The Tampa Bay Buccaneers did not have the best defensive outing in 2025. That's unfortunate, given that their head coach is a defensive head coach. Tampa Bay's initial defensive stats don't look awful.

The first came at the end of the first half when Bowles let over 10 seconds run off the clock after the Buccaneers reached the red zone. With just 17 seconds, the Buccaneers essentially had to be perfect execution-wise. Fortunately, for Tampa Bay, it ended up scoring a touchdown to knot proceedings up at 10-10 at the break.