The Tampa Bay Buccaneers bumbled away their division lead, losing four of their past five games, including Sunday's 24-20 home loss to the cellar-dwelling New Orleans Saints.
With a quick turnaround before another divisional tilt, this one against the equally spiraling Atlanta Falcons, Todd Bowles knows his team must turn the page.
"We lost yesterday, and we've got to get over it," Bowles said Monday, via . "We've got to be big boys, we've got to get over it and own what we did, and we've got to get better at things we need to get better at."
The loss slipped Tampa into a 7-6 tie with the Carolina Panthers for the NFC South lead. The sides play twice in the final three games. The Bucs were stellar in one-possession games, but haven't been able to make the plays late. They started 4-1 in one-possession games but are 1-2 in such tilts since their Week 9 bye.
"We understand that as a group we've been through this before, but it's different every single year and every time (we) do it," Bowles said. "Nobody likes to lose, and you're coming on a short week, (we have) a chance to get the bad taste out of your mouth, but they should be upset. They should own what they do. We as coaches own what we do, and as a team own what we do, and we've got to come out Thursday and we've got to correct them."
The run game has shown more life with the recent return of Bucky Irving, but Baker Mayfield's up-and-down play has led to an inconsistent offense. Sunday's 14-of-30, 122-yard, one touchdowns, one interception performance might be explained away by the driving rainstorm. However, it marked the fourth straight game with fewer than 200 passing yards, the longest streak of his career.
Bowles pointed to fourth down as the turning point in the Bucs' loss Sunday. Tampa went 2 for 7 on fourth down, twice failing to convert a fourth-and-1 and flubbing a fourth-and-2.
"We gotta execute fourth downs better as well, especially the fourth-and-shorts, the fourth-and-1's," Bowles said. "You want to come out on the plus side of most of them, and we understand that as a group. (On) third down, we are shooting ourselves in the foot. Sometimes it's the pressure or the rush, sometimes it's things that we (get) wrong, but we gotta get that fixed."
The Bucs are 11 of 27 (40.7%) on fourth downs this season, fourth-worst in the NFL.
The possibility of getting Mike Evans, Tristan Wirfs and Jalen McMillan back on Thursday would help the Bucs offense immensely. Bowles noted the trio is "in play" to potentially participate, but stopped short of guaranteeing any or all would be on the field this week.
Thursday, they face a Falcons club they squeaked by 23-20 in Week 1. ATL has lost seven of its past eight games and was officially eliminated from the playoff race.
