The Tampa Bay Buccaneers inexplicably lost to the Cleveland Browns on Sunday, falling to 0-2 on the season.
It’s one of the most disappointing Bucs losses in recent memory, characterized by Tampa Bay’s typical self-inflicted wounds. This team faced lofty expectations entering the season, but unless something changes fast, they could be one of the NFL’s worst teams this season.
Someone needs to be held accountable after the latest Buccaneers meltdown. So who deserves the brunt of the blame after an embarrassing loss to Cleveland?
3 Tampa Bay Buccaneers who deserve the most blame after 23-19 loss to Cleveland Browns
Baker Mayfield
As the franchise quarterback, Mayfield will get the lion’s share of the praise when the team is winning, but he’ll be heavily scrutinized when the team is losing.
Mayfield deserves every ounce of criticism he’s getting after Tampa Bay’s 0-2 start. He threw an inexcusable interception that resulted in points for the Browns — his second consecutive game handing opponents points off turnovers.
Bucs fans have complained about Zac Robinson’s conservative offense, but he dialed up a handful of deep shots on Sunday, and Mayfield was simply overthrowing open receivers.
His inaccuracy and recklessness with the ball is really hurting the team early in the season, and if he can’t improve, it’s going to be a long, losing season for the Bucs.
Alex Anzalone
If Mayfield has been the biggest disappointment offensively, Anzalone holds that distinction on the defensive side of the ball.
Anzalone missed several tackles, including one on a 55-yard touchdown for rookie wide receiver Denzel Boston. In addition to his poor coverage and tackling, Anzalone was called for an idiotic 15-yard unnecessary roughness penalty. His play is hurting the team enough, and the veteran should know better than to give away free yards with a foolish penalty like that.
It’s early, but Anzalone could go down as one of Jason Licht’s worst free agency acquisitions ever. He’s been that bad. To make matters worse, the team’s worst player through two games wears a “C” on his chest and is being counted on in a leadership role, all while looking like he doesn’t even belong on the field.
Ted Hurst
Hurst was nowhere near as bad as the other two players on this list. But the harsh reality is, if Hurst simply caught the perfect pass that Mayfield placed right in his hands on the final drive, we’d be celebrating a Bucs win right now.
Hurst is only a rookie, and the rainy conditions would have made that an extremely difficult catch, but the truth remains that he allowed a game-winning touchdown to slip through his hands.
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