Tampa Bay Buccaneers Prove Resilience Again with Big Week 8 Road Win

After last week’s completely demoralizing meltdown against Washington, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers were left for dead and many fans were calling for head coach Lovie Smith’s head.

But yet again, the Bucs bounced back from an embarrassing loss with a huge road win against an NFC South opponent, beating the Atlanta Falcons 23-20 in overtime to improve to 3-4 on the season.

After being destroyed by the Falcons 56-14 at the Georgia Dome last year in front of a national audience, the Bucs looked like a completely different team on Sunday, eclipsing their entire win total from the 2014 season with their third win of the year.

The Bucs began the season with a deflating performance at home against the Tennessee Titans, with rookie quarterback Marcus Mariota carving up the Tampa Bay secondary on the way to a 42-14 beatdown. 

While Mariota was nearly flawless, Winston struggled in his debut, throwing two costly interceptions, including a pick-six on his first career pass attempt.

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But despite the doomsday crowd gathering in Tampa Bay after the loss, the Bucs bounced back the following week with a huge win on the road against a division foe, downing the New Orleans Saints 26-19.

Tampa Bay let an early lead dwindle late in the game but came up with a big defensive stand on the final drive to seal the win.

Last week, the Bucs squandered a 24-0 first-half lead against Washington, giving up the game-winning score in the final seconds and bringing the naysayers back with their proverbial torches and pitchforks.

But just as it did earlier in the year, Tampa Bay proved its resilience by going back out on the road, giving the Falcons just their second loss of the season and overcoming adversity in many different ways.

Nobody on the Tampa Bay roster had more to overcome on Sunday than linebacker Kwon Alexander, who played with a heavy heart following the death of his teenage brother on Friday.

Alexander voiced his emotions on Twitter in the wake of the awful news:

Despite his grief, Alexander played his best game of the season, racking up 11 total tackles and making big plays all over the field. The rookie fourth-rounder out of LSU had a pair of interceptions—though one was called back—and ran down Atlanta’s Julio Jones after a long completion, ripping the ball out of his hands for yet another takeaway.

After the game, an understandably emotional Alexander was awarded the game ball by one of the team captains, Logan Mankins:

Jameis Winston took plenty of criticism for his poor performance in Week 1, but he bounced back with a mostly mistake-free outing the following week.

He caught even more grief after throwing four interceptions in a Week 4 home loss to the Carolina Panthers, as fans and analysts alike wondered if Winston’s gun-slinging style would allow him to be successful against bigger, faster NFL defenses.

But since that rough afternoon against the Panthers, Winston has now gone three straight games without committing a single turnover. Over that stretch, he’s completed nearly 65 percent of his passes, throwing for 683 yards and scoring five touchdowns, with one of them coming on the ground this week.

Despite his detractors, Winston continues to show improvement, proving he can take care of the football and make big throws in key moments.

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After last week’s collapse, the Tampa Bay defense had plenty to prove, and it did just that by tallying four takeaways and making a big stand on the game’s final drive. Just as it did in Week 2, Lovie Smith’s crew let a two-score lead evaporate, but it still responded when it mattered most.

There’s still plenty of improvement needed on defense for Tampa Bay—particularly against the pass—but the Bucs will feel much better going about those improvements after putting another check in the win column.

Tampa Bay has talented and passionate rookie quarterbacks on both sides of the ball, a work-in-progress offensive line, a banged-up receiving corps and holes all over the defense.

However, Sunday’s overtime win puts the team just a game under .500 with a 2-1 record against NFC South opponents, and it was just another example of a young team proving it can get a big win in the face of tall odds.

All stats courtesy of NFL.com.

Luke Easterling is a Featured Columnist covering the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and NFL draft for Bleacher Report. He is also a senior NFL draft analyst for Draft Breakdown. Follow him on Twitter @Luke Easterling.