With the Bucs having lost Thursday night 24-18 to the Bills, their second loss of the week, there is a question of the losses quickly adding up.

No, there is not any snow coming down in Tampa Bay anytime soon, but the team could be on its way to allowing the losses to build up and lead to a snowball effect. When asked if that is the case, head coach Todd Bowles shared his assessment and belief in the team’s ability to turn it around.

Bucs HC Todd Bowles Addresses Recent Losses Piling Up

Bucs HC Todd Bowles and OC Dave Canales – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

After a game in which the team was not expected to win, there was plenty to be disappointed about. A lot of the team’s struggles came down to blown plays, lack of execution, and allowing yards in bunches to a high-powered Bills’ offense while not being able to respond. Does Todd Bowles believe that this could be the beginning of a downward slope, and what will keep them from suffering that fate?

“It won’t snowball,” Bowles said after the game. “We got a lot of leaders in that locker room. A lot of leaders on the coaching staff. We have faith, we understand how tough we play, we just got to play smarter.”

The leaders can only get the team so far and do so much. Execution is a staple of what Bowles drives home to the team and also what offensive coordinator Dave Canales has mentioned in press conferences. But when it comes to game days, the execution is simply not there from every player on the 53-man roster.

In recent weeks, it has been a variety of factors. From false starts to holding calls plaguing offensive drives from progressing to lapses in coverage leading to big plays, there has been a lack of both consistency and play-to-play success.

All The Small Things Are Costing Bucs Ballgames

Much of what has kept the team in ballgames has been the play of its stars.

On offense, wide receivers Mike Evans and Chris Godwin have been steady presences. Both Tristan Wirfs and Luke Goedeke have held down each of the tackle spots. But besides them, can you say any other starter has been consistently playing well?

Bucs QB Baker Mayfield and HC Todd Bowles – Photo by: USA Today

Switch over to the defensive side, it is a similar story. Inside linebacker Lavonte David is an ageless wonder, while safety Antoine Winfield Jr. has done more than enough to justify a big payday. Nose tackle Vita Vea is also a big key to the unit’s success, and without him, the defensive line does not generate enough plays at the line of scrimmage or behind it.

Not all 22 starters need to be stars, but what they need to do is limit mistakes and chip in enough to support the playmakers. That just has not been the case.

With blink-182 releasing a new album on Friday, one of their biggest song titles perfectly summarizes what it will take for the team to embark on a turnaround, and that is “All The Small Things.”

Todd Bowles mentioned as much in his postgame press conference.

“Our message is we fought our tails off and we understand how hard we fought, but we keep making small things – small mistakes that cost us ballgames,” Bowles said. “I don’t believe for one bit anybody in that locker room believes that we cannot win ballgames if we clean up the small things because we will fight against anybody.”

Has Todd Bowles Avoided Letting Losing Streaks Snowball?

It is one thing to hear Bowles’ words, but let’s take a look at how he has fared at righting the ship in the past with the Bucs last season and with the Jets from 2015-2018. During the Bucs 8-9 season last year, it was a mixed bag of results. The team went on three multi-game losing streaks, the largest being a three-game stretch that dropped the team to 3-5. A loss to the Texans next Sunday would give the Bucs that exact record.

Sitting at 3-2 and facing the Steelers, their streak started with a 20-18 loss. Not only did they lose to what was at the time a 1-4 Steelers team missing T.J. Watt, Minkah Fitzpatrick, and others, but they also suffered a defeat at the hands of backup quarterback Mitch Trubisky.

That carried over to an embarrassing 21-3 loss to the Panthers, a game where they were outplayed by third-string quarterback P.J. Walker. That contest was a crucial win for Carolina, as a loss would have given them a 1-6 record after trading away Christian McCaffery. Instead, they were able to turn a 2-5 record into a 7-10 finish down the stretch and hung on enough to put up a fight for the NFC South.

Sitting at 3-4 at that point, the Bucs came home to play the Ravens on Thursday night and fell short 27-22. Instead of winning two winnable games prior and heading in 5-2, it was a game where the downtrend of losing two straight sank them to 3-5.

Bucs head coach Todd Bowles – Photo by: USA Today

That is not the only time Todd Bowles has been at the head of a team lacking the momentum and fight to avoid losing streaks. 2015 was the exception to the rule, as quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick had a career season and guided the team to a 10-6 record. The next season, things quickly unraveled as New York went on two four-game losing streaks where the team averaged just 9 and 14 points during those spans.

The 2017 season was more of the same, with the Jets having a 5-11 record with again, four multi-game losing streaks. The worst of which came closing out the season averaging a paltry eight points a game across four games. In his last year coaching the team in 2018, he guided them to a 4-12 mark that included a six-game losing streak from October 21 to December 2 and ending the year finishing 1-9 in their last ten games.

In the Big Apple, it was often the case that Todd Bowles failed to get the team on the right track and not let the losses pile up. After leading Tampa Bay to 8-9 in 2022 and sitting at 3-4 in late October, Bowles will have some work to do on correcting his track record as a head coach and guiding the team through a second-half slate of games starting after the 49ers that on paper look quite winnable.