Well, that's about as anticlimactic a follow-up game that you can play after a huge win.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers fell flat on its collective face against the Denver Broncos on Sunday after beating the Detroit Lions in Week 2. It was a disappointing loss for a variety of reasons and like all NFL games, you can't pin it all on one aspect.

However, there are four obvious reasons why the Bucs lost to the Broncos and it's safe to say all four are just as annoying as they are frustrating.

So let's go ahead and dive in.

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Sean Payton just knows how to beat a Todd Bowles defense through and through

Payton now holds a 7-0 regular season record when calling plays against Bowles' defense. He won all six of his matchups as head coach of the New Orleans Saints from 2019-2021 and then there's obviously this game.

Payton's offenses scored 31+ points in five of those six Saints games and they averaged 30.3 points per game. The lowest-scoring affair came in 2021, when a Taysom Hill-led Saints squad beat Tom Brady's Bucs by an electrifying score of 9-0.

The veteran head coach has also beaten Bowles with four different quarterbacks, now: Drew Brees, Jameis Winston, Hill and Bo Nix. Sure, Bowles got the best of Payton in the 2020-2021 playoffs, but that's the lone victory.

Payton even mentioned his familiarity with the Bucs defense to FOX Sports' Sarah Kustok at halftime and how Nix could pick it apart. Payton has never been one to shy away from a confident remark and that certainly fit the bill.

The Bucs defense was outmatched all game long in terms of strategy and game plan and the end result was 26 points, along with another loss. In totality, Payton's offenses average 29.7 points per game against Bowles' regular season defenses.

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The Bucs' best players were not on point and made mistakes that contributed to the loss

There were so many key mistakes from the Bucs' top players that I'm just going to list several of them below:

• Baker Mayfield's interception was a bad decision and a bad throw. The Broncos dropped eight in coverage and there was very little pressure. If Mayfield stayed patient, he would've had a running back wide open in the flat for a first down.
• Tristan Wirfs allowed a pressure that tipped Mayfield's pass attempt as he threw the ball. It was a 3rd and 2, which then led to a 4th and 2.
• On that same 4th and 2 Mayfield threw an errant, but catchable, ball that Chris Godwin couldn't bring in. Both players could've made the play.
• K.J. Britt was fooled so badly on a Broncos run design that he was too late to provide backup for Anthony Nelson, who made his own mistake by biting on Jaleel McLaughlin's juke as he ran into the end zone.
• Graham Barton was beaten on multiple occasions that either led to a sack, incompletion, throwaway, or dead play.
• Yaya Diaby and another Bucs defender turned a 3rd and 14 into a 3rd and 4 thanks to unacceptable back-to-back offsides calls. It led to a field goal that made it a 23-7 game. Who knows what happens if the 3rd and 14 stays true?
• Cade Otton's bad fumble toward the end of the game that put the icing on the crap cake that was the Bucs' overall Week 3 performance.

On top of all that, there were missed tackles, missed assignments, no pass rush, bad punts and just about anything else you can think of. Yes, the Bucs are injured and a lot of the poor performance probably has something to do with the injuries catching up to them. Still, that's an excuse that not even Todd Bowles will accept. 

Sunday was nothing short of a major dud.

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Third down woes

The Bucs went 3-of-11 on third down, which is bad enough, but it's even worse when considering they averaged 7.8 yards to go on the money down. Six of the nine third downs were seven yards or more, with four representing 10, 16, 17, and 18 yards to go.

Those situations were culminations of all the previous mistakes that were mentioned above. Whether it was a penalty, a mistake, or whatever, the Bucs shot themselves in the foot on multiple occasions and it all snowballed into situations that were nearly impossible to overcome.

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Both sides of the trenches were massive disappointments

All one needs to do is point to Anthony Nelson's missed opportunity on Nix. Nelson had Nix dead to rights on a sack, but couldn't finish and the end result was a 22-yard scramble to the Bucs' 31-yard line. Instead of a sack that would've lead to something like a 2nd and 15 from the Denver 42.

That drive ended in a field goal, but it wasn't the only time the Bucs pass rush couldn't finish when it actually got around to pressuring Nix. The Bucs were able to hit Lions QB Jared Goff 10 times in Week 2 and the defense recorded and additional four tackles for loss. 

In this game? A grand total of two quarterback hits (both by Chris Braswell) and two tackles for loss. If it weren't for the forced fumble and recovery in the first half, the Bucs defense would've basically been rendered useless on Sunday.

On the flip side, Mayfield was sacked seven times, hit nine times, and the Bucs offense averaged just 4.0 yards per play. The line was mess all across the board, including Tristan Wirfs, who may have played his worst game as a Buc.

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Final word

There's a reason the NFL is called a "week-to-week league". The Bucs were getting looked at as one of the top teams heading into this game and now you can't blame the national media for ditching them until they can prove this nothing more than an aberration and not a sign of things to come.

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