The struggling Tampa Bay Buccaneers insist they are not as bad as they have played at times this season. “We believe in ourselves as a team,” Bowles added. The offense started slowly again in Thursday night’s 24-18 loss to the Buffalo Bills.
Facing a short week, and questions about Buffalo’s sluggish offense and injury-depleted defense, Bills coach Sean McDermott entrusted his players in believing they’ve been together long enough to know how to tackle adversity. “Listen, we’ve shown that we know how to win, and we know how to figure things out, and we know how to develop players and find the answers and solutions,” McDermott said, in preparing to host Tampa Bay on Thursday night. The message was notably similar in Tampa Bay (3-3), where coach Todd Bowles dismissed questions about the Bills struggles by placing the emphasis on his Buccaneers to respond after dropping two straight and three of four.
Todd Bowles’ message was short and to the point. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have dropped three of four games following a 2-0 start. The latest was a 16-13 loss to the Atlanta Falcons, who overcame three turnovers in the red zone to not only stop an eight-game road losing streak but replace the Bucs (3-3) at top of the NFC South standings.
Desmond Ridder and the mistake-prone Atlanta Falcons gave the Tampa Bay Buccaneers all kinds of opportunities to hang onto first place in the NFC South before showing why they believe they're a team headed in the right direction. Overcoming three fumbles the young quarterback lost deep in Bucs territory, as well as numerous costly penalties on defense, the Falcons rallied Sunday for a 16-13 victory that stopped an eight-game road losing streak and lifted them atop the division. Ridder scored on a 2-yard run for an early 7-0 lead and shrugged off his mistakes to use a 39-yard completion to Kyle Pitts to set up Younghoe Koo's third field goal of the game, a 51-yarder as time expired to hand the Bucs (3-3) their third loss in four games.
The surest path to the playoffs is a division championship, which isn’t a far-fetched goal if you’re part of the less-than-imposing NFC South. Tampa Bay won with a losing record last season, and the first-place Buccaneers (3-2) haven’t exactly been a juggernaut in building the slender division lead they’ll carry into Sunday’s home matchup against the rival Atlanta Falcons (3-3). “That’s important,” Bucs receiver Mike Evans said.