The good, bad and ugly from Buccaneers' 44-32 loss to Bills

It was a back-and-forth contest on Sunday in the Tampa Bay Buccaneers ' heartbreaking loss to the Buffalo Bills. Ultimately, the Bucs just didn’t do enough to win, falling 44-32.

Explosive plays were once again the Buccaneers' Achilles heel, with the Bills capitalizing on a number of them on Sunday. The Bucs allowed five explosive plays on the day, three of them for touchdowns. Until the Bucs can learn how to defend against big-play teams, those teams are going to continue to try to take advantage of them.

Baker Mayfield was up and down on the day, giving up two turnovers but making magic with his legs. He missed several open receivers and made some bad throws in what continues to be a hot and cold showing from the quarterback. On a day where the Bucs were able to capitalize in the run game, going over 200 yards, the Bucs squandered opportunities on both sides of the ball in their loss despite putting up 32 points. Now at 6-4, the Bucs get ready to take on the 7-2 Los Angeles Rams on Sunday Night Football.

There’s a lot to fix before then and little time to do it. Hopefully, the Bucs can get healthy this week as they’re going to need all hands on deck to avoid falling 6-5. Here’s the good, bad and ugly from the Bucs' Week 11 loss to the Bills.

The Good

CB Jacob Parrish

Parrish knew he’d have a busy day, but an interception was just on the wish list, not the to-do list. His interception set the Bucs up to put the first points of the day on the board.

Parrish made his presence felt in the run game as well with a big tackle for loss on James Cook. The rookie came out of the second half ready to go, making a big three-yard tackle for loss on Khalil Shakir to set the Bills offense up in third and long. However, Parrish had a costly mistake late in the fourth quarter, nullifying a third-down stop with a facemask penalty.

S Tykee Smith

Tykee Smith has been everywhere this season and has a serious case for Pro Bowl, if not All-Pro honors. He made several big plays again against the Bills with a huge tackle in the run game that could’ve gone for more than the yard it did had he not been there.

Smith also had two big pass breakups in the first half. One of them was nearly picked, while SirVocea Dennis came down with Smith’s second deflection to give the ball back to the Bucs offense. Smith was out of position on Dawson Knox’s big 23-yard grab, but played sound defense most of the day for the Buccaneers yet again.

RB Sean Tucker

Tucker needed to have a big game if the Bucs were going to have a chance against the Bills, and he delivered. A huge 43-yard touchdown run momentarily gave Tampa Bay the lead in the first half, and Tucker would give the Bucs the lead again in the second half with a six-yard touchdown run in the third quarter.

Tucker added to his offensive explosiveness with a 28-yard touchdown pass in the fourth and totaled over 140 total yards on the day. He notched 106 yards rushing with two touchdowns and 34 yards receiving, adding a score as well.

The Bad

Benjamin Morrison

Morrison had another rough outing on Sunday.

Filling in for the injured Jamel Dean, the rookie corner was beaten on another long touchdown. This time, he let receiver Tyrel Shavers behind him for a 43-yard score. Once Morrison’s man was picked up coming across the middle of the field, he was responsible for the perimeter of the field and picking up the receiver coming out of the flat if he went deep. He failed to do so and had to play catch-up, too late to make a play.

He also had a defensive holding call right before the half as the Bills were looking to score, but it was declined in favor of a Logan Hall roughing the passer. In the fourth quarter, Morrison lost his man and allowed a 22-yard catch by Gabe Davis to set the Bills up inside the Bucs' 30.

Pass rush

The Bucs front seven struggled to get consistent pressure on Bills quarterback Josh Allen, and even when they did, they failed to bring him down behind the line of scrimmage.

Allen ran for 40 yards and three touchdowns off scrambles, and the Bucs defense failed to record a sack on him on the day. The team is missing Haason Reddick in the worst way and needs him to return sooner rather than later. Jamel Dean getting knocked out early due to a hip injury certainly didn’t make their job easier, but they need to get pressure more than they have as of late. After a three-game 10-sack explosion, the Bucs defense has just one in their last two games.

The Ugly

Kickoff Coverage

The Bucs' special teams units have been inconsistent all year long. That didn’t change on Sunday. Although the punt unit did recover a fumble, the field goal unit allowed a block that was wiped due to a penalty, and the kick-off coverage was horrendous.

Tampa Bay’s kickoff coverage allowed kick returns of 61,29, 44, 41 and 44 yards on the day. The Bucs cannot move forward allowing big plays in the kicking game and will need to put extra emphasis on this area this week in practice.

Explosive plays

Once again, the Bucs let explosive plays become their Achilles heel. After allowing five of them last week, four for 50-plus yards, the Bucs were back at it on Sunday against the Bills. Buffalo got two big plays on the Bucs in the first half, scoring touchdowns on passes of 43 and 52 yards. They were back at it in the second half after a Baker Mayfield interception. Allen hit James Cook, who was matched up on Anthony Nelson, for the 25-yard score to retake the lead. In a week where the team was chewed out for allowing so many explosive plays, the Bucs have now matched their total from last week and allowed six touchdowns in two weeks of 25 yards or more.

Another explosive play in the fourth quarter allowed the Bills to re-take the lead when Allen hit Dawson Knox for 23 yards and then ran it in himself from five yards out on the next play. When the Bucs needed a stop with time running out in the fourth quarter, they let Buffalo hit another explosive play. James Cook was wide open for a 23-yard pick-up that ended up sealing the Bucs' fate.

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