The Buccaneers’ defense did everything it could in Chicago and still walked away with a 27-24 loss, a brutal result for a team that forced five turnovers and still couldn’t get enough from the offense to cash them in.
That imbalance showed up clearly in the snap counts. Tampa Bay leaned heavily on its wide receivers, but the production didn’t match the usage.
Chris Godwin Jr. logged 91% of the offensive snaps, Tez Johnson was next at 79%, and Emeka Egbuka returned from a two-game absence to play 76%. Yet the group combined for only seven catches.
By comparison, the Bears’ receivers finished with 16 receptions while their tight ends had six, and no running back caught a pass.
Johnson had the biggest single play of the day, hauling in a 58-yard pass from Baker Mayfield that set up a Bucky Irving touchdown. But he also had two drops in what was his heaviest workload of the season.
Godwin finished with two catches for 16 yards, though his most notable contribution came on a 12-yard handoff. Egbuka had three catches for 38 yards, including two first-down grabs, one of them a 21-yard screen.
The most striking number on offense belonged to rookie wide receiver Ted Hurst III, who played just one snap. Hurst dropped a pass with eight minutes left in the second quarter on a second-down play and never returned. It was a clear benching, and it came before he had even been involved in any of the drives that followed earlier in the game.
That leaves Tampa Bay in a tough spot. The team is clearly trying to hold players accountable for mistakes, but the passing game is struggling enough that it can’t really afford to lose another option. Hurst’s size at 6-foot-4 gives him a dimension the offense can use, including the chance to threaten downfield and draw pass interference calls.
The tight end usage shifted down because of all the three-receiver sets, with Cade Otton playing every snap while Payne Durham was at 21% and Bauer Sharp at 12%. The Bucs did run for 126 yards, so it’s hard to argue the position needed more work, especially after the group had been so productive in the previous two games.
At running back, Bucky Irving handled 69% of the snaps to Kenny Gainwell’s 38%. Irving scored twice, while Gainwell’s biggest moment was a 44-yard reception. Sean Tucker was essentially out of the picture, and that usage pattern appears set.
On defense, the snap distribution had one surprise: veteran outside linebacker Anthony Nelson started at edge rusher opposite Rueben Bain Jr. with Yaya Diaby out. Nelson had been seeing the fewest snaps at the position since the Bucs began giving David Walker more work, so the decision stood out. Nelson made the most of it with a half sack and nearly forced a fumble on D’Andre Swift, coming just a split-second short.
But the real story was the defense’s overall impact. Calijah Kancey was everywhere, finishing with three tackles and a half sack while consistently collapsing the pocket and rattling Caleb Williams in the second half. Vita Vea continued to be a major factor as well, and the stronger play from those two has cut into the snaps for Elijah Roberts and Elijah Simmons, even if the rotation remains similar.
The rest of the defense held its usual workload, though Antoine Winfield Jr. left early with an ankle injury. Ifeatu Melifonwu stepped in and played well again, capped by a late fumble recovery in a key moment.
Then came the turnovers. Tampa Bay forced five of them, including four interceptions for the second straight week.
Jacob Parrish helped set one up by deflecting a pass that was picked off by Alex Anzalone. Zyon McCollum answered a rough first quarter with two second-quarter interceptions.
Tykee Smith came through with a red zone pick, and Rueben Bain Jr. forced the late fumble that helped tie the game.
It was the kind of defensive performance that should have been remembered for a long time. Instead, it got buried in another one-score loss.
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The Buccaneers came out of Chicago with a loss they could not afford, falling 27-24 to the Bears and slipping to 3-6 despite a defense that repeatedly handed them chances to take control. Tampa Bay forced five turnovers and still managed only 10 points off those takeaways, a wasted edge that made the afternoon feel like a missed opportunity from the opening quarter onward.
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Baker Mayfields two interceptions, including one returned for a touchdown, only sharpened the concern around an offense that has not matched the standard set by the defense. The Buccaneers now head into their bye week with a problem that is easy to identify and harder to fix, because the talent is there but the execution has not been. For a team trying to stay in the race, the next stretch is less about what the defense can do and more about whether the offense can finally meet it halfway. [Read more 🡒]