An important offensive weapon for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers is dealing with an injury following their 30-20 victory over the New Orleans Saints in the divisional round of the playoffs. On Monday, Buccaneers head coach Bruce Arians told reporters that wide receiver Antonio Brown would undergo an MRI on his knee, creating a sense of concern in the fandom. It turns out there was good news awaiting Brown though, with the test results reportedly revealing no serious damage -- per Ian Rapoport of NFL Network.
Brown is listed as day-to-day leading into the NFC title game.
In Sunday's victory, Brown caught one of three targets for 10 yards. He played just 40 percent of offensive snaps for the Buccaneers, who had a night to forget offensively. Tom Brady completed just 18 of 33 passes for 199 yards and two touchdowns, and tight end Cameron Brate was the leading receiver with 50 yards on four catches. Still, potentially not having Brown in the NFC Championship game against the Green Bay Packers or having him hampered would certainly hurt the Buccaneers.
Brown had been coming on as of late and caught two passes for 49 yards and a touchdown in Tampa Bay's wild-card victory over Washington. Brown failing to catch a touchdown against the Saints this past weekend snapped a four-game streak in which he had caught at least one touchdown. Brown's best performance as a Buc came in the regular-season finale against the Atlanta Falcons, as he caught 11 of 15 targets for 138 yards and two touchdowns. In eight regular-season games with the Buccaneers, Brown caught 45 passes for 483 yards and four touchdowns.
The Buccaneers have had good luck as of late when it comes to injuries to their wide receivers. In Week 17, it appeared that Mike Evans had suffered a significant knee injury, but he underwent an MRI, felt good enough to dress for the wild-card game and exploded for 119 yards on six receptions. That luck has now apparently rolled over to Brown as well.
