Buccaneers Lose to Titans in Preseason Week 2

Despite the loss and the offensive power outage, Bowles was pleased with the week of work in Nashville. The Bucs and Titans held two very useful joint practices on Wednesday and Thursday.

“I thought it was a great trip from a continuity standpoint,” said Bowles. “Being in the hotel and being on the road like old-school camp, I thought we came together as a team. I thought we got better with the practices and saw some different things. I think we’re in a good place. I think we learned how to run the ball efficiently for the most part, with the exception of tonight, and I think the young guys got a great look and we got a great look at a lot of young guys so we can make educated decisions going forward.”

Adding injury to insult, the Buccaneers also lost a potential key performer on offense when G Aaron Stinnie went down with a left knee injury in the third quarter. He left the field on a cart. Stinnie was in the competition to start at left guard, along with Nick Leverett and rookie second-rounder Luke Goedeke. Goedeke got the start at that spot on Saturday while Stinnie opened the game at right guard.

The Bucs got the ball first and Fournette ripped off a 10-yard run on the first play behind rookie left guard Luke Goedeke. Four-yard gains for Fournette on one run and one catch made it third-and-two but Gabbert couldn’t connect with WR Scotty Miller on a speed out and the Bucs punted it away.

Titans rookie WR Kyle Phillips seemed to ill-advisedly field Jake Camarda’s 62-yard blast a yard deep in the end zone but it worked out as Phillips weaved for 27 yards out to the 26. Willis then found WR Nick Westborook-Ikhine down the right hashes for a gain of 21. On the subsequent third-and-seven, DL Rakeem Nunez-Roches nearly sacked Willis but he escaped for a five-yard scramble, making it fourth-and-two. The Titans went for it but the Bucs’ defense wasn’t fooled at all by Willis’s zone-read and OLB Joe Tryon-Shoyinka tripped him up for a loss of four.

The Bucs thus took over…