John Romano: When you're losing as much as the Buccaneers, the critiques no longer matter

John Romano, Tampa Bay Times on Oct 18, 2026

Published in Football

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TAMPA, Fla. — The questions no longer matter. The answers are starting to sound the same.

One week, the key word is execution.

Another week, it’s adversity.

On Sunday, the theme was finishing.

And the common thread is despair.

“We have no more margin for error,” head coach Todd Bowles said solemnly.

Yes, the Buccaneers lost again on Sunday. This time it was less pathetic than some, but more infuriating than most.

They had a 13-point lead when the fourth quarter began, and it was a tie game when the clock reached 0:00 in regulation. By the time overtime had ended, the Bucs had lost 26-19 to the Steelers to drop to 1-5 in front of a Raymond James Stadium crowd that felt like a Steelers family reunion.

“Can you blame them,” said left tackle Tristan Wirfs when asked about the pro-Pittsburgh contingent in the bleachers. “We’re (1-5), haven’t given them much to cheer about. So, yeah, it sucks. It sucks when you’re damn near going (with a) silent count at home. But you’ve got to give them something to cheer about, you know what I’m saying?”

That was the frustrating part of Sunday’s loss. For most of the first three quarters, the Bucs earned some cheers. They weren’t dominating the Steelers, but they were playing smart, complementary football. They avoided penalties and turnovers on offense, and the defense had Pittsburgh quarterback Aaron Rodgers befuddled.

And then they collapsed, just as they’ve done so many times before in the past 15 games.

Do you know the Bucs have outscored the opposition in quarters 1-3 this season? It’s true, Tampa Bay has a 96-90 scoring differential in the first 45 minutes of games.

And once the fourth quarter begins, they’ve been outscored 48-23.

“I don’t know. I don’t have anything,” said Wirfs when asked about problems finishing games. “I’m not going to say anything right now, I don’t have anything good to say. I don’t know what it is. It’s insanely frustrating to be up 13 at home where we haven’t won a f---ing game yet. To not be able to finish out the game is really frustrating.”

I asked several players whether it’s starting to become a mental block. An “oh crap” mentality when things go wrong late.

To a man, they all said that was not the issue.

Yet, they had no explanation for why it keeps happening.

“The margin for error in the NFL is so small, especially with all the tight games we’ve been in,” said center Graham Barton. “At the end of the day, we just made more mistakes than they did, and so we lost the game.”

If it’s any consolation, it was a total team loss.

The defense, after forcing six three-and-outs or turnovers, allowed the Steelers to go touchdown, field goal, field goal, field goal and touchdown on consecutive drives to end the game.

The offense, on the other hand, got a single field goal on its final six drives. Rookie quarterback Jalon Daniels, who had looked so poised in his first two starts, threw a pair of horrible fourth-quarter interceptions and missed several open receivers.

“It’s not the schemes. Every team in the league runs the same sort of stuff,” linebacker Alex Anzalone said. “And you can’t point at one thing because every game has a life of its own. There are momentum moments in the game, but I wouldn’t say that anyone feels like here-we-go-again. We don’t have that makeup in here.”

That may not be the mindset, but it’s definitely been the outcome.

Going back to the start of last November, the Bucs have lost 10 games by seven points or fewer.

That’s 10 games where one play could have made the difference.

Ten games that kept Tampa Bay out of the playoffs in 2025 and have led to the worst record in the conference in 2026.

And, ultimately, all of those close losses could be the undoing of Bowles as head coach.

The front office responded to last season’s collapse by overhauling the coaching staff and reinvesting in the roster by signing Baker Mayfield and Vita Vea to new deals and bringing in Anzalone, A’Shawn Robinson and Al-Quadin Muhammad on free-agent deals.

Clearly, that hasn’t worked. And if the Bucs don’t turn things around soon, Bowles has to know what lurks behind Door No. 2.

With answers in such short supply, I asked Barton if it’s at least encouraging that the Bucs have outplayed teams for long stretches of games.

“Yeah, that’s not a good thing anymore,” he said. “I hate beating a dead horse, but we’re not making enough plays to win games. That’s just reality. There are no more excuses; we just have to be better.”

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