Winston has horrible game as Bucs clobbered

by Gary Shelton on October 14, 2019 · 0 comments

in general

Winston had one of his worst days as a Buc./TIM WIRT

Monday, 4 a.m.

Here's an idea: Why doesn't England just keep him?

After all the failures, after all the turnovers, maybe the Bucs shouldn't save a seat for Jameis Winston on the plane home. Maybe they should leave him here with the rain and the traffic.

Have you seen enough of Winston? There is a growing number of Bucs' fans who seem to think so after his latest perfectly wretched showing. Winston threw a career-worse five interceptions and lost a fumble in the Bucs' 37-26 loss to Carolina, leading the Bucs to another defeat. He also took seven sacks, some of them because he held onto the ball too long.

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Vernon Hargreaves was attacked all afternoon./Photo By:© Joe Mestas

All in all, it was a horrible day by a quarterback who has had his struggles.

“It was just a bad game," Winston said. "I’ll just keep on playing and keep on getting better. That’s all. You can’t turn the football over and win games in this league. I know that."

With the loss, the Bucs fell to 2-4 and lost any claim that they are better. They rushed for just 42 yards in the loss.

"We've got to do a better job of having them prepared to play mentally," Bucs' coach Bruce Arians said. "

Tampa Bay, which had beaten the Panthers in Carolina earlier in the season, was clobbered by a Panthers team playing behind quarterback Kyle Allen, who carved them up for a 104.6 rating.

Winston's career interception total soared to 68, and his fumbles to 42, in the loss.

“Throw the damn ball away,” Arians said of Winston. “He has a habit of trying to be Superman, and that’s been a problem in the past. The fumbles haven’t occurred this year until today, but again, trying to make something out of nothing, and it’s just a matter of knowing when to quit on a play.

“The fumbles, we have to get rid of those. We have to start throwing balls away and we don’t need to take those sacks.”

Perhaps the worst of it came late in the first half, when Winston faced a first-and-10 at the Panthers' 12. He was sacked ... and fumbled. But center Ryan Jensen recovered.

On the next play, Winston was sacked again, and he fumbled again. That time, the Panthers recovered.

Oh, Winston wasn't the only shortcoming of the Bucs. Mike Evans dropped a deep pass in the first half. Bobo Wilson muffed a punt. And the defense gave up 37 more points, which runs their total to 140 points over the last four games.

Yes, Winston threw for 400 yards, but his rating was only 46.2 rating. It was the fourth-worst rating of his career.

"Sometimes I do want to do great things," Winston said. "But you can do great things but protect the team at the same time."

Once again, the Bucs did a good job on Carolina running back Christian McCaffrey, who rushed for just 31 yards on 22 carries. But the Panthers were still able to keep the Bucs off-balance.

Counting sacks, the Bucs called 61 passing plays. They called just 14 runs. It's a problem for the Bucs. They have a turnover-happy quarterback, but they have given themselves no other way to win. If Winston doesn't play well, the team is doomed.

"I see the preparation," Arians said of Winston. "I see what he's trying to do. We don't need to take those sacks, we don't need to take those hits, either."

Chris Godwin caught 10 passes for 157 yards. Mike Evans caught nine for 96.

The Bucs are off Sunday. They then travel to Tennessee to face the Titans.

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