Tampa Bay Buccaneers' Jameis Winston continues to show finishing ability

TAMPA, Fla. -- Jameis Winston got off to another one of his patented slow starts in Sunday's 31-24 win at Atlanta. But the Buccaneers learned that their second-year quarterback knows how to finish games.

"Jameis yesterday did what Jameis does best and that's play football," coach Dirk Koetter said. "He's a football player. It's not always pretty. It's not always how we draw it up. But that guy, he has a unique ability.

"He's going to make some plays you don't expect him to make and he's going to miss some plays where you say, 'Man, Jameis, you've got to make that play.'

"He's the same all the time. He's focused on winning and leading our team and, boy, he's tough as nails. He'll stand right there in that pocket with that rush bearing down on him."

Winston passed for 281 yards and threw four touchdown passes to four different receivers -- Brandon Myers, Charles Sims, Austin Seferian-Jenkins and Evans.

Of course, Winston's heroics were not without his usual slow start. He missed four of his first six passes and threw an awful interception that set up the Falcons' first touchdown.

Koetter said Winston got into rhythm when the Bucs went to the no-huddle trailing 13-10 with 1:45 left in the first half. But he hit eight passes in a row after that and 12 of his next 13.

"It was loud. We had terrible field position. We were backed up and didn't really want to go to it," Koetter said of the no-huddle. "Seemed like we were backed up the whole game. We shot ourselves in the foot a couple times. We got some penalties that we definitely need to do better on. But I think the real turning point was the drive before the half in the two-minute offense, he does a good job with that."

All week long, Koetter said he talked to Winston about checking the football down to his running backs against the Falcons' zone defense.

"They take deep drops. They force you to check the ball down and we were preaching check it down, check it down, check it down," Koetter said. "And he did."

Sims, whom Winston calls "the most underrated back in the league," juked Falcons safety Kemel Ismail out of his cleats, broke tackle attempts by Jonathan Babineaux and left safety Ricardo Allen with an armful of air at the goal line on his way to a 23-yard touchdown.

"It just shows you when you give guys who actually do that running stuff for a living the ball in space they can make anything happen," Winston said.