by Carter Brantley
In a game where the Bucs blocked a kick and had an interception with a 3-point lead to get the ball back with under 3 minutes to play, they still managed to let the Atlanta Falcons back into the game, force overtime, and score a walk-off TD in overtime to give the Falcons a victory and 1st place in the division.
This 36-30 Thursday night loss will haunt the Bucs for a long time. An easily winnable game where the offense came to play, with Baker Mayfield threw a trio of touchdowns and the running game showing up in a big way, with the team rushing for a total of 160 yards, the defense was unable to prevent Kirk Cousins from throwing his way to a 509 yard, 4 touchdown night.
However, even the offense was not without a wart or two, not equally sharing the blame with a defense that gave up 550 yards of total offense to a team whose scoring high for the season had been 26 up to this point in the season, but still making some tough mistakes in some big moments during the loss.
Rookie running back and fan favorite Bucky Irving fumbled on a key possession late in the 4th, giving the Falcons a chance to tie the game up with all 3 timeouts and over 2 minutes to go. Luckily, the steady-as-ever Lavonte David came through with a clutch interception to allow the Bucs’ offense to potentially salt the game away with a first down after an impressive sack from Logan Hall (who had quite a solid performance) to force the Falcons into a 4th and forever that led to the David pick.
Unfortunately, the offense failed to take advantage of the opportunity, as a couple of negative runs, a failed screen, and a facemask by rookie center Graham Barton forced the Bucs to punt, despite starting at the Atlanta 31.
Enter new punter Trenton Gill, who took his chance to make a huge impact on the game by pinning the Falcons inside their own 5 and bounced it into the end zone, resulting in a punt with a net yardage of 22 yards, likely ending former starter Jake Camarda’s time on the inactive list.
Overtime went similar to the rest of the game; not much resistance to Kirk Cousins and the Falcon offense, as they took a minute and 15 seconds to drive 70 yards down the field and score the winning touchdown.
The Bucs face the Saints a week from Sunday, giving them a long time to think about everything that went wrong in their first divisional matchup of the year.
In a season where their margin for error is slim, a game like this that was very much within reach could come back to haunt the Bucs, especially with divisional tiebreakers potentially deciding what could end up being a tight race for the NFC South.
The Bucs have to hope they can set aside any lingering negativity that might fester from such a tough loss in front of a national audience.
