As far as the stat sheet's concerned, Jameis Winston had the best game of his career against the Redskins. Winston finished the game with a career-high 128.1 passer rating after throwing for 297 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions. After having an opportunity to break down the game film, Offensive Coordinator Dirk Koetter agreed that Sunday was Winston's best performance thus far.
"Jameis did a nice job in this game," Koetter said. "[He] played his best game, did a nice job, didn't turn the ball over, made good decisions, got the ball out of his hand, got the ball out of his hand early, the double move to Mike [Evans], the timing – if you watch that on tape when he lets that go, where Mike is – I mean fantastic. Jameis did a really nice job."
As the season has progressed, so has Winston. He earned a passer rating of 122.5 against the Jaguars, the last time he took the field prior to the Bucs' Week 7 matchup with the Redskins. Winston was also named the NFL Rookie of the Week for his efforts against Jacksonville.
Which areas, specifically, has Koetter noticed improvement?
"He had a tendency on his deep routes to be waiting too long," Koetter explained. "It's common with a young quarterback. They want to see it. By the time they see it, they outrun his arm. Jameis has a strong arm so the first deep ball to Mike, that was a good one. The other one was the second series when we went down there. We had the third-and-two I think. We ran the naked boot and he threw the ball away out of the back of the end zone. You talk about hard for Jameis to throw it away on the goal line. Every quarterback out there is dying to throw a touchdown pass from the two-yard line. There's two right there. Jameis, we had a lot of check plays on the road with crowd noise. We were having a lot of issues with my headset, my coach-to-quarterback going out with him. Jameis, he handled that like a champ."
Winston and the Bucs' offense will face a tough task this weekend against Atlanta. The Falcons' defense has eight interceptions, tied for the sixth-most in the league, and are in the top half of the NFL in points allowed per game.
Photos from the Bucs' practice on Wednesday, October 28st at One Buccaneer Place in Tampa.
