Todd Bowles calls out Buccaneers special teams after brutal mistakes in Week 2

In back-to-back weeks, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers have taken games down to the wire, only to come out victorious in the end.

Both games featured special teams mistakes that should have sunk them to 0-2, but thanks to a stroke of luck in Week 1 and insane heroics from Baker Mayfield on Monday night, the Bucs survived. Things were far uglier than they needed to be and while there's a lot that needs to get cleaned up there's one area that deserves extra special blame.

After the win in Houston, Bucs head coach Todd Bowles wasn't shy about how disappointed he was in Tampa Bay's atrocious special teams performance. Among the things he called out was the poor protection on a blocked punt that nearly swung the game in Houston's favor.

Todd Bowles calls out Buccaneers 'inexcusable' special teams mistakes

"Looks like they got back there pretty quick, it was a smorgasbord of people going back there. That cannot happen, that's inexcusable," Bowles said.

Another potential turning point came a few drives later. Tampa Bay's punt coverage gave up a 53-yard return to Jaylin Noel, giving the Texans the ball on the Bucs' 29-yard line with 3:18 left in the game. Houston was only down 14-13 at the time, and ended up taking a seven-point lead after a Nick Chubb touchdown run.

Had it not been for the late heroics of Baker Mayfield, that special teams mistake would have been the difference between the Bucs winning and losing. Bowles knows it, and was clearly annoyed having to re-live the moment in his postgame press conference.

"We've got to tackle the returner, we really have to tackle the returner. We have to have more guys going to the ball, and that kind of gave them field position for two scores and gave them 10 points. That's tough to do after a goal line stand."

Special teams have been a total mess for the Bucs so far this season, and it's an ugly situation worth monitoring. In addition to the mistakes in the punting game, Chase McLaughlin missed another field goal that could have helped change the flow of the game.

McLaughlin missed a 38-yard attempt at the end of the third quarter, which would have made the game 17-10 with just a quarter left. Not hitting that kick gave Houston new life and also meant the Bucs final drive needed to end in a touchdown to win rather than a field goal to tie.

It's the same thing we saw last weekend in Atlanta, and it's something that needs to get fixed before it turns fatal. Tampa Bay has gotten lucky in back-to-back weeks that their special teams snafus haven't cost them more than momentary frustration, but it won't be long before the problem becomes much bigger than that if things don't change.

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