Bucky Irving had the best rushing game of his career on Sunday, and he did not want to hear about records. “I don’t really care about records. I care about winning,” the Tampa Bay Buccaneers running back said after the 16-0 win over the Atlanta Falcons. “So all I got to say is nobody cares.”
Irving ran for 170 yards and a touchdown on 27 carries in heavy rain at Raymond James Stadium. That beat his old career high of 165 yards, set earlier this season at Dallas. Kenny Gainwell added 140 yards on 25 carries, and the Buccaneers ran for 324 yards, a franchise record, while Baker Mayfield went 0-for-3 passing. Irving’s 4-yard touchdown run in the third quarter was the only touchdown of the game, a few minutes after his 46-yard run, the longest of the day.
“Them guys up front”
Irving gave the credit to his blockers first. “I see a different look in their eyes when it’s time to run the ball,” he said of the offensive line. “I’ll go to war with them guys any day of the week.” He said he has also changed how he runs, getting out of the habit of thinking every carry will be a home run. “That’s not the case in this league,” he said. “You got very good defenses and very good players.” As the game went on, he said, the Atlanta defense started “wearing down and getting tired.”
He said he and Gainwell, who both went over 100 yards, push each other in practice. “I’m not a selfish guy. I’m not a me guy. I just want to win football games,” Irving said. He added that the running game will not look like this every week. “Every game is not going to be like that,” he said. “It’s going to be games where our receivers going to go off.”
“Nobody’s gonna come to save you”
Asked about the rain, Irving said he never checks the forecast. “I’m not gonna lie to you. I don’t know the last time I checked the weather for a football game,” he said. “We’re gonna have to play in there anyway.” He compared it to his youth football days. “This is that, like, Little League football. You wake up on Sunday, it’s raining, nobody’s gonna come to save you,” he said. “Unless it’s the lightning, though. That’ll save you.”
He also talked about Mayfield, who handed the ball off nearly all day and got involved as a blocker. “You know that guy going to throw his body out there,” Irving said. “If he got a boot, he going to make his way to try to block somebody.” Irving, who played with Bo Nix at Oregon, called Mayfield one of the best quarterbacks he has been around. “He don’t care if he handed it off 20, 30 times, long as we get the win,” he said. “He always gonna have a smile on his face.”
“I’m going to pull the sled”
The day was not perfect. In the first quarter, Irving took a lateral and ran 15 yards to the Atlanta 1, but Jessie Bates III knocked the ball loose and it went out of the end zone for a touchback. Irving said he was angry with himself. “When stuff like that happen, I get in my head,” he said. “But I snap out of it. Make me run even harder because I know I just let the team down, and that ain’t me.” He said he has to “hold the ball with two hands” and “stop trying to put it out there.” “That’s on me. I’m going to make up for it,” he said. “I’m going to do my punishment that I do. I’m going to pull the sled.”
Going home to Chicago
Irving has 728 rushing yards and five touchdowns on 147 carries this season. The 3-5 Buccaneers have won two straight and play next at the Chicago Bears on Sunday night, November 8, at 8:20 p.m. ET, which is 3:20 a.m. Monday in Cairo. It is a homecoming for Irving, who grew up in Chicago. “It’s gonna be emotional, man,” he said. Playing in front of people who watched him grow up “is gonna be an honor, but I got to try to keep my cool, man.”
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