4 winners (and 2 losers) from Bucs upset win over Vikings

Let's take a look at who stood out in the Bucs upset win in Week 1.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers v Minnesota Vikings
Tampa Bay Buccaneers v Minnesota Vikings | David Berding/GettyImages
5 of 6

Loser: Ko Kieft

It's unclear what exactly led to this, but Ko Kieft checked out pretty early as one of the notable losers on the afternoon. He wasn't terrible and didn't have some boneheaded play that cost the Bucs, rather Kieft blew three opportunities that no one really saw coming his way.

Baker Mayfield's first two passes of the day went Kief's direction, and he dropped them both. The first was a short dump off pass but the second was a deep pass, the kind that Kieft isn't usually in the position to be on the recieiving end of.

He also missed a two drives later, which was also the first pass of the series.

Twice Kieft was the main target on the first play of a drive, and twice he failed to haul in the pass. It was strange to see him drawn into the gameplan like that, but the fact that he didn't capitalize on any of the three targets he saw isn't exactly a great endorsement -- especially since he was clearly a key read.

After his third drop, Kieft didn't see another target for the rest of the game. Oddly enough, he saw the same amount of targets as Cade Otton did, although TE1 did what he was supposed to do and reeled in two of them.

Kieft's bad day isn't something that's going to jeopardize his job, but it's worth monitoring. Dave Canales liked to use mulitple tight ends while in Seattle, but Kieft can't botch opportunities like the ones he had on Sunday if he wants to avoid getting passed over on the depth chart.

Schedule