The Buccaneers walked out of Chicago with a 27-24 loss, and the game turned on a familiar split: the defense dragged Tampa Bay back into it, while the offense kept handing the Bears chances to escape.
For most of the afternoon, the Bucs’ defense looked nothing like the group that stumbled out of the gate. Chicago scored touchdowns on its first two drives, then Tampa Bay slammed the door.
After that opening burst, the Bears managed only two field goals the rest of the way. Caleb Williams, who had completed 75% of his passes for 112 yards on those first two drives, finished the rest of the game at 55% for 167 yards and threw four interceptions, a career high for the Bears quarterback.
Tampa Bay’s defense finished with five total takeaways, and one of the biggest came with under four minutes left when a rookie outside linebacker forced a Luther Burden III fumble at Chicago’s 17-yard line. That set up a Bucky Irving rushing touchdown that tied the game 24-24.
But the defense couldn’t close the door one more time. On the next Bears drive, a coverage bust opened the door for a long completion to Colston Loveland, putting Chicago in field-goal range before Cairo Santos drilled the 38-yarder to win it as time expired.
The problem for Tampa Bay was that the offense never matched the defense’s urgency. Even with the Bears giving them short fields, the Bucs managed just three points off the interceptions, and one of those possessions ended with a pick-six after Tampa Bay had already picked off Williams for the fourth time. Baker Mayfield did hit Tez Johnson for a 58-yard completion, but the bigger story was the turnover that swung the game late in the third quarter when he threw a pick-six to Jaylon Johnson.
The run game did its part. Bucky Irving carried 20 times for 97 yards and scored both Tampa Bay touchdowns. Kenneth Gainwell added just 16 yards on five carries, but the Bucs still leaned on the ground game less than they should have, running it 28 times compared with 32 pass attempts.
The passing game, though, was a mess. The offensive line and tight ends were flagged for five false starts, and the drops piled up too.
Tez Johnson dropped two potential third-down conversions, and Ted Hurst let an easy second-quarter pass slip away. The result was a passing attack that never settled in, despite the defense and special teams doing enough to tilt the game Tampa Bay’s way.
That’s where the concern sharpens around Mayfield’s season. The Buccaneers gave him a $165 million contract before the year, and the production hasn’t come close to matching that number.
His two interceptions in Chicago looked a lot like the kind of mistakes Jalon Daniels made against the Packers and Steelers earlier this season, and like the loss to Cincinnati, this one featured a pick-six that helped decide a one-score game. With Zac Robinson not giving him the same easy answers Dave Canales and Liam Coen did, Mayfield is being asked to carry more than he’s shown he can handle.
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Baker Mayfields Turnover Night Made This Bears Loss Sting Even More
Caleb Williams and Baker Mayfield turned a Bears-Buccaneers matchup into a turnover-heavy afternoon, with the two quarterbacks combining for six interceptions in a game that still somehow stayed tight all the way through. Chicago and Tampa Bay traded mistakes, but the Bears were able to keep enough of their footing to leave with a narrow victory in a game that never felt clean for either offense.
Mayfields rough night only added to the frustration for Tampa Bay, especially because the Buccaneers had chances to make the Bears pay for their own errors. Instead, the turnovers kept swinging the momentum back and forth, and Chicago did just enough in the closing stretch to survive the chaos and finish off the win. [Read more 🡒]
Buccaneers Wasted A Rare Edge And Now The Offense Is Under Fire
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.
Bucky Irving gave the Bucs a spark with two touchdowns in his hometown, and Jamel McCollum added two interceptions as part of a defense that did its job and then some. The problem was everything around it, from an offense that never fully cashed in to the decisions that left points on the table, leaving Todd Bowles and Zac Robinson facing a familiar kind of scrutiny as the season keeps slipping away. [Read more 🡒]
Todd Bowles Just Put Tampa Bays Biggest Problem In Focus
The Buccaneers left Chicago with a familiar kind of frustration, one that made Todd Bowles postgame message hard to miss. Tampa Bays defense did its part by creating extra chances, but the offense could not turn those takeaways into enough points, and the result was a loss that felt like a missed opportunity more than a simple setback. Bowles made clear afterward that the issue was not on the defensive side, where the unit continues to give the team a chance to win.
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 🡒]