As noted by Director of NFC Football Communications Randall Liu on Sunday night, the Buccaneers became the first road team in NFL history to have one player throw for five or more touchdowns and another player rush for 200 or more yards. That's because rookie QB Jameis Winston spent the afternoon putting up numbers as impressive as his backfield mate.
Winston completed 19 of 29 passes for 246 yards, five touchdowns and no interceptions in the best outing of his young career. That tied an NFL rookie record for most touchdown passes in a single game, equaling the mark first set by the Chicago Bears' Ray Buivid against the Chicago Cardinals on Dec. 5, 1937 and then matched 72 years later by Detroit's Matthew Stafford against Cleveland on Nov. 22, 2009.
Buivid was picked off once in his big game and Stafford threw two interceptions in his five-TD outing. Thus, Winston is the first rookie in NFL history to have five touchdown passes and no interceptions in a single game.
Winston tied the Buccaneers' own record for most touchdown passes in a game by any quarterback, rookie or not. He had the fourth five-TD outing in team annals:
Player |
Opponent-Date |
Pass TD |
QB Steve DeBerg |
vs. ATL-9/13/87 |
5 |
QB Josh Freeman |
vs. SEA-12/26/10 |
5 |
QB Brad Johnson |
vs. MIN-11/3/02 |
5 |
QB Jameis Winston |
at PHI-11/22/15 |
5 |
Winston increased his season passing touchdown total by 50 percent on Sunday, giving him 15 so far. He has six games remaining to break Mike Glennon's 2013 record in that category. Here are the top five in that category:
- Mike Glennon, 2013…192. Jameis Winston, 2015…15
- Josh Freeman, 2009…10
- Bruce Gradkowski, 2006…9
5t. Shaun King, 1999…7
5t. Doug Williams, 1978…7
What made Winston's five-touchdown day even more compelling viewing was the fact that he threw them to five different players. That marks the first time in franchise history that five different players caught a touchdown pass in the same contest.
Incredibly, Carolina's Cam Newton did the exact same thing on the exact same day. Newton threw his five TD passes in a win over Washington on Sunday to Jonathan Stewart, Mike Tolbert, Ted Ginn, Greg Olsen and Devin Funchess. Though it's more of a coincidence that a milestone or significant achievement, it is interesting how similar the stat lines for Winston and Newton were on Sunday:
QB |
Att. |
Comp. |
Yards |
Pct. |
TD |
INT |
Rating |
Winston |
29 |
19 |
246 |
65.5% |
5 |
0 |
131.6 |
Newton |
34 |
21 |
246 |
61.8% |
5 |
0 |
123.3 |
**
Because Winston and the Buccaneers were so effective in the red zone, kicker Connor Barth spent most of his day kicking extra points (and blasting kickoffs). He had six of them, in fact, to go with a 28-yard field goal that gave him nine points in the game. Barth has been a prolific scorer since returning to the team in Week Five. In fact, in that span, he is the NFL's second-leading scorer. The top 10, all of whom are kickers:
Player |
Team |
Pts. |
Pts./Gm. |
|
NE |
62 |
10.3 |
2. Connor Barth |
TB |
60 |
10.0 |
|
CAR |
59 |
9.8 |
4t. Josh Brown |
NYG |
57 |
9.5 |
4t. Blair Walsh |
MIN |
57 |
9.5 |
|
KC |
55 |
9.2 |
|
AZ |
54 |
9.0 |
|
PHI |
53 |
8.8 |
9t. Chris Boswell |
PIT |
52 |
8.7 |
9t. Robbie Gould |
CHI |
52 |
8.7 |
Barth's six extra points in Sunday's game gave him 164 in his career, in 164 attempts. He remains one of only five active kickers who have made all of their career extra point tries. The rest of the list consists of Dan Bailey, Justin Tucker, Ryan Succop and Nick Folk.
Barth's 28-yarder made him 15 of 17 on field goal tries this year, and 131 of 153 (85.6%) in his career. Since the start of the 2011 season, Barth has been good on 89.4% of his field goal tries, and he continues to jockey with Gostkowski and Bailey for the best percentage in that span. Here's how the top five stand after Sunday's games:
Kicker |
Team |
Made |
Att. |
Pct. |
Dan Bailey |
DAL |
133 |
147 |
90.5% |
Stephen Gostkowski* |
NE |
151 |
167 |
90.4% |
Connor Barth |
TB/DEN |
84 |
94 |
89.4% |
Steven Hauschka |
SEA |
134 |
151 |
88.7% |
Josh Brown |
STL/CIN/NYG |
102 |
115 |
88.7% |
** Gostkowski and the Patriots play on Monday night
Believe it or not, there was some defensive work by the Buccaneers on Sunday in Philadelphia, even if it was overshadowed by the offensive explosion. At the center of it were the team's two cornerstone defenders, LB Lavonte David and DT Gerald McCoy.
David intercepted two Mark Sanchez passes, returning the second one 20 yards for a touchdown in the fourth quarter. It was the first touchdown of David's career; he had previously scored two points on a safety. The effort marked the second time in David's career that he has picked off two passes in the same game; before he was drafted in 2012 it had been a very long time since a Buccaneer linebacker had accomplished that feat. Here are the seven instances of a Tampa Bay linebacker getting multiple picks in the same outing, listed in reverse chronological order:*
*
Player |
Opponent-Date |
INT |
Lavonte David |
at PHI-11/22/15 |
2 |
Lavonte David |
vs. BUF-12/8/13 |
2 |
Derrick Brooks |
vs. CHI-10/24/99 |
2 |
Broderick Thomas |
at NO-11/1/92 |
2 |
Cecil Johnson |
vs. DET-10/4/81 |
2 |
Dave Lewis |
vs. CHI-10/22/78 |
2 |
Richard Wood |
at NO-12/11/77 |
2 |
Chris Conte also intercepted Sanchez once and DE Jacquies Smith recovered a fumble on the game's first possession. With those four turnovers, the Buccaneers' defense extended its streak to 17 games with at least one takeaway. That's the longest active streak in the NFL and the Bucs' longest streak since an amazing run of 54 games with a takeaway that spanned the 2000-03 seasons.
David has eight interceptions in his career, tied for the fifth most by a linebacker in team annals. Hall of Famer Derrick Brooks tops the list and has a commanding lead, but David would need just three more picks to move into second place behind Brooks.
Most Career Interceptions, Linebacker, Buccaneers
Player |
Seasons |
INTs |
|
1995-2008 |
25 |
|
1977-81 |
10 |
3t. Cecil Johnson |
1977-85 |
9 |
3t. Richard Wood |
1976-84 |
9 |
5t. Lavonte David |
2012-15 |
8 |
5t. Scot Brantley |
1980-87 |
8 |
Meanwhile, McCoy was putting the pressure on Sanchez in the backfield, accounting for 1.5 of the Bucs' three sacks on the day. McCoy moved into the team lead with 6.0 sacks in 2015 and still has a chance to be the team's first double-digit sack producer since Simeon Rice in 2005. McCoy is on pace to finish with 9.6 sacks in 16 games.
McCoy's efforts on Sunday increased his career mark to 33.0 sacks, moving him into a tie for sixth place in Buccaneer history.
Buccaneer Career Sacks
Player, Years |
Sacks |
|
78.5 |
|
77.0 |
|
69.5 |
|
39.0 |
|
34.5 |
6t. Gerald McCoy, 2010-Present |
33.0 |
6t. Brad Culpepper, 1994-99 |
33.0 |
|
28.0 |
|
26.5 |
|
26.0 |
* *McCoy now has 29.0 sacks since the start of the 2012 season, the most by any defensive tackle in the NFL in that span.
NFL Sack Leaders, Defensive Tackles, 2012-15
Player |
Team |
Sacks |
1. Gerald McCoy |
Tampa Bay |
29.0 |
|
Cincinnati |
27.5 |
3t. Ndamukong Suh |
Miami |
26.0 |
3t. Marcell Dareus* |
Buffalo |
25.0 |
|
Buffalo |
22.5 |
**
Odds and Ends:
- Sunday's game marked the first time since Sept. 28 of last year (at Pittsburgh) that WRs Mike Evans and Vincent Jackson have caught a touchdown pass in the same game.
Behind-the-scenes photos of the Buccaneers vs. Eagles game at Lincoln Financial Field on November 22nd.
- Doug Martin increased his career rushing yardage total to 3,345 with his big game in Philadelphia. That didn't move him up the Bucs' all-time list – he remains in the sixth spot – but it put him on the verge of doing so. With 18 more yards he would pass Michael Pittman (3,362) and move into the franchise's all-time top five.
- The Bucs have played 26 regular-season games since Lovie Smith took over as head coach in 2014. In eight of those games, the team's defense has recorded at least three takeaways, which ties for the second most in the league during that span with Carolina, Buffalo and Philadelphia. The New York Giants top the list with 10 such games.