Bucs Gameday

Top Takeaways from Bucs' 38-17 Win Over Lions

What we learned about the Bucs in Sunday's dominant win over the Lions.

Jason Kanno

Top Takeaways from Bucs' 38-17 Win Over Lions
Top Takeaways from Bucs' 38-17 Win Over Lions /

Four weeks, four wins. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are closing out the season with a dramatic flurry of points, rolling over the Detroit Lions 38-17. Tampa Bay wasn't perfect at all times, but they were dominant long enough to keep the game well out of reach.

Jameis Winston may have started the game with yet another interception, but after that he was near perfect, throwing for 302 yards and three touchdowns before the half. He was not quite as productive in the second half, but he avoided major mistakes down the stretch.

The biggest threat to the Tampa Bay victory was the inconsistent defense, which allowed two scoring drives over 80 yards in the third quarter. The game looked under threat when the Lions scored 14 unanswered points, but Sean Murphy-Bunting's pick-six all but ended Detroit's hopes:

The Bucs otherwise overwhelmed an inferior Detroit squad, the mark of a good team. With four straight wins, Bruce Arians appears to have Tampa Bay on the verge of a cultural shift towards consistent competitiveness.

Here are the key takeaways from the Bucs' win over Detroit:

The Bucs won't let Jameis Winston play for anyone but Tampa next year

There have been questions throughout the season regarding Winston's future in Tampa Bay. His wildly inconsistent play, marked by his 30 touchdowns and league-leading 24 interceptions, has driven the fanbase and no doubt his coaches mad.

He started the game in Detroit in familiar fashion, throwing an interception on the Bucs' opening drive for the fifth time this season. It was the sole blemish on his record as he could not look more like a franchise quarterback afterwards, completing 28 of 42 passes for 458 yards and four touchdowns.

What's especially impressive is how he responded to losing his top two receivers. Already without wide receiver Mike Evans and losing Chris Godwin in the third quarter to a hamstring injury, Winston didn't blink, leaning on Breshad Perriman for 113 yards and three scores.

Though Winston is prone to turnovers, there are not many other quarterbacks in the NFL that can move the ball and get in the endzone like the fifth-year quarterback. Only Baltimore QB Lamar Jackson has thrown more touchdowns this season (33). There is no way the Bucs don't bring Winston back next season to build off his impressive end of this year.

The Bucs secondary is the Jameis Winston of the defense

If inconsistency is contagious, the Bucs' quarterback definitely gave it to the secondary. At times, Tampa's young defensive backs looked utterly lost and were carved up by the Lions' third-string QB David Blough. It was their confusion that allowed 14 unanswered points in the third quarter.

Then, it was the one of the Bucs' rookie defensive backs that put the Lions down for good when Murphy-Bunting jumped WR Danny Amendola's route and took the p to the house. It was Murphy-Bunting who allowed a 46-yard reception by Amendola that set up the Lions' first touchdown, but he redeemed himself and the secondary with the pick and score.

The Bucs have a remarkably young secondary. None of the starters have more than two years experience in the NFL. They took their lumps this season and on Sunday, but their knack for big plays hints a bright future ahead.

The run game is going backwards

Bruce Arians' insistence to the contrary, the Tampa Bay run game has not shown much improvement. If anything, it has regressed down the stretch and was all but invisible against Detroit. A big reason Jameis Winston threw for over 400 yards on over 40 attempts the past two games is the complete lack of a run game, which averaged 2.1 yards per rush over that span. 

There isn't any single issue to cite the run game's disintegration. The run blocking has been spotty all year and was especially bad against Detroit. Five of the 21 rushes by running backs Ronald Jones and Peyton Barber went for no gain or loss of yards. Jones had the longest run of the day of six yards, and overall the Bucs averaged a miserable 1.7 yards per carry.

It is puzzling that the Bucs insist on rotating Jones and Barber when Jones is clearly the more dangerous ball carrier. Jones is averaging half a yard more than Barber per rush, and yet, Jones didn't get a single carry in the fourth quarter against Detroit.

With the season drawing to a close, it's a bit too late for the Bucs to suss out what exactly ails their run game. If they want their offense to be less dependent on Jameis Winston and more balanced overall, they will have to take a much harder look at this offseason.

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Jason Kanno
JASON KANNO