Evans and Fitzpatrick get off to a good start

The Buccaneers first team offense started the season off pretty well under Ryan Fitzpatrick in the teams first preseason game. Fitzpatrick, led the team on a seven-play, 61-yard drive to open the scoring in Miami. One takeaway from tonight’s game was that Fitzpatrick and Mike Evans seemed to be on the same page early on.

Evans, who is arguably the Buccaneers most consistent player, finished the first game with two receptions for 26 yards on his only two drives. Obviously, the chemistry between Evans and Fitzpatrick will be important throughout the team’s first three games in the regular season, but the fifth year receiver has a lot of confidence in Fitz.

“We have a really good quarterback room. It’s my job and all the receivers’ jobs to get open, run our routes and make plays no matter who is throwing it,” Evans said. “We are very fortunate to have an experienced vet like Fitz. He’s been really good for us.”

The most important thing in that first preseason game is to get that feel back and get back into the rhythm of playing football against another team. It was important for Tampa Bay to get off to a good start and for Evans to get on the same page with Fitz. Evans echoed the importance of starting fast in his press conference.

“We had a good opening drive – guys getting used to the feel of playing a real game,” Evans said. “We did well – got a touchdown on our first drive, moved the ball on our second one. It’s good to play against someone else and get the feel back of playing a real game.”

You would have liked to see Tampa Bay finish that second drive for a touchdown with the first team offense, but they did show a lot of positives tonight and will need to build off of that as they head towards the second preseason game.