“Shockingly Sloppy”
September 15th, 2026
Career low.
It wasn’t like the Bengals played the game of the century Sunday along the banks of the Ohio River when they outlasted the Bucs by six points, 33-27.
The Bucs moved the ball throughout the game. The only way Cincinnati got the ball was either on kickoffs or Baker Mayfield’s Christmas presents (Bucky Irving, too).
Speaking on “First Things First,” seen on FS1 weekdays, co-host Danny Parkins said he had “concerns” about the Bucs after watching that game because the Bucs’ offense was “shockingly sloppy.”
Fellow co-host Greg Jennings said the game was lost by Baker Mayfield, who Jennings admitted he’s not a big fan of because of ball security issues.
“That’s Baker,” Parkins said. “He’s had that problem since he’s been in Tampa.”
Joe actually agrees with Parkins on the sloppy offense. It looked like these guys had never played together before, which is exactly what Parkins said disturbed him because the Bucs brought back the offense nearly intact from last season.
But man, it drove Joe nuts seeing the sloppy blocking and the turnovers (of course). Joe nearly jumped out of his chair when Cade Otton committed a false start coming out of a timeout. A high school kid would be pulled off the field for that.
Look, Joe is not overreacting here. With just a little smarter play, the Bucs could have won that game. So Joe sees no reason to freak out and run Bowles this morning and bench Mayfield.
The Bucs’ franchise quarterback has never had three fumbles in a game before Sunday. So Joe isn’t expecting a repeat of that anytime in the near future.
Did you learn more about Bengals or Bucs? @DannyParkins weighs in:
“I came away a little bit more concerned with the Bucs… I felt like there were more giveaways than takeaways… I thought the Bucs offense was shockingly sloppy.” pic.twitter.com/D0RpY55PaL
— First Things First (@FTFonFS1) September 14, 2026
September 15th, 2026 at 4:25 am
It’s weird that yesterday 620WDAE had a brief conversation about the Cleveland game coming up on Sunday. Two games in, the conversation was centered around the whole season. If the Buc’s sh$$t the bed on Sunday this season could be over. We stink at home and we are playing a JV team. If we don’t pounce the conversation of a lost season starts immediately, priceless.
September 15th, 2026 at 4:25 am
I’m in the minority here but I am encouraged by what I saw. Mayfield is a play maker he tried to do to much but his will to win alot of times leads to better outcomes. We turned it over 4 times and while defense wasn’t great they held their own at times which was a lot better than last year.
Bucky looked great same problems as always can’t cover the middle of field and can’t get to Qb.
However I am raising my prediction now from 8 wins to 9 wins.
September 15th, 2026 at 5:03 am
Let’s be positive this was a fluke. Anzalone looked horrible, Bain wasn’t home, but Trotter was and became my new favorite LB. Offense seemed same if not worst with Mayfield and Bucky having no ball security.
September 15th, 2026 at 5:22 am
The Bucs have a total of 24 regular season losses in the last three years.
Of those losses, 14 came when the opposition either took the lead or maintained the lead (like on Sunday) on their final drive.
To put it bluntly, the defense could not get off the field when it mattered most.
Now, turning the clock back two days, the Bucs pulled to within 6 with around three minutes left and I believe they had 3 timeouts to boot.
In a normal world, most coaches would kick off, try to get a stop, and score a TD to win with seconds remaining. But we don’t live in a normal world with Todd’s defenses, do we?
So, as predicted by me and the entire Bucs world fandom, the Bucs kicked off and Cincinnati easily ran out the clock. Seemed the only people who didn’t think this would happen were Todd Bowles, who coaches this #$*@#$, and Jason Licht who was too busy living vicariously through Baker’s fumbles.
The call, even with three minutes left, was an on-sides kick. We are not the current Texans or the 2002 Bucs, we are the 2023-4-5-6 Bucs. You know it, I know it, and Todd continues to ignored it.
Note: there are times during those 14 losses where Baker didn’t do his defense any favors with his own late game mishaps, but a needed stop is a needed stop, no matter who created the situation.