Having lost five of their last six games to fall out of first place in the NFC South, frustration is mounting for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
One moment that encapsulates their exasperation came from star receiver Mike Evans, who was seen yelling “it’s third-and-28” repeatedly while walking to the locker room after Thursday’s 29-28 loss to the Atlanta Falcons.
The comment is a reference to the Falcons facing a third-and-28 on their final drive. Kirk Cousins completed passes of 14 and 21 yards on the next two plays to keep the drive alive and help set up Zane Gonzalez’s walk-off field goal to give Atlanta the win.
Even though Evans is right to be annoyed by that particular sequence, there’s plenty of blame to go around that explains what happened to the Bucs in this game.
Tampa Bay looked like it had pulled away early in the fourth quarter when Chris Godwin’s touchdown catch made the score 28-14.
Instead, the Falcons drove right down the field on their next possession. They went 65 yards in just eight plays, capped off by Bijan Robinson’s touchdown. They failed on a two-point conversion to make the score 28-20.
The Bucs’ ensuing offensive series ended when Baker Mayfield threw a terrible interception to Dee Alford. He was targeting Evans on an out route, but didn’t layer his throw enough to get it over the coverage at the second level of the field.
Atlanta converted that into a touchdown, cutting the deficit to 28-26 after another failed two-point attempt.
Getting the ball back with a chance to either ice the game with a score or potentially just run out the clock, the Bucs offense mustered just eight yards on six plays and had to punt the ball away with two minutes remaining.
The Falcons’ drive started in horrible fashion with Kirk Cousins being strip-sacked, though he recovered the ball for a loss of eight. Jake Matthews was called for holding on the next play to make set up the third-and-28 scenario.
Tampa also gave up five yards at one point when Vita Vea was called for an offside penalty when Cousins was trying to spike the ball to stop the clock.
All of this added up to a dreadful fourth quarter for the Bucs, who gave up 15 unanswered points to a Falcons team that went 13 consecutive drives without a touchdown between Weeks 13 and 14.
Tampa (7-7) now finds itself trailing the Carolina Panthers, who play the New Orleans Saints on Sunday, by one game in the loss column for first place in the NFC South.
The Buccaneers and Panthers will play twice over the final three weeks of the regular season, with the first meeting in Carolina on Dec. 21.