Tampa Bay is attempting to follow the same pattern that the 2008 Falcons used to make a surprise playoff run.
The Bucs are leaning heavily on running back Doug Martin and some timely passing from rookie quarterback Jameis Winston, the No. 1 overall pick in the draft. The Bucs, who are one game behind Seattle (6-5) for the sixth and final playoff spot in the NFC, host the Falcons at 1 p.m. Sunday at Raymond James Stadium.
A win for the Bucs (5-6), who defeated the Falcons 23-20 in overtime Nov. 1, would gave them the head-to-head tiebreaker over the Falcons (6-5).
“There’s no margin for error as we see it now,” Bucs coach Lovie Smith said to the Tampa media Monday. “Yes this is the final stage of our growth, rebirth, whatever you want to call it, is to finish on this back stretch.”
The Bucs believe a strong finish will carry them to the playoffs.
“Right now, as you look at our season we went 1-3 the first quarter, 2-2 the second, we have an opportunity — no, it’s a must — that we go 3-1 this third quarter finishing up with 4-0 in the last,” said Smith, who took his former Chicago team to the Super Bowl after the 2006 regular season.
Also, a Falcons’ loss to the Bucs and a Carolina win over New Orleans on Sunday, would eliminate the Falcons from winning the NFC South title race.
Martin, as running back Michael Turner did for the Falcons in 2008 with Matt Ryan as a rookie quarterback, is powering the offense. The Falcons finished 11-6 after earning a wild-card berth with a rookie quarterback.
The Bucs hope a 10-6 record will qualify them for this season’s playoffs.
Martin ranks second in the NFL in rushing behind Minnesota’s Adrian Peterson with 1,034 yards. Martin is on pace for career-high 1,509 yards.
The Falcons’ run defense ranked No. 1 in the league before Peterson broke loose Sunday for 158 yards on 29 carries and two touchdowns. The Falcons, who had a season-high 15 missed tackles against the Vikings, will have another challenge with Martin.
In addition to Martin, the Bucs have wide receivers Michael Evans and Vincent Jackson. Also, Winston appears to have found him a security blanket in tight end Cameron Brate.
The Bucs drafted Austin Seferian-Jenkins with hopes that he’d be their tight end of the future, but he’s been injury-prone. With Seferian-Jenkins out with a shoulder injury, Brate is getting more action and has 14 catches for 184 yards and three touchdowns, including a 20-yard touchdown against the Falcons.
With the strong running game and solid targets, Winston is developing nicely for the Bucs under the tutelage of former Falcons coordinator Dirk Koetter and quarterbacks coach Mike Bajakian.
Winston completed 20 of 36 passes for 245 yards, a touchdown and an interception in the loss to the Colts on Sunday, but he broke the franchise record for the most passing yards by a rookie, with five games to play.
Winston has passed for 2,650 yards and moved past Mike Glennon’s mark of 2,608 set in 2013.
Against the Falcons, Winston completed 16 of 29 passes for 177 yards and one touchdown. After the Bucs blew a 20-3 lead, he drove them down for a field goal in overtime, and the Bucs’ defense, which is led by defensive tackle Gerald McCoy, held the Falcons.
The Bucs, who have not been to the playoffs since 2007, have their supporters.
Former NFL head coach Brian Billick predicted that they would make the postseason.
“They are a team that is getting better,” Billick said on NFL Network’s “Total Access.” “We’ve seen that. We are getting the defense that we thought we were going to get last year under Lovie Smith. They are third in the league in rushing. Obviously, Jameis Winston just gets better and better, a la the five touchdown passes two weeks ago.”
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