Antoine Winfield got ripped by a Buccaneers legend: 'Do your job'

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers surprisingly played really good defense in their 28-23 loss to the New England Patriots. However, a lack of containment on explosive plays turned the tide in the Patriots' favor. The Buccaneers let up plays of 72, 55, and 69-yard touchdowns, and couldn't recover from the big plays. 

On several of the plays, it was just bad angles or missed tackles. On others, it was a missed assignment, a pick-up, or a miscommunication on a switch. Whatever it was, the Bucs need to get it under control against a Buffalo team that leads the league in explosive plays. 

However, on one play in general against the Patriots, TreVeyon Henderson’s big 69-yard run for the game-clinching score, it was Antoine Winfield Jr who made the crucial mistake. The All-Pro safety tried to cheat back inside to make a big play tackle for loss, but in doing so, gave up containment on the outside that led to Henderson’s big run.

Buccaneer legend and Hall of Fame defensive back Ronde Barber took exception to this and was not shy to lay into the safety on The Ronde Barber Show..  

“I mean, I love Antoine; I don’t know what Antoine Winfield, Jr. was doing on that last touchdown,” Barber said. “He clearly has contain. He has to turn the play back to his defenders on the inside, and somehow he decides to spin back inside of the blocker that’s coming to the edge, and [the running back] just bounces outside and runs away from Lavonte [David]. And next thing you know, it’s a game-sealing touchdown. … Don’t mess up for your team. Do your job, basically.”

This is the play Barber is talking about. late in the fourth quarter with under two minutes remaining. You can see Winfield Jr cutting back inside to try and go for the tackle behind the line of scrimmage but gets washed out and Henderson breaks it outside and has open space in front of him.

Antoine Winfield Jr surely got an earful from head coach Todd Bowles in meetings. It’s a mistake he likely won’t make again this season and can't afford to against the Bills. Buffalo has the number one-ranked rushing offense in the league.

The Bills have 78 explosive plays on the season, and 23 of them belong to James Cook. He has a season-long run of 64 yards and 44 first downs on the season. As the last line of defense, it will be up to Winfield Jr. to ensure those runs don’t turn into big gains.