Everything HC Todd Bowles Said After Bucs' Loss to Bears

Tampa Bay Buccaneers' coach Todd Bowles addressed the media after Sunday Night's 27-24 loss to the Chicago Bears. Here's what he had to say.

Question: How do you lose a game when you get five turnovers on the other team?

Answer: It's a good question. We gotta capitalize on them. We gotta capitalize on them. We gotta score points, and we can't give them the ball back. And gotta be better on third down on both sides of the ball.

Q: You tied it up, and then you turned the tight end loose. What happened on that play?

A: We busted. Simple. We busted. Shouldn't happen.

Q: Coach, what did you see from Baker Mayfield on the pick-six specifically?

A: He had his mind made up. Probably should have thrown it somewhere else. Obviously, it's easy to say in hindsight, but you know, we don't like turnovers. We've been doing a good job of not turning it over. We can't turn it over. He knows that. He understands.

Q: (Chicago was) really hot offensively. Caleb (Williams )was hot. What was happening early on, and then how did you turn that around?

A: I think we had to settle down. I thought everybody was a little antsy starting the game, the first two drives, and after that, once we settled down, I thought we played well. They played some pretty good football from there on out until the last, obviously, the last play. But you know, they came out real hot, and I thought we were on our heels a little bit. And then the younger guys settled down a little bit, and we started playing football.

Q: About the response from Zyon (McCollum), he had a slower start, but then made some plays throughout the rest of the game.

A: He fought, like you said. You know, the biggest thing we talk about is turnovers every day. We get the turnovers, we got to cash them in, and the Lion got two of them.

Q: What can you say about the way that Bucky Irving continues to just be the engine for this offense, and what can you guys do to kind of get some more outside of him?

A: Like I said, it's going to take everybody. We're not going to be able to run the ball and win ball games. We're going to have to throw it. We're going to have to catch it. I thought we dropped some easy balls early on as well. That contributed to a lot of things, but we kind of chipped our way and got forward, our way back into the ball game. And everybody's got to contribute. I thought the field position and special teams. I thought they won that. He was returning the ball pretty good. They were starting with pretty good field position there, so that was a problem. Defense. We started slow the first two series. I mean, they got five turnovers. To their credit, they came back and played. Offense fought back and cashed it in. But we got to do more. We got to make less mistakes.

Q: The decision-making with the two field goals in the first half that were both inside the 10-yard line. What was your thought process on those two?

A: Right before the half, obviously we're getting the ball back in the second half and want to get points. We thought we could turn that into ten. We get three before the half, and then we get seven at the end of the half. We were right back in the ballgame, and we kind of cut it to 17-13 and got back in the ball game.

Q: You had five false starts in this game. Was it just communication errors of some sort because that wasn't something that was an issue after the last couple games?

A: It wasn't a communication thing. We just got to hold our water.

Q: What was the effect of Jeffrey Simmons on the Bucs' offense tonight?

A: I mean, I got to watch the tape. I didn't see it. I didn't specifically watch him against our offense. Gotta watch the tape and see. I know he got a sack in there somewhere, but I didn't really look at him to see how he did or didn't do against our offense.

Q: Rueben Bain had some impact plays tonight. Is he starting to come into his own?

A: He's playing hard, and he's playing faster. We still got to clean up some things defensively from a containment standpoint—not just Reuben, but everybody on the outside. But he's playing more physical. He's playing faster. He's making his impact known.

Q: You had a chance to take over the NFC South lead. How big of a setback is this?

A: We're trying to take care of ourselves. We're not worried about any other team in our division right now. We know if we take care of us, we're going to be fine. And we still feel that way, and we think that way. We've been playing some good football of late. We made too many errors today. We just got to hone in. We get a week off. A lot of people are sore. We got to hone in and come back. And we got to take it, and we got to finish this thing.