By Cody Queen
Queen Media Sports Report
Tampa Bay passed the test everybody was worried about and flunked the ones nobody mentioned. The question going into Sunday night was whether the running-game revival could survive a road trip, prime time and one of the league's best teams. It did. The Bucs lost anyway, 27-24, when Cairo Santos hit a 38-yard field goal as time expired at Soldier Field. They're 3-6 now, and this one is going to sit in the film room for a while, because it was there to be won.
Per the team's own game story, both offenses and both defenses came in ranked in the top four in rushing yards. Tampa Bay won that fight going away, 126 rushing yards to Chicago's 72. Bucky Irving carried 20 times for 97 yards and scored both touchdowns, the first on a two-yard toss to the left behind a pulling Tristan Wirfs (always a pleasant view for a running back), the second on a six-yard run with under three minutes left. Baker Mayfield's two-point run up the middle tied it at 24. Irving's best moment came early in the fourth quarter, a 25-yard run where he spun out of several tackles and ended up at the Chicago 33. He added 28 receiving yards for good measure.
D'Andre Swift, meanwhile, got 31 yards on 12 carries. Tell Todd Bowles before kickoff that he'd win the rushing battle by 54 yards and pick off Caleb Williams four times, and he's planning a very happy flight home.
So what happened? Mistakes. Plenty of them, and a couple that cost real points.
Chicago scored on its first two drives, a nine-yard Williams pass to Rome Odunze and a 56-yard catch-and-run by Luther Burden III, and it was 14-0 before Tampa Bay found its footing. "I thought everyone was a little antsy starting the game, the first two drives," Bowles said. Antsy is a generous word for it. After that, though, his defense took over. Tykee Smith picked Williams off at the three-yard line. Zyon McCollum got him twice, which makes four on the season for McCollum. Alex Anzalone caught one that Jacob Parrish tipped. That's a season-high five takeaways, and with 16 interceptions the Bucs lead the NFL. It was the second straight week they picked off four passes.
Which makes what the offense did with all that free field position hard to defend. Three second-quarter interceptions turned into three points. A fourth-and-1 quarterback keeper got stopped. Twice the Bucs left the offense out there on fourth down just to try to draw the Bears offside, and twice they took a delay of game and sent the kicker out anyway. Chase McLaughlin was perfect again, from 27, 21 and 35, and he still hasn't missed this season. Good for him. Field goals don't beat a 7-2 team in its own building.
Then came the real swing. In the third quarter, Anzalone's interception handed Tampa Bay the ball in Chicago territory, and moments later Mayfield threw one that Jaylon Johnson returned 67 yards for a touchdown. Instead of a shot at the lead, the Bucs were down 24-13. Mayfield didn't dress it up. "Especially when it turns into immediate points on the pick-six and that was obviously the difference in the game," he said.
His night overall was a strange one. He went 18 of 32 for 243 yards, a season high in his third game back from the dislocated right thumb, along with those two interceptions. Tez Johnson's 57-yard catch set up Irving's first score, and Emeka Egbuka, back after missing two games with a foot injury, caught three passes. But the offense went 2 for 12 on third down against the league's best third-down defense and was flagged eight times. Five of those were false starts. Five! Bowles kept it simple: "We've got to be better on third downs on both sides of the ball."
He's right about the both-sides part. Ifeatu Melifonwu recovered a fourth-quarter fumble on a Burden catch at the Chicago 17, and that set up the tying score. It was also the last time Tampa Bay's offense touched the ball. Williams, four interceptions and all, found Colston Loveland wide open down the left sideline for 38 yards, and the Bears ran the clock down for Santos. The quarterback who threw four picks got the last word, which is about as maddening as this sport gets.
What's worth keeping is the run game. Ninety-seven yards for Irving against a top-four run defense, on the road, tells me the revival is real and not a product of soft matchups. The Bucs didn't lose this on the ground. They lost it on turnovers, flags and third downs, and those are fixable, at least on paper.
And the NFC South, bless it, barely moved. Carolina and New Orleans sit at 3-5, Tampa Bay is a half-game back, and the Bucs are 2-0 in the division. Now comes the bye week, and after it, Detroit at Ford Field.
Don't just watch the game. Understand it. Queen Media Sports Report.
Cody Queen is the lead columnist for the Queen Media Sports Report, bringing you the hard hitting facts, the deep dives, and the unapologetic truth about the teams you love. Queen Media Sports Report is brought to you by Backwater Royalty.
