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The Pewter Report staff answers your questions from the Pewter Report twitter account each week in the Bucs Monday Mailbag Submit your question to the Bucs Monday Mailbag each week via Twitter using the hashtag #PRMailbag. Here are the questions we chose to answer for this week’s edition.
QUESTION: Wow – fun game to watch! My question about the game – was Bucs safety Mike Edwards playing Sean Murphy-Bunting’s role when he got the two picks or was he playing safety? The dude just makes plays.
ANSWER: With two pick-sixes, Bucs safety Mike Edwards was the defensive hero in Tampa Bay’s 48-25 win over Atlanta on Sunday. But with Sean Murphy-Bunting out, Edwards played more nickel cornerback than he did safety versus the Falcons, especially with the return of starting strong safety Jordan Whitehead. Edwards had seen some action in the slot before, so Sunday’s action inside was nothing new for the third-year veteran. On Edwards’ first pick-six of the game, he lined up in the slot against Falcons wide receiver Russell Gage, Jr. The Bucs were in zone coverage and Edwards read the play perfectly. He stepped in front of Gage, tipped the pass up to himself, caught the bobbling ball and returned it 31 yards for a touchdown. That increased the Bucs lead to 41-25 late in the fourth quarter and put the game out of reach.
On Edwards’ second interception, which came on a tipped pass from cornerback Carlton Davis III, both Edwards and Davis were blitzing off the edge. Davis’ blitz came in Matt Ryan’s face, while Edwards blitzed from the blind side lined up in the slot playing nickel cornerback. Edwards, who was in the backfield with Davis, alertly tracked the ball as it was batted up and snatched it out of the air to return it 15 yards for his second touchdown of the day to make the final score 48-25.
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