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Antoine Winfield Jr. or Baker Mayfield? | Week One Game Ball

Brianna Dix and Scott Smith make their nominations for the Game Ball after the Bucs' gritty road win over the Vikings, which included a handful of individual star turns

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The Tampa Bay Buccaneers opened their 2023 season on Sunday with an encouraging 20-17 road victory over the Minnesota Vikings. Afterwards, Head Coach Todd Bowles called it a "great team win," and it's hard to argue.

Peruse the box score of the game and it's hard to find one single Buccaneer who had an overwhelming statistical game. Linebacker Devin White did have a dozen tackles and Mike Evans caught six passes for 66 yards and a touchdown, but there are no 100-yard rushing games or three-sack efforts or 300-yard passing games on the Bucs' side of the statistical record. Enough plays were made to win the game, and players in all three phases of the game took turn making them.

Rookies Trey Palmer and Christian Izien announced their NFL debuts with a go-ahead touchdown catch and a remarkable goal-line interception, respectively. Playmaking safety Antoine Winfield nearly had a sack and nearly had a pick in the early going, then got rid of the "nearly" with a huge sack and forced fumble that resulted in a field goal. Chris Godwin sealed the game with another one of his remarkable catches. Chase McLaughlin introduced himself to Buccaneers fans with a 57-yard game-winning field goal and punter Jake Camarda blasted a pair of 60+-yard punts.

It was, indeed, a team effort.

That makes things a little more challenging for Staff Writer/Reporter Brianna Dix and I as we contemplate our first "Game Ball" of the new season. After every Buccaneer victory this season, we are tasked with nominating two players for that singular honor. Those two are then included in a list of four candidates…and then the final decision is up to you. After you review the cases we make for two of those players, you will find a link at the bottom of the page to place your vote.

Since we can't duplicate votes and getting the first pick could be important, we are going to alternate the order of our choices from week to week. I'm inviting my talented colleague to go first.

So, who should get this week's Game Ball? Here are our suggestions.

View the top photos of Tampa Bay's Week 1 matchup vs. the Minnesota Vikings.

Brianna Dix: S Antoine Winfield Jr.

Like you mentioned Scott, there are several noteworthy candidates for the prestigious Game Ball this week, but I am going to go with Antoine Winfield Jr. It was a homecoming of sorts for the Bucs' free safety, whose dad, Antoine Winfield Sr., spent the last nine seasons of a 14-year NFL tenure in Minnesota. Against the Vikings, the younger Winfield became one of the defensive catalysts.

In a hard-fought 20-17 victory, Winfield helped spearhead the defensive charge. On Minnesota's opening drive, Winfield was sent on a blitz on the second play and his swarming pressure on Kirk Cousins caused an errant throw. The next play, rookie defensive lineman Calijah Kancey knifed through the middle like a missile, collapsing the pocket. Winfield nearly intercepted the floating pass. On the Vikings' third possession, Winfield made his mark. He blitzed once again but this time knocked down Cousins. Winfield not only got home for the sack but jarred the ball loose and recovered it at the Minnesota 18. That momentum-shifting play by Winfield set up a Chase McLaughlin field goal and the Bucs' first points. 

His strip sack was the second of three takeaways that helped the team stay in a matchup while the offense found continuity. Winfield became a star contributor in the Twin Cities and is worthy of recognition. He remembered sitting in the stands as a child cheering on his dad and this time around in Week One, Winfield Jr.'s family gave applause to his show on the turf. Scott, who do you select?

Scott Smith: QB Baker Mayfield

When in doubt, go with the guy who actually got the Game Ball, the real physical thing, from the team in the postgame locker room. That would be the quarterback, Baker Mayfield, who won his Buccaneers debut…and that's pretty much all that matters.

Mayfield said several times after the game that it wasn't the "prettiest" of outings from the Bucs' offense but, really, that was to be expected. New coordinator, new scheme, new quarterback, new season, relatively little work for the first team in the preseason. They needed to work out some kinks, and they started to do so at the end of the second half. In the meantime, Mayfield kept the Bucs from falling in a whole by not turning the ball over even as the unit struggled. That was key.

I choose Mayfield because, while the final numbers were underwhelming – 173 yards and two touchdowns on 21 of 34 passing – he made the plays the Bucs needed to win and didn't make the ones that could have led to a loss. I'm talking about the touchdown pass to Mike Evans to finish off a nifty two-minute drill and send the teams into halftime in a tie. I'm talking about sliding up in the pocket and whipping off a sidearm dart to rookie Trey Palmer for the go-ahead score in the third quarter.

I'm also talking about that third-down run on the game's first drive that kept the Bucs from having to give Kirk Cousins and Justin Jefferson the ball back one more time. He saw the opportunity, got the corner, took a hit, made it past the sticks and stayed inbounds. And I'm really talking about his final throw, a gutsy 11-yard out to Chris Godwin on third-and-10 that sealed the victory.

Coaches call the situation the Bucs were in at the end of the fourth quarter a "four-minute drill." It's not always exactly four minutes (this one was close, at 3:52), but the idea is to get enough first downs to burn the clock and/or the opponents' timeouts. They are very hard to do because the best way to run the clock is to run the ball, but the defense knows this and stacks the box. Passes are risky because an incompletion helps the opponent's time situation. Mayfield's first four-minute drill as a Buccaneer was a thing of beauty, and for me it put the icing on the cake of his Week One Game Ball candidacy.

Who deserves the Game Ball for the Bucs' big win in Minnesota? Click here to cast your vote.

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