Let’s see what social media had to say about the tough loss

Welp, the Bucs let a huge opportunity to grab a strong hold of the NFC South slip through their fingers on Thursday night losing to the Atlanta Falcons in overtime. It was a high scoring affair and Tampa Bay’s defense could not come up with a big stop.

The Bucs are now 3-2 but before we move on, let’s see what people on social media had to say about this tough game.

Baker has been on fire

Bucs QB Baker Mayfield continued his success this season early in this game. Tampa Bay’s offense came out firing and Mayfield lead the way.

Unfortunately, the Bucs offense couldn’t keep up the pace for the rest of the game. A conservative style in the second half cost them dearly. However, Mayfield’s performance still was very encouraging and it’s clear he is becoming more comfortable and confident in this Liam Coen offense.

Oh no, Bucky

The Bucs had the Falcons right where they wanted them. They had the ball and were running the clock down. With just under three minutes remaining, they gave the ball to Bucky Irving and the rookie could not hold onto the football.

The Falcons recovered the ball and had a chance to tie the game late. This simply cannot happen in that situation. The rookie will learn from this mistake, but still something that can’t happen.

Tampa’s defense performs a disappearing act

The Bucs defense was battered and bruised by the Falcons on Thursday night. Kirk Cousins dropped back 58 times and did pretty much whatever he wanted. Very little resistance from Todd Bowles’ unit. They looked like a team who had just played a game in 110 degree heat four days earlier, but that’s still not an excuse for that type of performance.

Someone forgot to tell the Bucs defense that Halloween isn’t until the end of the month because this performance sure was scary and not the good kind.

Did the refs blow it?

It appears so. Now I will say one thing before we dive in. This did NOT single handily determine the outcome of this game. The Bucs had plenty of chances to put this game away and simply failed at all of them. However, the refs certainly didn’t help when they missed a blatant face mask on Atlanta. That play ended up being a Tampa Bay penalty for holding which backed them up 10 yards and out of field goal range. Had the face mask been called, the penalties would have been offsetting and the Bucs would have had a 2nd and 13 still in range to add three points.

This call simply can’t be missed. Thats such an obvious penalty and in a massive spot in this game. The officials have to do a better of job of recognizing this. Again, not the sole reason the Bucs lost, but it definitely played a factor.

Tampa Bay now sits at 3-2 and is second in the NFC with Atlanta now owning the tie breaker. They have a massive divisional showdown in New Orleans next week to try and bounce back.