Page 14 - Florida Sentinel 12-15-15 Edition

Sports
Jameis Winston, Bucs Rookies Sing Christmas Carols At Children’s Hospital
Buccaneers
Russell Wilson's Five-TD
Coach Lovie
Performance Lifts
Smith Talks
Seahawks Over Ravens
About Loss
BALTIMORE -- Sunday's game against the Ravens did- n't start out great for theSeat- tle Seahawks.
Against The
Saints
Before the first quarter ended, the team lost running back Thomas Rawls to a broken ankle and strong safety Kam Chancellor to a tail- bone injury. But Russell Wil- son showed once again that as long as he's on the field, the Seahawks have a chance to win and win big.
Wilson completed 23 of 32 passes for 292 yards, five touchdowns and no intercep- tions in the Seahawks' 35-6 victory as he continued the hottest stretch of his career. During the team's current four-game winning streak, Wilson is 89-of-118 (75.4 per- cent) for 1,171 yards (9.9 YPA), 16 touchdowns and no inter- ceptions.
Two things stand out with Wilson. One, he's comfort- able in the pocket, and that's the result of an offensive line that is pass protecting better than it has at any point this season. Wilson was not sacked at all against the Ravens.
And secondly, Wilson is throwing with confidence and great accuracy. His deep ball to Tyler Lockett in the fourth
Buccaneer’s Rookies singing Christmas Carols to the children.
– The Tampa Bay Bucca- neers are bringing a little holi- day cheer to sick children in the area.
Jameis Winston and sev- eral fellow rookies worked out their vocal chords off the field last week. They visited All Children’s Hospital where Winston helped lead the
rookies in song for the young patients.
Jameis needed a little help from his cell phone for the lyrics, but the kids definitely didn’t mind. The group also signed autographs, took pic- tured and delivered pennants to their young fans.
Seahawks quarterback Rus- sell Wilson celebrates one of his five touchdowns on Sun- day.
quarter landed right in the wide receiver's hands for a 49- yard touchdown down the right sideline.
The Seahawks were heavy favorites against the banged- up and outmanned Ravens. Despite the early-game in- juries, they won convincingly to improve to 8-5. In doing so, they picked up a game on the Minnesota Vikings and are now stationed as the fifth seed in the NFC with three games to go. That would likely mean a trip to face the winner of the NFC East in the first round of the playoffs.
Loss To Saints Dims Playoff Chances For Buccaneers
Tampa Bay Buccaneers took another lost Sunday to the New Orleans Saints.
COACH LOVIE SMITH
“We kind of knew what was at stake today. Normally you play your best ball when this much is on the line. It’s amaz- ing we lost, but by seven points. You have to give the Saints a lot of credit. They played well [on] both sides of the football. Things we did, you just can’t win football games [like that]. Defensively, third downs killed us, big plays really hurt us an awful lot. [We] didn’t make any plays, no takeaways on the de- fensive side. Offensively, you have to score more points. It’s as simple as that. Dropped balls, missed the field goal, things that cause you to lose football games, we did it all.”
“The message for us is we need to win a game. Quick turnaround. When you play like that you want to get back on the field as soon as possible. We get our wish with the Thursday night game, but it’s about us winning a game. It’s about us playing better when we have an opportunity to win a football game. Today was not the case. As far as being ready, I thought we would be ready. Nothing said we weren’t ready to play except for our play. Saints have passed us, the Rams up next, we’ll get ready for them.”
(On if he thinks the team is out of the playoffs)
“No, not out. There’s three games left to go and we’re two out of it. Right now we are. It’s one game and us playing better ball. We didn’t put a good prod- uct on the field today.”
“No one played their best ball. As a football team, we did- n’t play well. Every area, yes, we need to play better. Every, every area we didn’t play well. It’s kind of simple as that.
Sources: Andy Dalton Likely Out For Season With Fractured Thumb
Entering Sunday’s contest against the New Orleans Saints, the Tampa Bay Bucca- neers had a perfect record against their NFC South oppo- nents with the exception of the undefeated Carolina Panthers.
The Saints (5-8) defeated the Bucs (6-7) 24-17 Sunday and the game was a lackluster ef- fort by the Bucs, especially with so much at stake.
With more than 62,000 fans packed into Raymond James Stadium, the Bucs fell two games behind the Seattle Sea- hawks for the wild-card spot with only three games remain- ing on their schedule.
On Thursday, the Bucs will host the St. Louis Rams in an 8:25 p. m. kickoff game on the road, before returning face the Chicago Bears Sunday at Ray- mond James, then close out their season against the Pan- thers on the road.
Saints quarterback Drew
Brees completed 31-0f-41 passes for 312 yards and the Saints converted 12-of-17 third down plays.
For Bucs quarterback Jameis Winston, it was a case of overthrown passes, wide open receivers dropping passes, and the lack of consis- tency. Winston finished the game completing 18-of-32 passes for 182 yards.
What drives Bucs head coach Lovie Smith crazy are the penalties that continue to cost the team field position, and chokes away any momen-
tum. The Buccaneer offense recorded only 291 yards for the game, with over 100 of those coming from running back Doug Martin.
The Bucs can still make the playoffs as a wild card team, but they must win all three of their remaining games, and hope that the Seahawks lose a couple along the way.
CINCINNATI -- Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Andy Dalton is likely to miss the rest of the season because of a right thumb injury, team sources told ESPN's Bob Holtzman.
Dalton suffered a fractured thumb in Sunday's loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers, but the Bengals are uncertain how long he will be sidelined.
The best-case scenario, sources told Holtzman, is that Dalton will return for the playoffs.
Bengals coach Marvin Lewis said Dalton will defi- nitely miss next week's game against San Francisco but ac- knowledged he did not know whether Dalton would miss any additional time.
"I hurt my thumb," Dalton said. "They told me there is a fracture in there."
Dalton, who will see a spe- cialist Monday, left the game in the first quarter and did not return. After initially being de- clared questionable to return, he was downgraded moments later and returned to the side-
ANDY DALTON
line with a black cast around his right hand.
Dalton acknowledged that he was injured on the final play of the Bengals' opening drive, one that ended with him throwing an interception to Steelers defensive end Stephon Tuitt.
"You can't go into any play thinking you're going to get hurt," Dalton said. "That's the last thing you have to think. It's unfortunate that it hap- pened."
PAGE 14 FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY TUESDAY, DECEMBER 15, 2015