Buccaneers Week 9 Top Performers at Chicago Bears

The Buccaneers steadied the ship after an early onslaught but did not receive what they needed from their offense as the Chicago Bears escaped with a narrow 27-24 victory Sunday night at Soldier Field.

Tampa Bay’s defense got slugged for two quick touchdowns but impressively steeled their resolve to allow only 6 points the rest of the way while forcing 5 turnovers — one week after forcing 4. The unit harassed Caleb Williams and Co., who all looked like a top-3 offense in football over the better part of the last month.

Unfortunately, the Buccaneers offense largely failed to capitalize on the opportunities provided to it. After the first three interceptions, the Bucs had 6 points to show for it, and while Bucky Irving carried them to a late game-tying touchdown, it just wasn’t enough to extend the contest in their favor. Baker Mayfield throwing two inexcusable interceptions, one of which being a pick-six, only further puts the onus on that side of the ball.

As far as moral victories go, this contest is about as close as you will get in the NFL, but it’s still another tally in the loss column when it very well should’ve been a W. Tampa will need to shake it off during its bye week before another road trip north to face the Detroit Lions.

Let’s do some shoutouts and enjoy that week off.

Offensive Top Performer: RB Bucky Irving

Bucky remains this team’s offensive engine, and it’s scary to think how anemic the entire operation would look without him slicing through defenses and bouncing off would-be tacklers like a yoked-up pinball.

In the return to his hometown, Irving led all offensive players from either team in total yards (24 touches, 125 yards) and scored twice, taking the opportunity to showcase his talents on primetime. He’s well on pace for another 1,000+ yard season and already has 8 total touchdowns, proving an injured 2025 season was just a blip on the radar when it comes to his potential.

Kenny Gainwell contributed significantly again with 76 total yards on 8 touches, with most of that coming in the passing game. Over the last 3 weeks, Gainwell has resembled the reliable backup to Bucky the team envisioned when they signed him.

Other than that, the not-so-fun part is that this passing offense is broken.

Mayfield needed to throw the ball tonight after 15 total passes in the prior two weeks combined, and the results were largely poor. A huge 58-yard bomb to Tez Johnson offered some hope, but that really served as the only positive highlight as it was promptly counterbalanced by two horrific interceptions that actively dampened the Bucs’ chances.

In a game where you lost by 3 points, a pick-six looms awfully large. Mayfield has 4 total touchdowns and 7 total turnovers on the year. Now it’s not all on him, as Zac Robinson looks incompetent in this area of the job and receivers keep dropping passes, but you expect more context-independent production from the guy you just gave $165 million.

Defensive Top Performer: CB Jacob Parrish

You could really go a number of ways with this one.

Yes, Zyon McCollum got two interceptions and now has four total over the last three weeks, but I can’t ignore that he also got toasted the entire first quarter (including for a touchdown). He rebounded beautifully and he deserves credit for doing so, but that doesn’t erase the bad either.

With that in mind, Parrish gets the big nod here for adding another pass deflection to extend his NFL lead — which also turned into yet another interception for Alex Anzalone, who played well again. Parrish delivered in coverage all night while also making critical tackles on Chicago’s dangerous open-field playmakers. Parrish has been such a stud anywhere he’s lined up, and he has a bright future as the Bucs’ next star cornerback.

The whole defense deserves so much praise for refusing to give in after a bad start and putting the team on its back — not just Sunday, but most of the year. It’s really hard to be mad at them for the end-of-game coverage flub that put the Bears in chip shot field goal range, as inexcusable as that mistake is, given how it wouldn’t have even been a close contest in the first place without them stymying an awesome Chicago attack.

Tykee Smith nabbed a critical red zone interception, and Rueben Bain Jr. forced a fumble with a massive hit on Luther Burden to set the Bucs up for the late tying score. The latter also created some QB pressures as the rookie’s needle continues to point up.

Fellow rookie Josiah Trotter kept playing well and increased his team-leading tackle amount with an 8-stop effort, as well as adding a QB pressure as a blitzer. It’s easy to argue his immediate impact and elevation of the linebacker unit has significantly raised the entire defense’s floor.

The turnover luck will likely dry up at some point, as it does for every team, but even then this is a unit Todd Bowles should be proud of.

Special Teams Top Performer: P Riley Dixon

You know the game flow is going your way when Riley Dixon’s performance is a net positive.

Dixon loosed some critical punts to help maintain field position in the second half and allow the defense to keep its ears pinned back. Dixon placed two of his six punts inside the 20 and averaged a sturdy 48.8 yards per punt with a long of 54.

In what has been another mediocre year overall for him, he chose a good night to provide his best effort of the season.

Shoutouts, of course, also go out to Chase McLaughlin for all four of his chip shot kicks (3 field goals and 1 XP) to remain perfect on the year, as well as special teams maven Miles Killebrew for partially blocking a punt.

The coverage unit got bailed out by a questionable penalty on a would-be 92-yard kick return for a touchdown by Chicago’s Zavion Thomas, so that aspect needs to continue to improve, but overall a good night for a unit that’s been much-improved under the sage-like Danny Smith.