Inside Mike Evans’ historic catch, the Bucs video that captures the celebration

TAMPA, Fla. — In the scorebook, it’s an inconsequential final play in an already won game.

And yet, watching Bucs receiver Mike Evans catch a 9-yard pass from Baker Mayfield, seeing the reaction after hours of uncertainty, was one of the most meaningful and emotional plays of the NFL season.

“It was unbelievable, man,” Evans said of the catch that gave him 1,000 receiving yards for the season, extending his streak to 11 consecutive years and tying Jerry Rice’s NFL record. “They made it a lot sweeter. NFC South champions and then I’m in the story with Jerry Rice, so that made it a lot sweeter.” [sweeter]. “I love those guys to death.”

For two months, that streak seemed to be in real danger. Evans got off to a slow start and a hamstring injury sidelined him for three games, so by Week 11, two weeks into the second half of the season, he had just 335 receiving yards. He would have to average 95 yards per game to reach 1,000, and to help the Bucs to a 5-1 record, he reached 85 yards before Sunday’s game.

But Evans had no receptions in the first quarter and the Bucs fell behind by 10 points at the half. He gained enough yards that when the fourth quarter began, he was within 35. The same thing happened with seven minutes left, and Evans caught three passes to get within 5 yards of 1,000.

But with 1:51 left, rookie Bucky Irving scored on an 11-yard touchdown, putting the Bucs up 27-19 and in good shape to win and clinch a division title. But that might have come at the expense of Evans reaching the milestone. Tampa’s defense, trying to close out a victory, gave the ball back to the offense with 36 seconds left.

The conventional, safe play would have been to take a knee and let the clock tick down to celebrate a victory, but the Bucs took an unnecessary risk. They tried to pass the ball to Evans to give him a chance to break the record. They took a timeout, just to carefully review their options, without risking a pick-six and a game-tying score. They elected to send Evans on the move before the snap, making it more difficult to double-cover him, and Mayfield threw a quick pass that Evans caught and spun upfield, achieving the milestone and turning the stadium into pure euphoria.

Evans is the Bucs’ nominee for the Walter Payton Man of the Year Award, his fourth time winning it. He is beloved in Tampa not only for his Pro Football Hall of Fame resume (his 105 career touchdowns are now the ninth-most in NFL history), but also for his selfless contributions in the community.

“That’s why you love him. That’s why we appreciate having him. We’re lucky to have him. He’s underrated in the media, in the league, and he’s one of them. He deserves it,” Mayfield said after the game. “Obviously, you saw the stadium blow up, the bench blow up. You can see how much people care about him and what that means to everyone around him.”

If you don’t know Evans, if you have no idea the impact of his streak and what it means to his teammates and fans, the Bucs released a video that captures all of that. It lasts seven and a half minutes and perfectly follows Evans from the field to the locker room with hardly any editing.

The Bucs knew they could have something special Sunday with Evans, unsure when or even if he would reach the long-awaited milestone. He was miked during the game, allowing them to hear the game and his interactions from his perspective, and the team’s cameramen knew to stay tuned for him if that moment were to actually happen.

“It comes down to the video team saying, ‘We think we might have a moment here,'” said James Ruth, the Bucs’ director of marketing, who oversees the team’s video content. “How do we try to create something unique? It was the presence of mind of a couple of guys just following Mike through the whole experience. How often does a record-breaking moment happen that is literally the last play of the game?”

The video begins from the fans’ perspective, showing the crowd with the stadium’s video panels in the background, with a sea of ​​fans wearing Evans’ number 13 jersey jumping up and down in celebration, overlaid with audio from the broadcast. from FOX Sports and Kevin Burkhardt’s Live Call: “Jerry Rice Has Company!”

Burkhardt let fans absorb the moment with a full 40 seconds of silence as the overhead camera followed Evans through wave after wave of teammates celebrating with him. “The whole crowd knew it too,” Burkhardt said to break the silence.

The Bucs’ video features its own aerial shot of Evans as his teammates mobbed him off the field, staying with him for dozens of hugs as he walked to the bench and finally off the field and into the tunnel.

“That’s one of the best things I’ve seen in a long time,” FOX Sports’ lead NFL analyst Tom Brady said on the live broadcast. The words of Evans’ Super Bowl teammate were played on the Bucs’ video as the 31-year-old receiver looked at the crowd as he left the field. “The excitement, the joy, honestly, the excitement of the victory for the team, but for Mike to do that… it was an absolutely incredible performance.”

The camera remained fixed on him on a lonely and almost silent path to the locker room, breathing heavily from exhaustion and the realization that he and the team had achieved the day’s goals, after three hours of real doubt.

Behind that camera was Stephen Lynch, the team’s director of production, who joined the Bucs in 2014 like Evans and has chronicled his career through six years without a playoff berth, then to a Super Bowl and four consecutive division titles.

“Right now, and we’ve been fortunate to have a lot of them over the years, the motto is you always want to be on the go,” Lynch said. “You were waiting for that moment to happen, and when it happens, you just make sure the red light is on and then you just go with it. It was just special.”

By keeping the camera rolling without interruption, the team had the opportunity to present the entire moment to fans from Evans’ perspective: no slick editing, no background music, just the player and everything around him exactly as they were.

“There’s a proven way to take advantage of that moment, to cut out the highlights and the music and all that,” Ruth said. “It was cool to say, ‘Let’s zig-zag where everyone else could right now and let this great ingredient speak for itself.'”

What you see when you watch is the endless parade of teammates, coaches and staff congratulating Evans. He finds an “NFC SOUTHERN CHAMPIONS” cap waiting for him on his locker seat. He’s exhausted enough that he can’t take off his shirt and pads, and one of the few lapses in the clip is when he finally takes them off.

“I got to touch greatness,” safety Ryan Neal says as he gives Evans a hug.

“Next year, it won’t be as close,” Evans tells coach Bobby Slater, who helped him return from injury. “I’ll get it sooner.”

“We worked our asses off trying to get the ball back,” says defensive tackle Vita Vea.

“You know damn well I’m not going to let you go without him,” coach Todd Bowles said.

There were elements of luck in the seven minutes: Evans never acknowledged the camera following him, and the cameramen were lucky enough to film an extended wide shot of a crowded NFL locker room for minutes without anyone dropping their pants in the background.

“For me, what made it so great was that, for all of us, we do this job and you can become a little desensitized to the chill factor of being around these guys every day,” Lynch said. “When you’re watching that clip, the subtleties and imperfections, just listening to Mike breathe heavily in the tunnel, in silence. We all loved Mike, and we all wanted that. We felt like the rawness of those quiet moments was really eye-opening… I never “I had a moment like that. Minutes of goosebumps and chills all over my body.”

Finally, Bowles is seen addressing the team and holding up a game ball to present it to Evans; the coach called it perhaps the best game ball he has ever given to a player. Evans was able to celebrate his hook one more time before raising his hand and breaking up the huddle as the Bucs prepare for the upcoming playoffs.

“I appreciate you all. I love you so much,” Evans said. “This season will always be difficult, but having them all around makes it easier. I love them all, man. We’re not done yet. Champions by three, 1-2-3, champions.”

Greg Auman is an NFL reporter for FOX Sports. He previously spent a decade covering the buccaneers for him Tampa Bay Times and The Athletic. You can follow him on Twitter at @gregauman.

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