Bowles: Bucs’ ‘inexcusable’ loss falls on players

Tampa Bay Buccaneers coach Todd Bowles blasted his players and challenged them to “look in the mirror” after his team blew a two-touchdown lead in the fourth quarter and lost 29-28 to the Atlanta Falcons on Thursday night at Raymond James Stadium.

The Bucs (7-7) lost for the fifth time in six games to fall a half-game behind the Carolina Panthers in the NFC South.

“You don’t make excuses,” Bowles said in an expletive-laden reaction. “You got to f—ing care enough where the s— hurts. It’s got to f—ing mean something to you. It’s more than a job. It’s your f—ing livelihood. How well do you know your job? How well can you do your job? You can’t sugarcoat that s—.”

After the Falcons cut a 14-point deficit to 28-20 on Bijan Robinson‘s 6-yard touchdown run with under 10 minutes left, Bucs quarterback Baker Mayfield was picked off by Dee Alford on the ensuing drive. Atlanta then drove 67 yards for a score, missing the 2-point conversion to make it 28-26.

The Falcons forced the Buccaneers to punt and got the ball at their 30 with no timeouts and 1:49 to go. Facing a third-and-28 on their final drive, quarterback Kirk Cousins completed passes of 14 yards to Kyle Pitts Sr. and 20 yards on fourth-and-14 to David Sills V to set up Zane Gonzalez‘s 43-yard field goal as time expired.

Bowles called the loss “inexcusable” and put the onus on the Bucs’ players to execute.

“At this point you’ve seen everything in the season,” Bowles said. “The coaches have done everything they can do. This is a player-driven team in the last four or five weeks. You’ve got to execute, and they’ve got to hold each other accountable. As a coach, you can sit there until you’re blue in the face. Until they start holding each other accountable and doing the little things right — and that’s not everybody, you know, we’re talking about a small, select few. But the small, select few is what’s getting us beat. And until that happens, it’s not going to get right.”

According to ESPN Analytics, the Bucs’ chances of winning the NFC South fall to 35% if the Panthers win against the New Orleans Saints on Sunday; they rise to 76% if the Panthers lose.

Mayfield had all of his wide receivers available for the first time this season after six-time Pro Bowl pick Mike Evans and second-year pro Jalen McMillan were activated from injured reserve.

He shouldered the blame for Thursday night’s loss.

“This one is going to haunt me. It falls on my shoulders,” Mayfield said. “It’s not the defense’s fault. It’s my fault.”

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.