(Jason Behnken/AP)
The Bucs are in trouble.
There’s no way avoiding that fact after Tampa Bay lost 27-24 to the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday. The loss dropped the Buccaneers to 7-5 on a weekend where the Saints, Packers and Seahawks all made cases to be considered the best team in the NFC as we head into December. This was the second loss in a row for Bruce Arians, Brady and the rest of the “loaded” Bucs roster. Now, a playoff spot isn’t even a guarantee anymore in a stunning turn of events.
The one thing going for Tampa right now is the fact that they have a bye this week, one of the latest ones in the league. It will provide a much needed opportunity to sit back and figure out what needs to change with just four games remaining.
“”The self-scouting and stuff that we do is [on] ourselves,” Arians said on Monday. “We’ve got every play listed that we’ve run all season – the yards, the average, the completions – everything statistically for the entire season [and] for the last four ballgames, which is usually what another team breaks down. So, you have [statistics on] yourself for the whole season and the last four to know what the other team is looking at.
“As far as the other teams, we usually have an advance guy only a week ahead of time, so we’ve already got something on the Vikings and we’ll have something on the Falcons before we play them. Again, it’s more about us – our tendencies, our pluses, our minuses, where we’ve been successful and where we haven’t been.”
Success on offense has been a struggle, as Brady just can’t find a rhythm with anyone in the first half, the Bucs are seemingly always coming from behind. Defensively, the Tampa secondary was torched by Tyreek Hill (13/269/3) and Patrick Mahomes (37-49/462/3) a week after Cooper Kupp and Robert Woods lit them up.
“We’ve got to cover tighter and we’ve got to get home faster,” Arians said. “We can’t let a guy in man coverage have 3.7 [or] 3.8 seconds to throw a ball – it’s got to come out in three or less. We can cover for 10 to 12 yards, but we can’t give them that much time.
“Again, Patrick [Mahomes] is an unbelievable guy and he just keeps backpedaling. He was backpedaling to his left for about 9.5 yards and then throws a dime. We don’t see him every week, but I think tighter coverage – against the Rams it was tighter coverage – but when we’re playing man, we have to get home.”
It was the Tyreek Hill in the first half on Sunday as the speedy receiver had 213 yards and all two of his three TD’s in the first 30 minutes. A Harrison Butker 19-yard field goal, and Hill touchdown receptions of 75 & 44 yards put Kansas City up 17-0 after one.
Ronald Jones took a screen from Brady (27-41/345/3 TD/2 INT) late in the second and rumbled 37 yards to cut it to 17-7, but another Butker field goal with 14 seconds left pushed it to 20-7 at the half.
In fairness, the Bucs defense did play better in the second half while Brady and Rob Gronkowski (6/106) found a connection to get things moving. Ryan Succop hit a field goal early in the third, but Hill hauled in a 20-yard TD catch to make it 27-10 heading to the fourth.
Mike Evans cut it to 27-17 early in the fourth with a 31-yard TD catch and added a 7-yard TD catch with 4:10 to go to make it a one score game, but the Chiefs offense managed to grab a few first downs and ice the game.
“We battled back, but unfortunately left ourselves a big deficit early on,” said Brady. “Couldn’t convert any third downs, just poor execution early. Get behind and you know, players have to do a better job, we have to make the plays that are there. When you play a good offense we’ve got to do our job and stay on the field.”
As the struggles between Arians and Brady continue in terms of who is truly controlling the offense (let’s be honest, Byron Leftwich is in ‘be seen and not heard’ mode in those meetings), Brady talked postgame about how a lack of rhythm with any of the receivers has been a huge problem.
“Football is so much about that, being in rhythm, staying in rhythm and finding a rhythm,” he said. “As we keep going forward we keep learning more and more about ourselves and we’re going to get back to work and try to get better heading into the last quarter of the season.”
Brady and the Bucs better figure it out soon, or the GOAT might be sitting on his couch on Wild Card weekend with nothing to do but float around in his pool for the first time since 2008.