Some unpleasant déjà vu for the Bucs as the season quickly unravels.

Everyone was so concerned about how the Bucs offense would function without Mike Evans and Chris Godwin, but the narrative perhaps downplayed how horrendous this Tampa Bay defense continues to be.

Welp, everyone got a quick, painful reminder in the first couple minutes of the first quarter as Kirk Cousins and the Atlanta Falcons once again eviscerated Todd Bowles’s unit in a 31-26 game that wasn’t really that close.

With the season series all done and Atlanta holding the hands-down tiebreaker, the division title is basically toast already for the Bucs unless they straight-up win more games than the Falcons, which feels pretty damn unlikely right now.

To prevent any further cases of collective amnesia, the next two games are against Andy Reid’s Kansas City Chiefs and Kyle Shanahan’s San Francisco 49ers — two play callers who have historically destroyed Bowles’s defenses outside one very notable exception.

Alright then, shoutouts and let’s get out of here.

Offensive Top Performer: TE Cade Otton

Befitting of National Tight Ends Day, Otton continued his emergence as a weapon in Liam Coen’s offensive attack. It couldn’t come at a better time as the team finds itself starved for productive receivers.

Otton has produced arguably the two best outings of his short career in back-to-back weeks, with a career-high in receiving yards against Baltimore last week and a career-high in receptions this week. He finished the day leading the team with 9 catches for 81 yards and the two scores.

Bucky Irving shook off his foot injury and continued his trend of being the team’s most reliable running back. With 16 total touches for 84 yards, he paced the Bucs in backfield by out-touching Rachaad White (who had a backbreaking fumble on the first possession of the game) and Sean Tucker combined.

Defensive Top Performer: DT C.J. Brewer

Once again temped to write out “no one” and perhaps one day I’ll have the chutzpah to do so. Until then, we’ll praise the undrafted Brewer, who battled for years to stick on a 53-man roster.

His perseverance came to head Sunday by having his best game as a pro, collecting his first two career sacks and making some big run stops as the most consistent performer on the defensive line. This should not be happening when you have higher-profile names like Vita Vea, Calijah Kancey, and Logan Hall, but nevertheless it’s cool to see.

Not much else to report here. Christian Izien stepped back into the starting nickel role with Tykee Smith out and collected 9 total tackles. Zyon McCollum seemed to line up on Drake London more this matchup and the result was a much quieter day for the latter (just 4 catches for 34 yards).

Cousins still shredded this unit due to many miscommunications and generally inept play. Just not much worthy of praise right now.

Special Teams Top Performer: K Chase McLaughlin

Can literally anyone wrestle this title away from McLaughlin doing the bare minimum? McLaughlin hit another 50+ yarder and all of his extra points, he’s Mr. Reliable.

That doesn’t even remotely wash the bad taste of the consistently porous special teams play we’re subjected to. Terrible kick coverage, terrible punting, mediocre return units, the horribly designed and executed fake punt that essentially ended the game — some day it has to get better…right?