Tampa Bay Buccaneers rookies contributed two touchdowns to the cause in Week 15 as they defeated the Detroit Lions, on the road, to improve to 7-7.

Our focus on the rookie class for 2019 is almost complete, and then we’ll turn our attention to the next draft class entering the NFL. It’s been fun tracking this group of first-year players, and this weekend left no deficit in the fun department either.

So, as we always do about this time, let’s put the spotlight on the rookies.

TAMPA BAY BUCCANEERS ROOKIES

ACTIVE: LB, Noah Dawkins / CB, Jamel Dean / S, Mike Edwards / K, Matt Gay / WR, Scotty Miller / CB, Sean Murphy-Bunting / ILB, Devin White / CB, Mazzi Wilkins

INACTIVE: OLB, Kahzin Daniels / OLB, Anthony Nelson

ROOKIE OF THE WEEK: CORNERBACK, SEAN MURPHY-BUNTING

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Murphy-Bunting turned up and showed out in front of his home crowd, and led the Buccaneers in tackles with eight. He also defended a pass.

Oh, and his 70-yard interception return off of Detroit Lions quarterback David Blough with just over five minutes left in the game, gave the Bucs a two touchdown lead and all but sealed their seventh win of the season.

So, you could say he had a good game. The other rookie who got into the end zone was wide receiver, Scotty Miller. Back in action after missing two games with a hamstring injury, Miller brought in all three of his targets, gaining 49-yards and scoring a touchdown on what would be his final catch of the day.

Unfortunately, Miller left the game after re-aggravating his hamstring, so we’ll keep an eye on whether or not he’s good to go for Week 16 as it comes closer.

Matt Gay also got into the scoring, as kickers usually do, by connecting on all five of his extra point attempts and one 46-yard field goal. He did miss one field goal, but we can forgive him for it, given the 21-point win.

Jamel Dean finished Top-5 in tackles for Tampa Bay this weekend with three, and added to his impressive passes broken up numbers with two of them against the Lions.

Devin White was rather quiet, turning in just three tackles himself, but he too came up big by recovering the fourth quarter fumble forced by fellow inside linebacker, Lavonte David.

Mike Edwards chipped in as well, getting one tackle while playing 23 defensive snaps.

It was another climb towards getting better for a Buccaneers secondary who took the brunt of a lot of early season struggles in Tampa.

A big challenge is coming up with Deshaun Watson and DeAndre Hopkins coming to town with their Houston Texans squad in Week 16.