Bucs lean on Mike Evans with Jackson, Murphy out injured
The Tampa Tribune, published 26 October 2015

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers were down to only two healthy receivers, Mike Evans and rookie Donteea Dye. It was almost enough.

Returning to his record-setting rookie form, Evans caught eight passes for 164 yards and reached the end zone for the first time this season, but the Bucs ultimately couldn’t protect a 24-point lead.

“That’s probably the toughest loss,’’ Evans said after a 31-30 loss dropped the Bucs to 2-4 before heading to Atlanta. ”Right now, it’s not hitting me as hard as it will. I don’t know what to say.’’

Evans spoke loudly on the field from the start. On Tampa Bay’s third offensive snap, he raced down the left sideline and hauled in Jameis Winston’s perfect pass over 6-foot cornerback Will Blackmon, who gave up five inches to Evans.

The 40-yard score triggered a 24-point opening half for the Bucs, who ended up with 479 yards of offense, averaging 8.0 yards per snap. “That was a great ball by Jameis,’’ Evans said after his second 100-yard game of the season. “He threw it so perfect, he put it right in my breadbasket.’’

Evans missed the season opener with a hamstring injury and didn’t catch a pass in Week 2 at New Orleans. He was targeted 17 times at Houston the following week but caught only seven balls, dropping several passes when he was wide open and blaming himself for the 19-9 loss.

“I feel like my own self,’’ he said Sunday. “I feel really good and we had a lot of guys go down. We only had two receivers, but me and Dye were out there fighting. We have to get our guys healthy and we could be dangerous.’’