Another Collapse, Another Gut Punch: Bucs Defense Falters Again in Fourth Quarter
CHARLOTTE, N.C. - The Tampa Bay Buccaneers don’t have the worst defense in the NFL. Statistically, they’re not even close. But if you’re looking for the most excruciating, late-game letdowns in football right now, Tampa’s defense is leading the league in heartbreak.
Sunday’s 23-20 loss to the Panthers was just the latest chapter in a brutal stretch where the Bucs have watched second-half leads evaporate like clockwork. That’s four blown leads in five weeks. Four games where Tampa had control - and then lost it when it mattered most.
Let’s run it back.
- Up 17-14 late in the third quarter against the Saints? Gone.
- Leading the Falcons 28-14 with 10 minutes left? Gone.
- Holding a 17-13 edge over Carolina in the third quarter? Tied, then lost in the final minutes.
And it’s not like they’re getting torched by MVP candidates. The Saints, Falcons, and Panthers entered the week ranked 26th, 28th, and 29th in scoring offense, respectively.
These aren’t juggernauts. These are teams with backup quarterbacks, interim coaches, and offenses that had been struggling to move the ball all season.
Yet somehow, they’ve all found ways to break Tampa’s heart - and its defense - when it counts.
“It definitely is [heartbreaking], it’s tough,” said veteran linebacker Lavonte David. “Especially being a leader on this defense.
It’s hard to deal with. But I know we’re going to be better.
Whatever we need to get done, we’re going to get it done.”
That’s the kind of resolve you expect from a leader like David, but even he knows words only go so far. The Bucs have dropped seven of their last nine games. And while the offense has had its moments of inconsistency, it’s the defense that keeps coming up short when the game is on the line.
Cornerback Jamel Dean didn’t shy away from the accountability.
“I would have never expected this, but it is the NFL. Everybody is capable of making plays,” Dean said. “We’ve just got to stop making so many mistakes, myself included.”
So what’s going wrong?
Inside the locker room, players are hesitant to point fingers. But the tape - and the numbers - tell a story.
The outside pass rush just hasn’t been there. And when you can’t collapse the pocket, everything else on defense starts to unravel.
Head coach Todd Bowles acknowledged the impact of the pass-rushing issues but stopped short of pinning the team’s struggles entirely on that group.
“It doesn’t affect everything,” Bowles said. “I thought for the most part the coverage held everything in front of them. They got behind [Benjamin] Morrison one time at the end, they got behind Dean before the half … when the pressure was there, the ball was coming out so fast.”
Still, Bowles knows the defense has to start making plays up front.
“We’ve got to make some plays in the pass rush,” he said.
On Sunday, the Bucs registered two sacks - both coming from inside linebacker blitzes. That’s a high-risk, high-reward approach.
When it hits, it works. When it doesn’t, it leaves your secondary exposed.
And that’s exactly what happened at the end of the first half.
With Carolina out of timeouts and just 12 seconds left on the clock at the Tampa Bay 22-yard line, Bowles dialed up an all-out blitz. Linebackers Lavonte David and SirVocea Dennis, along with safety Antoine Winfield Jr., came charging. That left Jamel Dean one-on-one in the end zone with Panthers receiver Tetairoa McMillan.
Even with seven rushers bearing down, rookie quarterback Bryce Young stood tall and delivered a perfect strike to McMillan. Touchdown. Carolina went into halftime with a 13-10 lead - and all the momentum.
“There’s not one thing I can tell you that’s going wrong, it’s just a question of everybody doing their job,” said Winfield. “It’s tough, obviously it’s tough. I want to go back and watch to see what we did wrong and how we could have been better and how I could have made more of an impact than I did.”
The bigger picture? The decline hasn’t been sudden - it’s been a steady slide.
In 2023, the Bucs ranked seventh in scoring defense. Last season, they dropped to 16th.
Heading into Sunday, they were sitting at 24th. That trend is hard to ignore.
The edge rushers - Haason Reddick, Yaya Diaby, Anthony Nelson, and Chris Braswell - have combined for 12.5 sacks this season. To put that in perspective, that’s nearly 10 fewer than what Cleveland’s Myles Garrett has managed on his own.
After last week’s collapse against the Falcons, Bowles challenged his team to look in the mirror. This week? Another mirror, another reflection they won’t like.
“It’s not disappointing, it’s frustrating,” Bowles said. “But you’ve got to wake up and move on like you do every other day.
We know that as a team, and we understand exactly where we are. We’ve got some great leaders that’ll lead us there.”
The Bucs still have talent. They still have leaders. But until they figure out how to close games, especially against teams they should be beating, the frustration will keep piling up.
And in the NFL, heartbreak like this doesn’t just sting - it defines seasons.