Page 12 - Florida Sentinel 9-10-19

Sports49ers Defense Upends Jameis Winston, Beat Tampa
Bruce Arians On
Bay Buccaneers 31-17
Own Worst Enemy'
The San Francisco 49ers had three touchdowns negated by penalties, turned the ball over twice and didn't get a particularly sharp per- formance from Jimmy Garoppolo.
That just made beating the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 31-17 on a hot, humid Sun- day in Florida that much sweeter.
"It's fun to win when you can be hard on the guys the next day because there's a lot of stuff on that tape that could have cost us that game in all three phases," coach Kyle Shanahan said. "I was disappointed with that and still to be able to pull out a win says a lot about the guys we've got in there. They kept grinding, and when you do that usually good things happen."
Richard Sherman and Ahkello Witherspoon re- turned two of a retooled de- fense's three interceptions of Jameis Winston for touchdowns and Robbie Gould kicked three field goals for the 49ers, who forced four turnovers overall and also deflected an early punt to set up the offense's first scoring drive.
"I'm just happy for our defense, I'm happy for our
JAMEIS WINSTON
The Tampa Bay Bucca- neers dropped their home opener to the San Francisco 49ers Sunday, 31-17, and looked nothing like a team ready to improve on their 5-11 record from last year.
Quarterback Jameis Winston threw three inter- ceptions, two of which were returned for touchdowns. To add insult to injury, the Nin- ers defense had two intercep- tions all of last year.
The defense played ad- mirably enough in their first game under Todd Bowles. If you’re looking for positives on the offensive side of things,
BRUCE ARIANS
running back Ronald Jones impressed with 75 yards on the ground.
Head coach Bruce Ari- ans spoke about Jones’ per- formance and addressed the numerous penalties that killed his team today, saying, “We were our own worst enemy.”
team. We played sloppy, but it's the first game," Sher- man said. "We've got to knock out some of the wrin- kles. We've got to find a way to play a more mistake-free football game, myself in- cluded. I had a couple penal- ties that I shouldn't have had. I've got to put myself in better position. It was a de- cent game for us, but we've got to get better."
Garoppolo threw for 166 yards and one touch- down in his first game in nearly a year.
"The whole offense was shaky. I think he made a couple good throws but Jimmy, everyone else in- cluding myself needs to be a
lot more consistent," Shanahan said.
"There's some things out there that we missed. Fortu- nately our defense got us turnovers. It's hard to win when you have two turnovers on offense, but when you get four on the other side, especially when they score on two of them, that makes it a little easier to overcome some sloppy play that we had."
Winston threw for 194 yards to become Tampa Bay's career passing leader, including a 10-yard scoring pass to Chris Godwin that trimmed a double-digit deficit to 20-14 late in the third quarter. Ultimately, though, the Bucs could not overcome the fifth-year quarterback's mistakes and dropped their debut under coach Bruce Arians, who was lured out of retirement after Tampa Bay finished 5- 11 last season and missed the playoffs for the 11th straight year.
"We talked all week about winning the turnover battle, and when it's four to two, it's always going to be tough," Arians said. "But there were some really bright spots and areas that we can build off of and also learn why we're los- ing instead of winning. That one is pretty easy."
49ers' Kwon Alexander Ejected After Head Shot To Former Teammate
Loss: 'We Were Our
Jameis Winston
Signing linebacker Kwon Alexander away from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers was the San Francisco 49ers’ first big move of free agency. As it happened, the 49ers’ first regular-season game was scheduled for Raymond James Stadium against Alexander’s former team.
Alexander’s return, and any hopes of being a hero for his new team against the Buccaneers, were short-lived.
With just over a minute left in the first quarter, Tampa Bay quarterback Jameis Winston dropped back, then decided to scram- ble up the middle.
At the end of his 5-yard gain, Winston slid in front of Alexander. While he was sliding, Alexander came in and drilled him helmet-to- helmet.
Not only was Alexander flagged 15 yards, putting Tampa Bay well into San Francisco territory, the one- time Pro Bowler was ejected from the game.
San Francisco 49ers line- backer Kwon Alexander (56) hits Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Jameis Winston. Alexander was ejected for the head-to-head hit.
Continuing the drive, Tampa Bay had a touchdown taken off the board twice be- cause of holding penalties, and then came away empty- handed when tight end O. J. Howard was stripped at the 49ers’ 8-yard line by line- backer Fred Warner; de- fensive end Ronald Blair got the loose ball.
A fourth-round pick out of LSU in 2015, Alexander was playing his first game in almost 11 months, having torn his ACL in the Bucca- neers’ Week 7 game against Cleveland last year.
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