Tampa Takeaways: A Complete Team Collapse
Credit: Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images
After a ridiculously fast start, Tampa Bay has fallen back to earth. Bo Nix got his first career win as Denver absolutely throttled the Buccaneers 26-7 on Sunday.
Not much went right on a week where most thought Tampa would cruise. Here are our takeaways from this weeks difficult loss.
1. The offensive line was a mess
While Baker Mayfield performed adequately in the home loss, his offensive line did him absolutely no favors.
#Bucs LT Tristan Wirfs discusses the offensive line allowing the #Broncos to sack QB Baker Mayfield seven times.
“Yeah, it sucks.”
“We signed up to protect him.” pic.twitter.com/puAObkW3ge
— PewterReport 🏴☠️ (@PewterReport) September 22, 2024
Baker took a concerning seven sacks in Sunday’s loss to Denver, which was only two short of his career high of nine in his final game with the Cleveland Browns. Six of the seven on Sunday took place in the second half. This performance comes after a rough week against the Detroit Lions in which the o-line allowed five sacks, 4.5 of which were credited to stud pass rusher Aidan Hutchinson.
Much of it can be attributed to the absence of right tackle Luke Goedeke. In the last two games, the Bucs have given up 12 sacks in his absence, as opposed to Week 1 where they only allowed one. Goedeke is recovering from a concussion and will likely be available for next week’s game against Philadelphia.
Even with the depleted pass protection, Baker said much of the blame for Denver’s seven-sack performance falls on his own shoulders.
Baker Mayfield was sacked 7 times today but just took the responsibility for a lot of that pressure, saying he needed to get the ball out faster to the right people.
— Scott Smith (@ScottSBucs) September 22, 2024
Unfortunately, the Bucs’ defense, particularly the pass rush, hasn’t even come close to making up for the offensive line’s inefficiency…
2. The holes on defense are starting to glaringly show
While opponents have sacked Baker Mayfield twelve times over the last two games, the Buccaneers have, in that span, combined for exactly… zero.
With Calijah Kancey and Vita Vea missing from the defensive line, it allowed Bo Nix to not only avoid being pressured, but it enabled him to manage the game as well as he could. Nix completed 25 passes for 216 yards, and while he didn’t find paydirt with his arm, he did find it with his legs.
Bo Nix on the first drive
🐎 4/4
🐎 70 yards
🐎 1 rushing TD
pic.twitter.com/rY1vZeoyqy— PFF (@PFF) September 22, 2024
Mobile quarterbacks have given Tampa grief all season. Despite Tampa winning in Week 1, Washington quarterback Jayden Daniels tore the team apart as a rusher with 88 rushing yards and two touchdowns. Life doesn’t get any easier in the run defense game, as Jalen Hurts and Saquon Barkley will be on the opposite side line in just seven days.
It’s no better in the secondary, as the pass defense has allowed a combined 59 completions and 523 completions over the past two weeks.
Todd Bowles didn’t blame the injuries, but rather, struggling in the fundamentals of the game.
“We gotta tackle better,” Bowles said. “We can call it that from a culture standpoint on both sides of the ball. They gotta play it better, gotta get through the grind of the season; understand every week is going to be like this if we don’t play our best.”
3. The “Any Given Week” mantra must be embraced whether the Bucs are favorites or underdogs
Any NFL team can win in any given week, and the Bucs were the quintessential example of that when they took their roster full of missing starters into Detroit last week and shocked the NFL world by pulling off the upset. It had them riding high until the big time underdog Denver Broncos came in and humiliated the Bucs on their home turf.
The Bucs have been on the underdog side of the “Any Given Week” mentality on countless occasions, especially since their quarterback Baker Mayfield, who excels with a chip on his shoulder, is under center. However, teams can falter when they lose that chip and let the fact that they are the better team on the field get to their head.
When one team is clearly more motivated than the other, momentum can stay in one team’s favor for the entire game and be impossible to recover.
“They outplayed us. They outcoached us. They outhit us and they won the game,” coach Todd Bowles said, who called the game “a complete team collapse, a complete team loss.”
Luckily, it’s still early in the season, and the Buccaneers can very easily recover from this poor performance in time for next Sunday’s home battle against Philadelphia.
Up Next