Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach Todd Bowles had a hard time explaining Sunday night’s 27-24 loss to the Chicago Bears. His defense intercepted Caleb Williams four times and recovered a fumble, and the Bucs still flew home 3-6 after Cairo Santos kicked a 38-yard field goal as time expired. Asked what went wrong with five takeaways on the board, Bowles kept returning to one word. “We got to capitalize on them,” he said. “I mean, we got to score points, and we can’t give them the ball back. And we got to be better on third down on both sides of the ball.”
Todd Bowles’ full postgame press conference at Soldier Field. Video: Tampa Bay Buccaneers on YouTube.
Five takeaways, 11 points
Tampa Bay turned the five turnovers into 11 points. The four interceptions produced only a field goal: one drive ended on downs after a failed fourth-and-1 sneak, one ended in a punt, one set up Chase McLaughlin’s 21-yard field goal on the last play of the first half, and the last one was followed one snap later by a Mayfield interception that Jaylon Johnson returned 67 yards for a touchdown. The fumble, forced by rookie Rueben Bain Jr. and recovered by Ifeatu Melifonwu, set up Bucky Irving’s 6-yard touchdown and Mayfield’s two-point run that tied the game 24-24 with 2:51 left.
The Bucs also gave away chances near the goal line. Down 14-0 early in the second quarter, they lined up to go for it on fourth-and-goal from the 4, did not draw the Bears offside, took a delay-of-game penalty and kicked a 27-yard field goal. Tampa Bay converted only 2 of 12 third downs against the league’s best third-down defense.
“He had his mind made up”
Bowles did not hide from the pick-six. “Probably should have thrown it somewhere else,” he said of Mayfield’s throw for Cade Otton. “Obviously, it’s easy to say in hindsight, but you know we don’t like turnovers. We’ve been doing a good job of not turning it over. We can’t turn it over. He knows that. He understands that.” In a separate postgame interview with the team’s radio network, Bowles said Mayfield “had his mind made up.”
Mayfield, in his third game back from a dislocated right thumb, finished 18 of 32 for a season-high 243 yards with two interceptions. “It comes back to obviously the turnovers for us, the interceptions,” he said. “Especially when it turns into immediate points on the pick-six, and that was obviously the difference in the game.”
Baker Mayfield’s full postgame press conference. Video: Tampa Bay Buccaneers on YouTube.
Bowles also said the Bucs cannot win by running alone. A week after Mayfield went without a completion as Tampa Bay ran for a franchise-record 324 yards against Atlanta, Irving ran 20 times for 97 yards and two touchdowns, but the passing game had to carry more. “We’re not going to be able to run the ball and win ball games,” Bowles said. “We’re going to have to throw. We’re going to have to catch it. I thought we dropped some easy balls early on as well that contributed to a lot of things, but we kind of chipped our way.”
False starts and a final-drive bust
Tampa Bay was flagged eight times, including five false starts. Mayfield said the Bears were calling out the cadence at the line, but Bowles did not put it on Chicago or on communication. “It wasn’t a communication thing,” he said. “We just got to hold our water.”
On the deciding play, Colston Loveland was left uncovered on second-and-9 from the Chicago 46 and gained 38 yards to the Tampa Bay 16 with 40 seconds left. Bowles’ answer was four words. “We busted. Shouldn’t happen,” he said.
On the early 14-0 hole, Bowles said his young players needed time. “I think we had to settle down,” he said. “I thought everybody was a little antsy starting the game the first two drives, and after that, once we settled down, I thought we played well.”
Defense still leads the league in interceptions
The defense gave Bowles plenty to like. Zyon McCollum had the first multi-interception game of his career and is up to four this season, and linebacker Alex Anzalone also has four after his third interception in two games. The Bucs have 16 interceptions, the most in the NFL, and are the only team with a four-interception game this season. They have done it in consecutive weeks, the first team to do so since the 2017 Ravens. Safety Antoine Winfield Jr. left in the second quarter with an ankle injury, and Melifonwu played in his place.
Into the bye, a half-game back
The loss ended a two-game winning streak, but the NFC South barely moved. Carolina lost at home to Denver and New Orleans beat Cleveland in overtime, so the Panthers and Saints lead the division at 3-5, a half-game ahead of Tampa Bay and Atlanta at 3-6. The Bucs are 2-0 in the division after wins over Carolina and Atlanta. They have a bye in Week 10 and return at Detroit on November 22.
“We’re trying to take care of ourselves,” Bowles said. “We’re not worried about any other team in our division right now. We know if we take care of us, we’re going to be fine, and we still feel that way, and we think that way. We’ve been playing some good football of late. We get a week off. A lot of people are sore. We got to hone in and come back, and we got to take it and we got to finish this thing.”
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