Monday, 4 a.m.
The day started off the way it normally does, with the sight of him throwing to the wrong team. Again. Your eyes rolled and your fist clenched, and you shook you head at the familiar anguish. "Here we go again," you said.
From there, Jameis Winston got better.
A week after he had a terrific game in a victory over Indianapolis, Winston had another one Sunday against the Detroit Lions. Playing with a fracture in his hand, Winston threw for 458 yards (two more than last week) and four more touchdowns (the same as last week) to lead the Bucs to a 38-17 victory over the Lions.
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It was Winston's eighth game of the year in which he has had a quarterback rating of more than 100 and his 10th in which he has 300 yards or more passing.
"Throw an interception, get this (s---) over with, let’s go win the game. I thought Jameis played really, really well. He saw the hot [read], it was a little bit late and the guy made a good play on it.”
Say what you will about Winston -- and plenty of Bucs' fans often do -- but he didn't have a lot of help. Star receiver Mike Evans was out with a hamstring. Left tackle Donovan Smith was out with leg injuries. Chris Godwin had a terrific game, but he came up lame, too. The Bucs ran for only 49 yards (1.7 yards per attempt) behind a makeshift line.
So, yeah, save your obscenities for Winston, won't you? In the last two weeks, he's thrown for only 914 yards and eight touchdowns.
Granted, he is a vexing quarterback.That's familiar ground. But the truth is that quarterbacks throw interceptions. The Bucs can live with one a game, especially when it comes early enough to be overcome.
The Bucs pulled to 7-7 on the season with a victory, and have only home gamesagainst Houston and Atlanta left to play.
There were other stars for the Bucs besides Winston.. Before tweaking a hamstring of his own, Godwin caught five passes for 121 yards. Breshad Perriman, whose father Brett played for the Lions for years, caught five for 113 and scored three touchdowns.
Cornerback Sean Murphy-Bunting, who is from Detroit and played at Central Michigan, had the clinching play with a 70-yard interception return for a touchdown.
And Shaq Barrett tied Warren Sapp's season record for sacks for the Bucs with his 16 1/2 sack.
“I think, with the injuries that occurred in-game, I can’t enough about the guys," Arians said. "Like I said, I don’t care what your jersey number is, when you have that Buccaneers logo on your helmet there is an expectation level of your play when you step out on the field whether you were on the practice squad last week or if you’ve been a backup tackle or a backup nose guard. The level of expectation doesn’t change, get out there and do something to win the game.”
Arians believed Perriman's big day was coming.
“I’m surprised it took this long, I really am," Arians said. "I guess with Chris and Mike (Evans) having the years that they’ve had it’s hard but he had a great ball game. That last one was a great throw and catch. We had him earlier and we got hit right when we’re ready to go get him. I thought he had a long one, a 99-yarder, but yeah, I can’t say enough about him.”
On Murphy-Bunting's interception: “That was a huge, huge play," Arians said. "They kept throwing to the guys that can’t catch. They finally threw one to the guy that can catch and it went to the house. I mean [Jamel] Dean’s got the easiest pick-six he’s ever going to get, it goes through his hands, Carlton [Davis] waves at one. But yeah, it was a big, big play in the game.”
The Bucs are home against Houston on Saturday at 1 p.m.