In each of Todd Bowles' first four seasons as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' head coach, his team started the season with at least two wins before taking a loss. In three of those four years (2022-24), the team hit some sort of midseason lull but was able to course-correct in time to still capture the NFC South crown. Last year, the Buccaneers never fully pulled out of their midseason slide and saw their streak of four straight division titles snapped after losing a tiebreaker to the Carolina Panthers after those two teams and Atlanta all finished 8-9.
The 2026 season, it's safe to say, is unfolding quite a bit differently. After a late-game rally fell just short in a 23-19 loss to the Cleveland Browns, the Buccaneers are 0-2 at the start of a season for the first time since 2014. The last time Tampa Bay started a season 0-2 and still made the playoffs was the 1982 season, which was shortened to nine games by a player strike. Since 2002, 12% of teams that started 0-2 have made it to the playoffs in that season.
On the other hand, the Buccaneers are still just one game off the pace in the NFC South with 15 outings still to go, including all six of their games against division opponents. In addition, six teams have started 0-2 in the last two seasons and still qualified for the postseason, including the aforementioned Panthers right in the Bucs' own division last year.
The Buccaneers can't secure a playoff spot next weekend, but they can get a much-needed first win when the Minnesota Vikings come to town. Minnesota is 2-0 after beating Green Bay 39-22 in Week One and Chicago 9-3 this past Sunday.
"I think [there is] always pressure until you get your first win out [of] the way," said Bowles. "You know, you try to get it out the way at the beginning of the season so you don't have to worry about it anymore. It's not a different kind of pressure, so to speak. It's probably a different kind of urgency – not that you're not playing urgent already – but you just want to get that first win on the board."
The margin of defeat has been thin for the Buccaneers in the first two weeks. In Cincinnati in Week One the Bucs lost by just six points despite fumbling the ball away four times. After they scored to make it 33-27, they had nearly four minutes left to get a stop on defense and have another crack at winning the game, but they were not able to get off the field. On Sunday against Cleveland, they had driven to the Browns' 28 by the two-minute warning, down by four, before nearby lightning caused a 132-minute suspension of the game. After play resumed, there were several near-misses at completing passes in the end zone before the Bucs ran out of downs.
All of which is to say, there's no reason for the Bucs' locker room to have a crisis of confidence when they feel a couple fewer mistakes, which can be fixed, is the only thing standing between them and another 2-0 start.
"I feel like that won't be determined until the end of the season," answered Bowles when asked about his team's confidence level. "I think if you lose the first two games of the year, that doesn't determine the other 15 games. That's probably a question that could be answered [better] later than now. Right now, we're 0-2 – we're not 0-9 or 0-11. That doesn't bother me as much from that [team confidence] standpoint. We've just got to get better and win a ballgame."
