All-Twenty Tuesday: Winston’s Return

Despite the loss, Winston actually had a pretty good game up in Green Bay, especially considering it was on the road. He finished the game 21-for-32, a 65 percent completion percentage, with 270 yards two touchdowns and no interceptions.

Earlier in the week we got to ask Winston if he had learned anything from his time off, as the Green Bay game was the first time he had suited up as the starter since early November. He said that there were “eye opening” things he got to watch with veteran Ryan Fitzpatrick as the team’s starter in previous weeks and Sunday there were some signs that Winston had, in fact, learned a thing or two.

I loved the way Winston started off this game on the first drive. Winston’s first four passes of the game were all competitions and they were all first downs. The reason he was able to have that kind of success was because he was taking what the defense gave him.

The Packers play a very unique style of defense with varying fronts and odd numbers of players both rushing and dropping back into coverage. In the play above, Winston initially looked down the middle, as tight end Cameron Brate was his “hot read,” but instead of forcing it to him, he continued his progression and found an open Antony Auclair in the flats and up the sideline.

This was a patient and calculated play from Winston, which was a change of pace from some of the overzealous plays we’ve seen from him to start games in the past where he has forced the ball into situations where he shouldn’t have.

Winston’s second pass of the game was much like his first.

In it, Winston first looked down the middle towards his tight end. When the Packers’ linebackers dropped straight back, he knew he couldn’t go there. However, instead of panicking and getting the ball out to the running back who was right in front of him, who would have been tackled immediately, Winston recognized that the halfback being covered in the middle meant the flats were once again open.

Winston hit wide open fullback Alan Cross, and he too, got a first down out of the reception.

If we fast forward one pass we have Winston’s fourth completion of the game, his touchdown pass to Brate on the opening drive.

This pass was less of a patient one like the previous two and was more a product of Winston and Brate spending hours and hours after practice working on their timing. Simply put, this throw and catch truly could not have been any better. Winston identified the safety cheating over to his left side and the seam over the top being wide open. After that it was just about ball placement, and boy, did he place it well.

It was a picture-perfect way to start a drive for Winston and the Bucs’ offense.

Though the rest of the game after that first driver wasn’t nightmare-ish, minus one play (we’ll get there), there were areas of Winston’s game where he could still stand to improve with the little things.

The play above involved heavy, unorthodox pressure from Green Bay. If you look, it’s like they were in a 1-5-4-1 formation by the time the ball was snapped. I can’t be too hard on the Bucs offensive line since it was their first game together with that exact group due to three different injuries to the normal starters, so picking up a blitz from this formation was a tall task.

Winston was pressured and had to step up in the pocket, something that ultimately determined the lack of success on this play, but you would have liked to see Winston turn to his safety valve route on this play to his right as opposed to going to his left and trying a much more difficult throw. It’s little things like that that can help him in the future.

Wide receiver Mike Evans was not very involved in the game plan on Sunday. It’s not like they didn’t want the ball to go to Evans on purpose or anything, but with the team running the ball well the way they were combined with a few other throws here and there, it left Evans with a backseat.

The clip above was Winston’s lone big throw to Evans, one that was incomplete.

Throw. The ball. In front of him.

Winston’s deep ball accuracy has been bad this year. It’s probably even regressed from last year’s. Yes, it’s true, throwing the ball to greater distances requires more skill and touch and timing. But, Winston can have all that; he just doesn’t have it as often as he needs to.

This ball needed to be far out in front of Evans. He has the speed and the length to separate down the field, not just at the point of attack while fighting through a defender. Give your wide receiver a real shot at a catch with some big yards after catch.

That’s part of Winston’s “next step.”

After the smooth start, things started to get a little off the rails with Winston. It wasn’t as bad as we’ve seen it before, but again, we’re looking for him to put an end to his poor decision-making, or at least as much as he can in his nature.

In the play above, you could just tell Winston wanted to unleash the arm and try to fit a highlight reel pass in there to Evans to show off the healed throwing shoulder.

It almost cost his team big time.

If you’ll watch the clip above to competition, you’ll see wide receiver Adam Humphries near the sideline on the right side of the screen. The play was on third-and-7 and Humphries would have been past the sticks for a first down. That was the throw. Yes, the defender was closer to Humphries before the throw, but it still would have connected for a first down.

Those are the throws we’ve seen young quarterbacks like Dak Prescott, Carson Wentz and Jared Goff take to keep drives moving. They need to be the throws Winston makes, too.

Oh, man, you can just hear it over and over in your head.

“No!”

“Just take the sack!”

“Why does he always do this!?”

From the little plays we nit-pick on where Winston should go with the ball to the big mistakes like the one above, the underlying theme in all of them is that Winston need to learn to fight another day – or, play.

Shorter passes can be correct passes and taking a sack can sometimes be the right play. The next play could be the one that works out perfect and makes up for a smaller gain or a negative tackle taken, but you’ll never know if it is if you don’t let it happen; if you don’t live to fight another play.

In between Winston’s turnover and the clip above, he had some pretty nice throws. He had a great one to wide receiver DeSean Jackson on the sideline on a timing route, and converted a tight third down pass to wide receiver Chris Godwin.

In the play above, the Bucs were in striking distance. Winston was locked onto his go-to red zone target, Brate, and it’s hard to blame him with the success those two were having, but he needs to be better at recognizing situations, especially in zone coverage.

In one of my pervious Cover 3’s this year when the Bucs were playing the Patriots, I said that the number one thing Winston could learn from New England quarterback Tom Brady is how he manipulates defenses with his eyes.

In the clip above, Winston does move his eyes from right to left to get to Brate in the middle, however, he shouldn’t be afraid to keep going if he knows where the defense is weak. He saw in the pre-snap that the defense was cluttered in the middle, that likely meant that Brate was going to be double covered (he was). If Winston would have kept going to his left, knowing that the route combo between Jackson and Humphries would create two 1-on-1s, he would have seen the much easier pass.

Eventually you want Winston to notice where the traffic is going to be in the pre-snap so he can look at Brate, but know he’s going to the easier option after he pulls the defender over with his eyes.

On the following drive, Winston was once again in a situation similar to the one we just talked about.

Winston’s “hot read” was in the middle of the field for tight end O.J. Howard. You see Winston stare that option down, but as the safety moved down to cover Howard, Winston should have known that Evans was 1-on-1 up to. I’d take my chances with that rather than throw to Howard in cluttered coverage any day.

I understand that the game of football is very fast, but I would like to see Winston recognize what could be better in the pre-snap so when pressure does come his way he’s more prepared to make the throw he should make and also the throw he needs to make to keep drives going and maximize efficiency.

I actually thought Winston had a pretty good game, all things considered. His offensive line made it tough on him with seven sacks and 13 passes defensed allowed, but that opening drive was a thing of beauty and made way for a handful of nice throws throughout the afternoon. If the Bucs get more of that Winston as time goes on, the rest of my little critiques will be solved.

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