TAMPA - A 132-minute lightning delay, four field goals instead of touchdowns and a dropped pass at the goal line in the final seconds left the Tampa Bay Buccaneers with a 23-19 loss to the Cleveland Browns at Raymond James Stadium on Sunday, dropping the team to 0-2 for the first time since the 2014 season.

The Buccaneers had a chance to win it on the final drive, needing 28 yards with the ball and two minutes on the clock when the lightning delay hit. After play resumed, quarterback Baker Mayfield drove Tampa Bay to the Cleveland 20 before the drive unraveled. On second down with 30 seconds left, rookie wide receiver Ted Hurst had a pass in his hands just across the goal line but couldn’t hold on in the heavy downpour with a defender on his hip. A holding penalty then pushed the Bucs back 10 yards, and Mayfield’s fourth-down throw to Emeka Egbuka in the end zone was just out of reach.

“Obviously, not an easy catch [for Hurst],” Mayfield said. “Ted’s somebody that I trust. That’s not going to change anything for me going forward. You know, tough play. I didn’t get a real good look at it. I know he had a chance at it but the ball’s going to keep coming back to him, going to keep finding him. We’ve just got to make the plays in the end, obviously. Just got to trust that ‘Mek’ is going to come out of that break a little slower with the conditions, and give him some air to run under it on the fourth-down play, too.”

The decisive score came with just under four minutes remaining, when Cleveland quarterback Deshaun Watson hit tight end Blake Whiteheart on a 17-yard touchdown pass to give the Browns their first lead of the day. Watson finished 24 of 30 for 238 yards and two touchdowns, posting a passer rating of 121.9. Mayfield completed 21 of 34 passes for 182 yards, with one touchdown and one interception.

Kicker Chase McLaughlin made all four of his field goal attempts - from 59, 45, 31 and 31 yards - with the 59-yarder tying for the third-longest in franchise history. But the Buccaneers’ inability to convert red-zone possessions into touchdowns proved costly. “It’s unfortunate not making the plays all day in the red zone,” Mayfield said. “Same story. Ended up with field goals instead of touchdowns down there and obviously negative plays. Just not getting enough completions down there and it came back to bite us in the end.”

Head coach Todd Bowles refused to cite the 132-minute delay or the abbreviated 10-minute warmup before play resumed as factors in the loss. “[The Browns] were doing the same thing,” Bowles said. “That’s not an excuse. We were ready to play. We came out, we warmed up, we had 10, they had 10. We’ve got to go out and make plays.” He pointed instead to self-inflicted wounds on both sides of the ball. “Too many penalties, offensively. Too many missed tackles in the second half defensively. Nobody is coming to save us. We’ve got to fix ourselves and we’ve got to fix it in a hurry.”

Tampa Bay’s defense held Cleveland to 267 total yards and just 44 rushing yards, limiting running back Quinshon Judkins to 1.9 yards per carry. Rookie linebacker Josiah Trotter led the team with 11 tackles for the second consecutive week before leaving with a shoulder injury in the second half. Second-year edge rusher David Walker recorded his first career sack, and cornerback Benjamin Morrison added seven tackles and a pass defensed. Cleveland’s rookie wide receiver Denzel Boston, however, burned the Bucs for a 55-yard touchdown catch in the third quarter.

The 0-2 start puts Tampa Bay a game behind both Carolina and New Orleans, both winners Sunday, in the NFC South standings. Bowles has gone 2-0 in each of his first four seasons to open a year. “We’ve dealt with adversity before,” Bowles said. “This is an adverse situation again, first time at the beginning of the season but we’re 0-2 right now. We’ve got to pull ourselves up by our boots and we’ve got to win.”

Mayfield said the problems are correctable. “It’s shooting ourselves in the foot, not making the plays when we need them, knowing these are fixable things. But that also makes it more frustrating. We’ve just got to get them corrected. Pretty shocked [to be 0-2]. But we’ve just got to fight our way out.”

The Buccaneers remain at Raymond James Stadium for back-to-back home games, hosting the Minnesota Vikings in Week 3 and the Green Bay Packers in Week 4.