Buccaneers shouldn't hang their heads after close loss to Chiefs

On Monday night, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers did what just about every expert around the NFL thought they'd do: lose to the Kansas City Chiefs. They didn't, however, lose the way everyone expected, as they gave the last remaining undefeated team in the league one of its biggest scares of the season.

There will be plenty of knee-jerk negativity, as there usually is after a loss, but outside of the controversial end-of-game management, the Bucs have very little to hang their head about after what happened. Moral victories aren't worth much, but the fact that Tampa Bay went into Arrowhead without its top three receivers and was in a position to win the game with under two minutes left potentially is a massive feat that deserves to be celebrated.

Keep in mind the Bucs were predicted to get pretty easily handled by the undefeated Chiefs, but dragged them to overtime without Chris Godwin, Mike Evans, or Jamel Dean and with a guys like Josh Hayes stepping up into key starting roles. Nobody has to be happy with a loss, but it's undeniable that some impressive things happened in Kansas City on Monday night.

Buccaneers shouldn't hang their heads after a close overtime loss to Chiefs

Baker Mayfield has been largely ignored in the MVP conversation and while a loss on Monday night won't help his case his effort shouldn't be overlooked. Against arguably the best defense in the league, Mayfield helped the offense score 17 points without completing more than two passes to wide receivers for almost the entire game.

Liam Coen deserves some flowers as well for scheming up a gameplan that featured some truly masterful drives. The Bucs first drive out of halftime was a beauty, needing just six plays to go 51 yards to take a 14-10 lead and punch the Chiefs right in the mouth.

Second quarter meltdowns have sunk the Bucs more than once this year, and almost cost them a game in New Orleans, but Tampa Bay's defense held Kansas City to just seven points and kept the team in the game.

That's a side of the ball that has been rightfully criticized all season, with Todd Bowles drawing considerable angst from fans. He and his defense answered the bell in a big way, holding the Chiefs down when at other times this year we've seen far less talented quarterbacks and offenses carve them up.

There's still plenty to criticize, like how poor the defense played on third down and the way it ran out of gas in overtime. Let's not forget, though, how Bowles' depleted defense forced a three-and-out at the end of regulation when we normally see Patrick Mahomes lead game-winning drives. Kansas City just needed to get into field goal range, but didn't come close.

On more than one occasions the Bucs quieted the loudest stadium in football, a testament to how hard Tampa Bay punched Kansas City in the mouth when not many were expecting it.

The last two drives of the game for the Bucs were a perfect example of how good this team is capable of being when everything is firing right. Tampa Bay's defense forced a three-and-out to get the ball back into Baker's hands. Once that happened he started carving up Steve Spagnuolo's defense for 71 yards on ten plays to tie the game and force overtime.

For a team coming off crushing back-to-back losses, this was the type of gutsy performance that helps reset some of the bad vibes that were brewing. It was a wet and sloppy game, but in every way the Bucs had come up short against Baltimore and Atlanta they showed up against the Super Bowl favorites.

A loss is still a loss, but it was still impressive nonetheless. What's key now is the Bucs taking what went well and building on it to get a win over a beatable San Francisco 49ers team next week to ride into the bye on a high.

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