Quarterback Jameis Winston became the first quarterback in NFL history to throw for back-to-back 450-yard games in the Bucs’ 38-17 victory over the Detroit Lions on Sunday, despite starting the game without Mike Evans and Donovan Smith while losing Chris Godwin and Scotty Miller along the way.
The defense did there part as well, limiting the Lions’ damage before rookie Sean Murphy-Bunting returned home to Michigan in a big way, sealing the game with a pick-six late in the fourth quarter.
Bruce Arians spoke to the media following Tampa Bay’s victory. Read the full transcript below.
(Opening statement)
“There’s always an ebb and a flow in a ball game. We kind of gave up two broken plays, got them down there, but them our defense, I thought, really rebounded well. Obviously Sean [Murphy-Bunting] get the pick-six and pretty much puts it on ice. We get another stop and then Jameis hits Breshad [Perriman]. Obviously Chris [Godwin] is down with another hamstring, Scotty [Miller] got a hamstring injury when he scored his touchdown. Can’t say enough about the guys. [Ishmael Hyman] jumped in there, caught a big first down play. [Tanner Hudson] we’ll see, he has a head injury, but he made a big play. Other than… Throw an interception, get this (expletive) over with, let’s go win the game. I thought Jameis played really, really well. He saw the hot [read], it was a little bit late and the guy made a good play on it.”
(On if Winston stacking up good performances makes a future decision about him easier)
“There’s more good than bad and that’s what we’ve been looking for the whole time. The biggest thing, for me, is that we didn’t give up any points. We turned the ball over inside the 50 this time and nothing. The defense is starting to grow up a little bit, sudden-change defense and protecting him a little better.”
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