It wasn't so much a tale of two halves for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Week 6 as it was a roller coaster that went off its tracks but somehow managed to not crash and burn.
Tampa Bay launched itself out to a 17-0 lead in the first quarter against the Saints, seemingly bucking everything that held the team down in a loss to the Falcons a week prior. The Bucs scored an opening drive touchdown, Antoine Winfield Jr. returned a fumble for a touchdown in his first game back, and it looked like it would be an easy afternoon on the bayou.
The good vibes didn't last much longer than that, though.
Over the course of what might be the worst seven minutes of the Todd Bowles era in Tampa Bay, the Bucs not only blew that 17-point lead but went into halftime trailing by more than a field goal. It was an impressive collapse, even by the incredibly low standard the Bucs have set over the years, and was a truly special collection of unserious football.
Despite how bad all of that was, things actually worked out for Tampa Bay in the end. The Bucs mounted a second-half comeback and looked more like the team they were in the first 15 minutes of the game than whatever happened before halftime.
All of it served as perhaps the most complete Todd Bowles experience we've ever witnessed, for better and worse.
Todd Bowles was both the best and worst versions of himself in win over Saints
There's no excusing what happened in the first half, which was laced in the type of mental mistakes we've seen the Bucs make far too often under Bowles. Tampa Bay committed five penalties during the hellish seven minute collapse, two of which were on Sterling Shepard and one was a holding call on Calijah Kancey with both directly contributing to the Saints scoring points.
Kancey's hold was on a third down and allowed a scoring drive to extend, while Shepard's personal foul penalty backed up a punt that gave Rashid Shaheed a short field to return a punt for a touchdown.
Tampa Bay shot itself in the foot for 12 penalties for 86 yards on the afternoon, with most coming at the most inopportune times, like with Kancey and Shepard. It speaks to how undisciplined the Bucs remain and how frustrating it is that the mental mistakes haven't been coached out after all these years.
With that said, Todd Bowles pulled a Dumb and Dumber by totally redeeming himself in the second half. Just when we thought the Bucs were cooked and the Saints were about to pour it on, Tampa Bay's defense locked down in ways that teams serious about contending do.
Spencer Rattler went 11-for-17 for 140 yards and a touchdown in the first half, but mustered up just 60 more yards and threw a couple of interceptions. It was a masterful adjustment by Bowles, as whatever happened in the locker room at halftime worked.
Baker Mayfield and the Bucs offense ended up with 51 points in the blowout win, but it was the way Bowles' defense shut down a white hot Saints offense that deserves credit for the win. It looked like we were headed for a shootout in the Superdome, but instead the Saints scored zero second half points after lighting the Bucs up for 27 in the second quarter.
That's all Bowles and his defense, and it's the counterweight to all of the frustratingly dumb mistakes the team made earlier in the game. Usually when when a team commits as many penalties as the Bucs did, it's hard to walk away from the game feeling good, but the way Tampa Bay answered the bell and adjusted in the second half suggests this team is built different than ones we've seen fall into that sort of trap before.
In the past, the Bucs would have rolled over after giving up 20 unanswered points or been locked into a slugfest to the end. Instead, Tampa Bay responded in ways we haven't seen them capable of in the past which is a testament to Bowles' and the biggest win of the afternoon.
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