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The Bucs beat their arch rival in the Carolina Panthers this past Sunday and man Tampa Bay Buccaneers Hoodie , was it sweet. Not only did they win, but they led for the entire game after building a quick 10-0 lead in the first quarter. Tampa Bay made enough plays for the remainder of the game to finish with a 24-17 victory. Not only did it snap a three-game losing streak, but it was one of Jameis Winston’s best performances against a team that usually gets the best of him. That will surely help in this week’s grades, won’t it?OffenseLet’s go ahead and talk about Winston. Coming into this last week, Winston was 2-4 against Carolina. His stats during those six games reflect the poor record. He completed an average of 62% of his passes for 268 yards, but held a TD:INT mark of 5/9. The Bucs gave up an average of three sacks per game and were outscored by an average of 24-17. How ironic is that they won 24-17?But anyway, Winston had another turnover-free game and made great decisions with the ball for the second week in a row. He was great from the pocket once again, taking sacks when needed and running any chance he had. It’s evident that he is using his legs more this year and it’s been more than effective. To put it into full context, he only carried the ball 33 times last season. This year, he already has 36 carries through just five and a half games. This does nothing but help as the season goes on. It will force defenses to hesitate on sending extra blitzers and it will keep Winston from making those deadly mistakes he has been known for over his career. Outside of the offensive line, who gave up four sacks on the day, the rest of the offense played pretty well. Adam Humphries recorded his fifth touchdown in as many games and the team finished just five yards shy of another 100-yard performance. They went 6/13 on third down and were 66% in goal-to-go situations. There were still issues with penalties (9/69) and the Bucs finished with only 18 first downs. After scoring on four of their first seven possessions, they punted the ball away four times in the fourth quarter. And there was also the Peyton Barber “fumble”, but everyone with a set of eyes knows that was a BS call. Overall Grade: 2.75 (C+)DefenseHot damn. Now that was Tampa Bay football. Four turnovers. Four sacks. A huge fourth down stop in the fourth quarter. Is this 2002?In all seriousness, while the defense did give up a ton of yards (444), they also made a ton of impact plays that changed the outcome of this game. Christian McCaffrey ran wild, but that was to be expected. That’s not an excuse, that’s just reality. But considering how many players this team had out due to injury Cheap Customized Tampa Bay Buccaneers Jerseys , it’s quite remarkable how effective the unit was against Cam Newton and co. The Bucs were down Vernon Hargreaves, Brent Grimes, Carlton Davis, M.J. Stewart, and Chris Conte in the secondary coming into the game before Justin Evans reaggravated his toe injury and had to leave the game. Andrew Adams and Javien Elliott - a free agent and a practice squad player earlier in the season - picked Newton off a combined four times between the two. Mike Minter came in with a big sack on the first drive of the game. He was signed just three weeks ago. Tampa Bay held Carolina to just 3/8 on third down and as aforementioned, stopped them on a crucial 4th-and-9 late in the fourth quarter. The team still had trouble with big plays, allowing five plays of 20+ yards. They also disappeared in the third quarter, giving up 10 points and 148 yards on 19 plays. Considering what they were up against, it was a remarkable effort and one that should be treated as such. Final Grade: 3.5 (B+)Special TeamsI used to dread giving out this grade. Now, it’s one of my favorite topics to write about. It only took the latter part of the decade, but Tampa Bay has finally found a kicker. Cairo Santos was perfect again, knocking down all of his extra points and the lone field goal attempt. He still had some trouble getting the ball into the end zone on kickoffs (3/5), but the Bucs’ unit covered the two returns well, allowing an average of 17.5 yards per return. Anger finished with a net of 40 yards on six punts. In all, it was another good day for the unit. Final Grade: 4.0 (A) CoachingThis was easily defensive coordinator Mark Duffner’s best game of the season. The fact that the Bucs were able to come up with so many plays using so few players was remarkable and he deserves every bit of credit he can get. The offense, while it could’ve done more, did enough. A lot of what they were or weren’t able to do had to with injuries as well. But overall, Todd Monken and Dirk Koetter had a very effective game plan White Demar Dotson Jersey , taking advantage of the Panthers in the short-to-intermediate game.It’s also encouraging to see the players still playing despite what this season has been so far. The staff deserves some praise for that. Final Grade: 3.5 (B+) Overall Grade: 3.43 (B+)Considering the circumstances, it would be very fair to call this the biggest win of the season. A bad record, a plethora of injuries, turmoil, and a quarterback carousel is a deadly combination in the NFL. Teams can - and usually - mail it in after going through all of that for this long in a season. But that wasn’t the case Sunday and now the Bucs still have life in the playoff race. Overall Grade For The Season: 2.15 (C) With their Week 16 loss to the Dallas Cowboys, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers now stand at 5-10 with one game remaining.If there’s a silver lining, it’s going to come in the form of a high draft pick in April of 2019. Tampa Bay currently sits in the sixth slot heading into Week 17.How did we get here? Let’s break it down.THE PLAY: The fumble - or - the missed blockThis play became a point of debate in the twittersphere Sunday afternoon after Jameis Winston fell victim to a Randy Gregory strip-sack and Dallas Cowboys linebacker Jaylon Smith scooped and scored from 69-yards out.Who was to blame? Well, there were two schools of thought.First, here’s the play.There are those who put the majority of the blame on Jameis Winston. The quarterback receives the snap with 1:57 on the game clock, and is hit by Gregory at 1:53. That’s four seconds. Traditional thought is the quarterback needs to have made a decision on what to do with the ball at or around the three second mark.Here, at three seconds, not only has Winston not made a decision with the ball, he’s trying to direct traffic while holding the ball exposed in one hand. This approach is neither smart or successful as any number of hits would have likely knocked the ball free, just as it did here.Then, there are those who blame Donovan Smith, whose job it was to block Gregory in the first place.At the snap, Gregory takes an outside bend against Smith relying on speed to get around the large and lumbering offensive tackle.Smith extends trying to push the Cowboys pass rusher off his arc and out of the play, but Gregory dips below his outstretched hands to continue his pursuit of Winston.As Winston steps up and out of the pocket http://www.authenticstampabaybuccaneers.com/cheap-vinny-curry-jersey , Gregory’s continuous effort pays off as he gets a clear and unencumbered shot at Winston, which leads to the fumble. Meanwhile, Smith is not only ‘jogging’ behind the play, but at one point completely comes to a stand-still while watching his assignment barrel down on his quarterback.There was a minority third school of thought too. The play-call was a bad one. At the time of this writing, all-22 film is not currently available. But here’s what we know from the Fox broadcast tape.On 3rd-and-5, Tampa Bay came out with a shotgun spread formation using five receivers split-out to try and thin out the Cowboys defense.Dallas came out in their nickel package with a four-man defensive front, four corner backs, two linebackers and single-high safety coverage.Pretty standard arrangement for the situation. Something of interest however, is the Cowboys defenders - except for the high safety - played within six-yards of the line of scrimmage. This shows the Cowboys are fully expecting the Buccaneers to target the sticks.DeSean Jackson and Adam Humphries are split widest on the right and left sides respectively. Mike Evans and Chris Godwin lineup in the slot with Godwin lined up closest to the offensive line as Cameron Brate lines up between him and Jackson in a three receiver set on the left.Before the snap, Winston motions Humphries in and he takes up tight alignment on the offensive line leaving Evans as the further most right side receiver.When Humphries motions, corner back Jourdan Lewis moves, but only so slightly and he maintains his depth.Quarterbacks are taught commonly to read this defender as the outside corner while assuming the defender closer to the line will likely take the inside release.Cornerback Byron Jones maintains his position on Evans despite Humphries’ motion, and jams his man at the line.Meanwhile, Humphries’ own release is hindered by the jam causing his five-yard out-break to come late. Evans’ deeper break is only two-yards deeper, likely another effect of the early jam by Jones as the receiver looks to get into his break on time rather than focusing on depth.By the time this happens, Winston is already under pressure from the four-man rush and his ability to do anything on his left side is wiped out.On the right side, Brate and Jackson run a crossing patter with a built-in pick coming from Brate to try and free-up Jackson.Like the right side, by the time these route combinations take shape http://www.authenticstampabaybuccaneers.com/cheap-ryan-jensen-jersey , Winston is already under pressure and moving up in the pocket. There is a moment when he clears the pocket when Brate has solid position against his defender, but Winston is looking deep, not short.Godwin breaks out of the slot with an inside release and breaks over the middle on a slant. Again, by the time he’s getting into his break, the pocket is collapsing and Winston’s field has essentially been cut in half with Godwin moving in the wrong direction to be of any immediate assistance to his quarterback.While we can’t see it for certain, it’s a safe assumption Winston is trying to direct Jackson to an open spot on the right quarter of the field as he’s approaching the line of scrimmage.This ‘touchdown to check down’ passing game theology calls on the quarterback to start on deep reads and check down after examining those deeper routes.With a pass-rush barreling down on him, Winston continues to try and execute this mindset to the detriment of himself and ultimately, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.There were no quick releases on this play, and every route took approximately two or three seconds to develop with one deep route, two in-breaking routes on the right and two out-breaking routes on the left.Essentially, the play design requires the quarterback to have at least three seconds of clean time in the pocket and negates the right side outside quarter of the field and the inner quarter of the left side.It’s just not a good play design. But was it solely to blame?If you ask me, all of these played equal factors to the outcome. The early pressure given up by Demar Dotson and Caleb Benenoch negated any use Winston could have gotten out of the initial breaks by his receivers. Bad route combinations gave Winston few options once he came clear of the initial rush.Tampa Bay’s ‘touchdown or check-down’ mantra ensured Winston’s eyes were deep on Jackson instead of short on Brate who had a clean second to make a short catch if given the opportunity.Winston’s usual determination to make a big play over the safe play - Winston has the opportunity to throw the ball away - causes him to hold the ball into the four to five second range trying to direct Jackson into open space.Gregory’s continuous effort paired with Donovan Smith’s lack of continuous effort gives him a clean shot from behind on Winston.Jaylon Smith’s freedom to move with no threat to his zone places him in perfect position for the scoop-and-score.As you can see in the clip, this play happened early in the first quarter and came with the Buccaneers down just four with the ball at the Cowboys’ 34-yard line.It’s not the only reason they lost, but this play alone was a big-time ‘here we go’ moment in the game, and became a point of conversation through the final gun.For that reason, this is the only play in this week’s key plays column. And I’ll leave it to you fine readers to assign final blame.