Buccaneers lose to Cleveland Browns 19-23

Tampa Bay's Week 2 date with the Cleveland Browns turned on a stoppage nobody could plan for. A lightning delay suspended play for roughly two hours in the fourth quarter, right as the Buccaneers were driving to answer a go ahead touchdown, and when the teams came back out the drive died in the end zone. Cleveland held on to win 23-19 at Raymond James Stadium on Sunday, September 20, sending Tampa Bay to an 0-2 start for the first time in 12 years.

Key facts

• Cleveland beat Tampa Bay 23-19 at Raymond James Stadium in Week 2, dropping the Buccaneers to 0-2 to start a season for the first time in 12 years.
• A lightning delay suspended play for roughly two hours in the fourth quarter while the Buccaneers were driving to answer Cleveland's go ahead touchdown, and the drive stalled after play resumed.
• Baker Mayfield finished 21 of 34 for 182 yards with one touchdown to Emeka Egbuka and one interception, picked off by Cleveland's Myles Harden and returned 25 yards.
• Chase McLaughlin made all four of his field goal attempts, including a 59-yarder, for a game-high 13 points.
• Rookie linebacker Josiah Trotter led all Buccaneers in tackles for the second straight week, this time with 13.

For a long stretch, this looked like a game the Buccaneers controlled. Chase McLaughlin opened the scoring with a 59-yard field goal just past the midpoint of the first quarter, and Tampa Bay traded field goals with Cleveland kicker Andre Szmyt through the rest of the half: a 50-yarder from Szmyt tied it at 3, a 45-yarder from McLaughlin made it 6-3, another Szmyt kick tied it at 6, and a 31-yard McLaughlin field goal with 12 seconds left sent the Buccaneers to the locker room ahead 9-6.

A 10-point lead slips away

Tampa Bay finally found the end zone early in the third quarter, when Baker Mayfield capped a drive with a five-yard touchdown pass to Emeka Egbuka to make it 16-6. That was as far ahead as the Buccaneers would get. Szmyt's third field goal cut the margin to 16-9, then Deshaun Watson found Denzel Boston for a 55-yard touchdown with 1:23 left in the third, a play that wiped out the rest of Tampa Bay's cushion and tied the game at 16.

The Buccaneers regained the lead early in the fourth quarter on the back of a 49-yard catch by Tez Johnson that set up McLaughlin's fourth field goal, a 31-yarder that made it 19-16. Cleveland answered with a 12-play, 68-yard drive that Watson finished with a 17-yard touchdown pass to Blake Whiteheart, putting the Browns back in front 23-19 with 3:51 to play.

The delay, then the fade that fell incomplete

Tampa Bay got the ball back trying to answer and had moved into scoring range when lightning in the area forced officials to suspend the game for roughly two hours. By the time play resumed the rain had settled in, and the Buccaneers could not finish what they had started. On what amounted to their last real chance, Mayfield threw a fade route into the end zone for rookie Ted Hurst III that fell incomplete, and a follow up throw to Egbuka on the next snap did too, sealing the 23-19 loss.

Mayfield's day was otherwise clean: 21 of 34 for 182 yards and the touchdown to Egbuka, with a single interception that Cleveland safety Myles Harden picked off and returned 25 yards. Watson, who took over as Cleveland's starter not long after the Browns moved on from Mayfield years earlier, finished 24 of 30 for 238 yards and two touchdowns.

Standout performances

Bucky Irving carried the ground game with 89 yards on 17 carries, and Tez Johnson's lone catch of the day went for 49 yards, the play that set up Tampa Bay's go ahead field goal in the fourth quarter. McLaughlin made all four of his field goal attempts, including that 59-yarder, for a game-high 13 points, while Egbuka's touchdown reception was his second score in as many weeks.

On defense, rookie linebacker Josiah Trotter led all Buccaneers in tackles for the second straight game, this time with 13, and edge rusher David Walker recorded his first career sack. For Cleveland, Boston's 55-yard touchdown catch headlined a five-catch, 95-yard afternoon, and Harden's interception of Mayfield was the only turnover of the day either way.

What it means

Head coach Todd Bowles did not dress up the moment afterward, framing the response to a first 0-2 start in 12 years in blunt terms: "We've got to pull ourselves up by our boots and we've got to win." The Buccaneers have now lost two winnable games to start the season, the first to their own turnovers in Cincinnati and the second to a game that slipped away after a freak weather delay against Cleveland. There is plenty of football left, but the margin for slow starts just shrank, with Minnesota up next and patience around the building starting to run thin.