Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Jameis Winston left Thursday night’s game against the Atlanta Falcons late in the fourth quarter after suffering an injury on a failed two-point conversion. The injury has been identified as a knee injury and Winston did not return. With the injury occurring with less than 7:00 remaining in the fourth quarter and Tampa Bay down by 20 points at the time, not returning to the game may have been little more than a precaution. Winston played in all 16 games as a rookie in 2015.
In the losing effort, Winston completed 23-of-37 passes (62 percent) for 261 yards and three touchdowns.
The Buccaneers also announced that wide receiver Mike Evans is being evaluated for a concussion. Evans caught two of Winston’s touchdown passes and was targeted a total of 17 times in the loss. He brought in 11 catches for 150 yards. The two touchdowns brought his season total to six, and he now has twice as many touchdowns as he had in his slightly disappointing 2015 sophomore campaign. Evans has missed one game in each of his first two seasons in the league and has played in all eight games for the Buccaneers thus far in 2016.
Tampa Bay lost to the Falcons 43-28 as their defense had few answers for Atlanta quarterback Matt Ryan who went off for 344 yards on 25-for-34 passing (74 percent). He threw for four touchdowns, each to a different receiver.
The loss dropped Tampa Bay’s record to 3-5 on the season and bumped them down to third place in the NFC South Division. The Falcons improved to 6-3 and puts them in a commanding lead for the NFC South division title.
