Antoine Winfield: “I Was Looking For The Ball”
September 21st, 2025
Safety Antoine Winfield had plenty of reasons to celebrate Sunday.
It seems like every time Antoine Winfield makes a big play — and he makes several — the Bucs win.
And that held true to form today at The Licht House.
Winfield, the Bucs’ All-Pro safety, did it again Sunday. He sparked a 10-point swing that likely won the game for the Bucs.
With just under three minutes remaining in the first half, with the Jets holding the ball at their own-41, Winfield blitzed and stripped the ball from Jets quarterback Tyrod Taylor. Vita Vea recovered and the Bucs added a field goal to give them a 13-6 cushion.
Joe chatted with Winfield after the game and he told Joe a sack was not on his mind.
“I was looking for the ball,” Winfield told Joe. “Every time I blitz, I just want to knock the ball out of the quarterback’s hand.”
And that Winfield did. In fact, Winfield lit the fuse for the Bucs’ defense. Shortly thereafter with 17 seconds left in the second quarter, Jamel Dean had a pick-six. So in less than three minutes, thanks to Bucs takeaways, it was a 10-point swing with the Bucs jumping to a 20-6 lead.
“That was our first takeaways in three games,” Winfield said. “I’m just glad I was able to start us off.”
And like normal, a big play by Winfield often leads to a Bucs win.
TWEEZE 😤
📺: #NYJvsTB on FOX pic.twitter.com/Qr4DJLXrPn
— Tampa Bay Buccaneers (@Buccaneers) September 21, 2025
September 21st, 2025 at 6:37 pm
Winfield straight up balled out today
September 21st, 2025 at 6:37 pm
glad hes back and healthy
September 21st, 2025 at 6:44 pm
Hopefully more to come. Turnovers come in bunches. Hopefully rest of d follows
September 21st, 2025 at 7:06 pm
Winfield and Tykee are an incredible safety duo
September 21st, 2025 at 7:07 pm
So glad that Winfield is back! He and Tykee Smith make quite a duo.
Go Bucs!!
September 21st, 2025 at 7:16 pm
Yes Defense is much better this year
Antoine Winfield Healthy makes a big difference
Hassan Reddick big upgrade over JTS
Tykee Smith big upgrade over J Whitehead
J Parrish is an absolute blanket smothering receivers
B Morrison making some plays & motivating Dean
Zyon is becoming something special
D line is strong but we need more depth to be dominant. Lack of depth showed in the 4th quarter of this game. Jets were able to run the ball on us & that hurt late.
The only consistent weakness that can be targeted now is our Linebackers. RBs & TEs in the middle and or out of the backfield flaring out wide consistently hurt us.
Part of it is the type of D we run but we don’t have the athleticism/speed to cover that part of the field (it’s a very wide part of the field) with current personnel.
Bucs are getting better. We have less leaks in the pass defense than last year for sure. With our injuries on offense we actually have a chance to win with the D giving up less than 20 pts a game this year. Last years defense would not have given us that chance.
Go BUCS
September 21st, 2025 at 7:20 pm
Pathetic refereeing. Jets last touchdown was not…ball hit the ground. Egbuka’s feet were in and they didn’t even look at the play.
September 21st, 2025 at 7:22 pm
Only a profound defensive genius could have pivoted away from what was working so well in the first half and totally open the doors wide with a red carpet welcome to blow the lead and gift wrap the game to the Jets. It takes special skill to blow a 3 score lead like that, especially to whom it was gifted, complete with continued inept incompetent special teams who have been horrible all year, yet the part time head coach does nothing to fix it. Maybe he doesn’t think the Special Teams atrocity reports to him.
September 21st, 2025 at 7:35 pm
Glad that guy is on our team and I believe he now has the most sacks by any Bucs safety
September 21st, 2025 at 7:51 pm
He only finished the day with 3 tackles. They were blitzing a ton today, and that’s great, but man – have Winfield in the blitz rotation. He’s the closest thing to Ronde Barber I’ve ever seen when it comes to blitzing from the secondary. He should be getting like 5 sacks a year on blitzes.