Even a career-high 140 receiving yards and a touchdown on ten catches wasn’t quite enough for outstanding rookie tight end Brock Bowers to land Rookie of the Week honors.
The award instead went to Buccaneers running back Bucky Irving who put up a career-high 152 yards and a touchdown on 25 carries (6.1 ypc) while adding three more catches for 33 yards for 185 yards from scrimmage in an OT win over the Carolina Panthers.
Irving was selected in the fourth round of April’s draft out of University of Oregon.
Irving has set new career highs each of the past two weeks for the Bucs. Week 12 saw him put up 88 yards on the ground and a total of 152 yards from scrimmage. He’s also had a touchdown in three straight weeks.
Clearly Irving has the hot hand in Tampa and they will keep feeding him the rock and the next team on the slate is the Raiders who head for Tampa to face the Bucs next Sunday.
Each team will heavily feature their standout rookies in their offenses.