Nothing Goes Well for Tampa in First Game

[JerseyBorn]

Season 12 - Preseason Week 1
​

The Buccaneers traveled to hostile Philadelphia for their first preseason game of the year. The majority of starters like Mike Evans, Vincent Jackson, Doug Martin, LaVonte David and Gerald McCoy didn't play in the game. Jameis Winston was one of the few starters who did play and he was only in for one series.

Things did not go particularly well for the Buccaneers in this game. Mike Glennon put up 125 yards and a touchdown on 11 completions but he did throw a pick as well. The interception wasn't even the worst bit of that play as Glennon was hit on the throw and had to come out of the game. It's since been revealed that he suffered a fractured foot on that play and will be out for multiple weeks.



Ryan Griffin took over at the helm once Glennon went down and did not impress. Griffin, the former Tulane Green Wave, went 4-11 for 33 yards with an interception. He also had a garbage time touchdown pass to second year receiver Kenny Bell.

The run game performed decently well. Mike James got the majority of the work as he picked up 55 yards on 11 carries. Peyton Barber, the undrafted rookie out of Auburn, had 23 yards on 6 carries and Storm Johnson had 3 carries for 20 yards. There's still 3 more games for those backs to battle it out for the third string spot but Mike James is the leader of the pack as it stands currently.

Tampa's defense was sub par all night though. The Eagles put up 339 total yards on the Buccs' defense and a good chunk of that came from Darren Sproles' 109 yards on 13 carries. Sproles racked up 3 touchdowns as well but he did fumble 3 times. Major Wright forced 2 of them on bone-crunching hits while the other came on a strip tackle from George Johnson.

Tampa Bay is 0-1 to start their preseason and will travel back to Jacksonville for their week 2 matchup against the Jaguars.

Here are the highlights of the week 1 game: