Bucs offense impressive again in win against the Raiders

The Buccaneers went on the road and put another impressive win in the books as they beat up the Las Vegas Raiders 45-20 to get their fifth win of the season.

The game was close at halftime and even into the early fourth quarter before the Bucs scored 21 unanswered points.

The Bucs led 14-10 before Tom Brady hit Scotty Miller for one of his four touchdowns passes late in the first half as the Bucs took a 21-10 lead into the locker room.

The Raiders cut it to 24-20 early in the fourth quarter before Brady and the Bucs put into overdrive and scored the final 21 points of the game.

This was not a perfect game for the Bucs, and the final score doesn’t indicate how close this game was. The Bucs didn’t put it away until the 7:22 of the fourth quarter when Chris Godwin caught a four-yard touchdown pass from Tom Brady to put the Bucs up 31-17.

This was the second-highest offensive output for the Bucs this season as they put up 454 yards of offense.

Devin White was outstanding as he registered nine tackles and had all three of the Buccaneer sacks.

Antoine Winfield Jr. had an interception on a deflection from Mike Edwards to turn the momentum back in the Bucs favor as he picked off David Carr in the fourth quarter. Two plays later, the Bucs were up 31-17.

Rob Gronkowski has his second straight game with a touchdown pass as caught five passes for 62 yards.

Leonard Fournette returned to the lineup and immediately made his presence felt catching six passes for 47 yards. Fournette was also the Bucs leading rusher as he had 50 yards on 11 carries.

Mike Evans continues to be MIA in the Buccaneer offense. Evans had just two catches for 37 yards.

Arians said that Evans is drawing a lot of double coverages by opposing defenses. That is leaving guys like Scotty Miller, Chris Godwin, and Rob Gronkowski in single coverage.

Tom Brady continued to be excellent as he passed the ball to nine different receivers with four touchdown passes.

Brady has 18 touchdowns and four interceptions with a 5-2 record.

Last year at this time Jameis Winston had 14 touchdowns with 12 interceptions. The Bucs were 2-5.

For the second straight week, the Buccaneer defense shut down the running game. Josh Jacobs, the Raiders back had rushed for 375 yards on the season coming into the game and was held to 17 yards on 10 carries.

This defense is slowly starting to garner the attention of a lot of folks as they have moved into the top in most defensive categories.

Newly acquired defensive tackle Steve McLendon played 25 snaps and was credited with five tackles, all in the first half.

This was the second consecutive game the Bucs have had zero turnovers. The Bucs also only had 20 yards in penalties.

A lot of the questions asked of Arians after the game centered around the signing of wide receiver Antonio Brown.

It seems as if Arians is backtracking a bit as he stated in March that Brown would not be a good fit in this locker room.

With all the injuries the wide receivers have struggled with this season, Arians said he and Jason Licht began talking about the possibility of acquiring Brown when the time was right.

Arians said the Bucs added Brown as an insurance policy. “It’s an insurance policy. When we don’t have Mike when we don’t have Chris, why not have another Pro Bowl-caliber player that’s available that fits our cap and fits everything else. So why not? We have good players. You can’t have enough of them.”

When asked about Brown’s alleged sexual assault allegations Arians said “Just let the court system do its job. I’ve been around a lot of players that had allegations that weren’t true. Some were. So let the court system handle it. If it’s found out to be true, he won’t be with us.”

Brady, when asked about Brown coming into the locker room, mentioned every single wide receiver and tight end and complimented them on what a great job they have done.

Brady said they are going to need everybody.

He also had high praise for Brown, calling him “a tremendous football player and a very hard-working guy”

Brown signed a one year contract worth 2.5 million dollars. There are also incentives for receptions, receiving yards, touchdowns, and a Super Bowl win.