Winston leads Bucs past Falcons 31-24 in Koetter’s debut

Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Jameis Winston completed 23-of-33 passes for 281 yards, four touchdowns and an interception in the Week 1 win over the Atlanta Falcons.

Winston big day came as the quarterback to whom he’ll be always compared, Marcus Mariota, coughed up two costly turnovers for touchdowns against a Minnesota group that’s loaded on every level. “This year”, said first-year coach Dirk Koetter, whose rewards for winning his debut was a Gatorade bath and the game ball.

“That is legit crowd noise”.

“We had some opportunities, but we just didn’t make the plays”, Ryan said of his team getting just one touchdown in four trips to the red zone. “We didn’t feel like it was necessary at that time. You have to overcome all that when you play on the road”.

The Bucs also had to deal with the unfamiliar, which isn’t entirely uncommon for Week 1, because teams don’t want to tip their hand in the preseason. “We studied it in the offseason and said, ‘Hey, we can get this, ‘ ” Koetter said. “We settled into our own and started doing what we do”.

Then there’s a defense that missed several tackles at key moments, including at the end of the first half when the Bucs’ Charles Sims escaped a handful of would-be tacklers on a 23-yard scoring reception.

Sims said he had no idea how many tackles he broke.

Another dynamic play by Seferian-Jenkins helped the Buccaneers stretch the lead on their first drive of the second half. “It’s nothing that’s going to hold me back from going out there and producing or doing what I do”.

“Two attractive catches”, Koetter said. “Jameis knows what to do”.

This was the most by a Buccaneers player since Barrett Ruud also recorded 17 against Atlanta on January 3, 2010 at Raymond James Stadium.

While gaudy numbers are nice for fantasy football, Winston is built more to grind out some ugly games, much like the young Ben Roethlisberger to whom he’s often correctly compared. There’s no shame in it, though.

A cynic might ask just what that standard is, or sourly surmise that the Birds played exactly to their standards. Or Johnson, for that matter.

Winston’s conditioning and comfort level in the offense showed up right away as improved assets.

Sanu had a touchdown catch of his own in the first quarter on a 5-yard pass.

Winston presented his new coach with the game ball. It was the ideal opportunity to get the deep ball going, which is what Winston did, averaging 17.9 yards per completion. “I outran that linebacker, he threw it to me and I made the play”.

But Winston shook off that miscue with a 4-yard TD pass to Myers and went to work again with less than 2 minutes to go in the first half. Winston and Evans managed to connect just once last season on 15 attempts thrown at least 30 yards downfield.

The Buccaneers scored on their first two possessions of the second half, pushing the lead to 31-13.

“That’s because you didn’t come to my team dinner”, Winston said of the meal he bought for teammates Friday. Jokes aside, Winston overthrew both.

Trufant made up for his slip by intercepting a pass from Winston later in the opening quarter. This ultimately cost the Falcons, as nearly every one of those penalties led to Tampa Bay drives being extended and ending with points.