TAMPA, Fla. ? Do the Bucs trust Jameis Winston?
We don't mean are they confident in their quarterback. We're talking give him the house keys and the PIN number to the debit card kind of trust.
That's what coach Bruce Arians seemed willing to do when he took the job. "I really believe in Jameis," Arians has said over and over again.
Even when Winston threw three interceptions in the season opening loss to the 49ers, Arians, perhaps channeling Dory in Finding Nemo, told him "Just keep slinging, just keep slinging," prior to the next game at Carolina.
Winston was turnover-free against the Panthers and the Bucs won 20-14 on a goal line stand.
But last Sunday, after Winston threw an interception in the fourth quarter of a 32-31 loss to the New York Giants, the Bucs temporarily took the ball � and the game � out of his hands.
Tampa Bay ran the football the next nine plays. To be fair, they had success doing so.
Five consecutive runs by Ronald Jones gained 47 yards. But on third-and-2 from the Giants' 5-yard line and a chance to make it a two-score game with six minutes to play, running back Peyton Barber got the ball on a run-pass option and was stopped for no gain.
The Bucs settled for a field goal and the Giants took the lead on Daniel Jones' 7-yard touchdown run with 1:16 remaining in the game.
Before the pick, Winston was having a terrific game. He was 21 of 34 for 316 yards and three touchdowns to Mike Evans.
But after the INT, except for when they had no choice but to let Winston bomb away to set up a game-winning field goal attempt that rookie Matt Gay missed, it seemed as if the miscue unnerved offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich.
"There's an old saying of mine. You find a mud hole, stomp all the water out of there before you go to another one," Arians said. "And we were stomping that water pretty good until that third down call."
Perhaps, but I'm not sure that argument holds water.
The NFL is a passing league. Striving for a balance is nice if you're talking about a checkbook, but the rules changes in the NFL favor throwing the football early and often.
Defensive backs can't sneeze on a receiver without a referee throwing a yellow hanky. If you hit a pass catcher above the chest, they're considered defenseless. Heck, this season, the league is allowing coaches to challenge a pass interference penalty that wasn't called.
So against this backdrop, we have the No Risk It, No Biscuit Bucs.
Arians likes to throw the football down the field to create explosive plays. Winston did that extremely well Sunday. Evans, who had eight receptions for 190 yards and three scores, had catches of 44 and 55 yards.
But the percentage of first down passes called by the Bucs has plummeted this season, dropping from 63.4 to 47.5 percent, a decrease of 15.9% � the largest in the league.
"For me, it is yardage and we're in the top 10 now in first down yardage," Arians said. "We've hit our shots. We're starting to hit our shots on first down. That's a set up. It may be a three to one but that one (is) big. It's a give and take. Can you throw the quick passes? Yeah. But I'd rather pound it and throw it down the field and get that big number."
It sounds great. The Bucs are eighth in the NFL in rushing, averaging 121.7 yards per game.
Certainly, that helps takes the pressure off the quarterback as well.
Even so, what the Bucs did Sunday was a little reminiscent of Dirk Koetter's approach to a game at Carolina in 2016.
Winston had thrown eight interceptions in his first four games that season, including two in a 27-7 loss against Denver.
When the Bucs went to play the Panthers on Monday Night Football, Koetter had running back Jacquizz Rodgers carry the football the first six plays and 10 times overall during the first possession. He finished with 30 carries for 101 yards in a 17-14 win.
"I think we had a good run-game plan: Jacquizz was making yards," Koetter said at the time. "When you're on the road and you're turning the ball over, we just felt like with them playing their backup quarterback, it was take the crowd out of it, slow the game down a little bit, and that was the best strategy tonight."
On Sunday, it may have been Arians' turn.
On the critical third down play that failed, Leftwich wanted to call an inside run to Barber. Arians took over and called the run-pass option instead.
"I think we were just running the ball effectively and it really steps on a team's will when you're able to run it down their throat," Winston said. "You think about that drive we had against Carolina. We just ran that ball. We really were one block away from scoring a touchdown against the Giants.
"It's definitely a team effort. I got my chance at the end of the game and we executed there. We're going to have some games like that."
Still, you have to wonder if Peyton Manning, Ben Rothlisberger, Andrew Luck, Carson Palmer or all the other quarterbacks Arians has whispered to wouldn't have been given a chance to throw the football into the end zone in that situation.
Do the Bucs trust Winston? Maybe not completely. Not yet.
