The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are struggling to find answers after falling to 0-2 with an embarrassing loss to the Cleveland Browns on Sunday.
Self-inflicted wounds continue to doom this team as the Buccaneers just can’t stay out of their own way, finding new ways to beat themselves every week. The Buccaneers are 2-9 dating back to last season’s collapse following a 6-2 start, and the team is clearly on a downward trajectory.
Head coach Todd Bowles and quarterback Baker Mayfield took the podium for their postgame press conferences, and it was clear that frustration had reached a boiling point.
Todd Bowles and Baker Mayfield can’t hide their frustration after Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ Week 2 loss
Bowles catches a lot of flak from Buccaneers fans, but the truth is, the players need to shoulder the blame. Unforced errors like penalties, missed tackles, and blown coverages are holding this team back – and Bowles isn’t on the field making those mistakes. He correctly called out his players after the game.
“Nobody is coming to save us. You know, the penalties and the missed tackles, we got to correct ourselves and we got to do it in a hurry. We’ve dealt with adversity before. This is an adverse situation again.”
Mayfield expressed a similar sentiment, showing frustration with the team beating themselves.
“Just can’t keep making the same mistakes over and over… It’s shooting ourselves in the foot. Not making the plays when we need them… These are fixable things, but that also makes it more frustrating.”
But Mayfield unfortunately played a key role in the loss with his inexcusable interception that resulted in points for the Browns. Dating back to last season, the team is 1-9 when Mayfield throws an interception. They simply can’t overcome turnovers by their franchise quarterback.
So where do the Buccaneers go from here?
Things aren’t getting any easier as the 2-0 Minnesota Vikings come to town next weekend. If the Bucs play the way they’ve played the first two weeks, the Vikings will utterly humiliate them in front of the Raymond James Stadium crowd.
The Buccaneers are 0-2, and they appear destined for 0-3 unless something changes fast. Bowles was already on the hot seat when the season began, and the temperature will continue to rise for as long as the Buccaneers struggle – whether it's his fault or not.
Mayfield, meanwhile, signed the largest contract in franchise history a week before the season started. The $165 million man has played some of his worst football as a Buccaneer through two games, and questions are already surfacing about the organization’s decision to hand him such a massive deal.
Winning cures all, and Bowles and Mayfield could quickly get back in fans’ good graces if the Buccaneers can rattle off some wins in the coming weeks. But if the team continues this downward spiral, things are going to get very uncomfortable in Tampa Bay, and heads might roll.
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