Behind-the-scenes photos of the Buccaneers vs. Bears game at the Raymond James Stadium on December 27th.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers scored their final points of Sunday's lost to the Chicago Bears on a 43-yard touchdown catch by second-year tight end Austin Seferian-Jenkins. Even though Seferian-Jenkins has only played in six games this season, missing significant time with a shoulder injury, he has two scoring receptions of at least 40 yards. He is one of only three tight ends in the NFL that can make that claim in 2015:
Player
Team
40+-Yard TD Rec.
Rob Gronkowski
New England
2 (76, 47)
Austin Seferian-Jenkins
Tampa Bay
2 (43, 41)
Delanie Walker
Tennessee
2 (61, 57)
Seferian-Jenkins' touchdown on Sunday was the longest scoring reception by a Buccaneer tight end since Ken Dilger's 45-yard TD grab against the New Orleans Saints on Oct. 10, 2004. Statspass has data of this variety tracked back through the 1994 season and only Seferian-Jenkins and Kellen Winslow have two 40+-yard touchdown catches among Buccaneer tight ends in that 22-season span.
In the same game on Sunday, rookie quarterback Jameis Winston also hooked up with tight end Cameron Brate on a 46-yard completion. The Buccaneers are the only team in the NFL this season to have two different tight ends make 40+-yard catches in the same game. In fact, only one other team has had two 40+-yard catches by a single tight end in the same game this year. Philadelphia's Brent Celek had 60 and 40-ard grabs against Miami on Nov. 15.
In last week's Football Geekery, we noted that the Buccaneers have an unusually high number of first and second-year players figuring prominently in their passing attack in 2015. That starts with Winston, the 21-year-old rookie passer, of course, but it also includes a good number of his favorite targets this year. When Seferian-Jenkins and Brate made the big plays described above, they both pushed their season receiving yardage totals past 250 yards. Seferian-Jenkins and Brate both entered the NFL in 2014, the former as a second-round draft pick and the latter as an undrafted free agent.
Meanwhile second-year wide receiver Mike Evans is the team leader with 1,107 receiving yards and second-year running back Charles Sims is third with 487. Rookie wide receiver Adam Humphries has pitched in with 260 yards on 27 catches. That makes the Buccaneers just the fourth team since the 1970 merger to have at least five different first or second-year players get to 250 receiving yards in the same season.
Five or More First or Second-Year Players with 250+ Receiving Yards
Team
Season
No.
Players
NYG
1985
5
Adams, Bavaro, B. Johnson, Manuel, McConkey
TEN
2005
5
B. Jones, Roby, Scaife, Troupe, R. Williams
STL
2009
5
Amendola, Avery, Burton, Fells, Gibson
TB
2015
5
Brate, Evans, Humphries, Seferian-Jenkins, Sims
Evans has surpassed 1,000 receiving yards in each of his first two NFL seasons, joining Randy Moss as the only players to do so before the age of 23. He currently owns the 10th-highest single-season receiving yardage total in team history and could move as high as fifth place with a 150-yard game at Carolina in the season finale. That's not an outrageous suggestion, as Evans already has three 150-yard outings this season (though a strong Panthers' defense adds a note of caution to any prediction).
Most Receiving Yards, Single Season, Buccaneers
Player
Season
Yards
- Mark Carrier
1989
1,422
- Vincent Jackson
2012
1,384
- Joey Galloway
2005
1,287
- Keyshawn Johnson
2001
1,266
- Antonio Bryant
2008
1,248
- Vincent Jackson
2013
1,224
- Michael Clayton
2004
1,193
- Kevin House
1981
1,176
- Keenan McCardell
2003
1,174
10. Mike Evans
2015
1,107
Evans has a 15.8 yards-per catch average that ranks 15th in the NFL and is one of the better single-season marks in franchise history among leading receivers. In fact, Evans is one of just five players in team history to average at least 15 yards per catch on 70 or more receptions.
Player
Year
Rec.
Avg.
Vincent Jackson
2012
72
19.2
Mark Carrier
1989
86
16.5
Mike Evans
2015
70
15.8
Vincent Jackson
2013
78
15.7
Joey Galloway
2005
83
15.5
Antonio Bryant
2008
83
15.0
As Joe Kania noted on Monday, the Buccaneers are on pace to break their single-season team record for net yards. At 5,628, they've already reached their second-best total, and they're just 192 yards behind the standard of 5,820 set in 2012. A 372-yard outing in the season finale at Carolina would get the team to 6,000 yards in a season for the first time, and the Bucs are currently averaging 375 per outing.
The 2012 team got its record total on 1,008 plays, averaging 5.77 yards per snap, which was also a single-season franchise record. The 2015 team is on pace to run almost the exact some number of plays (1,009), so it would obviously set the team record for yards per play if it surpassed that 2012 total of 5,820. In fact, the Bucs are currently averaging 5.95 yards per play.
As Kania noted, the Bucs rank seventh in the NFL in yards per game, which if maintained would be the team's highest finish on that chart ever, besting a ninth-place standing in 2012. Tampa Bay also currently ranks 10th in the NFL on defense, which of course is a far more common occurrence in team history. The Bucs have enjoyed 14 previous seasons of top-10 defensive rankings, including the top spot in 1979, 2002 and 2005. What the current team has a chance to do is finish in the top 10 in both offense and defense, something it has done just once before. That was in 2003, when the defending Super Bowl champs ranked 10th on offense and fifth on defense. At the moment, Tampa Bay is one of six teams ranked in the top 10 on both sides, and the other five are all currently holding on to playoff spots: Cincinnati, New England, the N.Y. Jets, Arizona and Seattle.
The Buccaneers gained 389 yards against Chicago on Sunday while giving up 327, but they lost by five points, in part due to one very big missed opportunity in the red zone. Safety Harold Jones-Quartey's interception of a pressured Winston pass at the Chicago goal line marked the first time since Week Four that the Buccaneers had breached the opponent's red zone but not come away with any points. Since a pair of missed field goals against Carolina in Week Four, the Bucs had scored on 34 consecutive drives inside the 20 before Jones-Quartey's pick.
That ill-fated pass was the first red zone interception the Bucs' rookie passer has thrown all season. Meanwhile, Winston has tossed 22 touchdown passes, the most ever for a Buccaneer rookie and close to the most any NFL rookie has thrown since the merger. Winston has already tied the fourth-highest touchdown pass total in Tampa Bay annals.
Most Touchdown Passes, Single Season, Buccaneers
Player
Season
TD Passes
- Josh Freeman
2012
27
2. Brad Johnson
2003
26
3. Josh Freeman
2010
25
4t. Brad Johnson
2003
22
4t. Jameis Winston
2015
22
Most Touchdown Passes, Single Season, NFL Rookie, Since 1970
Player
Team
Season
TD Passes
1t. Peyton Manning
IND
1998
26
1t. Russell Wilson
SEA
2012
26
- Andrew Luck
IND
2012
23
4. Jameis Winston*
TB
2015
22
5t. Cam Newton
CAR
2011
21
5t. Derek Carr
OAK
2014
21
7t. Andy Dalton
CIN
2011
20
7t. Robert Griffin III
WAS
2012
20
7t. Dan Marino
MIA
1983
20
10t. Mike Glennon
TB
2013
19
10t. Marcus Mariota*
TEN
2015
19
10t. Jim Plunkett
NE
1971
19
- Winston has thrown for 3,717 yards and is on pace for 3,965 after one more outing. That would be the third-highest mark for an NFL rookie since the merger; he's already fourth on that list and is virtually guaranteed to pass Peyton Manning and move up a spot. Winston is also likely to finish with the second-most passing yards in Buccaneer history, rookie or not.
Most Passing Yards, Single Season, NFL Rookie, Since 1970
Player
Team
Season
Yards
- Andrew Luck
IND
2012
4,374
2. Cam Newton
CAR
2011
4,051
3. Peyton Manning
IND
1998
3,739
4. Jameis Winston
TB
2015
3,717
5. Sam Bradford
STL
2010
3,512
6. Matt Ryan
ATL
2008
3,440
7. Andy Dalton
CIN
2011
3,398
8. Brandon Weeden
CLE
2012
3,385
9. Ryan Tannehill
MIA
2012
3,294
- Derek Carr
OAK
2014
3,270
Most Passing Yards, Single Season, Buccaneers
Player
Season
Yards
- Josh Freeman
2012
4,065
2. Brad Johnson
2003
3,811
3. Jameis Winston
2015
3,717
4. Josh Freeman
2011
3,592
5. Doug Williams
1981
3,563
For much of the game on Sunday, Winston enjoyed good protection in the pocket. He dropped back 30 times and was sacked only once. Tampa Bay's offense has improved to eighth in the NFL in sacks allowed per pass play, thanks in large part to the fact that Winston has been taken down just three times in the last four games combined. That's a very nice run, one that no Buccaneer team has rivaled since 2007. The last time Tampa Bay allowed three or fewer sacks in a four-game stretch was Games 3-6 in '07, with a total of two allowed across games against St. Louis, Carolina, Indianapolis and Tennessee.
While offensive linemen do not generate many stats apart from games and starts, they are usually judged by how well their team runs the ball and protects the passer. The Bucs' offensive line has been considered a pleasant surprise all season, and despite starting two rookies in left tackle Donovan Smith and right guard Ali Marpet, it has fared well in those two categories. In fact, Tampa Bay has one of just three offenses in the NFL that ranks in the top 10 in both sacks per pass play and rushing yards per game.
Team
SPP*
Rank
Rush YPG
Rank
Tampa Bay
.048
8
139.0
4
Arizona
.046
6
126.0
6
St. Louis
.040
3
121.7
8
