TAMPA, Fla. — At last, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers seemed to capture the momentum they desperately needed while hosting the Washington Commanders in Sunday night’s NFC wild-card game at Raymond James Stadium.
Their defense had held the visitors to a field goal to start the third quarter. Their offense orchestrated a touchdown that gave them a lead, and then the Bucs defense delivered an early fourth-quarter goal-line stand that turned Washington away empty-handed after an incomplete Jayden Daniels pass in the end zone on fourth down. The play gave Tampa Bay the ball back deep in its own territory with just less than a quarter’s worth of clock remaining.
Quarterback Baker Mayfield felt so good about the apparent momentum swing and his team’s chances for a door-slamming, time-consuming possession, that he said: “That drive felt like we were going to go 96 yards.”
And then came the collapse that led to Mayfield and the Buccaneers’ 23-20, season-eliminating playoff loss to the surprising Commanders.
• A clumsily executed jet sweep designed for rookie wide receiver Jalen McMillan resulted in a fumble when the handoff from Mayfield bounced off McMillan’s hip and fell to the ground, where Washington linebacker Bobby Wagner recovered it at the 13-yard line.
• Four plays later — yet another fourth down for Washington — Daniels rifled a throw into the back of the end zone to Terry McLaurin for a 5-yard touchdown, giving the Commanders a 20-17 lead with 9:46 remaining.
• Six plays later, a promising Bucs possession fell flat when Washington’s defensive line stuffed a Mayfield keeper for no gain. Then a premature snap by center Graham Barton caught his linemates off-guard. They had barely moved by the time running back Bucky Irving got the handoff and found himself swarmed by defenders for a 2-yard loss. The Bucs had to settle for a game-tying field goal rather than a lead-securing touchdown with 4:41 remaining.
• Daniels — cooler than the other side of the pillow — then marched his team 51 yards, completing three straight passes for 45 yards before scrambling for 4 yards on third-and-2 to pick up the first down that positioned Washington kicker Zane Gonzalez for a 37-yard field goal with no time left. Dagger.
Just like that, the Buccaneers’ season ended. Throughout a campaign plagued by key injuries, losing streaks and a seesaw battle for the division, the Bucs displayed great resilience in finishing the regular season 10-7. But Sunday night, a slew of self-inflicted wounds dealt Tampa Bay an early playoff exit, thus commencing a long offseason.
“Not doing all the little things right will always come back to beat you in playoff mode, because you’re always playing a good team in the playoffs and they’re going to capitalize on it,” Mayfield said during his postgame news conference. “So, yeah, you look at a loss like this as extremely disappointing because you feel like you can control it, you could’ve capitalized on some of that stuff.”
Said Buccaneers coach Todd Bowles: “We were shooting ourselves in the foot on first downs with a lot of penalties in the first half … weren’t giving ourselves a chance. We turned the ball over with the field position that way. (It felt) like we never got in a good rhythm.”
Bowles’ team became the first higher-seeded team of this postseason to lose. The Houston Texans rolled over the Los Angeles Chargers and the Baltimore Ravens embarrassed the Pittsburgh Steelers on Saturday. On Sunday, the Buffalo Bills blew out the visiting Denver Broncos while the Philadelphia Eagles thumped the Green Bay Packers.
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It’s hard to win games in the NFL in general without winning the turnover battle or securing the edge on third- and fourth-down conversions. To win without executing in those areas in the playoffs is virtually impossible.
The Buccaneers fell short in a laundry list of key statistical categories. They had that crucial turnover while Washington never coughed up the ball (Tampa Bay struggled all season to force turnovers). They committed seven penalties for 65 yards while Washington had only five fouls for 39 yards. They let the Commanders convert eight of 15 third downs for first downs and three of five fourth downs for first downs or touchdowns. They also let Washington dominate them in time of possession (35:26 to 24:34).
The team with prior postseason experience is often the one that delivers the cleanest performance. But it was the Buccaneers — making their fifth straight playoff appearance while hosting a Washington team that hadn’t won a playoff game since the 2005 season — got outplayed and out-executed.
“You’ve got to give them credit,” Bowles said. “They made plays. (Daniels) has been making them all year. … We had our chance to make some plays that we didn’t make. But it was a combination of both. They made plays and we didn’t make the plays when we had the chance.”
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The 2024 campaign started with so much promise, as Tampa Bay blasted Washington in the season opener, then upset Detroit in Week 2. Owners of a 4-2 record midway through October, Tampa Bay then lost four straight while hit hard by injury. Then came the post-bye four-game winning streak, a loss and then two more victories to clinch the NFC South and a postseason berth.
During the season, rookies Irving, McMillan and Barton grew into core members of the offense. Meanwhile, other young players like safety Tykee Smith, edge rushers Chris Braswell and Yaya Diaby, defensive lineman Calijah Kancey, safeties Christian Izien and Kaevon Merriweather and cornerback Zyon McCollum all made meaningful contributions on defense.
The Buccaneers viewed themselves as battle-tested as they entered the postseason. But a handful of miscues made it virtually impossible to sustain a rhythm against Washington. Late in the first half, Mayfield and Mike Evans torched cornerback Marshon Lattimore five times for 65 yards and a touchdown. In the third quarter, Irving posted runs of 5, 6, 19, 10 and 6 yards before scoring on a 4-yard reception.
But the miscues kept popping up and added up, leaving Tampa Bay in a deficit and wondering: What if?
“You take out three or four plays, it’s a different ball game,” Barton said. “I thought overall we were clean, but like I said, playoffs, you have a couple of errors like that, you’re not going to win the game, or at least you don’t deserve to. So that’s what happened tonight. And it’s unfortunate that you know the season for this team is over.”
Eventually, the Buccaneers will reflect on the season and draw encouragement from the obstacles they overcame and optimism over the rising contributors who gained valuable experience. But the loss stung, and no one within the locker room had an appetite for moral victories.
“It’s disappointing overall, because I believe in this team,” Mayfield said. “I believe we have the talent and coaching staff and everybody around us to be able to go far. But looking back, trying to take a step back, big picture: This group fought. … There were a lot of young guys that are going to be on this roster next year that had to step up in a big way for a stretch, and those guys knowing who they are as players and as men in crucial situations, that’s something to be proud of.
“But for now, it just goes back to so disappointing to not make the plays that we needed to make and were capable of making.”
(Photo of Baker Mayfield: Kim Klement Neitzel / Imagn Images)
