Bucs Nation
An ugly afternoon played out in the skies and on the field as the Buccaneers squandered several opportunities to trump a red-hot Patriots team.
The offense looked slightly better compared to the prior two games, as you’d hope out of a bye, but it still wasn’t good enough, while the defense allowed an unacceptable number of splash plays to put the game out of reach in a 28-23 defeat.
It’s clear the lack of horses on offense is simply hamstringing Baker Mayfield and offensive coordinator Josh Grizzard, the latter of whom has struggled adapting in response to how defenses have played this Tampa offense. Meanwhile, the defense continues to let massive plays mar generally good play overall.
The gauntlet continues next week with a road trip against a Buffalo Bills unit also coming off a back-breaking loss. Let’s give some shoutouts and move on.
After two quiet weeks, presumably because of his hamstring tweak, Egbuka responded with an excellent performance from start to finish for the Bucs. Egbuka led all players with 6 catches, 115 yards and a touchdown, and he even got the better of an elite corner in Christian Gonzalez a few times despite being Tampa’s only major threat downfield.
Fellow rookie Tez Johnson showed up again as well with 4 grabs for 42 yards and 2 touchdowns — the seventh-round rookie now has 4 touchdowns on the season as he continues to look like a steal. Cade Otton logged his best game of the year with 9 catches for 82 yards as the team needed him less for blocking with Luke Goedeke back.
Sean Tucker continued to look explosive, as he became the first running back all season to run for more than 50 yards against the Patriots — he toted the rock 9 times for 53 yards.
Overall, however, the Bucs offense faltered at too many key moments, and Mayfield once again looked too uncomfortable. The team needs Bucky Irving and/or Chris Godwin back sooner rather than later to give some dimension to the offensive attack.
Simply put, you cannot allow THREE 50+ yard touchdowns and expect to win. You need to give credit to a dangerous New England offense, but at the same time, the big play has bitten this team far too often all year.
It’s a shame because the defense is fairly sound more often than not, and it has kept an anemic offense in competitive spots — including this week.
A huge part of that was Tykee Smith, who snatched a remarkable fingertip interception in the endzone late in the fourth quarter to keep the Bucs down only 5. Smith also totaled 8 tackles as he continues to cement himself as one of the league’s best safeties in his sophomore season.
Rookie defensive lineman Elijah Roberts posted arguably the best game of his young career with 2 solo tackles (including one on a third-down Drake Maye scramble), a...
