‘Tampa Strong’: Bucs ‘win one for the city’ after Hurricane Milton

NEW ORLEANS — The Tampa Bay Buccaneers overcame three second-quarter interceptions to defeat the New Orleans Saints 51-27 on Sunday, capping off a difficult week for the state of Florida, which was hit with its second major hurricane in two weeks — first with Hurricane Helene and then Hurricane Milton, which made landfall Thursday night as a Category 3 storm.

“I think today was just a team embodying and embracing everything that everybody’s going through,” said quarterback Baker Mayfield, who threw for 325 yards and four touchdowns. “Ups and downs, trying to handle it the best way you can, fight through it and find a way to make it work. That’s life. Obviously a natural disaster’s not easy to deal with — you find a way to make it work, you overcome and you come together. That’s what this group did today.”

As of Sunday, 14 deaths were linked to the storm that made landfall in Siesta Key. Tampa Bay got powerful winds from the northern eye wall and flash flooding. A storm surge of 8-10 feet ravaged Sarasota, while tornadoes also ripped through other parts of the state. As of Sunday evening, 1.1 million Floridians were still without power, and a fuel shortage is complicating recovery efforts.

“It’s a tiny break from what they’ve been dealing with,” said coach Todd Bowles, whose defense delivered a shutout in the second half. “It gave ’em a chance to smile for a couple of hours while everybody went through what they went through. That was all worth it right there. I told the guys all the time — we talk about ‘family’ as a team — as long as your family is safe, all the other things are replaceable. We’re going to do everything we can to try to take care of ourselves, our team and helping the community.”

The team evacuated to New Orleans on Tuesday, where they practiced at Tulane University. The Glazer family, who own the Buccaneers, chartered 300 family members and 30 pets to New Orleans. The team also paid for families and support staff members to evacuate to other parts of the state in non-evacuation zones. The team returned home as scheduled Sunday night.

Players and coaches kept up with what was happening back in Florida through the news, social media and neighbors who checked in on their homes. Some hadn’t been back to their homes since Helene engorged the area with flooding Sept. 26, or even prior to that due to evacuations.

Wide receiver Chris Godwin, who has a nonprofit dedicated to animal rescue, was particularly shaken seeing a viral story about a dog who’d been tied to a fence and abandoned before he was rescued by the Florida Highway Patrol. He called the state’s situation after two very powerful storms “really sad.”

“I think we were able to just give some people a little bit of reprieve from the things that they’re facing right now,” Godwin said. “I think that’s a plus for us. Because there’s a lot of people going through a lot of bad stuff right now, unfortunately.”

A lasting image from the game was Godwin’s 55-yard touchdown that retook the lead in the third quarter and helped settle things down. He and others acknowledged that keeping their composure was difficult in a second quarter of struggles, particularly with the week’s events.

“It’s incredibly tough, but we can only control what we can control. And I think just like realizing we all have each other’s backs as teammates, we’re all going through the same things, we’re all that we really have here. So as long as we have each other’s backs and go out there and just like fight, we can win.”

The Bucs’ 594 net yards in the game set a new franchise record, beating the previous mark of 588 yards with Tom Brady on Dec. 26, 2020. Meanwhile, the defense clamped down by sacking Saints quarterback  Spencer Rattler five times, four coming in the second half. There were also two interceptions — from Zyon McCollum and rookie Tykee Smith — and a fumble recovery returned for a touchdown by safety Antoine Winfield Jr. in his first game back since a foot injury in Week 1. That fumble was forced by Smith.

“We did it for everybody back home,” said defensive tackle Vita Vea, who accounted for one of those sacks, along with Lavonte David, William Gholston, Calijah Kancey and a split sack from Chris Braswell and K.J. Britt. “We put 50 up for everybody back home that was suffering through this hurricane, this win’s for you guys. Shout out to Tampa. Tampa Strong.”

The Saints turned Sunday’s game into a donation drive for Hurricane Milton relief and flashed a message on the video board at the Mercedes Benz Superdome that took the words “Us vs them,” with pictures of the Superdome and Tampa skyline, and turned it into “Us with them,” along with messages of “Thank you first responders” and “Thank you to all who have helped through this disaster.”

The messages on the video board also noted the efforts of the Cajun Navy, Louisiana National Guard and LA-Task Force 1, who have all been dispatched to Florida. It then flashed a QR code for the American Red Cross and Feeding Tampa Bay.

Bowles called the victory “extra special” given the circumstances, and awarded one of three game balls to the city of Tampa. 

“The biggest thing is a lot of them were playing with heavy hearts, just seeing what was happening in Tampa Bay,” Bowles said. “Our hearts pour out to the city. It’s a tough city. It’s a strong city. We don’t really know what we’re coming back to, but in our small part, this time we wanted to win one for the city and we’re going to try to help in any way we can when we get back.”