CINCINNATI — Four lost fumbles — three on consecutive possessions — buried the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in a 33-27 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals at Paycor Stadium in the Week 1 opener, squandering a historic debut by rookie inside linebacker Josiah Trotter and an otherwise efficient offensive performance that never required a punt.
“Well, obviously you can’t turn the ball over,” said Head Coach Todd Bowles. “We had four turnovers and lose by just one touchdown. But it wasn’t just that, you know. We had some penalties, some false starts there. Defensively, I’d be interested to know how many tackles we missed, because we missed some chip-shot tackles. We get the ball back at the end, and give our offense a chance, you know. The sad part is we didn’t punt. We had a turnover or points. You know, we can’t turn it over against a team like that. They’ve got very good players, and they are coached very well. We didn’t help ourselves.”
The Bucs opened the game with an 11-play, 56-yard drive capped by a Chase McLaughlin 34-yard field goal, and the defense forced a quick three-and-out. Then the game unraveled. Demetrius Knight returned a Baker Mayfield strip-sack fumble 27 yards for a touchdown. On the next possession, Bucky Irving lost the ball while charging for a first down, giving Cincinnati the ball at Tampa Bay’s 33-yard line and setting up Joe Burrow’s 2-yard touchdown pass to tight end Mike Gesicki. Mayfield then fumbled at the end of a scramble near the goal line, with the ball bouncing into the end zone for a touchback recovered by Cincinnati’s Barrett Carter. Chase Brown’s 5-yard touchdown run followed. The three turnovers produced 21 points for the Bengals. It marked the first time Tampa Bay had lost four or more fumbles in a game since Sept. 18, 2014, against the Atlanta Falcons.
“On the first strip-sack and I stepped out of the pocket, you have to know someone is behind you,” Mayfield said. “At that point, just try and stay in the right play and keep two hands on the ball as long as possible. That goes for the last one as well. It takes away points and they go down and score a touchdown. (I wanted to) just try and get two hands on it at that point in transition, but did not get the ball high enough on the ball strip. They had 17 points alone off my turnovers and it turns out to be a one-score game at six points. Offensively, it’s frustrating when we do something like that when we’re moving the ball down field. We need to get those things fixed, make those corrections and we’ll be alright.”
Mayfield completed 23 of 28 passes for 216 yards despite being sacked four times, and ran five times for 30 yards and a touchdown. Irving was the offensive bright spot, accumulating 93 yards from scrimmage — averaging 5.6 yards per carry on the ground and tying a career high with seven catches for 48 yards. The Bucs’ ground attack totaled 89 yards.
Trotter delivered the most electric individual performance of the afternoon, finishing with a team-leading 10 tackles, a sack, two tackles for loss and a pick-six off Burrow. He became the first player in Buccaneers history to return an interception for a touchdown in an NFL debut. Over the previous 10 seasons, only two NFL players had recorded a sack, an interception and five-plus tackles in their debut — Trotter and T.J. Watt, who accomplished the feat against Cleveland on Sept. 10, 2017. Still, Burrow completed 25 of 35 passes for 254 yards, one touchdown and one interception, while Cincinnati totaled 351 yards of offense. Ja’Marr Chase was held to just 12 yards, but Gesicki exploited the middle of the field for 78 yards and a touchdown on five catches.
Tampa Bay returns home to Raymond James Stadium for its Week 2 matchup, looking to correct the ball-security breakdowns that turned a competitive performance into a six-point defeat.