A lot is wrong with the 0-2 Bucs as we sit in late September. No question, losing to the Browns has sapped much of the optimism about Tampa Bay’s prospects this season in the minds of the fanbase, and for good reason.

This team is just 2-9 over the past 11 games with serious concerns on offense and defense. Things don’t get any easier moving forward, as they face the 2-0 Vikings at home on Sunday.

Hall of Fame cornerback Rondé Barber remains around the team regularly, being close enough to get a pulse on the vibes in the building. On The Rondé Barber Show this week, Barber shared that things are grim right now, pointing to a lack of readiness and issues with players grasping head coach Todd Bowles’ scheme.

What Has Defined Bucs Through Week 2? “Mistakes, Bust, And Lack of Execution”

Rondé Barber has an up-close view of the Bucs at the team’s facility, contributing film room content and taking his observations to his weekly podcast. Barber isn’t afraid to point out what is going wrong and where the team is at. After losing to the Browns, things are only compounding in a negative way.

“Look, the mood is not great,” Barber said on his show. “There’s too many mistakes. There’s a lack of urgency, if you will, in my mind when I look at them going onto the field. There’s got to be a little bit of a sense of a defining characteristic of your team through Week 2. I don’t know what that is. It’s mistakes. It’s busts. It’s lack of execution.

Bucs OC Zac Robinson and QB Baker Mayfield – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

“We made light of it after Week 1 and said, ‘Oh, Week 1 is just the fourth preseason game.’ Well, Week 2 can’t be the fifth preseason game. At some point you have to start hitting your stride. And it doesn’t feel like they’re in their stride right now on either side of the ball.”

This is absolutely spot on and concerning analysis from Barber here. Many of these points fall back on Todd Bowles, as he has failed to get the team up to speed enough to compete. Tampa Bay looks like a team going through the motions and lacking the energy that was touted throughout the offseason. To that end, Barber mentioned the obvious: the team is “hard to watch.”

Even with notable additions on defense, the four-man pass rush has done nothing. Instead, it was the Bengals’ revamped defense who looked the part in Week 1. There is no reason Deshaun Watson should be made to look the part of an elite quarterback when his last productive season was over half a decade ago.

At this point, Barber sees the players too worried about fitting Bowles’ scheme that they aren’t comfortable making plays.

“I feel like for much of the secondary, especially the coverage unit, they’re so focused on what they’re trying to do that they don’t know how to do it now,” Barber said.

Todd Bowles Can’t Make Any More Excuses For Bucs’ Pass Rush

That message can be taken and applied across the board defensively.

There is one statistic I want to point out about where the Bucs’ pass rush stands. Todd Bowles defended his defense’s lack of getting home this week by mentioning how quickly quarterbacks are getting the ball out against them. Not only is that a key for success against Bowles’ unit, but it is not a valid excuse on his part. ESPN’s Bill Barnwell offered some insight into why.

Bucs OLB Rueben Bain Jr. – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

Through two weeks in 2026 — even with Bowles blitzing again at the third-highest rate — the Bucs are 31st in pressure rate. Some of that is a product of playing the Bengals and Browns; Tampa has faced the fastest time to pass so far, but that alone shouldn’t be stopping the Bucs from getting home. The Patriots, who also blitz at one of the highest rates in the league and have opposing quarterbacks averaging the fourth-fastest time to pass so far this season, are fourth in the NFL in pressure rate.

Barnwell also added:

A defense that blitzes a ton and doesn’t get home is dead on arrival.

The secondary and pass rush have failed to play off each other, and what hasn’t helped is seeing the significant struggles of veteran inside linebacker Alex Anzalone. Someone as established as Anzalone, who is also a team captain, says a lot about the state of the defense.

Bucs ILB Alex Anzalone – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

“Anzalone doesn’t miss tackles, man,” Barber said. “That’s not what we brought this guy in for: to have four or five missed tackles in the first two weeks of the season… There’s some dynamic going on, whether it’s not understanding what his role is in the defense, not understanding angles, maybe not having enough tackles in the preseason, I don’t know what it is,” Barber said. “Something is hamstringing this defense in critical moments.”

Something, or someone?

With the alarm already sounding off about this season, a loss on Sunday would put serious doubt into whether this Bucs team even makes it to the eight to ten-win floor they have set in recent years. It certainly did not help losing two very winnable games so far, and another loss makes the hole even tougher to climb out of.

“From my experience, you just can’t let this be the reason that the rest of the season falls by the wayside,” Barber said. “I know people are doom and glooming, ‘I told you so,’ this and that.”

What the Bucs have to do from here is give anyone who watches them a reason not to be dooming and glooming.

We will see on Sunday.