In last week’s 20-17 home win over Green Bay, Eric Weems set up the game-winning field goal with a 40-yard kickoff return followed by a 15-yard facemask penalty. Weems one-upped himself on Sunday evening in Tampa Bay. Facing one of their biggest deficits of the season on the losing end of a 24-14 game in the fourth quarter, the Falcons needed some instant offense. Instead, after Tampa scored to gain the 10-point lead early in the quarter, the offense did not even see the field. Weems returned the ensuing kickoff 102 yards for a touchdown, zigzagging his way through seemingly the entire Bucs’ coverage unit and somehow avoiding the sideline by inches. The Bucs were in their infamous creamsicle uniforms for this one, and–at least for that play–Weems reduced them to the laughingstock of the league that they were in previous decades.
He broke too many tackles to count before racing the last 50 yards uncontested to the endzone.
Just like that, the Falcons were back in the ballgame and the stage was set for what proved to be a 28-24 comeback victory.
“In the huddle the guys were telling me just bring it out, no matter how deep it was (in the endzone),” Weems said in his post-game interview with the Falcons’ website. “I (saw) the look in the guys’ eyes, there was fire and passion. They said, ‘Come on, we gotta do this. It’s gonna take us to bring us back and keep us in the game.’”
“Somebody has to step up and make a play,” head coach Mike Smith said during his postgame press conference. “The play today was the play of our kickoff return team…. It was a great individual effort by Eric Weems, but it was also very good blocking at the end of that return that sprung him for the touchdown. What a great individual effort there on the sideline. We had some nice blocks around the 50-yard line that sprung him for the touchdown.”
Sunday’s performance was a stark contrast to Atlanta’s previous meeting with Tampa Bay, a 27-21 Falcons’ victory. Sure, the divisional intensity and the close scoreline were similar; but whereas special teams almost doomed the Falcons on Nov. 7, the united carried the day this time around.
In the first showdown, Tampa Bay’s Michael Spurlock returned a kickoff 89 yards for a touchdown and set up another score with a 66-yard return. The Bucs also appeared to recover a crucial onside kick in the third quarter, but the ball grazed the knee of kicker Connor Barth just before going 10 yards.
“(Spurlock) had one in our house,” added Weems, whose return set a record for longest in franchise history. “That was our thing all week. We had to come in and do what they did to us. We wanted to come back and do the same thing.”
Weems did just that and he is now third in the NFL averaging 28.1 yards per kickoff return. He also leads the Falcons in special teams tackles.
“He does everything that we ask,” Smith said of his return man. “On offense, he’s the fourth of fifth wide receiver. He is definitely a guy that leads our special teams; not only with returning the football, but he has very good coverage skills. Eric is a big part of this success that we’ve had.”
He is also a big reason why the Falcons are 10-2 and still atop the entire NFC.
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