by Carter Brantley
Under the bright lights of Monday Night Football and the Manningcast, the Bucs took home a 41-31 loss to the scorching hot Baltimore Ravens and MVP candidate Lamar Jackson.
The story of the night, however, became Todd Bowles’s decision to play out the game and leave his starters in with a little under 2 minutes to play, down by 10 points, with no timeouts left, instead of letting the Ravens kneel out the game.
Chris Godwin then suffered a severe ankle injury that required the star wideout to be carted off the field. This all came after Mike Evans reaggravated a hamstring injury trying to haul in a touchdown pass late in the 1st quarter.
As for the game itself, Jackson was, as usual, the star of the game, taking advantage of a banged up Bucs secondary that is without starting corner Jamel Dean, who went on injured reserve earlier in the week with a hamstring injury, for the foreseeable future.
The Heisman and MVP award winner picked apart the Bucs for 281 yards with 5 passing touchdowns and added 52 yards rushing.
The Bucs also failed to contain superstar back Derrick Henry, who had close to 200 yards on the ground himself, with a receiving touchdown in garbage time sprinkled in for good measure.
On offense Baker Mayfield struggled to avoid turnovers for a consecutive week, making it 5 picks thrown over the past 2 weeks.
The Bucs’ rushing attack was fine, with 113 yards total on the ground from the trio of Sean Tucker, Bucky Irving, and the returning Rachaad White.
Speaking of Mr. White, he had himself a couple receiving touchdowns in the game, a lone bright spot on what was otherwise a dim performance for the Bucs.
The 1st quarter got off to a hot start, with the Bucs offense rolling to a 10-point lead and the defense getting some big plays from stars Antoine Winfield, Jr., Lavonte David, and YaYa Diaby to set up a Ravens punt.
From there, Jackson and the Ravens were hard to stop, as they started to put things together on offense and cook for the rest of the 3 quarters while the defense stifled a limited Bucs offense.
Derrick Henry even recorded a signature long run from deep inside their own territory, going for 81 yards from the Baltimore 8 to set up tight end Mark Andrews’ 2nd touchdown reception of the game.
For some NFL history, Mike Evans hauled in his 100th career touchdown reception, putting him on a short list of players with 12,000 receiving yards and 100 touchdown catches (of note: every other member is either in the Hall of Fame or will be when they become eligible).
In more injury woe news, rookie safety Tykee Smith also suffered a concussion late in the 1st half and was out for the remainder of the game, putting his status in question as the Bucs have to move forward without their starting outside corner and now their starting nickel.
Plus, without Evans and Godwin, the Bucs will be forced to turn to rookie Jalen McMilllan, 2nd-year player Trey Palmer, and veteran Sterling Shephard.
It’s certainly a storyline to monitor as they enter the toughest part of their schedule, with a key divisional matchup against the Atlanta Falcons this Sunday.
