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BY IRA KAUFMAN

The Bucs had a clear path to win this football game. It was right there in front of them as a national audience looked on in prime time.

Then they stumbled all over themselves and ended up on the side of the road, broken down and beaten.

Tampa Bay almost overcame an awful defensive performance but in the end, the Bucs’ second-half offense was equally culpable in a hard-to-believe 36-30 setback in OT. Instead of bolting to a 4-1 start, the Bucs will now have extra time to prepare for another division road game at New Orleans.

It might take a while to get the bitter taste out of their mouths because they had every opportunity to beat the Falcons in a shootout. Atlanta just kept coming as Kirk Cousins threw for 509 yards, primarily against wide-open targets who exploited a soft secondary. [read more]

Baker Mayfield played a heck of a game last night during the groin-stomp overtime loss to the Falcons. That’s back-to-back strong games for the Bucs quarterback, which is exactly what the organization wants from him. [read more]

Lots of fingers of blame to point for the Bucs’ loss tonight, but one has to go toward electric rookie running back Bucky Irving. [read more]

Points finger at himself.

Baker Mayfield is just trying to be a standup guy. [read more]

Bucs fans see it nearly every week.

Zyon McCollum often plays tight coverage while Jamel Dean plays nearly full-time prevent defense on the other side of the field. [read more]

Bucs coach Todd Bowles.

Look at all the fortunate plays the Bucs p!ssed away tonight? [read more]

Joe smells meddling. [read more]

Awful second half offense.

Joe will never forget how the Bucs offense choked the game away when they were in field goal range after a Lavonte David pick. [read more]

“I’ve seen that pass defense before!”

With former Bucs defensive coordinator Mike Smith in the birdhouse, the Bucs decided to give him a warm welcome by playing pass defense that would shame a Pasco County high school girls flag football team. [read more]

There are a lot of reasons the Bucs lost tonight. Kirk Cousins notched 509 of them.

But was there any bigger than what happened on the Bucs’ final drive and immediately before it? [read more]

Terrible final possession.

What a horrible, horrible, horrible final possession the Bucs had Thursday night, opening the door for a Dixie Chicks comeback. And that’s just what happened. [read more]

Your 3-2 Buccaneers choked away a game they should have won tonight.

The defense was heinous and couldn’t preserve what the electric Bucs offense produced in the first half.

Lavonte David? Bat down that needless fourth-down interception in the fourth quarter and this game would have been over.

Yeah, maybe that feels unfair of Joe, but the truth hurts. [read more]

It’s an 8:15 p.m. kickoff in Atlanta!

Comment all game below with fellow fans and a few haters. 

Please play nice. It’s not hard.

Go Bucs!

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Joe’s pregame feature is not just a here’s-a-pick, get-your-best-bet thing. Highlighted are Bucs-related lines weekly in this space and how Joe is — and is not — throwing cash around.

Joe was 1-1 last week and is 4-2 on the season after a Week 1 focused on futures wagers. [read more]

Flash poll posted at 1:23 p.m. Poll closed at 3:25 p.m. Last week’s results linked here.

Game 5

Bucs (3-1) at Dixie Chicks (2-2)

Kickoff: 8:15 p.m.

TV: Amazon, WTVT-TV Channel 13.

[read more]

Inspiration from Al Davis?

So this week in the Bucs’ locker room, YaYa Diaby was channeling a legendary NFL figure. [read more]

“Million dollar question.”

Not quite two weeks ago, after a huge win at Detroit, the Bucs hosted the lowly Broncos with a struggling rookie quarterback. [read more]

Joe helps occasional readers, or those too busy to read everything, catch up a little easier before kickoff.

In no particular order, here are Joe’s 10 most important Buccaneers stories of this short week. [read more]