Evans falls short of making a difference Martin Fennelly, The Tampa Tribune, published 9 November 2015 No. 13’s final dropped ball (were there four or five?) came with 13 seconds left in the game. Seemed fitting. Then Mike Evans threw in an incomplete pass (really, a lateral) and a New York Giant ran it into the Bucs’ end zone to end the festivities. But it was over before that. And Evans was one reason why. He wasn’t the only reason, not by a long shot. But with a chance to get back to .500, the Bucs went and lost 32-18. It was the kind of game where maybe one or two plays could have made a difference. Mike Evans could’ve made a difference. “I don’t know what it is,” Evans said. “I’ve got to work on wet-ball drills or something. The Giants receivers were catching them in the rain and I wasn’t. And I live here. That’s unacceptable.” Maybe it seems preposterous, hanging it on a guy who had eight catches for 152 yards, including a 68-yarder. Evans had more yards Sunday than Giants receiver Odell Beckham Jr., who last season beat out Evans for NFL offensive rookie of the year. But something isn’t quite right with No. 13. He had big drops in the Houston game, too. The follow-up to his fabulous first season has been anything but fabulous. He’s not coming up big when it matters. “It’s frustrating, of course,” Evans said. “But I’m a man. I’ve got to bounce back. I proclaim myself to be one of the best receivers in the game and I’m not showing it.” Jameis Winston played well enough to win. Again. With Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin in the house, Jameis took one giant leap for Buc-kind with his touchdown high jump. Can a guy get a little help here? Who knows how much Evans could have helped if he’d held onto the ball a little more. There was the drop on a slant, when Winston hit him in the worst place: the hands. There was the deep ball Evans dropped. There was that third-and-2 ball he dropped, leading to a missed Connor Barth field goal try. There was that drop on third-and-10. Evans slammed his helmet to the ground when he reached the bench. That’s where he’s at right now. “They doubled me a couple of times,” he said. “Other than that, I had my opportunities. I could have had a huge day. I could have helped us get a win. But I didn’t do that. Even though it was raining, and it was slick, I’ve got to be better.” The day screamed for that kind of big day from 13. The Bucs were undermanned at receiver. Vincent Jackson was out with an injury. Austin Seferian-Jenkins was sidelined (will he ever not be?). The Bucs receivers were a bunch of second bananas: Adam Humphries, Cameron Brate, Donteea Dye and Russell Shepard. But it didn’t seem to matter to Winston, who threw with confidence all day. But Evans has to step up and make more plays. Should Brate be making a ridiculously good, diving third-down grab a few plays after Evans drops that long ball? No. No. 13 was targeted 19 times. He was asked to be the horse on Sunday, but he was all left hooves a few too many times. This was a guy who spent all of last season catching footballs he wasn’t supposed to catch. Now he’s all thumbs. It’s a problem and he knows it, despite all those yards Sunday. Good stats, right? “I don’t care anything about that,” Evans said. “I just want to win. I cost my team big time.” He spends more time complaining to the officials than he should. Before the season, Evans promised he wouldn’t fall into the trap so many NFL sophomores have, including Bucs catcher Michael Clayton, who disappeared after a great rookie season. “That’s not going to happen to me,” Evans said. Maybe it hasn’t. Clayton caught 80 balls as a rookie, then plummeted to 32 catches. Evans already has 32 catches for 520 yards midway through the season. But he has only one touchdown catch. He had 12 a season ago. And there was Sunday. Evans went over his drops: “One of them was focus. The other three or four, it was wet. But I’ve got to catch them.” Yes, he does. He’s an accountable kid, by and large. That’s a good thing going forward. He made a couple of nice catches in the fourth quarter — after it stopped raining. But the drops have to go away. They’re a storm cloud for a guy who wants to be one of the best. He isn’t close to that at the moment.