It’s time for Scott Reynolds’ 2-Point Conversion post-game column, which features two statements, two questions and two predictions based on the latest Bucs game.

Is it time to hit the panic button after Tampa Bay’s stunning, 23-19 loss to a bad Cleveland team on Sunday, which gave the Bucs a dubious 0-2 start to the 2026 season? Absolutely – smash the panic button. Todd Bowles’ defense crumbled in the second half, surrendering a 10-point lead at halftime, while Deshaun Watson outplayed Baker Mayfield in a disastrous loss in the team’s home opener.

Tampa Bay’s 2026 season could be over before it’s even begun as Todd Bowles is on the hottest of hot seats right now.

2 BIG STATEMENTS

STATEMENT 1. Bucs REALLY Screwed Up With Inexcusable 0-2 Start

INEXCUSABLE.

Tampa Bay’s 23-19 loss to a really bad Cleveland team, which was coming off a 34-10 drubbing in Jacksonville, was excusable on Sunday.

It’s the kind of loss that should get coaches fired. Perhaps not after Week 2, even though the Bucs have fallen to 0-2 thanks to a Week 1 loss at Cincinnati, because the Glazers would never fire their beloved Todd Bowles that soon. But it’s that caliber of a loss where – in theory – it should happen. Especially coming on the heels of last year’s late season collapse.

Bowles’ Bucs are now 2-9 in their last 11 games and 3-10 over the last 13 games.

Looking at the Bucs’ 2026 slate of games, outside of a 0-2 Chargers team that looks hapless and two games against a 0-2 Falcons team that looks hopeless, the Browns looked like the most winnable one on the schedule.

This was supposed to be the lay-up.

Tampa Bay didn’t just miss the lay-up, it got called for traveling on the breakaway to the basket.

After leading 16-6 at halftime, Bowles’ defense let the Browns back in the game. Beleaguered quarterback Deshaun Watson came to life in the second half, completing 17-of-21 passes (80.9%) for two touchdowns after a modest first half where he completed just 7-of-9 passes for 55 yards.

On Watson’s first touchdown, linebacker Alex Anzalone missed a key tackle on Denzel Boston and then safeties Tykee Smith and Antoine Winfield Jr. collided with each other, allowing the rookie receiver to outrace Benjamin Morrison to the end zone to tie the game at 16-16.

That egregious gaffe was a haunting reminder of the bumbling Bucs days from yesteryear. Then Watson found backup tight end Blake Whiteheart, who was wide open, for a 17-yard score that gave the Browns a lead for good and reminded Bucs fans of the present day Bowles defense: coverage busts and miscommunication.

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

The sloppy Bucs got called for six penalties for 62 yards on Sunday, including a costly holding penalty on center Graham Barton – his second of the game – on the Bucs’ final drive inside of two minutes. That drive occurred after a two-hour and 12-minute weather delay due to the lightning in the Tampa area and only delayed the inevitable.

Tampa Bay had the ball at the Cleveland 28 on second-and-4 and had driven down to the Cleveland 13-yard line with 45 seconds left before Barton’s penalty pushed the team back to the 23 to bring up second-and-14. Baker Mayfield, who had been underwhelming through most of the game, threw a dime to rookie receiver Ted Hurst III, who couldn’t haul in the pass that hit him in the hands – perhaps due to a wet ball, as it started to downpour once again during the final minute of regulation.

A 3-yard Mayfield scramble on third down set up fourth-and-11 from the Cleveland 20, but Mayfield’s fourth down pass to Emeka Egbuka was too far out in front despite the receiver having a step on his defender.

Sunday’s loss to the Browns was some Lovie Smith-level stuff (I want to use a stronger word) right there.

It was a disaster and it was inevitable.

Bucs HC Todd Bowles and Jaguars HC Liam Coen – Photo by: IMAGN Images via Reuters Connect

This outcome can be traced back to the fateful decision the Glazers made in keeping the 61-year old Bowles instead of replacing him with the 39-year old Liam Coen, the offensive wizard who transformed the Bucs into a top 5 offense during a 10-7 season in 2024. Coming off a 10-win season, it would have required a bold move that maybe their late father would have made. But the Glazer family opted to play it safe and keep Bowles instead of following the league-wide trend of hiring the young, aggressive offensive coordinator to pair with the QB – and here we are today.

Meanwhile, Coen left to become Jacksonville’s head coach, turning a 4-13 team into a 13-4 team without taking a single assistant coach with him.

Coen’s wizardry has brought out the best in Trevor Lawrence the way he brought out the best in Mayfield in 2024. By the way, Mayfield has just 15 touchdown passes and 14 turnovers (11 interceptions and three fumbles) in the last 13 games.

That’s not $55 million per year stuff.

Bucs QB Baker Mayfield – Photo by: IMAGN Images via Reuters Connect

Like Sunday’s game, which totaled over five hours thanks to the weather delay, the Bowles era has lasted too long and produced an unfavorable outcome. Bowles is now 35-35 (.500) with two winning records, two losing records and a disastrous 0-2 start as his fifth year in Tampa Bay is underway.

That is the legit definition of mediocre. This team is going nowhere fast under Bowles and this season could be over before its truly begun.

I know Todd Bowles is a “good man,” but I’m tired of hearing that from the organization. Fans are, too. They are fed up, as they should be. This team appears to be too talented to play this bad.

Bowles wasn’t hired to be a good man or a “great guy.” He, like every coach that is hired in the game of football, was hired to win games.

Period. That’s the job criteria: win games.

Coaches are hired with the expectation to win, and the ones who get canned are fired because they don’t win enough. It’s that simple.

I called for Bowles to be fired at the end of last year when this team had gotten stale during a 2-7 slide that ruined a promising 6-2 start. The team didn’t listen and it still looks stale. The Bucs really screwed up by believing in Bowles after the 2024 season and doubled down on the screw-up this past offseason.

It looks like the Bucs just slapped a fresh coat of paint on a house with rotting wood this offseason. The problem is, it’s still rotten underneath. Early returns on free agent and draft investments show that general manager Jason Licht didn’t do Bowles and the Bucs any favors, either. A lot of the team’s new players haven’t produced positive results as expected – yet.

But football is about the X’s and the O’s as well as the Jimmies and the Joes. And Bowles’ X’s and O’s aren’t great. He’s not putting his high-priced players in position to succeed.

The Glazers, who had just given Bowles a contract extension prior to the start of the 2025 season, defended the decision to retain him after last year’s horrific finish culminated in an 8-9 record. They pointed to an enormous amount of injuries to key players in 2025. OK, that’s their prerogative as they own the team.

Outside of cornerback Jacob Parrish, the Bucs were at full strength against the Browns on Sunday, remarkably healthy through the first two weeks of the season. There are no more excuses for Bowles, who has new players on defense and new assistants on his staff.

Not after Sunday’s inexcusable loss to a Browns team that was 8-27 prior to beating Bowles and the Bucs in Week 2.

STATEMENT 2. Unhappy Bucs Fans Spoke With Their Wallets On Sunday

In my 31 years of covering this Buccaneers franchise, I’ve come to learn one thing about Tampa Bay fans.

At heart, this is a blue collar fan base that loves three things: great defense, a stud running back that gets them out of their seats and a feisty head coach that the fans can relate with and believe in.

Bucs fans fell in love with Lee Roy Selmon and that legendary 1979 defense and a team that featured power back Ricky Bell with John McKay, a tough coach whose quips in the media entertained the fans for years until the wins came.

Tampa Bay’s love affair with the Bucs returned with Monte Kiffin’s dominant Tampa 2 defense in the late 1990s and early 2000s that featured four Hall of Famers during the Tony Dungy and Jon Gruden era, the tackle-busting A-Train known as fullback Mike Alstott and Gruden’s red-faced maniacal “Chucky” persona, which willed this team to its first Super Bowl in 2002 as the Bucs pounded the rock.

Bucs HC Todd Bowles and former HC Jon Gruden – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

After a decade of darkness following Gruden’s firing after a nine-win 2008 season, the Bucs defense rose up again and helped win another Super Bowl in 2020, led by a studly defense that featured Lavonte David, Ndamukong Suh, Jason Pierre-Paul and Shaq Barrett, a big back in Leonard Fournette who came to life in the postseason and became “Playoff Lenny” and ultimately “Lombardi Lenny,” and a “no-risk-it, no-biscuit” maverick of a head coach in Bruce Arians.

In 2026 the Bucs have just one of the things the fans like – a stud running back in Bucky Irving, whose electric runs do get fans out of their seats. Irving was the best Tampa Bay player on the field on Sunday, rushing for a game-high 89 yards, including a 38-yard dash, while averaging 5.2 yards per carry.

But a great defense? Far from it from the Bowles Bunch with just three sacks and one takeaway in two games during this ugly 0-2 start to the 2026 season.

And a popular head coach that the fans embrace? Certainly not Todd Bowles, whose teams always seem to play down to the level of their competition.

This fan base lost faith in him during last year’s collapse and it showed in Tampa Bay’s home opener, which was sparsely attended. By my estimation, there were at least 20,000 empty seats – maybe more – at Raymond James Stadium, which has a capacity of just over 65,000. This picture was taken with about five minutes left before kickoff in Week 2.

Fans showed their disapproval by speaking with their wallets and choosing to stay home instead of showing up for the home opener. In the coming weeks, the Glazers will get bailed out at the gate with tens of thousands of Packers fans and Steelers fans paying to show up at Ray-Jay – and possibly outnumbering Bucs fans.

It’s a sad state of affairs for a sad team right now. Maybe this will get the Glazers’ attention and force them to listen to their customers.

Not only did the Bucs have the chance to replace Bowles with Liam Coen after the 2024 season, they had the chance to replace Bowles this offseason with fiery new Browns head coach Todd Monken, the ex-Tampa Bay offensive coordinator who got his first win at the expense of his former team.

After Sunday, it looks like the Bucs went with the wrong Todd in 2026.

2 PROBING QUESTIONS

QUESTION 1. How Did Todd Bowles’ Defense Make Deshaun Watson Look Good?

Are we surprised at this point? After the last two years of seeing Kirk Cousins look like a Hall of Famer against Todd Bowles’ defense, and making the likes of Kenny Pickett, P.J. Walker, Jacoby Brissett, Gardner Minshew, Cooper Rush and Quinn Ewers look like Pro Bowlers against Tampa Bay during Bowles’ tenure as head coach, we shouldn’t be surprised that Deshaun Watson played as well as he did in Sunday’s 23-19 loss to Cleveland.

Watson completed 24-of-30 passes for 238 yards and threw two second half touchdowns while getting sacked just twice. This comes on the heels of Jacksonville hunting Watson and recording five sacks and picking him off once in Week 1. That led to the Browns falling behind 31-0 in the third quarter of a 34-10 loss to he Jaguars.

That prompted Todd Monken to say he would re-evaluate the Browns quarterback situation after Week 2. Monken was essentially suggesting that Watson, who is unpopular with Browns fans, could be benched in favor of Shedeur Sanders for Cleveland’s home opener in Week 3. Instead, Bowles and his defense made Watson look far greater than just competent on Sunday. Bowles could have revived Watson’s career as a starting quarterback.

How many times does this have to happen before Bowles finally loses his luster as a defensive play-caller and a supposed defensive mastermind?

STATEMENT 2. Is It Time To Panic Over Rueben Bain Jr. Yet?

Maybe. Through two games, Rueben Bain Jr., the team’s first-round pick, does not look like the game-wrecker he was at Miami last year. Maybe the AC joint in his shoulder, which he injured in a joint practice with the Jaguars, is limiting him. I don’t wish injury upon any player, but I hope Bain has that excuse for his poor play through the first two games of his NFL career.

A week after notching just one tackle at Cincinnati and not coming close to quarterback Joe Burrow, Bain didn’t show up on the stat sheet at all versus Cleveland. No tackles, no pressures, no sacks – although there is photographic evidence of him tackling Browns running back Quinshon Judkins that the NFL stats crew must have missed.

Bucs OLB Rueben Bain Jr. and Browns RB Quinshon Judkins – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

Still, Bain is struggling to get off blocks and looks lost on the field. Todd Bowles needs to consider benching him and allowing the rookie to regroup by starting either Al-Quadin Muhammad or David Walker, who saw his first NFL action on defense and recorded a second quarter sack of Deshaun Watson. Perhaps Bain can have more success and regain some confidence by being a rotational player in the coming weeks without the pressure of being a starter.

There were times when the 263-pound Bain was being blocked effectively by Browns tight end Harold Fannin Jr., who is 6-foot-4, 241 pounds. Fannin is known as a receiving tight end and not a good blocker. That’s not a good look for Bain, who arrived in Tampa Bay with plenty of hype.

Browns TE Harold Fannin Jr. and Bucs OLB Rueben Bain Jr. – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

2 BOLD PREDICTIONS

STATEMENT 1. Bucs To Start The 2026 Season 0-5

Usually in my Bold Predictions section of the 2-Pt Conversion, I only offer up a quick forecast of the coming week’s game. But I’ve seen enough ineptness on both sides of the ball in Tampa Bay so far.

Not only will the 0-2 Bucs lose to the 2-0 Vikings at home next week, they’ll also lose to the Packers (1-1) at home and Cowboys (1-1) on Thursday Night Football in the coming weeks. Tampa Bay will start the season 0-3 at home and perhaps their next best chance of winning a game will be against the Steelers, who narrowly beat the awful Falcons, 20-13, in Week 1 before losing to the Patriots, 20-3, in Week 2.

I hope I’m wrong. Like really wrong.

I seriously misjudged how good the Bucs were going to be this year.

STATEMENT 2. Brian Flores Is Going To Put On A Blitz Clinic That Todd Bowles Needs To Attend

If you think that Baker Mayfield is skittish in the pocket now, just wait until next Sunday when Minnesota and blitz-happy defensive coordinator Brian Flores come to town. The undefeated Vikings have eight sacks in the team’s two victories this year, led by Dallas Turner’s three and Andrew Van Ginkel’s 2.5. Minnesota just held the Chicago Bears, which put up 59 points in a Week 1 win over Carolina, to just three points in Week 2.

Meanwhile, the 0-2 Bucs have surrendered seven sacks through two games, and Mayfield doesn’t trust his protection up front, even though he has all five starting offensive linemen healthy this year.

On the flip side, Bucs head coach and defensive play-caller Todd Bowles likes to blitz, but his team just isn’t good at it. The Bucs have three sacks through two games. In a battle of the blitzes this Sunday at Raymond James Stadium, expect Flores and the Vikings to come out on top.