The Tampa Bay Buccaneers were on the verge of moving to 4-1 on Thursday night in Atlanta. Then, the bottom fell out.
Lavonte David‘s interception at the 1:52 mark of the fourth quarter put the Bucs’ win probability at 95.7 percent, per Next Gen Stats. However, a holding call on rookie Graham Barton — coupled with a missed facemask — pushed the Bucs out of field goal range. After two ineffective runs to drain the Falcons of timeouts, Tampa gave the ball back to Kirk Cousins.
Leaving the door slightly ajar allowed the Falcons to kick it open for a 36-30 win.
Atlanta drove 46 yards to set up Younghoe Koo‘s 52-yard field goal to force overtime. The Falcons won the toss and scored 1:06 into the extra frame on a 45-yard catch-and-run by receiver KhaDarel Hodge.
“It was a back-and-forth game,” star left tackle Tristan Wirfs lamented in the locker room. “We had an opportunity to close it out, and we didn’t. So, it sucks. We have three days to let it steep. It should hurt, it should suck. Just give it a couple weeks, we have the Saints next week and then they (Falcons) are coming to Tampa a couple weeks after that. Gotta move on. It sucks. I’m pissed. I’m not happy about it. It was right there. They gave it to us. They threw the Lavonte pick and said, ‘Here you go. You guys win.’ And we sh—ed down our leg. So, we need to move on.”
A win would have cemented the Bucs’ status atop the NFC South. Instead, they sit tied with the Falcons at 3-2 and lost an early tiebreaker.
“We just have to close out games,” coach Todd Bowles said, via the team’s official website. “We had opportunities on both sides of the ball. We didn’t finish. We did some good things; we did a lot of bad things to lose the ballgame. So we’ll get some rest, and we’ll get some guys healthy, and we’ll get ready for next week. We’ve got a good football team; we didn’t finish the game.”
An already depleted Bucs defense was gassed by the end, playing 80 total snaps while allowing Cousins to throw for 509 yards and four touchdowns. Bowles bemoaned the defense being out of position on many of the catch-and-runs over the middle, which is how the Falcons clinched the victory.
“We were not where we were supposed to be,” said Bowles. “We missed a lot of plays. We can’t play the Bucs and the Falcons.”
There were positive signs for the Bucs. The defense generated four sacks and 30 QB pressures — including three players with five QBPs: Joe Tryon-Shoyinka, Logan Hall, Yaya Diaby. Baker Mayfield once again played well, throwing for three touchdowns, finding the right targets, scampering for big plays and avoiding mistakes.
Mayfield has earned accolades with his sterling play to open the season, but the loss is all that mattered Thursday night. With two chances to put the game away late, the Bucs fumbled (Bucky Irving) and went three-and-out.
“All I care about is wins,” Mayfield said. “We’ve got to find a way to finish that game out on offense. We have to make the plays when they’re there. In the second half, we’ve got to take care of the football and we’ve got to finish on offense.”
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