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How Jameis Winston's turnovers doomed the Bucs again

 
Jameis Winston has turned the football over 25 times in 17 road games. [MONICA HERNDON | Times]
Jameis Winston has turned the football over 25 times in 17 road games. [MONICA HERNDON | Times]
Published Sept. 26, 2017

The Bucs' rise or fall is based on the play of quarterback Jameis Winston. His failure to take care of the football was arguably the biggest factor in their 34-17 loss to the Minnesota Vikings Sunday.

Winston passed for 328 yards and two touchdowns. But it was his three interceptions that coach Dirk Koetter was focused on, including one which proved to be the key play in the game.

Winston has turned the football over 25 times in 17 road games. On Sunday, it was a bad throw, a bad read and perhaps a bad break that resulted in INTs.

The Bucs defense wasn't blameless. They allowed Vikings quarterback Case Keenum to dig them a 14-3 hole.

But the Bucs came back. With 5:37 remaining in the second quarter, Winston was backed up to the Tampa Bay 14 yard line when he connected with DeSean Jackson on a 32-yard pass. He hit Adam Humphries and Mike Evans on passes of 10 yards each. On the next play, Jackson beat Vikings cornerback Trae Waynes badly on a post route. But it's a throw Winston has struggled with and he left the football short. As the adage goes, if you're long you're never wrong. Instead of a TD and a 14-10 deficit, the Vikings used the turnover to drive 92 yards for a touchdown and a 21-3 lead.

"The key play in the game was with about five minutes to go in the half -- it was 14-3 – we had a wide-open DeSean Jackson that's going to make it 14-10,'' coach Dirk Koetter said. "Instead it's intercepted, they go on a 92-yard drive and it's 21-3.

"The first (interception), again, that's a touchdown. That's a 14-point swing right there with the way it ended up. That's a seven-point swing, you know, DeSean [Jackson] smoked that guy and Jameis has got to get it out there for him – plain and simple on that.''

The Bucs still got back in the game. Trailing 31-10 and driving to start the fourth quarter, the Bucs faced second-and-4 at the Vikings 44 yard line, Winston makes a bad read and forced the ball to Jackson, who didn't get inside of Waynes. The pass goes directly to safety Andrew Sendejo, who returns it 36 yards. Tight end O.J. Howard is running across the formation to Winston's left and is open underneath on the play.

"The second interception, we were driving, we were back within two scores, we were across the 50 on the plus 45 and it was a poor read.'' Koetter said. "We had a good man-zone indicator there. Jameis missed the read, try to force it in there to DeSean, he had to step up, had a little bit of pressure, tried to force it in there – just not going to work.''

The final INT can be blamed on Winston knowing the Bucs had to score on all their remaining possessions to stay in the game. Winston drove the Bucs from their own 25 to the Minnesota 21. But on second down, he fired the ball to Evans, who was struck in the back by Sendejo as he attempted to catch it. The went through Evans' hands and deflected off Sendejo's helmet to safety Harrison Smith for the INT.

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"On the third interception, now we are down 17 points,'' Koetter said. "We probably don't have enough possessions and Jameis tried to force it into Mike. (He's) just got to check that ball down. I think at one point in the second half, Jameis was something like 18 out of 22. I'm talking in the second half now, two incompletions and two interceptions, so Jameis made some really nice plays, some really nice throws, but just the main thing is as an offense we can't turn it over. Those kinds of things have a tendency to happen more when you're playing from behind and you're playing in a more desperate situation than you would like to be."

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