Page 18 - Florida Sentinel 1-1-21

Sports
Bucs Clinch 1st Play-Off
Mike Evans Breaks His Own Bucs Record For TD Catches In A Season
MIKE EVANS
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers just won’t let up against the De- troit Lions, and they’re break- ing some franchise records along the way.
Mike Evans caught his second touchdown pass of the game in the third quarter, this one from backup quarterback Blaine Gabbert, breaking his own franchise mark for touch- down receptions in a single sea- son.
It’s the third time in Evans’ career he’s topped 12 touch- down catches in a season, and he’s helping the Bucs clinch a playoff spot with a dominant performance in a blowout win against the Lions.
Patrick Mahomes Stars As
Berth Since 2007 With
Kansas City Chiefs Clinch
Win Over Lions;
Top Spot In The Play-Offs
Play Falcons Sunday
A missed kick by the At- lanta Falcons allowed the Kansas City Chiefs to secure the top spot in the play-offs with a 17-14 victory, which marked a club-record 10th consecutive win.
The Chiefs rallied to take the lead when quarterback Patrick Mahomes con- nected with wide receiver De- marcus Robinson with just under two minutes remaining.
The reigning Super Bowl champions then relied on a solid defensive effort as they forced the Falcons to attempt a field-goal, but Younghoe Koo’s 39-yard attempt pushed to the right seconds before the clock ran out.
Earlier, the Cleveland Browns missed their chance to secure passage to the post-sea- son when they fell 23-16 to the New York Jets, while the Chicago Bears dominated the Jacksonville Jaguars 41-17.
Lamar Jackson kept the Baltimore Ravens alive in the AFC with a 27-13 victory over the New York Giants, the
For the first time since 2007, the Tampa Bay Bucca- neers are going to the play- offs.
The Bucs clinched their spot in the postseason with a blowout win Saturday, domi- nating the Detroit Lions in every conceivable way en route to a 47-7 road win.
The NFL’s COVID-19 pro- tocols left the Lions with a skeleton crew of a coaching staff, and they lost starting quarterback Matthew Stafford to an ankle injury on the first drive of the game. The Bucs showed no mercy while mounting a 34-0 halftime lead, but throttled down a bit after forcing a turnover and scoring a touchdown on the first two plays of the second half.
Tom Brady didn’t play a single snap in the second half after he completed 22 of his 27 passes for 348 and four touch- downs in the first half, hitting a different receiver with each of his scoring tosses.
Mike Evans was unstop- pable, catching 10 passes for 181 yards and a pair of touch- downs, while Rob Gronkowski found the end zone twice through the air, as
Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers take to the field prior to facing the Detroit Lions.
well. Blaine Gabbert threw a pair of touchdown passes after subbing in for Brady, giving both Evans and Gronkowski their double- dip in the end zone.
Chris Godwin caught five passes for 84 yards, including an incredible one-handed touchdown catch, while Anto- nio Brown caught his second touchdown as a member of the Bucs.
A 74-yard punt return for a touchdown by Jamal Agnew was the only thing that kept the Lions from getting shut out at home.
The Bucs won’t win the di- vision, but they have a chance tolockuptheNo.5seedinthe NFC with a Week 17 win over the Atlanta Falcons at home to close out the regular season.
Jamal Adams Could Not Contain His Excitement After Seahawks
PATRICK MAHOMES
Cincinnati Bengals fought their way back to a 37-31 tri- umph over the Houston Tex- ans and the Pittsburgh Steelers mounted an even more impressive fightback to finish 28-24 against the Indi- anapolis Colts.
In the victory, Travis Kelce became the first tight end to have two 100-catch sea- sons. Kelce caught seven passes, giving him 105.
Kelce also set the single- season yardage record for a tight end. He had 98 yards, giving him 1,467. The San Francisco 49ers' George Kit- tle held the previous record with 1,377 yards, set in 2018.
Clinch NFC West
Miami Dolphins Coach
JAMAL ADAMS
Jamal Adams is now a di- vision champion for the first time, and he couldn’t be hap- pier.
For the second week in a row, Adams celebrated an im- portant first in his NFL career. The Seattle Seahawks clinched a playoff berth in Week 15, and on Sunday they sealed up the NFC West title with a win over the Los Angeles Rams.
Just as he did last week, Adams was unable to contain his enthusiasm during his postgame press conference after he and his teammates sealed up the division.
Adams is even more ex- citable here than he was last week, when he had this similar response to the playoff clinch. The guy’s going to go absolutely nuts if the Seahawks get any- where near the Super Bowl.
Despite Ryan Fitz- patrick's miracle heave that led the Miami Dolphins to a 26-25 win over the Las Vegas Raiders Saturday night, coach Brian Flores once again made it clear Sunday that Tua Tagovailoa remains his starting quarterback.
Flores expressed adamant disagreement with those out- side the team building who be- lieve starting the veteran gives the Dolphins the best chances to win.
"Tua has brought us a spark in a lot of other games. I think people will just forget that because we just remem- ber the last thing," Flores said. "Speculation on whatever people want to speculate about as far as what we should or shouldn't do based on last night, I wouldn't do that and forget the body of work over the course of the season to in- clude the last however many
BRIAN FLORES
games Tua has been starting [eight]. I think he's played fairly well.
"People may disagree, but I think we would have to agree to disagree in that instance. That's my take on that. It's not based off one game or one quarter -- there's a lot of prac- tices that people don't see, walk-throughs that no one sees. But everyone wants to make a judgment and try to make a decision for us on what we should do without all that information."
Defends Decision To Stick
With Tua Tagovailoa
As Starting QB
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