As noted by Director of NFC Football Communications Randall Liu on Sunday night, the Buccaneers became the first road team in NFL history to have one player throw for five or more touchdowns and another player rush for 200 or more yards. That's because rookie QB Jameis Winston spent the afternoon putting up numbers as impressive as his backfield mate.
Winston completed 19 of 29 passes for 246 yards, five touchdowns and no interceptions in the best outing of his young career. That tied an NFL rookie record for most touchdown passes in a single game, equaling the mark first set by the Chicago Bears' Ray Buivid against the Chicago Cardinals on Dec. 5, 1937 and then matched 72 years later by Detroit's Matthew Stafford against Cleveland on Nov. 22, 2009.
Buivid was picked off once in his big game and Stafford threw two interceptions in his five-TD outing. Thus, Winston is the first rookie in NFL history to have five touchdown passes and no interceptions in a single game.
Winston tied the Buccaneers' own record for most touchdown passes in a game by any quarterback, rookie or not. He had the fourth five-TD outing in team annals:
Player
Opponent-Date
Pass TD
QB Steve DeBerg
vs. ATL-9/13/87
5
QB Josh Freeman
vs. SEA-12/26/10
5
QB Brad Johnson
vs. MIN-11/3/02
5
QB Jameis Winston
at PHI-11/22/15
5
Winston increased his season passing touchdown total by 50 percent on Sunday, giving him 15 so far. He has six games remaining to break Mike Glennon's 2013 record in that category. Here are the top five in that category:
- Mike Glennon, 2013…192. Jameis Winston, 2015…15
- Josh Freeman, 2009…10
- Bruce Gradkowski, 2006…9
5t. Shaun King, 1999…7
5t. Doug Williams, 1978…7
What made Winston's five-touchdown day even more compelling viewing was the fact that he threw them to five different players. That marks the first time in franchise history that five different players caught a touchdown pass in the same contest.
Incredibly, Carolina's Cam Newton did the exact same thing on the exact same day. Newton threw his five TD passes in a win over Washington on Sunday to Jonathan Stewart, Mike Tolbert, Ted Ginn, Greg Olsen and Devin Funchess. Though it's more of a coincidence that a milestone or significant achievement, it is interesting how similar the stat lines for Winston and Newton were on Sunday:
QB
Att.
Comp.
Yards
Pct.
TD
INT
Rating
Winston
29
19
246
65.5%
5
0
131.6
Newton
34
21
246
61.8%
5
0
123.3
**
Because Winston and the Buccaneers were so effective in the red zone, kicker Connor Barth spent most of his day kicking extra points (and blasting kickoffs). He had six of them, in fact, to go with a 28-yard field goal that gave him nine points in the game. Barth has been a prolific scorer since returning to the team in Week Five. In fact, in that span, he is the NFL's second-leading scorer. The top 10, all of whom are kickers:
Player
Team
Pts.
Pts./Gm.
- Stephen Gostkowski
NE
62
10.3
2. Connor Barth
TB
60
10.0
- Graham Gano
CAR
59
9.8
4t. Josh Brown
NYG
57
9.5
4t. Blair Walsh
MIN
57
9.5
- Cairo Santos
KC
55
9.2
- Chandler Catanzaro
AZ
54
9.0
- Caleb Sturgis
PHI
53
8.8
9t. Chris Boswell
PIT
52
8.7
9t. Robbie Gould
CHI
52
8.7
Barth's six extra points in Sunday's game gave him 164 in his career, in 164 attempts. He remains one of only five active kickers who have made all of their career extra point tries. The rest of the list consists of Dan Bailey, Justin Tucker, Ryan Succop and Nick Folk.
Barth's 28-yarder made him 15 of 17 on field goal tries this year, and 131 of 153 (85.6%) in his career. Since the start of the 2011 season, Barth has been good on 89.4% of his field goal tries, and he continues to jockey with Gostkowski and Bailey for the best percentage in that span. Here's how the top five stand after Sunday's games:
Kicker
Team
Made
Att.
Pct.
Dan Bailey
DAL
133
147
90.5%
Stephen Gostkowski*
NE
151
167
90.4%
Connor Barth
TB/DEN
84
94
89.4%
Steven Hauschka
SEA
134
151
88.7%
Josh Brown
STL/CIN/NYG
102
115
88.7%
** Gostkowski and the Patriots play on Monday night
Believe it or not, there was some defensive work by the Buccaneers on Sunday in Philadelphia, even if it was overshadowed by the offensive explosion. At the center of it were the team's two cornerstone defenders, LB Lavonte David and DT Gerald McCoy.
David intercepted two Mark Sanchez passes, returning the second one 20 yards for a touchdown in the fourth quarter. It was the first touchdown of David's career; he had previously scored two points on a safety. The effort marked the second time in David's career that he has picked off two passes in the same game; before he was drafted in 2012 it had been a very long time since a Buccaneer linebacker had accomplished that feat. Here are the seven instances of a Tampa Bay linebacker getting multiple picks in the same outing, listed in reverse chronological order:*
*
Player
Opponent-Date
INT
Lavonte David
at PHI-11/22/15
2
Lavonte David
vs. BUF-12/8/13
2
Derrick Brooks
vs. CHI-10/24/99
2
Broderick Thomas
at NO-11/1/92
2
Cecil Johnson
vs. DET-10/4/81
2
Dave Lewis
vs. CHI-10/22/78
2
Richard Wood
at NO-12/11/77
2
Chris Conte also intercepted Sanchez once and DE Jacquies Smith recovered a fumble on the game's first possession. With those four turnovers, the Buccaneers' defense extended its streak to 17 games with at least one takeaway. That's the longest active streak in the NFL and the Bucs' longest streak since an amazing run of 54 games with a takeaway that spanned the 2000-03 seasons.
David has eight interceptions in his career, tied for the fifth most by a linebacker in team annals. Hall of Famer Derrick Brooks tops the list and has a commanding lead, but David would need just three more picks to move into second place behind Brooks.
Most Career Interceptions, Linebacker, Buccaneers
Player
Seasons
INTs
- Derrick Brooks
1995-2008
25
- David Lewis
1977-81
10
3t. Cecil Johnson
1977-85
9
3t. Richard Wood
1976-84
9
5t. Lavonte David
2012-15
8
5t. Scot Brantley
1980-87
8
Meanwhile, McCoy was putting the pressure on Sanchez in the backfield, accounting for 1.5 of the Bucs' three sacks on the day. McCoy moved into the team lead with 6.0 sacks in 2015 and still has a chance to be the team's first double-digit sack producer since Simeon Rice in 2005. McCoy is on pace to finish with 9.6 sacks in 16 games.
McCoy's efforts on Sunday increased his career mark to 33.0 sacks, moving him into a tie for sixth place in Buccaneer history.
Buccaneer Career Sacks
Player, Years
Sacks
- Lee Roy Selmon, 1976-84
78.5
- Warren Sapp, 1995-03
77.0
- Simeon Rice, 2001-06
69.5
- David Logan, 1979-86
39.0
- Chidi Ahanotu, 1993-2000, 2004
34.5
6t. Gerald McCoy, 2010-Present
33.0
6t. Brad Culpepper, 1994-99
33.0
- Ronde Barber, 1997-2012
28.0
- Broderick Thomas, 1989-93
26.5
- Greg Spires, 2002-07
26.0
* *McCoy now has 29.0 sacks since the start of the 2012 season, the most by any defensive tackle in the NFL in that span.
NFL Sack Leaders, Defensive Tackles, 2012-15
Player
Team
Sacks
1. Gerald McCoy
Tampa Bay
29.0
- Geno Atkins
Cincinnati
27.5
3t. Ndamukong Suh
Miami
26.0
3t. Marcell Dareus*
Buffalo
25.0
- Kyle Williams*
Buffalo
22.5
**
Odds and Ends:
- Sunday's game marked the first time since Sept. 28 of last year (at Pittsburgh) that WRs Mike Evans and Vincent Jackson have caught a touchdown pass in the same game.
Behind-the-scenes photos of the Buccaneers vs. Eagles game at Lincoln Financial Field on November 22nd.
- Doug Martin increased his career rushing yardage total to 3,345 with his big game in Philadelphia. That didn't move him up the Bucs' all-time list – he remains in the sixth spot – but it put him on the verge of doing so. With 18 more yards he would pass Michael Pittman (3,362) and move into the franchise's all-time top five.
- The Bucs have played 26 regular-season games since Lovie Smith took over as head coach in 2014. In eight of those games, the team's defense has recorded at least three takeaways, which ties for the second most in the league during that span with Carolina, Buffalo and Philadelphia. The New York Giants top the list with 10 such games.
