by Carter Brantley
Things were setting up quite nicely for yet another dramatic finish to a Bucs victory.
The offense had the ball at their own 20 after a miraculous interception in the end zone by safety Tykee Smith.
Baker Mayfield has done this several times throughout the year; why not one more time?
Unfortunately, for the Buccaneers, the offense just couldn’t get it going and they ended up taking home a 28- 23 loss to the New England Patriots.
The running game struggled mightily as second year sensation Bucky Irving was out yet again, missing due to shoulder/knee injuries.
This left Sean Tucker, and Rachaad White as the two main feature backs for the Buccaneers, and both struggled to get much going as the team ran for less than 100 yards.
Veteran receiver, Chris Godwin also missed Sunday’s game as he continues to try to bounce back from a fibula injury.
Rookie sensation Emeka Egbuka had another marvelous performance posting over 100 receiving yards and hauling in a touchdown on the Buccaneers’ first drive.
From there, it was tough sledding offensively for Tampa Bay as they struggled to get much going only scoring one other touchdown until the game was pretty much over with under a minute and a half to play.
Baker managed almost 300 yards passing but it took over 40 attempts to get there, as Tampa Bay was forced into a lot of passing situations with their inefficient running game.
The defense got ran over by another rookie out of Ohio State, TreVeyon Henderson, as the former second round pick rushed for close to 150 yards.
They managed to hold Drake Maye relatively in check as the second-year man out of North Carolina threw for 270 yards on 31 attempts, with that interception near the end of the game sprinkled in with a pair of touchdown passes.
Luckily for the Buccaneers, both the Atlanta Falcons and the Carolina Panthers also took losses this week, making this defeat far easier to swallow in terms of a division lead.
The Falcons are now 3-6, only a game above the cellar dwelling Saints, and the Panthers fell to .500.
Tampa Bay has plenty of divisional match ups to finish out the season as they have to play the Saints one more time, the Panthers twice, and the Falcons once more.
The next couple of weeks are going to be tough as they travel to Buffalo and Los Angeles to play the Bills and Rams, but then they get to come home and take on the struggling Arizona Cardinals and those last-place Saints.
So fear not Bucs fans, not all is lost, plus the Patriots are a very good football team.
There’s still a very good chance that Tampa Bay has a productive and good season, with another division title being the most likely outcome.
