While there was a moderate amount of things to still take away as positives from Sunday's game, a loss is still a loss. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers had a chance to do something the team has only done three other times in franchise history and came out about as flat as you can against the Eagles.
Good teams are hard to beat, especially when you can't stop beating yourself.
That's what the Bucs did in record time in Week 4. On the very first drive of the game, the Eagles blocked a Riley Dixon punt and returned it for a touchdown. From there Tampa Bay fell into a 24-6 hole that it nearly climbed out of but in the end the mistakes were too much to overcome.
Special teams have made a nasty habit out of making things harder than they should be on the Bucs. This is now three straight weeks with kicks blocked on the Bucs, even if it's the first time it has truly cost them. It was the wrong way to set the tone in a big game and head coach Todd Bowles seems to have seen enough.
Todd Bowles didn't mince words addressing Buccaneers' special teams mistakes
After the game Bowles was asked about the special teams mistakes and he didn't seem pleased.
"We'll look at the whole operation. How we're doing it, why we're doing it, and if we're doing it with the right people," Bowles said. "That's three straight weeks where something has gone wrong."
Over the last three weeks, Thomas McGaughey's special teams group has allowed two blocked punts and a blocked field goal that have directly led to 14 points being scored. That's just the tip of the iceberg, as nothing has been going right with Tampa Bay's special teams unit, from missed field goals to poor kick coverage resulting in fantastic field position for opposing teams.
Tampa Bay's inability to flip the field has contributed in a big way to the team being forced into last-minute situations, and the thin veneer is starting to crack.
Chase McLaughlin hit two massive field goals -- one of which was a new career-long -- which indicates he's stabilized after a rocky start to the season. That's just one piece of a very clearly broken system in Tampa Bay, though, and we saw just how much the way special teams is playing can weigh the team down on Sunday.
Something has to change; otherwise, it's going to give, and it'll look a lot like the ugliness we saw against the Eagles in the Bucs' first loss of the season.
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