Tampa Bay Buccaneers' RB Jacquizz Rodgers making most of his chance

TAMPA, Fla. -- Jacquizz Rodgers waited six seasons to earn a shot as a No.1 running back in the NFL. It took a series of injuries for him to get that chance, but he is not wasting it.

With Doug Martin and Charles Sims both injured, Rodgers has become the biggest reason for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' turnaround in wins at Carolina and at San Francisco.

Two weeks ago Rodgers had never had a 100-yard game in six seasons in the NFL, nor had he had more than 18 carries in any game.

For the second game in a row, he reset his career high in yards, grinding out 154 on 26 carries in the Bucs' 34-17 win over the 49ers Sunday. His 56 carries over the last two games is the second-highest two-game total in the last 20 years by a Bucs running back.

"When you've got guys up front, blocking like they are, finishing through the whistle, it makes my job a lot easier," said Rodgers, who was signed in Week 2 as a No. 3 back and has been a starter the past two games. "I've been waiting on this moment, so my job is to take full advantage of it. I try to get better and better every week. I try to top my performance from the previous week. That's my goal."

Credit Bucs coach Dirk Koetter for staying patient with the running game the last two weeks, even after watching his team fall behind in both contests. The Bucs trailed 14-0 in the first quarter against the 49ers Sunday.

"I think it's important and that first quarter definitely did not go well,'' Koetter said. "They took it right down on us that first drive and scored after the kickoff. We actually had a good drive going our first drive. We got to the third-and-1 and then fourth-and-a-foot and it shocked me that we didn't make either one of those. Our defense did a great job of holding right there, that could've been even uglier. Then we had the interception, they did score off that interception -- again, our offense putting our 'D' in bad positon. But because we had that first drive where we ran the ball pretty well, I thought we'd still have a chance to run the ball.

"We talk about time and score; well, the first quarter we were down -- we basically didn't do much in the first quarter. We still had three quarters and if that's 14-0 going into the fourth quarter, you probably can't do that."

The balance restored to the offense has taken some of the pressure off quarterback Jameis Winston, who only has one turnover in the past two games.

And unlike the Carolina game, when Rodgers ran the football 30 times, the Bucs did a better job of sharing the wealth with big contributions from Peyton Barber and Antone Smith.

"Yeah, I think (running backs coach) Tim Spencer did a really good job of subbing our backs yesterday," Koetter said. "We had some certain special plays tagged for Antone, just because he hadn't been there quite long enough. And then we just went intermittently in some series -- Tim was subbing Peyton in there. It's like anything else though, when those other guys go in there, they have to be productive. If they're not productive, then shoot, as a play caller I'm going to be saying, 'We've got to get 'Quizz' back in there.' But I think that was important and it was real gratifying to see Peyton get that touchdown run in the fourth quarter. Antone got the big play on the screen and I called him an old man -- I think the Antone I remember would've scored on that play, but it was still fun to watch."

--For the second game in a row, the Bucs benefited by recovering a fumbled punt. That's in part because punter Bryan Anger is doing a good job with hang time. And the Bucs' two gunners are winning, putting themselves in position to pounce on any mistake.

"Those two guys, they're getting double teamed and they're still wreaking havoc down there,'' Koetter said. "And then the other thing is, (punter Bryan) Anger is doing such a good job of hanging the ball with hang time. That was kind of one of the knocks on him, is that he had the tendency to outkick his coverage and he's done an awesome job of making sure his hang time matches up with his distance. I know (special teams coordinator) Nate (Kaczor) has talked to him a lot about that, but those two gunners are definitely setting the tone on our punt team. I think our special teams, for the most part, we did well, we got the one turnover. It was a little uncharacteristic of (wide receiver) Adam (Humphries) to put a couple balls on the ground yesterday, fortunately we got them both back. Our kickoff return team did not do as well as we would like to, but our kickoff team -- we got a tackle inside the 20, we got the turnover and our special teams definitely contributed to the victory."

REPORT CARD VS. THE 49ERS

PASSING OFFENSE: B-plus -- QB Jameis Winston threw one interception and may have tried to force the ball into WR Mike Evans. Who can blame him? Evans had eight catches for 98 yards and two TDs, including one that was an ad lib by him and Winston. All of Evans catches went for first downs or touchdowns.

RUSHING OFFENSE: A -- The Bucs did what you do to the league's worst rushing defense. They ran all over it. Jacquizz Rodgers led the way with 154 yards but the Bucs also got big plays, including a TD, from rookie Peyton Barber.

PASS DEFENSE: The Bucs did a good job of contesting passes from 49ers QB Colin Kaepernick, holding him to 143 yards passing. Tampa Bay also sacked him four times and constantly flushed him from the pocket. DT Gerald McCoy produced a sack and a fumble in his first game back from a calf injury.

RUN DEFENSE: C -- Outside of Kaepernick's nine carries for 84 yards, much of it coming on scrambles, the Bucs held the 49ers running backs to under four yards per attempt. San Francisco was playing without Carlos Hyde.

SPECIAL TEAMS: B - P Bryan Anger has done a great job flipping field position and in the past two weeks the Bucs have covered well enough to pounce on two muffed punts. PK Roberto Aguayo made his first two field-goal attempts before missing short from 50 yards.

COACHING: A -- It's hard to go on the road and win in the NFL. It's harder still to go to the west coast and win. The odds are stacked against a team playing without its franchise running back and No. 2 receiver. But the Bucs have a winning streak and are back to .500, only a half game out of first place in the NFC South.