Good, bad and ugly from Tampa Bay Buccaneers' loss to New Orleans Saints

It was not the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' day on Sunday, as they dropped a sloppy game against the New Orleans Saints, 24-20.

The loss has major playoff implications for the Bucs as they drop to 2-1 in divisional games this season and are now tied for the NFC South lead with the Carolina Panthers. Things don’t get easier as the Bucs get ready to face the Atlanta Falcons on Thursday Night Football with just four days of rest. There’s a possibility the offense will have Mike Evans and Jalen McMillan for the game, but a new injury concern arose in the loss to the Saints.

It’s hard to have faith in a Bucs team that looks so hapless on both sides of the ball and special teams. However, even if there is some reassurance knowing they’ve been here before and managed to pull themselves out of it, it’s also starting to feel like it might be too big a hole, especially if they continue to lose ground. Here’s the good, bad and ugly from the Bucs' loss to the Saints.

Good

Bucs Rushing offense

On a day when not many things went right, the Bucs' offense was able to run the ball with good success on Sunday. As the rain picked up and forced both teams to the ground game, Tampa Bay was able to capitalize by picking up yards, even if it didn’t translate to points on the board.

The three-headed attack of Bucky Irving, Rachaad White and Sean Tucker ran for a combined 137 yards, with Baker Mayfield adding 42 yards of his own. Irving led all running backs in yards with 55, just edging out White’s 53 yards. However, it was Mayfield who made several big plays with his feet and Tucker who scored the touchdown.

Pass Rush

The Bucs got to Tyler Shough twice on Sunday and made him feel their presence on several other plays as the day went on. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough of an effort to win the Bucs the game, but it was certainly an improvement on what we’ve seen in recent weeks.

Calling the performance good may be a stretch, but encouraging certainly fits the bill. Vita Vea added to his sack total this season after the Bucs answered the Saints' score with one of their own, dropping Shough for a seven-yard loss. Chris Braswell got into the action as well with a 13-yard sack that ended New Orleans' drive.

LT Ben Chukwuma

It wasn’t always perfect, but Chukwuma had as good a first career start for an undrafted rookie left tackle with just two years of college experience can, and then more. There were a few plays where he got beaten and one or two where it was pretty bad, but for the most part, he played a solid game in both phases of the offense. There are definitely some things to clean up, but the Bucs might’ve found another undrafted gem in Chukwuma.

Bad

WR Emeka Egbuka

It wasn’t Egbuka’s day against the Saints. With an opportunity to pull ahead of Tet MCMillan in the rookie of the year race with him on a bye, Egbuka not only didn’t produce with just 15 yards on the day, he also had two ginormous drops, one that cost the Bucs a chance to win. Egbuka caught just two of his nine receptions with drops on third down and an end-of-the-fourth-quarter pass to the end zone, which would’ve likely won the Bucs the game.

Kick Return Coverage

Coverage issues popped up again for the Bucs on Sunday and quickly. Right out of the gate, the Buccaneers allowed a huge kick return by Mason Tipton to the Tampa Bay 45-yard line for a 54-yard return. The return gave the Saints tremendous field position, and they went on to score in five plays. Later, a holding penalty on a punt took 10 yards off the board, backing the Bucs up from nearly midfield from the 43 to the 33-yard line.

Mental Errors

Penalties, missed reads, wrong routes — you name it, it happened to the Bucs offense. The Bucs had a bad day at the office on Sunday against the Saints. Mental mistakes ruled the day, and as Baker Mayfield said after the game, things won’t change until they can clean up the little things, especially on a short week. Mayfield was not particularly sharp on the day, but his lone interception came on a play where it appears Kam Johnson just cut his route short, delivering a gift to the Saints' secondary. The Bucs' seven penalties, including two false starts, certainly didn’t help in a losing effort.

Ugly

Middle Of the Field Defense

The middle of the field continues to be a nightmare for the Bucs defense as Lavonte David has shown his age this season and SirVocea Dennis has been inconsistent in his play. The area was again torched by an opposing team, with the Saints adding up more than 100 yards of offense targeting this area of the field. Devaughn Vele had a particularly strong game with three receptions for 40 yards, while Juwan Johnson turned in four catches for 38 yards. There's not much the Bucs can do this year to remedy this problem, but it needs to be thoroughly vetted in the offseason.

Run Defense

The Bucs' bread and butter on defense for years was their ability to shut down opposing teams' rushing attacks. It was true for a long time and even at points this season, but that wasn't the case on Sunday. Against the Saints, the Bucs have looked like just another average run-defending unit as they were gashed for 139 yards and three touchdowns. New Orleans didn’t even have three rushing touchdowns on the season and scored three against the Bucs. Two of them were on an explosive run by rookie quarterback Tyler Shough. Bijan Robinson and the Fakcosn are next, and the Bucs can’t afford to be as porous as they were against the Saints on Thursday.

Third-down and fourth-down offense

This has been such a horrible decline from last season, when the Bucs had the number one-ranked third-down offense in the league. Coming into this game, Tampa Bay was ranked 25th in third-down offense. After Sunday, they likely fell further back in the ranking after an abysmal 3-13 showing on the pivotal down. To make matters worse, the Bucs went for it on fourth down after failing on third down six (!) times and were successful just once on the day. Josh Grizzard was the third-down guru last year, but maybe things need to change this season as the Bucs continue to struggle.

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