Buccaneers Silver Medal Winner: Russell Gage
We touched on the fact that Brady and the Bucs were playing the Packers with an absolutely depleted wide receiver corps. As a result of this, Russell Gage became the de-facto number one receiver for Brady out there. As such, Gage lead all Buccaneers (by a longshot) with 13 targets from the GOAT, and was able to turn that into 12 catches for 87 yards and a touchdown. The touchdown of course came in the waning moments of the game, that almost tied it had they converted the two-point conversion. Gage absolutely stepped up when his team needed him, but unfortunately, his story in the game isn’t all sunshine and rainbows, or gold medals for that matter.
Gage easily could be bumped up a medal, and probably would have taken home the ever-prestigious Pewter Plank gold medal, if not for his one costly mistake. Gage’s fumble on what looked like a promising drive forced our hand, earning him the silver medal for the game.
Todd Bowles said it best “When a player fumbles, it takes away everything good he did.” For the sake of this, we agree, hence his demotion to the silver medal. Hey, the silver lining (see what we did there?) here is that at least he’s still on the podium.