TAMPA, Fla. — It felt like an epic collapse. It looked like an epic collapse.

And on Sunday, it officially became an epic collapse.

With the Tampa Bay Buccaneers sitting at home watching helplessly, they were eliminated from the NFL playoffs when the Atlanta Falcons beat the New Orleans Saints 19-17, handing the NFC South division title to the Carolina Panthers in a three-way tiebreaker with Tampa Bay and Atlanta. All three teams were 8-9.

When November began, the Bucs were 6-2 with a two-game division lead. They proceeded to lose seven of the next nine games in one of the grandest chokes in franchise history. For the first time since 2019, Tampa Bay will be on the outside looking in on the NFL postseason.

The first quarter was as uninspiring as you might expect from two teams trying to avoid the bottom of the NFL’s worst division.

Through the first 12 minutes, there were two turnovers, three punts and one blocked punt. Also, zero points.

The Falcons finally broke through after the blocked punt set them up at the New Orleans 5 and eventually moved out to a 10-0 lead. The Saints kept it close much of the afternoon and appeared to be on the verge of a go-ahead touchdown drive when rookie quarterback Tyler Shough threw an interception from the Atlanta 20 with a little more than three minutes remaining.

The Falcons converted Dee Alford’s interception to a field goal that essentially put the game out of reach despite a late New Orleans touchdown.

Sweating it out

Don’t feel too bad if you turned the TV off on Sunday. After this season, you could use a break. The Bucs had a league-high 12 games decided by six points or less in 2025. That matches the most for one season in NFL history. Early on, the Bucs were the masters of the fourth quarter, going 5-2 in close games. December didn’t go quite so well, with four consecutive losses by a combined 11 points. When it was all over, Tampa Bay was 6-6 in games decided by six points or less. And then they had to watch the Saints lose by two points in an elimination game.

Cousins It

Need a villain to help you sleep at night? Let me tell you about Kirk Cousins. The Falcons quarterback has been mostly atrocious the past two seasons — unless he was facing the Bucs. Cousins went 3-0 against Tampa Bay with 11 touchdown passes and one interception for a 124.2 passer rating. Going into Sunday’s game, Cousins was 8-10 with 16 touchdowns, 19 interceptions and a passer rating of 88.0 against everyone else. He wasn’t particularly good on Sunday against the Saints, but it was enough to stick another dagger into the Bucs.

Looking (far) ahead

If you’ve already washed your hands of 2025, you might want to consider what the Bucs do in the 2026 draft. And if there is one thing we can all agree on, they need help on defense. That could be an edge rusher. It could be an inside linebacker. It might even be another cornerback to replace free agent Jamel Dean. Since edge rushers are so valuable, the best available could be gone by the time Tampa Bay’s turn comes up. And that could mean the smart move is finding a linebacker capable of pass coverage. Ohio State’s Sonny Styles is a former safety who has excelled since moving to linebacker.

____

©2026 Tampa Bay Times. Visit tampabay.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.