The Bucs lost an incredibly entertaining game that they had no reason being in after the first half. And because the game was really a tale of two halves, most of the Most Disappointing in this game really fell on the play of the team before halftime.

As such, that leads off this week's Most Disappointing, with several sub-categories from the first 30 minutes of play detailing the abhorrent showing before the team went into the locker room midway through the game.

First Half

Bucs Punt Unit

After giving up a blocked kick in week three and blocked punt in week two, the Bucs special teams unit once again gave up a critical block in this game. On Riley Dixon's first punt attempt of the game, long snapper Evan Deckers and tight end Payne Durham allowed Cameron Latu to push through the A gap to block Dixon's punt. Sydney Brown was able to recover it and waltz into the end zone for a touchdown and an early Eagles 7-0 lead.

Bucs P Riley Dixon – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

The hits kept on coming in the first half. Dixon's second punt was just 40 yards to the Eagles' 27-yard line. And his third was shanked off the right side of his foot for only 18 yards. The Bucs caught a small break on the play as they drew a defensive holding penalty that gave them an extra 10 yards, but a 28-yard net when he had an opportunity to create good field position for their defense was still a complete failure by the Dixon.

Dixon was brought in to stabilize the punting game. At the quarter-turn of the season, he has done anything but. He's holding the snaps a little too long, and the shank is reminiscent of what drove Jake Camarda out of town last year. Add in poor snaps and poor protection and the unit is a mess right now.

Bucs' Pocket Containment

With Jalen Hurts' mobility well-documented, it had to be a priority for the Bucs defense. That should have been doubly important after they routinely allowed Michael Penix, C.J. Stroud and Tyrod Taylor to break containment in the first three weeks of the season.

Still, on the Eagles' first offensive drive of the game, the Bucs ran an inside stunt with their defensive tackles while Haason Reddick climbed the arc too far trying to get to Hurts. The result was Vita Vea suddenly being the force containment defender to Hurts' right.

Bucs OLB Haason Reddick and Eagles QB Jalen Hurts – Photo by: USA Today

The Philadelphia quarterback naturally took advantage of the situation, stepping up and to his right, breaking the pocket and gaining the edge on Vea as he turned up field for a 29-yard scramble to the Bucs' 2-yard line. The Eagles would score on the following play to put Tampa Bay down 14-0.

Halfway through the second quarter, the Bucs again tried to run a stunt/twist to get pressure on Hurts. In doing so, Vea was once again the containment defender. Can you guess what happened next? Great job! Yes, Hurts broke the pocket and picked up key yards to keep a drive alive.

Bucs Receivers

With Mike Evans absent with an injury, it was critical that the rest of the receiving corps came up big. Unfortunately for Tampa Bay, they were unable to meet the challenge, especially early. Against Philadelphia's tight coverage, Chris Godwin and Emeka Egbuka needed to make contested catches on tight-window throws. Despite Baker Mayfield largely putting the ball in places where his guys could make plays, both receivers dropped those opportunities.

Bucs WR Chris Godwin and Eagles CB Cooper DeJean – Photo by: USA Today

Egbuka missed on a slant in the first quarter and Godwin dropped a beautiful ball laid into his hands after Mayfield scrambled out of trouble and made a deep throw down field that would have been an explosive gain for the offense. In his first game back in almost a year, Godwin was clearly knocking the rust off.

In addition to their troubles hauling in tough catches, the receivers struggled to gain any separation, forcing every throw to be either a difficult throw or a check down to the flats. Because of that, Mayfield averaged just 3.3 yards per attempt in the first half. Egbuka was being asked to fill Mike Evans' shoes and drew coverage from Philadelphia's best corner, Quinyon Mitchell. The added focus had an effect on him as he was less reliable than he had been through the first three weeks of the season.

Egbuka would redeem himself in the second half with an incredible 77-yard touchdown to finish the game with four catches for 101 yards and a touchdown. But he and Godwin combined for a 35% catch rate on 20 targets for the day. That kind of efficiency isn't going to get the job done on most Sundays.

Bucs Pass Rush

The Eagles have an incredible offensive line. It's part of the reason why Bowles tries the games up front that he has over the years. With blitzes and the aforementioned stunts and twists, they hoped to confuse Hurts and get home for sacks. Their efforts were in vain as they were unable to get home and bring down the Eagles' signal-caller while providing him with open receivers and running lanes to drive up and down the field all day long.

Yaya Diaby, coming off the best game of his career, was nearly unnoticeable while Reddick was noticed on several occasions getting too far up the arc and allowing Hurts to escape easily from the pocket.

Beyond his scrambling, Hurts had an answer for every pass rush, finding open options in the flat when he was hurried. And when he wasn't? He carved up the Bucs' coverage holes in the intermediate-to-deep range of the field, including two explosive pass plays in the first half.

Now that we documented the first half, there are two other notations for this list.

Baker Mayfield

Mayfield has been walking a tightrope all season. In between the excellent second reaction play creation and last-minute heroics have been several turnover-worthy plays. In week one,  he had several near interceptions that fell out of the Falcons' hands. Week two, he had a fumble and another near pick. In week three, there was another fumble.

Seven times in those three games, he put the ball in a position for the Bucs' offense to lose possession. But the football gods smiled down on the Bucs' face of the franchise and each of the throws fell to the ground and each of the fumbles found their way into an awaiting teammate's arms.

The football gods were somewhere else when he scrambled in and out of the pocket with just under eight minutes left in the game on Sunday. As Mayfield looked to make magic happen as he scrambled to his right, he threw toward the end zone sideline for Godwin. He couldn't get nearly enough behind the throw and Eagles linebacker Jihaad Campbell was able to jump in front of the pass for Mayfield's first interception of the season.

If that had been third or fourth down, it would have been one thing. But on 1st and 10 from the 11? The decision to make that throw was a poor one and negated a fantastic opportunity to tie the game up with plenty of time to get the ball back and win in regulation. Mayfield has walkedRthe turnover tightrope all season, and he finally fell off in one of the most high-leverage situations of the young campaign.

Right Side of the Offensive Line

The Bucs got Tristan Wirfs back and were able to return the left side of their front to normal. With Cody Mauch out for the season and Luke Goedeke down for at least a month, the same cannot be said for the right side of the line. And the difference between the two sides was night and day.

Luke Haggard and Charlie Heck struggled to maintain any semblance of protection, causing Mayfield to have to routinely scramble and try and create on second reaction.

Bucs OT Charlie Heck – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

Heck gave up at least seven pressures on the day. And I may be underselling that number. Haggard added another 2-3 to that total. Beyond the pressure in total, they took several options off the board in terms of the play calls offensive coordinator Josh Grizzard could call and reduced the time Mayfield had to work through his progressions.

Until the Bucs can find better options on this side of the line – be that Mike Jordan, Elijah Klein or Dan Feeney inside, and either Ben Chukwuma or the return of Goedeke at tackle – the offense will continue to be limited.

Even in the run game, there was a stark difference. When running left, Rachaad White and Bucky Irving averaged just a hair under 5.0 yards per carry. To the right? That number was just 2.6 yards. The Bucs have to do something here. They can't run these two out again next week.