Only one team had a problem in Houston on Sunday and it wasn't the home team.
For the fourth straight week the Buccaneers suffered a brutal loss, but the 39-37 defeat at the hands of the Texans might go down as one of the worst in recent memory. C.J. Stroud ripped the Bucs defense apart, throwing five touchdowns and setting a new single game record for passing yards by a rookie.
Nothing went right, but the way the Bucs lost is potentially back breaking for their season.
With 0:40 left and only one timeout, the Texans orchestrated a 75-yard game-winning touchdown drive. It came after another inexplicably bad clock management situation by Todd Bowles and has left fans at a total loss.
It was a bad afternoon for the entire team, but a few guys stick out as deserving more of the blame than others for what happened in Houston.
Buccaneers to blame for embarrassing Week 9 loss to Texans
Buccaneers Pass Rush
In a stunning turn of events, the defense brought the Bucs down at essentially every level on Sunday. We'll get to the issues in the secondary, but perhaps the biggest diappointment was up front with the pass rush.
C.J. Stroud finished the day with almost 500 yards passing, and part of that had to do with how clean his pocket was all afternoon. He ended up with an average time to throw of 2.53 seconds, but there were times when he had all day to find a receiver or look for holes in the Bucs zone coverage.
Even when the Bucs seemed to get some decent pressure on him, he scrambled out of it and reset the pocket with relative ease.
Good pocket work by CJ Stroud pic.twitter.com/135GBQM488
— Matt Waldman (@MattWaldman) November 5, 2023
It was utterly demoralizing to see the pass rush lack any sort of energy, and the result was a record-setting day by a rookie quarterback. Even with three sacks, the Bucs pass rush played a huge role in setting the tone for how badly things went on Sunday.