Football is a complicated game. But, when an NFL defense gives up 41 points -including 28 in the first half- it's a bit easier to pinpoint where things went wrong.

And according to Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach Todd Bowles, the defense is strictly to blame for the 41-31 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday Night Football.

"Everything in this game fell on the defensive side of the ball," Bowles bluntly told reporters after the game.

It's hard to disagree. The Buccaneers defense allowed just 27 combined points over the three previous games, but gave up the aforementioned 28-points to the Chiefs in the first half, alone.

Granted, seven of those points came off Rachaad White's fumbled kick return, but Bowles is not allowing that to be an excuse.

“That's why you play defense," said Bowles. "Your back is always against the wall. Your job is to do your job when you're out there, whether it's the red zone, whether it's backed up, whether it’s midfield, it doesn't matter where they get the ball at. Our job is to hold them to three or get the turnover.”

The players are well aware of their shortcomings, as well.

“We just didn’t finish the plays you know," outside linebacker Joe Tryon-Shoyinka said after the game. "We had a lot of plays that [would have been] down over on a lot of third downs – we just didn’t get the play finished. We need to be able to finish and be in the right spot at the right time. We just have to communicate and be better as a team in general.”

The defense was able to notch 3.0 sacks and an interception, but there was a lot left on the table in terms of overall product. The Chiefs converted 12 of 17 third downs (70.6%),  converted all five of their six red zone trips into touchdowns (83%) and all three goal-to-go possessions into touchdowns, and averaged 5.4 yards per play.

The Buccaneers defense simply couldn't stop the powerful Chiefs offense, at the end of the day.

“It was a lot," admitted Tryon-Shoyinka. "We will look at the film, we’ll come in tomorrow and build from that. It was definitely not the standard.”

But what's most concerning is the amount of rushing yards the Buccaneers allowed to the Chiefs. Bowles' run defense has been the cream of the crop since he came to Tampa Bay in 2019, yet the Chiefs ran for 189-yards on Sunday night.

That's easily the most rushing yards allowed under Bowles since 2019.

And the worst part? Well, the Buccaneers were trying to stop the run.

“It's very concerning, you know, it's very concerning," admitted Bowles. "We had heavy boxes most of the time too, so that's very concerning.”

Whatever could go wrong did go wrong, as well.

“You name it, we did it," said Bowles. "Missed tackles, missed run fits, missed assignments. You know, bad calls. You name it, we did it.”

Fortunately, there's still a long way to go and plenty of time to figure things out.

“As bad as we played, and we did get our butts kicked – hats off to them – we're still two
and two," said Bowles. "We have a lot of work ahead of us. We have our whole season ahead of us, so we have to grind. Nobody is looking at the names on the back of our jerseys. We have to grind just like everybody else. You put in the work, you see the results.”

But the Buccaneers better figure things out, fast. Because a team with Super Bowl aspirations can't lay the egg it did on Sunday night and expect to make it to Glendale in 2023.

Featured image via Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports