The Bucs’ first defensive drive of the 2025 season inside Mercedes-Benz Stadium against the Atlanta Falcons was, let’s say, not good. The Bucs looked completely out of sorts and lost containment on the best player on the Falcons’ roster in Bijan Robinson. The result was Robinson catching a pass and weaving through the Tampa Bay defense for a 50-yard touchdown just three plays into the game.

After the team’s defensive disaster the last time they played there – a 36-30 overtime loss where Kirk Cousins threw for a franchise-record 509 yards – it wouldn’t have been out of line for fans to say, “here we go again.”

But Tampa Bay’s defense went the other direction this time, bowing up and holding the Falcons’ offense largely in check for much of the rest of the game.

Bucs’ defense allowed just 13 points over the game’s final 58 minutes while shutting down Robinson and the Falcons’ ground attack

It’s no secret that the Falcons want to run the ball, even more a year after Arthur Smith’s departure. They’re built to do it. But boy, how the Buccaneers put a stop to that on Sunday.

Atlanta ran the ball 22 times with their running backs – 12 carries for Robinson and 10 for Tyler Allgeier. Each back gained 24 yards. QB Michael Penix, Jr. had 6 carries for 21 yards largely by necessity on scrambles. That was it. 28 carries for 69 yards. That’s an elite job by Tampa Bay’s defense at making the Falcons one dimensional, and of course, DT Vita Vea being able to play and in the middle was a huge reason why.

And while his numbers weren’t awful, the Bucs kept Penix, Jr. from having a big enough game to pull off the win. Penix, Jr. finished 27/42 passing for 298 yards and one touchdown. He did lead one final drive to take the lead in the fourth quarter that was a series of errors and bad fortune for the Bucs on a number of occasions.

Two roughing the passer penalties gave Atlanta first downs. One apparent drop by Drake London was overturned as a catch. Two Penix, Jr. runs were reviewed and ended up in favor of the Falcons – including a rarely used rule where a player diving for a first down is considered down, where Penix, Jr. fumbled the ball away to Tampa Bay after reaching it out for the marker on fourth down. It felt like the Bucs were fighting against the Falcons’ offense and, frankly, fate as they tried to keep Atlanta out of the end zone.

But when Tampa Bay needed their defense to keep the Falcons out one last time in the final minute after Emeka Egbuka’s second touchdown regained the lead, they did, and it was in large part to a tremendous play by Antoine Winfield, Jr. in the game’s final seconds to break up what would have been a game-winning touchdown if he’d missed. But he didn’t, and he knocked the ball away from Atlanta WR Casey Washington to effectively save the game.

Younghoe Koo missed wide right, and the Bucs escaped Atlanta with a much-need division road win to start the year. And they certainly don’t if their defense doesn’t keep the Falcons’ ground game in check as impressively as they did.

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