Buccaneers who deserve blame for embarrassing loss to Broncos

After a hot start that included an offensive explosion in Week 1 and a statement win in Detroit last Sunday, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers played with a hangover against the Denver Broncos and paid the price.

It was a 26-7 bulldozing orchestrated by Sean Payton and executed by a Broncos team that looked completely different than it had the first two weeks. Bo Nix led the worst redzone offense in the league to two early scoring drives to start the game, and the Bucs spent the rest of the afternoon on their back foot.

At every turn, the Bucs looked like they might be able to get something going, but they came up short. A fiery touchdown drive before halftime was followed by a punt to start the second half. Baker Mayfield threw an interception on the second offensive drive of the game, and Cade Otton fumbled away the team's last chance at mounting a comeback.

It was a brutal afternoon, one that the Bucs can't just wash away and need to find a way to learn from.

Buccaneers who deserve blame for embarrassing loss to Broncos

Todd Bowles said as much after the game, but it was an overall team loss on Sunday afternoon. Nothing went right, from bad special teams to poor offensive game planning to brutal defensive play. Everyone deserves blame for what happened, but a few stick out more than others when looking back on how things went.

Baker Mayfield

Fair is fair, and when Baker Mayfield plays like crap he needs to be called on it as much as he's praised when things go well. Sunday was a case of the former, as Baker played one of his worst games since signing with the Bucs in just about every way imaginable.

He finished the game with just 163 yards, an interception, and a lone touchdown pass to Chris Godwin. That score came just before halftime and looked like it could have been a spicy turning point in the game for the Bucs. Instead, it was merely a flash in the pan as the offense failed to get anything going and Baker couldn't muster up any magic.

Even his runs were a bummer. A week after he cooked the Lions on back-to-back Angry Runs that led to a score, Baker tried the same thing but cut the wrong way and ended up getting tackled well short of a first down.

That was the kind of afternoon it was for Baker and the Bucs. To his credit, Mayfield owned the loss afterward and sent a pitch perfect message to the team about what should happen next. Rather than panic, Mayfield both shared blame for the loss and suggested it's the kind of humbling the team can learn from.

While the Bucs might have lost on the field, it's hard to be upset with Baker for how he handled things after.

Bucs Offensive Line

Part of Baker's postgame comments included him taking blame for some of the pressure he was under from the Broncos defensive line. He's not wrong, and it's an admirable thing for a locker room leader to do, but the Bucs offensive line let their quarterback down in Sunday's loss.

Mayfield was under constant pressure from Denver's pass rush, affecting throws all day. Part of the problem was how well-defended Tampa Bay's receivers were, which forced Baker to need more time to make throws. It was a recpie for disaster with how bad the line was. Adding to the challenge was not having Luke Goedeke, as Justin Skule needed to start in his place again and was once again eaten alive while trying to protect Baker.

This wouldn't be as troubling, given the lack of a key piece like Goedeke, if it weren't such a habitual problem for the Bucs. We're going on the third straight year of offensive line issues plaguing production, and while it wasn't the sole reason Tampa Bay lost on Sunday it's a big enough reason to be worried.

Godeke might have been out, but Tristan Wirfs, Graham Braton, and Cody Mauch were all healthy and the line still struggled. It's a major issue that needs to improve sooner rather than later, as the Bucs can't afford to keep having games like they did on Sunday.

K.J. Britt and Anthony Nelson

On the Broncos' third offensive drive of the game, Jaleel McLaughlin scrambled to his right on a 4th-and-goal when Anthony Nelson had him dead to rights. McLaughlin was five yards away from the goal line and looked to be done, but he juked Nelson into another dimension to get around him.

The only player with a shot at getting to McLaughlin after that was K.J. Britt, who didn't have the speed to catch the Broncos' running back before he waltzed into the endzone.

It was perhaps the worst play of the game for Tampa Bay, as it not only allowed Denver to build a 14-0 lead, it set the tone for how things would go after. The Bucs defense was never fully able to keep pace with the Broncos' offense, which is especially upsetting considering how bad Denver had been over the first two games of the season.

Britt and Nelson weren't the only players who failed the Bucs on Sunday, but that play serves as a representation of what brutal the day was for Tampa Bay. The entire defense was abysmal, and the way that Denver touchdown developed -- from the Bucs having him stopped to him somehow scoring -- is a vibe that infected almost everything the defense touched.

Buccaneers Pass Rush

While the Broncos were able to generate pressure on Baker Mayfield all afternoon, the same can't be said for Tampa Bay. Part of the reason Bo Nix had a career game -- as small as that sample size is -- was due to how much time he had in the pocket to make throws.

That's entirely on the Bucs lack of pass rush, as nobody was able to get home and force a rookie quarterback to make mistakes. Just like with the poor offensive line play, injuries played a major role in creating this nightmare scenario where Nix looks like Patrick Mahomes for most of the afternoon.

Calijah Kancey missed his third straight game with a calf injury, while Vita Vea was ruled out over the weekend with an MCL sprain. Losing those guys put an obvious strain on the defensive line that it wasn't able to make up for against the Broncos.

It's something worth keeping an eye on as the Bucs enter a brutal stretch of games starting next Sunday. Tampa Bay has upcoming games against the Eagles, Falcons, Saints, and Ravens; if not having Kancey or Vea against the Broncos resulted in a blowout loss, it's pretty gnarly to think about what might happen against even better teams.

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