There were a handful of moments that made Bruce Arians scratch his head in the Bucs 29-19 loss to the Washington Football Team. Two turnovers on consecutive drives in the first quarter, two defensive offsides penalties that helped Washington to first downs, and four drops were the lowlights

What was the most surprising moment, though? It was a baffling fourth quarter that saw the Bucs regain momentum by cutting it to a 23-19 game, only to never get the ball back again.

“Them scoring after we scored,” Arians said of the game’s most surprising moment. “When we had momentum in the second half and got it to three, they scored. We scored, missed an extra point and never got the ball back. So, we didn’t capitalize with the energy level on defense. [That was] After we made plays on defense and our offense scored a touchdown. That was the most disheartening thing for us. To [let them] have a 10-minute drive against us, that just can’t happen.”

Bucs DE Will Gholston, OLB Anthony Nelson and WFT QB Taylor Heinicke – Photo by: USA Today

Washington went on an astounding 19-play, 80-yard touchdown drive against the Bucs defense that took 10 minutes and 26 seconds. The Football Team had the ball with 10:55 remaining in the fourth quarter and didn’t relinquish possession until there was 29 seconds to go. It was the longest drive by any team in the NFL this season.

A big issue during the whole game was the Bucs inability to get stops on third down. They allowed four third down conversions on that drive alone, along with a fourth down conversion for a touchdown. However, it wasn’t that Washington was having so much success on third down that bothered Arians. It was losing on first and second down to set their opponent with better situations.

“I think the big thing was that 10 of them were third-and-1 to third-and-5,” Arians said. “So, our first and second down defense wasn’t good enough. If you’re giving somebody ten third-and-1 to third-and-5s, you’re going to get about 60 or 70 percent completed on you. That’s the part that was very frustrating. Not getting off the field because of first and second down.”