The Buccaneers are way better than this, so what gives?

Heading into the season, Tampa Bay was pegged to take things to the next level but all they’ve done is spin their tires in the muck.

Go back to the beginning of the season, and all the hype was about the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. There’s no way to properly articulate how unprecedented that was; the Bucs haven’t been relevant in over a decade.

Tampa has a franchise quarterback in Jameis Winston and an arsenal of stars at his disposal: Mike Evans, Doug Martin, DeSean Jackson, and rookie O.J. Howard. The defense, a unit that held Seattle to 5-points and locked down the Chiefs on the road, looked like it was going to become ferocious.

Through seven weeks in the season, Tampa Bay is 2-4 and looking from a distance at a playoff spot that seemed so certain.

What the hell is going wrong?

Last week, the Buccaneers fell into a 31-0 hole to the Cardinals on the road. Despite losing Winston to an injury, Tampa almost came back to win. The team lost on Thursday night to the Patriots but only because of a misfire on a game-winning touchdown from inside the redzone. Even on Sunday, in a 27-20 loss to the Bills, Tampa came back to take the lead and then be in a position to try and win the game on the final drive.

Being close to winning would have been fine last year, but this year it’s simply embarrassing.

Last year was the season where everyone noticed something special was bubbling in Tampa; this season was the year the simmer rolled to a boil. Instead, the Bucs are limping through a season where they’re just good enough to be interesting and just bad enough to tear open old wounds fans thought had finally started to heal.

The problem starts and ends with Winston, who has been killing the Bucs all season long. In the loss to the Patriots, Winston overthrew DeSean Jackson on a sideline route that would have likely made the difference between a win and a loss. That’s been a theme this season, as Winston and Jackson — a $32 million connection Tampa invested in — haven’t been clicking at all.

Another theme has been turnovers. This Sunday it was an Adam Humphries fumble that broke the Bucs back, but in weeks past it has been Winston. In Week 2’s loss to the Vikings, Winston threw three picks that all stunted momentum from mounting in a potential comeback. The Bucs were down big, but as we’ve seen this season they’re capable of coming back when they don’t turn the ball over. They’re probably capable of winning if they play mistake-free football — as tired a cliche as it may be — we just haven’t seen Tampa play it yet.

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Something has to give. This team is more talented than its 2-4 record suggests, but talent on paper only does serves to win a team hype, it’s up to the talent on the field to actually win the game.