Hurricane Milton: Tampa Bay Buccaneers forced to evacuate, change travel plans to New Orleans

Hurricane Milton is heading towards the west coast of Florida and has forced the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to evacuate and change their preparation plan for Sunday’s game against the New Orleans Saints.

The Bucs are leaving Tampa Tuesday morning and traveling to New Orleans, the team announced Monday.

“In advance of Hurricane Milton’s expected landfall, the Buccaneers will depart Tampa on Tuesday morning,” Tampa Bay Buccaneers Communications posted on Twitter. “The team will relocate operations to the New Orleans area for the remainder of the week leading up to Sunday’s game at the Saints. Media availabilities will be conducted virtually beginning on Wednesday.”

Tampa Bay is 3-2 on the season and is coming off of a 36-30 overtime loss at Atlanta this past Thursday. As for the Saints, they are 2-2 on the year and face the Kansas City Chiefs Monday night at 8:15.

Hurricane Milton has strengthened to a Category 4 storm as of Monday. It is expected to make landfall on Wednesday and “could be the worst Tampa Bay has seen in a lifetime” according to the Tampa Bay Times.

Hurricane Milton is expected to be the second major storm to impact the United States in a few weeks after Hurricane Helene caused major damage in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina last month.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers defense looking to bounce back vs. Saints

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers defense is looking to rebound after a rough outing against the Falcons last Thursday.

Atlanta quarterback Kirk Cousins finished with a Falcons’ franchise record of 509 passing yards against the Bucs.

According to Next Gen Stats, Cousins completed 42 of 58 passes for 509 yards, four touchdowns, and an interception. All 509 yards came from passes within the pocket, the most in a game in the Next Gen Stats Era (since 2016). Between the numbers, he finished completing 27 of 33 passes for 385 yards, while tossing in three touchdowns.

Cousins connected with KhaDarel Hodge on a 45-yard touchdown pass in overtime that won the game for the Falcons. Hodge simply spun around, and turned on the afterburners, exploding right through the middle of the Tampa Bay secondary on his way to paydirt. According to Next Gen Stats, Hodge reached a top speed of 19.70 miles per hour on his game-winner, his second-fastest speed as a ball carrier in his career in the NFL.

After the game, Hodge talked about the special moment. “This is the moment of my life. I’m not going to downplay it. They put me in for one play and I take it to the crib for win. It’s like a movie,” Hodge explained via Cameron Wolfe of NFL Network.