It had been a while since the Tampa Bay Buccaneers went on the road and were a prohibitive favorite. In Sunday’s 28-10 win over the Denver Broncos, the Bucs showed they were ready for the task.
The veteran leadership of quarterback Tom Brady and linebackers Shaq Barrett and Lavonte’ David paced the Buccaneers all afternoon. Brady looked more settled in the offense, while Barrett and David were too tough for the Denver defense to crack.
“Like I said last week, this would have been our third preseason game,” noted Brady. “There’s still a lot to learn, a lot to grow. There’s a lot of room for improvement and I know everyone feels that way.”
Brady tossed a pair of 1-yard touchdown passes to Mike Evans and a 10-yard touchdown pass to Chris Godwin after a blocked punt by Patrick O’Connor.
“He’s a great red-area threat,” said Brady of Evans. “I think, his size, his quickness, his elusiveness, his hands – everything. Mike is one of the great receivers in the NFL.”
Evans had one of the most quizzical stat lines of the season as he had two catches for two yards and two touchdowns. Coach Bruce Arians and Brady agree that there has to be ways to get Evans more catches.
“I’ve got to find ways to get him the ball, get it to him in space and not just in the red area, but all over the field,” Brady said. “That’s what my job is – to find him and get it to him.”
Barrett returned to Denver where he started his career and played for four seasons. He recorded two sacks as the Tampa Bay defensive front dominated the Broncos offensive line in sacking quarterbacks Jeff Driskell and Brett Rypien six times.
The second sack was a safety where Barrett dropped Driskell to give the Bucs a 25-10 lead with 11:44 remaining in the third quarter.
“Nothing against the Broncos, but we sort of dominated that game and should have kept them to no touchdowns,” said Barrett. “We always have those mental lapses at one point during the game, but it didn’t come back to hurt us this game, so that’s good.”
Barrett now has 21.5 sacks in his 19 games in a Buccaneers uniform.
“You knew he was going to have a big day,” said Bucs coach Bruce Arians. “They tried to single-block him, so we kept pressuring up the middle. It was getting him singled and people were getting home from everywhere.”
David was one of four Buccaneers to record a sack and he recorded an interception as well. The Buccaneers held the Broncos to only total 226 yards, which was the lowest total since the team held Dallas to 215 in 2015.
“If everybody is executing and doing their job on the back end, the rush and coverage work together,” said David. “That’s what you saw today. Guys were keeping blocks and guys were executing on certain blitzes that we ran. We were able to get to the quarterback.”
The activity of the linebackers befuddled Driskell and Rypien all afternoon. Adding in the efforts of Jason Pierre-Paul and Devin White, who had seven tackles, was an enigma for the young Broncos offensive line.
“All four linebackers are really good pass rushers,” explained Arians. “The inside guys are trying to outdo the outside guys and the outside guys were doing a good job when the inside guys were blitzing in coverage.”
Veteran leadership was a huge theme in Sunday’s game as the younger Buccaneers did not have as much pressure to take the lead on either side of the football.