4 Buccaneers who deserve the most blame after embarrassing 34-7 loss to Rams

Sunday night was a nightmare from hell in every sense for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Los Angeles bulldozed the Bucs in a 34-7 blowout route, a loss that exposed them as potential frauds and featured a potentially massive injury to Baker Mayfield.

Collectively, it might have been the worst game Tampa Bay has played all season. Just like with the loss to Philadelphia, the Bucs fell into a 14-0 hole before anyone knew what happened, but unlike that game there was no fight.

Nothing went right for the Bucs on Sunday, but it was an even worse night for a few players in particular.

Buccaneers who deserve blame after embarrassing 34-7 loss to Rams

Zyon McCollum, CB

This was a total disaster class from Zyon McCollum.

McCollum was by far the worst player on the field defensively for the Buccaneers on Sunday night. He allowed 94 yards and two touchdowns in the first half alone, while giving up six catches on six targets to boot.

The Rams clearly built their entire gameplan around targeting McCollum, and it worked. Perhaps the most disappointing aspect of his performance is that the team paid him a massive three-year, $48 million contract last offseason expecting him to emerge as the team's No. 1 cornerback of the future.

With Jamel Dean and Benjamin Morrison both out with injuries, Sunday night was a prime opportunity for McCollum to showcase himself and validate the front office's belief in him. Instead, McCollum has continued to disappear after being paid, with his performance against the Rams being his worst outing to date.

Cade Otton, TE

Cade Otton played a significant role in the Rams taking full control of the momentum early. After quarterback Baker Mayfield put the ball right in his chest, Otton bobbled the pass and it was ultimately intercepted and returned for a pick-six.

He's an impending free agent, and if he hopes to stick around in Tampa Bay, he'll need to work on his drop issues and prove himself to be a consistently reliable target, not a liability.

When Tom Brady was the Bucs quarterback, he made Otton wear gloves to aid him in catching the football. Perhaps Otton should try putting the gloves back on going forward.

Tristan Wirfs, LT

It's an absolute rarity to find Wirfs on any sort of negative list, but he played arguably the worst game of his career against the Rams. Time and time again, he was bullied throughout the night by Jared Verse, giving up two sacks and a handful of pressures.

Wirfs is on a Hall of Fame trajectory and has been as consistent as they come througout his career, so when a player of his' caliber is getting dominated, it's a sign that it simply wasn't the Buccaneers' night.

The Bucs will need their best player to burn this game tape and quickly get back to his usual standard if the offense hopes to right the ship going forward.

Baker Mayfield, QB

It's hard to give Mayfield too much blame, but when the ship sinks, its captain doesn't get to skirt responsibility. He was under pressure, got injured early, and had a perfect pass dropped by Cade Otton and turned into a pick-six. But his lackluster performance in the first half was far from the MVP-level standard that fans have come to expect.

He completed just 9-of-19 passes for 41 yards, a touchdown and two interceptions, despite one interception being the fault of Otton and the other coming on a hail mary. He also took two sacks, and his 32.0 passer rating was his worst of the season by a wide margin.

Hopefully Mayfield's injury isn't too significant so he can bounce back and get himself and the offense back on track to end the season.