TAMPA, Fla. — It wasn’t exactly a creed or even a motto. More like a safety net.

If the running game wasn’t working? Pass. If the defense collapsed? Pass. If the end of the game was near and the wrong team was winning? Pass, pass, pass.

For more than five seasons, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers have been the most pass-happy team in the NFL. They have thrown more passes for more yards and more touchdowns than any other team in the league. More than Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs. More than Aaron Rodgers, Matthew Stafford, Joe Burrow or whichever future Hall of Famer you want to name.

Between them, Tom Brady and Baker Mayfield averaged more than 4,600 yards, 35 touchdowns and 12 interceptions per season from 2020-2024 while earning three Pro Bowl invitations.

All of which makes the last month seem like a cruel joke.

Tampa Bay’s passing game is in the dumper. Mayfield and Teddy Bridgewater combined to throw for 103 yards on 34 passes against the Los Angeles Rams on Sunday night. A week earlier, Mayfield had 173 yards on 28 passes in a loss at Buffalo. Two weeks before that, he threw for 152 yards.

When you subtract sacks from the passing totals, the Bucs netted an average of 154 yards when attempting to pass the last four games. It is Tampa Bay’s worst four-game stretch in the passing department since the end of 2014, when the Bucs finished 2-14 and Josh McCown was the quarterback.

I asked Todd Bowles if this was a protection problem or a problem with receivers failing to get separation from defensive backs or a timing problem with Mayfield. Bowles, essentially, said yes.

“I think it’s a little bit of everything,” he said. “We definitely have to coach it better, and we’ve got to play it better. I think all of us as a whole, as a collective, we have to do our jobs better. That kind of covers the whole scope of it. It’s not just one thing, it’s everything involved in that.”

There are legit reasons for the backslide. The offensive line has been missing both starting guards for most of the last three games. Receivers Mike Evans, Chris Godwin and Jalen McMillan have been sidelined much of that time. The running game has been slowed by the absence of Bucky Irving, which also has an effect on the passing game.

So, yeah, the slump is totally understandable.

The question is whether it’s fixable.

Offensive coordinator Josh Grizzard has already adjusted his play-calling to emphasize the running game more than usual, even with Irving out of the picture. The Bucs have had at least 29 rushing attempts each of the last two weeks, which is exceedingly rare when playing from behind. It’s only happened in a loss two other times in the past five years.

It’s a little unfair to Grizzard, considering he’s not been playing with a full deck the entire season, but it’s also worth wondering whether the offensive system is partially responsible. Tampa Bay receivers struggled to get open against the Rams on Sunday night, which could be a problem with the way they’re running routes or it could be a lack of imagination in designing plays. Whatever the reason, the Rams were credited with 10 passes defensed, which is an unusually high number.

Making all of this seem even more dire is the possibility that Mayfield could either miss time or be limited with an AC joint sprain in his non-throwing shoulder. Mayfield’s production has been steadily declining the past month as he’s played through knee and oblique injuries. Add a shoulder injury to the mix, and it gets exceedingly worrisome as Tampa Bay goes into the final month of the regular season with the NFC South still up for grabs.

If Mayfield says he’s ready to go, do you play him Sunday against the Arizona Cardinals or do you keep him on the sideline with the idea that he needs to be at his best in the four division games still on the schedule?

Bridgewater was thrown into an impossible situation against one of the league’s best teams in the second half Sunday night, but it can’t be ignored that he had not thrown a pass in a regular season game since 2022 before taking over the huddle at Los Angeles. He’s recently turned 33 and hasn’t won a game as a starter since he was 29. And the way the defense has been playing, the Bucs cannot count on heroics on that side of the ball.

It may not be panic-worthy yet, but it has to be concerning. For the past five-plus seasons, the passing game has been Tampa Bay’s in-case-of-emergency answer. The Vikings are the only team with more game-winning drives.

If the Bucs cannot count on two-minute drives and passing game theatrics, what else is there?

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