Bucs LB Alexander tears ACL, out for season

Pro Bowl linebacker Kwon Alexander sustained a torn ACL during the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' overtime victory against the Cleveland Browns, and head coach Dirk Koetter confirmed on Monday that he will miss the remainder of the season. An MRI confirmed the severity of the injury for Alexander, who exited the Buccaneers' 26-23 win prior to halftime. Fellow linebacker Jack Cichy also sustained a torn ACL in Sunday's game, according to Koetter. Both players were placed on injured reserve. "Unfortunate," said Koetter Monday according to the team website. "Kwon was playing so well and he's the heart and soul of our defense. It's just very unfortunate. Our locker room at halftime was extremely emotional last night. Kwon came out of the training room right about the time we were getting ready to go back on the field. It was emotional. You can tell that the guys really care. Kwon talked to the team there for a couple minutes right as we were going back on the field." Alexander planted his foot while blitzing Browns rookie quarterback Baker Mayfield and went down without contact. "What the players love about Kwon...is just his passion for playing football," said Koetter. "Kwon goes hard every play and he wears his emotion on his sleeve. He's a terrific competitor and he brings energy to our defense. We would always like guys to communicate more but Kwon's a talker out there. He's the guy that's trying to amp everybody up." "Big loss. Huge," fellow linebacker Lavonte David said, via the Tampa Bay Times. "Humongous loss with me being comfortable playing with him the last four years. It's going to be different. It's an unfortunate situation, man, when we came in here, it was tough to deal with, tough to see." The 24-year-old Alexander's 45 tackles are second on the team to David (48). Alexander also has two forced fumbles and collected a sack this season. Tampa Bay has just four healthy linebackers on the active 53-player roster: David, Adarius Taylor, Devante Bond and Cameron Lynch. Cichy, who was a sixth-round pick, missed a significant portion of the 2016 with a torn pectoral muscle. He didn't play at all last season because of a torn ACL. "We've got guys in the LB room who have to step up now," David said, per the Tampa Bay Times. "(Taylor) is a veteran of this football team. That's why there was really no panic." --Defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul had a sack on Sunday and has recorded at least one sack in each of the past five games, only the fourth time in team history that a player has recorded a sack in at least five consecutive games. He has six sacks for the season. --Kicker Chandler Catanzaro made a 59-yard field goal in overtime to win the game. It was the second-longest field goal in franchise history and the longest overtime field goal in NFL history. --Wide receiver DeSean Jackson scored Tampa Bay's first touchdown Sunday on a 14-yard run. Jackson now has four career rushing touchdowns. This was his first rushing score since 2010. --Quarterback Jameis Winston scored Tampa Bay's second touchdown on a 14-yard run. It was his first rushing touchdown of the season and the ninth of his career. --Defensive end Carl Nassib had two sacks Sunday for his first career game with multiple sacks. He has 7.5 in his career.