The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have started the last four seasons with consecutive wins, but are still waiting for their first 3-0 start since the 2005 season. This time, it was the Denver Broncos who prevented their third straight win by controlling the action on both sides of the ball in a 26-7 playoff on Sunday at Raymond James Stadium. It was the first win for the Broncos and their rookie quarterback Bo Nix after an 0-2 start.

“They outplayed us in play, in practice, in hitting and won the game,” Buccaneers head coach Todd Bowles said. “We didn’t take them lightly. We didn’t play well, we need to practice better and play better. That starts with me.”

Tampa Bay fell to 2-1 but retained first place in the NFC South after Philadelphia’s comeback win at New Orleans on Sunday. The Buccaneers play at home against those same Eagles next Sunday.

“All the credit in the world to Denver for coming here — I think we’ll watch this tape and you can probably tell how much more they wanted it than we did,” QB Baker Mayfield said. “Our offense, we didn’t start fast in the first quarter and we didn’t start fast in the third quarter. That’s the story of the game. … From the first quarter, it just felt boring. We’ll learn our lesson and move on from there.”

Under constant pressure from Denver’s pass rushers, Mayfield was held to 25 of 33 passing for 163 yards, with one touchdown and one interception, and he was sacked seven times. The Broncos’ secondary, led by Pro Bowl cornerback Pat Surtain II, kept tight coverage all day, forcing Mayfield to throw short passes underneath on most of his dropbacks. The Bucs’ top pass catchers were TE Cade Otton and WR Chris Godwin with seven and six catches, respectively, but neither went over 60 yards, while WR Mike Evans was limited to two catches for 17 yards.

“We have to block better,” Bowles said. “We have to block better and sometimes you have to get rid of the ball. It’s a combination of both. We have to play better overall.”

Mayfield took responsibility for some of the pressure problems on offense.

“There were some pressure situations today that were actually on me,” he said. “When we get into some of those tempo drives and we try to get our heads around it for two minutes, the mindset is to get the protections down when they apply that pressure, and there’s also the mindset to grab the ball and get it out of your hands. Not all of that is on the O-line.”

Nix, on the other hand, had his best game as a professional, completing 25 of 36 passes for 216 yards. After a few deep gains on the opening touchdown drive, he too threw most of his passes within 10 yards of the line of scrimmage, but he had more time to direct the offense, as he was not sacked and was only hit twice. On the occasions that Nix WasUnder pressure, he demonstrated his speed and agility, escaping the pocket and scoring 47 yards and a ground touchdown.

“We were applying pressure, the ball was coming out fast,” Bowles said. “And when we were applying pressure, we weren’t tackling well. And he broke a couple of tackles and got out of the pocket – that was the most disappointing thing, the tackling.”

Rookie RB Bucky Irving gained 70 yards on nine carries, but the Bucs’ early deficit made the second half a pass-heavy game and the team finished the game with just 16 carries for 91 yards. Denver, meanwhile, ran the run 28 times for 136 yards, with practice squad newcomer Tyler Badie leading the way with 70 yards on nine carries.

The Buccaneers also lost the battle for possession for the first time this season, as Denver S Brandon Jones intercepted a pass in the first quarter and recovered a fumble in the fourth. Lavonte David was responsible for the Bucs’ only possession of the first half, causing a fumble by RB Javonte Williams that was recovered by DL Logan Hall. The Bucs offense briefly got going after that with a touchdown drive, but couldn’t sustain it.

“You have to prepare every week like you’re playing in a playoff game or something like this can happen,” Mayfield said. “We got in a lot of trouble physically and execution-wise across the board. It’s a good lesson for our team and the young players who haven’t experienced that before, and shows what to prepare for and how detailed we have to be. For that to happen this early, I’m going to take the positives from it and take it in stride. There’s nothing else I can do and move on from there.”

CB Jamel Dean led the Bucs defense with 13 tackles and nearly intercepted a deflected pass in the second half. CB Zyon McCollum added six tackles and defended two of the team’s five passes after intercepting four passes in last Sunday’s win at Detroit. The defense as a whole, however, had too many missed tackles for Bowles’ liking.

“I’ll look at the film and see that, but I know we missed quite a few tackles,” Bowles said.

The Broncos dominated on both sides of the ball early, building a 14-0 lead. That marked the first time Tampa Bay’s defense had allowed two first-quarter touchdowns since a Week 4 game against Kansas City. Nix drove Denver 70 yards on the first possession and scored a three-yard touchdown of his own. A Brandon Jones interception and 37-yard return set up a nine-yard touchdown drive. The Broncos went for fourth-and-2 and scored a touchdown on a pitch to RB Javonte Williams. Denver scored two more Wil Lutz field goals in the second quarter, but between those two drives the Bucs were able to gain some of the lead on a Lavonte David forced fumble that Logan Hall recovered, leading to a 67-yard touchdown drive that featured two big plays by Irving. Chris Godwin made a very difficult catch on a six-yard fade to score his third touchdown in as many games this season.

The Bucs offense couldn’t sustain that momentum after halftime, getting bogged down in the middle of the field and then letting the Broncos take eight minutes off the clock with a 79-yard field goal. That drive, which took the game into the fourth quarter and gave Denver a 23-7 lead, included an incredible 22-yard run from Nix to get out of danger. Things didn’t get any better in the fourth quarter, with the Bucs’ two longer drives ending in a failed fourth down and a lost fumble deep in Denver territory.

“It’s a long season,” Bowles said. “We took it easy today. They beat us by a mile. They outplayed us as coaches and as players. It’s going to be a long season for us. We weren’t in a great mood on Monday when we got to Detroit; we can’t be in a bad mood tomorrow when we look at the film of this game. We’ve got to move on to the next game. There’s a lot more tough games and a lot of football to play, and unfortunately we didn’t win this one.”

The Broncos started the game with the ball at their 30 after a touchback by Jake Camarda. Nix’s first pass of the game was a back-shoulder pass to WR Courtland Sutton for 22 yards. Nix also threw on the second play of the drive, with a play-action rollout and a short toss to FB Nick Adkins for six yards. On the next play, WR Josh Reynolds got behind the defense on a flag route and caught a 31-yard pass over his shoulder to the Bucs’ 11. After a delay of game flag forced the ball back to the 16, Sutton ran left toward a keeper but was caught by McCollum after a gain of just two yards. Two plays later, on third-and-two, Nix rolled right again and, as coverage dropped into the end zone, was able to catch the ball himself for the three-yard touchdown.