By now, you know the season is over for the Buccaneers.  They lost in excruciating fashion to the Commanders Sunday night in the wild card round, 23-20.

I want to focus on the fourth quarter, because that’s where this game was decided.  First, there was the fumble by Baker Mayfield, botching a handoff with Jalen McMillan.  Washington turned that mistake into a touchdown on a 4^th down pass by Jayden Daniels.  Then, late in the quarter, the Bucs were in the red zone.  They had 2^nd-and-1, and could not get the first down.  That third down play was a screw-up where Graham Barton snapped the ball too early.  None of the Bucs was ready.  The result: Tampa had to settle for a field goal to tie the game at 20.

The Buccaneers’ offense never saw the ball again.  For the fourth time this season, Todd Bowles’ defense allowed its opponent to march down the field and score the winning points on the final play.  We saw this in Atlanta, in Kansas City, vs San Francisco, and now in the playoffs.  The defense has been a problem all year, and once again they couldn’t get a stop when they needed it.

I wish they’d get rid of Bowles.  If they can fire Tony Dungy after a playoff loss, why can’t they do the same with Bowles?  It’s clear they’re not going to the Super Bowl with him as their head coach.  He runs the defense, and that was the biggest (though not the only) problem this season.  We’ll see what happens leading up to the draft.

Photo courtesy: Tampa Bay Buccaneers