The Tampa Bay Buccaneers wasted a defensive gem on Sunday Night Football, falling 27-24 to the Chicago Bears despite forcing five turnovers.
Todd Bowles' defense has been elite this season, and the veteran head coach is reminding everyone why he's earned a reputation as one of the NFL's best defensive minds. There's no excuse for a defense this great to be 3-6, but an incompetent Buccaneers offense is holding this entire team back.
Bowles has every right to be frustrated with his offense, and he didn't hold back in his postgame press conference.
Todd Bowles calls out Baker Mayfield and Buccaneers offense after loss to Bears
The first question Bowles was asked after arriving at the podium was how the team managed to drop a game in which the defense had five takeaways. He wasn't shy in diagnosing the issue.
"It's a good question. We've gotta capitalize on them. We've got to score points and we can't give them the ball back."
Well, that was a not-so-subtle callout of Baker Mayfield. He's the only player that "gave them the ball back" by throwing two costly interceptions, including a backbreaking pick-six that proved to be the difference in the game.
"He had his mind made up. Probably should have thrown somewhere else... We can't turn it over. He knows that, he understands that."
So where do the Buccaneers go from here? They undoubtedly have one of the best defenses in the NFL, leading the league in takeaways and interceptions while also boasting the NFL's No. 1 rushing defense.
This is a unit capable of shutting down any opponent, but it doesn't seem to matter when the offense is so unable to hold up their end of the bargain.
Buccaneers must use bye week to solve offensive woes
The Buccaneers are on a bye in Week 10, so we won't see them in action for two weeks.
During that break, Zac Robinson needs to go back to the drawing board and figure out how to get the most out of his personnel. This roster has enough talent to find success offensively, and it's up to the offensive coordinator to figure out why his passing game is the least productive in the NFL.
Baker Mayfield needs to do some soul searching as well. He signed a franchise record $165 million contract extension in the offseason, and his way of repaying the organization's belief in him has been to play the worst football of his Bucs tenure. He's committed too many costly turnovers, and has been inaccurate far too often. Decision-making and accuracy are the bare minimum boxes for a franchise quarterback to check, but Mayfield has failed in both departments this year.
The pairing of Mayfield and Robinson has been a disaster, and they're wasting an elite Buccaneers defense and holding this team back from reaching its ceiling. That needs to change coming out of the bye week and into the second half of the season.
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