Todd Bowles calls out 'boneheaded' Buccaneers after 31-26 loss to Falcons

History seems to be repeating itself with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. A year after the team fumbled a hot start by falling into a 1-6 slump, the Bucs are staring down the abyss of once again throwing their season off track.

Sunday's loss to the Atlanta Falcons was bad on a number of levels, not the least of which is that it hands over an outright tiebreaker in the NFC South race. The Bucs are now two games back of Atlanta -- one in the win-column but two thanks to not having the tiebreaker. It's the first time since 2018 that the Bucs have been swept by the Falcons and it comes in the middle of stretch of game where winning won't come easy.

Even if Chris Godwin and Mike Evans were healthy, beating the Cheifs and 49ers over the next two weeks would still be difficult. Without them it's even harder and the pressure of trying to avoid going 0-4 over this stretch only makes things more stressful.

That's where things stand, and it's a classic spot for the Bucs to be in. At 4-4 the season is far from over, but fans are asking themselves why it still feels that way after what happened against the Falcons.

Todd Bowles calls out Buccaneers after Week 8 loss to Falcons

Tampa Bay jumped out to a 14-7 lead but once again imploded before anyone could finish patting themselves on the back. Atlanta scored 14 unanswered points and outscored Tampa Bay 24-3 after losing a first quarter lead.

It wasn't until the Bucs got a safety in the fourth quarter that they started to wake back up, but it even roaring to be within five points was too little too late. Even though they were in a position to win the game on the final drive of the game, it's hard to feel great about anything the Bucs did in Week 8.

After the game, head coach Todd Bowles was less than pleased with just how bad things looked not only on defense but all over the place in the loss.

"Defensively we made some bone-headed plays in the first half, and we missed something and had some penalties on offense in the second half. It's hard when you're playing against the Bucs and the Falcons at the same time, you cannot beat two teams," Bowles said. "Lack of concentration, these are Day 1 things we should know."

This is what the team needs to hear, but it's going to fall on deaf ears as far as fans are concerned. A large segment of Bucs fans already want Bowles gone, and they're looking for any little reason to keep building the fire under his seat.

Unfortunately for Bowles, he makes it easy for fans to collect kindling.

Stuff like what we saw on Sunday against the Falcons begins with coaching, and it's nothing we haven't seen before. Mistakes that Bowles mentioned are things that should have been coached out by now, but somehow still persist and continue to hold the Bucs back.

To be fair, not everything was on Bowles. Baker Mayfield made two horrendous throws that resulted in drive-killing turnovers and it's not his fault that injuries have piled up in key areas. Still, things like the false start on Tristan Wirfs that backed the Bucs up five yards that cost the team dearly on a Hail Mary are old mistakes creating new problems.

The season is far from over, but if the Bucs don't start shoring up simple mistakes that are holding them back then there's a very real chance the team heads into its bye week 4-6 with the season on life support.

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