Bucs start slow, finish fast, ultimately fall short against Eagles

TAMPA — This time, there was no Baker Mayfield magic. No two-minute thrill. No last-play heroics. No willing the Bucs to win on the final drive or when the clock struck zero.After three straight weeks of putting the team on his back, the comeback quarterback couldn’t dig them out of a 21-point hole against the defending Super Bowl champion Eagles Sunday at Raymond James Stadium.This time, the lack of a fantastic finish only highlighted the Bucs’ habit of sluggish starts, which sealed their fate.What the Bucs learned in their 31-25 loss is you can’t spot greatness a big lead and expect to steal the ending.“Our guys are going to fight, and (linebacker) Lavonte (David) hit on it postgame with everybody, and I couldn’t have said it better myself: This group is too damn good to start slow, and until we take accountability of that it should piss us off,” Mayfield said. “This is Week 4. It should piss us off.”Oh, the Bucs fought. They did some incredible things, actually. Chase McLaughlin connected on a club-record and career-best 65-yard field goal as the first half ended and added a 58-yarder for good measure.Mayfield brought the Bucs back with quick touchdown strikes of 77 yards to Emeka Egbuka and 72 yards to Bucky Irving in the second half. Tampa Bay also benefitted from six first downs off penalties on the Eagles.But two turnovers — their first of the year — and another blocked punt doomed the Bucs. In fact, the game had an ominous start. After going three-and-out, Riley Dixon’s first punt attempt was blocked by Cameron Latu and returned 35 yards for a touchdown by Sydney Brown less than three minutes into the game. It was the second blocked punt of the season allowed by the Bucs and the third blocked kick overall. A week ago, the Jets blocked a McLaughlin field-goal attempt and returned it for a touchdown to take the lead with less than two minutes remaining.What in the world is wrong with the Bucs special teams?“It’s something we’ll figure out at the meetings,” head coach Todd Bowles said. “We’ll look at the whole operation and how we’re doing it. Why we’re doing it and if we’re doing it with the right people and the right scheme. That’s three weeks in a row something went wrong, and we’ll get that fixed.”Even after all that, McLaughlin bombing a 65-yard field goal to end the first half seemed to give the Bucs some life despite trailing 24-6. But running back Bucky Irving lost a fumble at the Tampa Bay 25-yard line midway through the third quarter that Philadelphia turned into a 6-yard Saquon Barkley touchdown run. The most egregious mistake came from Mayfield himself. Having cut the Eagles lead to one score at 31-23, the Bucs had a first down at the Eagles 11-yard line. Mayfield was flushed out of the pocket and tried to shoehorn a pass to Chris Godwin in the end zone that was intercepted by Eagles linebacker Jihaad Campbell for a touchback with 7:48 remaining.“Obviously, he’s got to take better care of the ball,” Bowles said. “Baker will be the first one to tell you that. You can’t have a fumble with Bucky. You add a blocked punt for seven points, and it’s three turnovers. You’re not going to beat the Super Bowl champs turning the ball over three times.”Mayfield said he wasn’t sure if his pass to Godwin, who was making his first start since dislocating his ankle 11 months ago, was tipped or just slipped out of his hands.“I’ve got to have extra precaution down there,” Mayfield said. “We’re driving down. It’s a one-score game. Yeah, the fight, we always talked about it. We fight back and we don’t stop until the game is over. ... But the negative is we talked about starting fast, and we did the opposite (Sunday), so we’ve got to fix that.”The fight will never be a problem with the Bucs as long as Mayfield is under center. He was walking toward the Philadelphia sideline late in the first quarter when Eagles coach Nick Sirianni began yelling at him. Cornerback Quinyon Mitchell went after Mayfield, leading Bucs tackle Tristan Wirfs to step in. Eventually, Wirfs got his helmet ripped off.“Just a little talking back and forth right there, because we know each other,” Sirianni said. “Like I said to him, besides our guys, he’s one of my favorite guys to watch in the NFL.”Unlike the Texans game, when Mayfield ran for a first down on fourth and 10 to sustain a game-winning drive, this time his fourth-and-9 pass to tight end Cade Otton went for only 2 yards and resulted in a turnover on downs.Leading by 8, the Eagles chose for punter Braden Mann to run backwards 34 yards for a safety to end the game. Turns out, not all of the Bucs’ game-ending scores are made the same.“We got punched in the mouth, and going into halftime we looked at the score and said, ‘All right, what are we going to do now?’” Mayfield said. “But we’re too damn good to wait to get hit in the mouth. We’ve got to come out swinging. We’ve got to play better.”• • • Sign up for our Sports Today newsletter to get daily updates on the Bucs, Rays, Lightning and college football across Florida.Every weekday, tune into our Sports Day Tampa Bay podcast to hear reporter Rick Stroud break down the biggest stories in Tampa Bay sports.Never miss out on the latest with your favorite Tampa Bay sports teams. Follow our coverage on X and Facebook .

Bucs start slow, finish fast, ultimately fall short against Eagles

Join the Conversation

MORE FOR YOU

Bucs start slow, finish fast, ultimately fall short against Eagles

Join the Conversation

MORE FOR YOU

ONLY AVAILABLE FOR SUBSCRIBERS