After starting slow in their first three games of the season, the Bucs talked a lot last week about needing to start faster when they hosted the Chiefs for a Sunday Night Football matchup in Week 4.

Instead, Tampa Bay got off to its worst start yet.

The Chiefs won the toss and deferred, meaning the Bucs would receive the opening kickoff. Rookie Rachaad White fielded the kick from just inside the end zone and decided to take it out. He got stopped shy of the 25-yard line, but that wasn’t the worst part. White fumbled and Kansas City recovered, setting Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs offense up at the 21-yard line to start the game.

Two plays later, Mahomes found Travis Kelce for a 16-yard touchdown. Just like that, it was a 7-0 deficit for the Bucs.

“Obviously, we started off the game bad,” White said. “Nobody expected to start the game off like that. [The Chiefs] did good, they played well. We’ve just got to come out faster.”

Chiefs TE Travis Kelce – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

As much as the fumble on the opening kickoff might’ve swung momentum in Kansas City’s favor, Bucs head coach Todd Bowles was more disappointed with his defense’s inability to stand tall in the red zone after the turnover.

“That’s why you play defense. Your back is always against the wall,” Bowles said. “Your job is to do your job when you’re out there, whether it’s the red zone, whether it’s backed up, whether it’s midfield. It doesn’t matter where they get the ball at, our job is to hold them to three or get a turnover.”

Tampa Bay’s offense responded with a field goal drive, but against an offense like Kansas City’s, it was easy to tell that field goal drives wouldn’t be enough. The Chiefs came back and drove 79 yards in 12 plays to extend their lead to 14-3 and even with their backs firmly against the wall, the Bucs’ slow start persisted.

Down 14-3, Tom Brady and the offense needed to find the end zone to keep pace with Mahomes and the Chiefs. Instead, the unit went three-and-out. Leonard Fournette lost two yards on first down, Brady threw an incompletion on second down and a 10-yard pass to Russell Gage on third-and-12 wasn’t enough to keep things moving. After the punt, the Chiefs drove down and scored again. Less than 20 minutes into the game, the Bucs found themselves in a 21-3 hole.

Tampa Bay’s offense did its best to dig out of the deficit, but the defense’s inability to slow down Mahomes and Kelce and get off the field on third downs kept the Bucs from ever getting within one possession. The slow start in all three phases of the game proved costly as the team fell to 2-2. 

Bucs Started Slow In All Three Phases In Sunday Night’s Loss

The Bucs have started slow in every game this season. But the key difference — especially in their two wins to start the season — was that they started slow offensively and the other phases picked them up.

In their season-opening win over the Cowboys, the Bucs struggled to find the end zone offensively. But their defense stepped up and carried the weight. Ryan Succop delivered on some key field goals, too, ensuring Tampa Bay was putting some points on the board to back up its defense. The same thing happened in Week 2, with the defense recovering from a rough opening drive before clamping down and making life difficult for the Saints. That gave the offense enough time to find itself and make a big play in the fourth quarter.

Bucs HC Todd Bowles – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

Even in a Week 3 loss to the Packers when Tampa Bay’s defense gave up back-to-back touchdown drives to start the game and the offense struggled again, it wasn’t disastrous enough of a start to put the team in a hole it couldn’t recover from. The Bucs lost 14-12, but they were in it throughout.

Against the Chiefs, it was a slow start in all three phases of the game. A fumble on the opening kickoff. An easy touchdown drive allowed after the turnover. A miss on third down that forced the offense to settle for a field goal. Another touchdown drive allowed. Then, a three-and-out followed by yet another long scoring drive.

All three phases — offense, defense and special teams — worked together to give the Bucs a 21-3 deficit. And against teams like the Chiefs, you’re never going to find it easy to climb back from down 18, no matter how early in the game it might be.

Bowles took a lot of blame for the loss after the game, but shaking this trend of starting slow is as much an individual thing as it is a collective effort. The Bucs can’t afford to do this week in and week out. And as they proved on Sunday night, talking all week about starting faster isn’t enough. When it comes time to kick things off, that talk has to translate to the field.

We’ll see if it does next week against Atlanta, who comes into Raymond James Stadium with an early NFC South lead on the line.