Buccaneers: Mike Evans Shines on a Disappointing Thursday Night

Thursday night’s loss at home to the Atlanta Falcons felt like a crippling blow to the Buccaneers’ season, seemingly eliminating any faint hope that the Bucs could steal the division. Despite that, there was a bright side to the debacle.

It seems odd to get excited about any aspect of a team shortly after they were beaten down by a division rival, but it’s tough to ignore just how good the Jameis Winston and Mike Evans connection has become for the Buccaneers.

On Thursday night Mike Evans put the entire Buccaneer offense on his back and put forth a virtuoso performance on national television. Evans finished with eleven catches, 150 yards and two scores and now has the league lead in touchdown receptions. With Russell Shepard injured, the already receiver-starved Bucs became stretched even further, and Evans delivered the latest chapter in his 2016 break-out campaign.

According to the Bucs team site, Evans’ breakout is nearly unprecedented for the team. His eight scores are the most in team history through eight games, and his 745 receiving yards are tied for the most through eight games. His 55 receptions are the third most among receivers in the NFL.

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Both of Evans’ touchdowns came while the game was still competitive, but the unquestioned play of the night (and perhaps of Evans’ entire career thus far) came late in the third quarter with the Bucs trailing 33-14. On 3rd and 10, Winston dropped back and delivered a high pass to Mike Evans who skirted the side-line and reeled in the pass with one hand. Smelling blood in the water, rookie Falcon safety Keanu Neal came soaring in and crashed into Evans at full speed. Despite the crushing blow, Evans held on to the football and completed the spectacular catch.

https://twitter.com/NFL/status/794371814000508928

The catch was among the best you’ll see all season, but it meant a lot more than just the yards it accumulated or how cool it looked. On its own this single play managed to illustrate in three ways just how far Mike Evans has come from last year to this year.

The first way is the fact that Evans actually completed the catch. Legally catching the football can be tricky in the NFL but Evans left no doubt about it despite taking a big hit. Evans seems to be fully confident in his hands (or hand in this case) which was not the case for much of last season when Evans led the NFL in dropped passes.

Secondly, Evans managed to keep his cool in a situation where many receivers would be demanding a flag from the referees. Like his drops, Evans has made his temper a thing of the growing distant past.

With “hands” and “temper” taken care of, the last hurdle for Evans to improve upon was his effort, and he also demonstrated that in a major way on his big catch. Trailing 33-14 there are plenty of players wouldn’t go up for a play that would leave them as vulnerable as Evans did. The willingness to do whatever it takes for his team even in a blowout is something that will earn the respect of teammates and coaches alike, and Dirk Koetter took notice of it during his Friday media availability:

"“I kind of got sidetracked there when I was asked about Mike before, but I think that’s Mike’s biggest improvement this year. We talked in the offseason how Mike’s his own worst critic. Mike has really got his temper under control. Mike is really locked in to what he needs to do, whether it’s a penalty called on him or a penalty that he thinks should have been called on them or Jameis overthrows him or Mike going over the middle. Mike has really learned to move on and play the next play. You can see it in how he’s running his routes. He’s getting off the line. Sometimes last year it would look like, when he got tired, like he wasn’t running hard. We only went with four wideouts last night, with ‘Shep’ [Russell Shepard] being down. Mike and Adam [Humphries] – especially – and Cecil [Shorts] had to play a lot of plays. I think that’s Mike’s biggest area of improvement. For as good of a game as he had, I’m sure Mike will be the first to admit that should have had a couple of more.”"

Next: Buccaneers Week Nine Winners and Losers

As coach Koetter said, there’s still work to be done for Evans. The 23-year-old can improve across the board, and everything he did on Thursday indicated he’ll continue to get better.