in a 24-9 loss<\/a>\u00a0on Monday night.<\/p>\nEven worse, they lost star wide receiver Mike Evans for most of the rest of the season because of a broken collarbone.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you lose somebody like that, it\u2019s always going to affect your offense and you\u2019re going to have to change and do different things,\u201d coach Todd Bowles said Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Mayfield, who was the talk of the NFL after an impressive first six games, was erratic, missing high on several throws. The receivers struggled to get open against the Lions. Sensational rookie Emeka Egbuka looked like he was slowed by a hamstring injury. Evans, playing his first game in a month because of his own hamstring injury, was knocked out of the game with a concussion and the broken collarbone.<\/p>\n
The offense, also missing running back Bucky Irving, simply couldn\u2019t get going in a game that was expected to be a shootout.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery game is going to be different \u2014 just patience,\u201d Bowles said about a takeaway for offensive coordinator Josh Grizzard. \u201cIf your quarterback is not on and not going, you\u2019ve got to help him out with either the run game or screen passes. When you have to protect, you have to do different things and chip. If the running game isn\u2019t going from a power standpoint, we\u2019ve got to try to get on the edge \u2014 just different tips. He\u2019s going to learn each week \u2014 whether he scores 40 points or 10 points \u2014 he\u2019s going to learn different things each week that he can put in his arsenal and get better at next week.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now, the Buccaneers have to regroup quickly and go back on the road to face a divisional rival. The New Orleans Saints (1-6) have plenty of their own problems so Tampa Bay has to make sure to take care of business and not look ahead to a bye in Week 9.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s working<\/p>\n
Third-down defense did its job for the most part, holding the Lions to just 3 for 13. But cornerbacks Jacob Parrish and Jamel Dean committed penalties on third downs that negated stops, extended Detroit\u2019s drives and both times the Lions scored a touchdown.<\/p>\n
What needs help<\/p>\n
Tackling. The Bucs missed too many tackles, allowing short gains to go longer and missing opportunities for stops.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was definitely an issue on the first drive \u2014 we missed two tackles that got them down the field,” Bowles said. “We missed two more later on. Overall, we can be better at open-field tackling. It has to do with angles and fundamentals.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stock up<\/p>\n
TE Cade Otton had seven catches for 65 yards, getting nine targets. Otton stepped up last year when Evans was injured and he\u2019ll be counted on again with several wide receivers hurting.<\/p>\n
Stock down<\/p>\n
A run defense that was fifth in the NFL gave up a season-high 164 yards and allowed 5.1 yards per carry. Poor tackling contributed to that total. So did giving up a 78-yard TD run to Jahmyr Gibbs.<\/p>\n
Injuries<\/p>\n
Evans will miss significant time because of his broken collarbone. Evans has had 1,000 yards receiving in each of his 11 seasons in the NFL, the most to start a career and tied with Jerry Rice for the most ever. … Edge rusher Haason Reddick will have an MRI on his knee and ankle. … WR Chris Godwin (fibula) and RG Luke Haggard (shoulder) didn\u2019t play, along with Irving.<\/p>\n
Key number<\/p>\n
41 \u2014 The Bucs couldn\u2019t do much on the ground, rushing for only 41 yards.<\/p>\n
Next steps<\/p>\n
The Buccaneers visit the Saints on Sunday. They\u2019ve won five of the last six games against New Orleans.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA, Fla. (AP) \u2014 Hold up on that MVP talk. Slow down on giving the Tampa Bay Buccaneers…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15277,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[2205,28,115,4548,110,135,4547,137,136],"class_list":{"0":"post-15276","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tampa","8":"tag-associated-press","9":"tag-florida","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-professional-football","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-tampa","14":"tag-tampa-bay-bucs","15":"tag-tampa-headlines","16":"tag-tampa-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15276","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15276"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15276\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15277"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}