5 instant reactions to Buccaneers embarrassing loss to Browns in Week 2

It doesn't get much more disappointing than what happened in Week 2 to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Fans have long been suffering through the tolerance of mediocrity and we might have finally bottomed out.

Nothing about what the Browns did last week in a blowout loss to the Jaguars suggested they were any good, but leave it to the Bucs to nurse even the worst reputation back to health. Deshaun Watson will go back to being a pariah when he inevitably comes back to earth next week but until then he'll be allowed to ride a high -- and feel validated -- thanks to a truly putrid performance by Tampa Bay in Week 2.

The 23-16 loss means the Bucs are off to a winless start to a season where everything is on the line. Todd Bowles is coaching for his job, Baker Mayfield is trying to prove he's worth a contract that was already paid to him, and things continue to crash down around the team in ways that suggest we're in for a very, very long season.

Instant takeaways from the Buccaneers' embarassing loss in Week 2

1. Buccaneers offense is officially an unsolvable problem

While Josh Grizzard was hardly blameless in the death spiral the Buccaneers offense went through last year, he was easily scapegoated at the end of the year. The sales pitch when hiring Zach Robinson was that he knew what he was doing and an experienced playcaller would be able to fix what went wrong.

So far that hasn't been the case and it's starting to reach a point of early-season panic.

Turnovers could be reasonably blamed for why the offense sputtered out in Week 1 but that wasn't the case on Sunday. Baker had a costly interception early in the game but everything that went wrong felt more structural than anything else. The offensive line was putrid, Robinson seemed to forget he had a room full of wide recievers for most of the game, and the Bucs offense couldn't muster up more than three field goals in the first half.

Keep in mind, redzone issues were a fatal flaw last year and Robinson was supposed to fix that. Tampa Bay got the ball back in the second quarter after a fourth down stop on defense and time to double up before halftime. Despite getting the ball inside of the 15 yard line, the Bucs settled for a field goal.

Then there was the disaster after the weather delay. The Bucs had two hours to gameplan for a need-to-score situation on the doorstep of the redzone and came up empty. It was embarassing but there's something even more troubling worth noting.

2. Buccaneers reportedly had no energy coming out of the weather delay

Sideline reporter Tiffany Blackmon noted that as the Bucs came out after the rain delay, they were mostly silent. She also said the locker room was merely murmurs of conversation while the Browns were pumping music and keeping their energy up.

If that's not reflective of how things have gone -- and like they seemingly will go -- then I'm not sure what to tell you.

It sure as heck was reflective on the field as soon as the game started. The Bucs were out of sorts, didn't really have anything good drawn up to punch their way into the endzone for the go-ahead score, and unsurprisingly lost the game.

Not only that, but the game ended on a Baker Mayfield ball that was overthrown just out of the reach of a wide open Emeka Egbuka in the endzone. The cherry on top was that Todd Bowles elected to not call a timeout after the Browns took a knee, despite the fact that it was downpouring and the chance for a mistake on the snap was high.

That mentality isn't going to win many football games, something we saw abundantly on Sunday, and it doesn't seem like the tide is going to change anytime soon.

2. No, seriously...there's something wrong with the offense

It's not just that the offense has failed to produce, it's that the same problems are plaguing the team despite an offensive regime change.

One area of particular concern is the offensive line. It's so bad that a routine touchdown pass was turned into a circus routine that nearly ended in disaster.

If this had been an anomoly then fine, but this is back-to-back games where something is seriously off about protection schemes. Whether it's Baker throwing things out of sync by not having the right internal clock or the line breaking down, this is not a healthy way to move forward.

Baker isn't blameless in this. He's spent two weeks dancing around the pocket, often holding the ball too long, that it's not hard to see his lineman get flustered. Then again, part of the reason Baker has been dancing so much is that he's been under a ton of pressure, something that has forced bad throws and created turnovers.

We're still early in the season, and early in a season where there's a new offensive system, but right now it's hard to feel good about anything on that side of the ball even when it doesn't end poorly.

3. Alex Anzalone is a total liability

Last year the Bucs took an expensive swing on Haason Reddick to help plug a major hole at edge rusher, only to watch it blow up in their faces. Alex Anzalone saw that and said hold my hair tie because he's racing toward being just as big of a bust in shorter amount of time.

At least with Reddick the whiff on signing him was felt with his lack of imapct. With Anzalone the mistakes are actively costing the defense and at some point it needs to stop. ,

Through two weeks Anzalone has been on the wrong side of missed tackles that have resulted in big offensive gains keeping the Bucs' defense on the field. On Sunday he missed a tackle on Browns wide reciever Denzel Boston, something that resulted in him taking out Antoine Winfield Jr., and Tykee Smith and allowing Cleveland to score a monster touchdown.

This has been a trend for Anzalone and we've only seen eight quarters of football out of him. The Bucs gave him a $17 million contract this offseason and they haven't even gotten a crappy T-shirt to show for it -- just crappy and costly defensive play.

4. Kionte Scott continues nice rookie trend on defense

In back-to-back weeks the Buccaneers have had rookies step up on defense in a big way. Josiah Trotter's historic debut was followed by Kionte Scott giving us a nice glimpse into the future. Scott finished the game with five total tackles -- all solo -- but it was what he gave the defense in menace that is truly worth noting.

That's shade of what Tykee Smith gave the Bucs defense in the slot, and they've been sorely missing something like that kind of play since. It's just one game, but Scott already looks like someone who can develop into that sort of reliable presence and further round out Tampa Bay's secondary.

Plenty went wrong on defense for the Bucs on Sunday, but Scott's play -- and the continuation of a nice little rookie trend -- was not among those reasons.

5. Bucky Irving is officially back and it's a glorious thing to see

If there's one thing going right on offense, it's Bucky Irving returning to the level of play we saw out of him as a rookie.

Last year was a major disappointment, thanks in large part to injuries dragging Bucky's production down. That hasn't been the case so far this year. He eclipsed 80 yards in back-to-back weeks, and was a driving force behind keeping the Bucs in both games.

The Bengals held Houston to just 60 yards of rushing in Week 2 and look like a defense that's for real. Bucky put up over 80 all-purpose yards on that same defense, a testament to how much he's bouncing back and how much of a threat he is for the Bucs.

He hasn't been perfect but it's clear that Bucky is a main cog in Robinson's offensive scheme. There's a limit to that, as feeding Irving as much as the Bucs were on Sunday prevented the offense from flowing through other weapons like Emeka Egbuka or Chris Godwin, which is part of the point of getting Bucky going.

Still, beggars can't be choosers and Bucs fans will take any little drop of hope they can get from an otherwise lifeless and sterile offense.

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