“It starts with the guys up front,” said Mayfield. “I thought they protected extremely well, and then obviously our pass schemes, we had some guys running pretty open. It comes down to the [coaching] staff and guys making plays. Everybody was detailed. Obviously, we’d like to have a few more touchdowns in the first half and not settle for field goals, but guys were on point.”
Tampa Bay played complementary football, particularly in the second half. While a couple of coverage busts allowed quarterback Bryce Young to throw a pair of touchdown passes to Adam Thielen, Young was also sacked five times and Carolina did not score in the second half. The Bucs’ five sacks came from five different players: Yaya Diaby, Logan Hall, Anthony Nelson, Calijah Kancey and yet another productive rookie, Chris Braswell. Carolina was held to 204 total yards of offense, 13 first downs and two third-down conversions in nine attempts. After placing breakout RB Chuba Hubbard on injured reserve on Saturday, the Panthers mustered just 39 yards on 13 carries, marking the third straight team Tampa Bay’s defense has held below 40 rushing yards.
While neither team committed a turnover in the game, the Buccaneers’ special teams did come up with a big play. The Bucs surpassed 40 points for the third time this season late in the third quarter when OLB Joe Tryon-Shoyinka blocked a Johnny Hekker punt and LB J.J. Russell scooped it up and dashed to the end zone for his first career touchdown. It was the first blocked punt by Tampa Bay since Patrick O’Connor got one at Denver on September 27, 2020, and it was the team’s first touchdown off a punt since Adam Hayward took one back 29 yards against San Diego on Nov. 12, 2012.
Tampa Bay’s offense was nearly unstoppable in the first half, scoring on each of its first five drives and rolling up 337 yards and 20 first downs. It was the most first-half yards for the team since a 410-yard outburst in a 47-7 win at Detroit on December 26, 2020. Mayfield completed 16 of his 20 passes for 225 yards and three touchdowns and Irving had 137 yards from scrimmage before the intermission. Despite that, the Buccaneers didn’t quite pull away from the visitors, as Young threw a pair of touchdown passes to Thielen, the second one on a 21-second drive in the final 1:11 of the half.
The Buccaneers can now settle in and watch the Sunday night game in Washington if they so choose, but they will soon turn their…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Newsā¦