tampa Bay's next game will be against the Pittsburgh Steelers at 1 p.m. Sunday.
Game preview below:
Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers find themselves 2-2 heading into Week 5. Entering the season, with how tough those first four games looked, some fans would have signed up for a 2-2 record. It is just not how you draw it up with two road wins and two losses inside Raymond James Stadium.
There were a lot of negatives during Tampa Bay's 41-31 loss against Kansas City. Sprinkle in an unwanted distraction afterwards with multiple reports saying Brady and supermodel Giselle Bundchen hired divorce lawyers plus the Hurricane beforehand and that makes for one heck of a week.
The Buccaneers are ready to get back into a rhythm against the Falcons coming to town Sunday.
Here is some good news -- the Bucs scored more than 20 points for the first time this season against the Chiefs. It certainly helps seeing Chris Godwin, Julio Jones and Donovan Smith back on the field. Godwin believes this is a performance that can build upon.
"I think the biggest thing for us is just continuing to work to build throughout the season," Godwin said at Tampa Bay's weekly availability. "It hasn’t always been sunshine and rainbows early in the year – we just kind of slowly get better and better and better. You can’t just build chemistry in one day or one game, it’s going to take some time.”
According to Tampa Bay's injury report on Wednesday, Brady did not participate in practice due to a right shoulder and right finger injury, but he is still expected to suit up Sunday. Tight end Cameron Brate also didn't participate as he continues to follow concussion protocol from an injury sustained against Kansas City.
While seeing Brady throw for 385 yards is great, the ground game is going in the wrong direction.
The last time this team recorded more than 100 running yards in a single game was back in Tampa Bay's season-opener against the Dallas Cowboys. Since then, Leonard Fournette and company have run for 72 yards against the Saints, 34 yards against the Packers and 3 (not a typo) yards against the Chiefs.
"We have to do a better job of blocking," Bucs assistant head coach Harold Goodwin said. "Whenever runs are called, we’ve got to execute and whenever we get those opportunities, we [have] to take advantage of it – try to get positive runs, not negative runs or zero runs. But, whatever’s called we [have] to execute – whether it’s run or pass – so we’ll try to do our best.”
It is easy to say the Bucs have been playing with a banged-up, inexperienced offensive line or that Tampa Bay has been going up against elite defensive fronts, but Goodwin does not want to hear it.
"We’ve got to fight tooth and nail to get the win and we’ve just got to continue trending in the right direction when we’re playing these type of teams because every week is going to be a grimy match," Goodwin said. "This week, it’s going to be a grimy match versus Grady Jackson and the rest of his crew. But hopefully those first four weeks will teach us for the long run as far as the things we’ve got to do, the things we can’t do, as far as us continuing to grow in the right direction."
The Super Bowl LV champions must also address their defensive issues if they want to get their first win at Raymond James Stadium this season and avoid Tom Brady's second three-game losing streak ever.
In their first three games of the year, the Bucs only allowed a total of 25 points. However, against the Chiefs, they conceded 41 points.
Outside linebacker Shaquil Barrett said he wants to look on the brighter side of things hoping the mistakes made against Kansas City can be fixed quickly with how talented the players are around him.
"We’ve got to sit there and look at it [the score against the Chiefs] because we played like that so if we’re capable of playing like that, we’ve got to address that problem so it won’t happen again," Barret said. "I would have never guessed that we would have [given] up 41 points at any point of the year this year. That hurts as a team that prides ourselves on good defense and wanting to be one of the best units in the league. Giving up 41 points diminishes that.”
Although Tampa Bay's defense will not be facing Patrick Mahomes again, they will come across an Atlanta team that is on a two-game winning streak after losing their first couple of matchups in very close contests.
Marcus Mariota is now the man in the pocket for the Falcons, but he will be without his starting running back Cordarrelle Patterson after he was placed on Injured Reserve due to a knee injury.
Former Florida product Kyle Pitts also did not practice Wednesday.
Both teams will be fighting for first place in the NFC South and Barrett said the Bucs should expect a tough game.
"They [Atlanta] don’t really do too much drop-back passing – it’s going to be bootlegs, roll-outs, stuff like that," he said. "[I’ve] got to be disciplined in my assignments. If I get the quarterback, I get him – but I’m worrying about stopping the run and shutting the run down first because, as you [saw] last week, they can do it really well if we allow them to.”
Safety Logan Ryan did not participate in the team's practices on Wednesday, but his status for this weekend's game is still up in the air.
Kickoff is scheduled at 1 p.m. Sunday at Raymond James Stadium.
Be sure to watch The Blitz every Sunday at 8:30 a.m. only on 10 Tampa Bay as Sports Director Evan Closky and Sports Anchor David Schiele give you full Tampa Bay Buccaneers coverage leading up to each game.
