It was a tough night on several fronts for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Week 7. The team not only suffered a defeat, but star receiver Mike Evans also broke his clavicle and is expected to miss the remainder of the season.

His historic streak of 1,000-yard seasons came to an abrupt end, setting a grim tone early that the Bucs couldn’t recover from. One of the key moments occurred later in the game, as Tampa Bay attempted one of its trademark comebacks before a controversial decision derailed it completely.

Cade Otton appeared to stretch far enough for a first down on a crucial fourth-down play. Initially, officials ruled that he made the line to gain, but Detroit challenged whether he maintained possession since the ball popped loose when he hit the ground.

Although replay confirmed that Otton did catch the pass, referees surprisingly overturned the first-down ruling even though that part of the play hadn’t been challenged. Todd Bowles was livid on the sideline, arguing that officials couldn’t reverse a call unrelated to the challenge — particularly one that resulted in a turnover on downs.

Detroit didn’t capitalize with points afterward, but valuable clock time slipped away, ending what could have been a scoring drive. Bowles wasn’t alone in his outrage, as Baker Mayfield sounded off about the situation in his postgame comments.

Mayfield called out the referees for multiple issues, including a missed defensive holding infraction that went uncalled during a critical sequence late in the game.

“Third down defensive holding that didn’t get called, and I’m still pretty damn confused about the double review. A lot of things in that game were kind of questionable,” Mayfield told reporters.

He also spoke about an emotional exchange he had with head referee John Hussey — one that ESPN cameras caught and replayed several times throughout the broadcast.

“There was a lot of frustration at the end. It might’ve been misdirected at John Hussey, but I put in the work and care deeply about this game. When something feels unfair, I’m going to say something,” Mayfield explained.

Todd Bowles took a more measured tone afterward, describing the decision as “interesting” but insisting it wasn’t the deciding factor in Tampa Bay’s defeat.

The officiating certainly wasn’t flawless, but neither were the Buccaneers. They entered the matchup holding the NFC’s top seed and exited having dropped to fourth — a decline that went beyond refereeing errors.

Baker and the offense seemed completely out of sync, nothing clicked, and the Bucs simply faltered. The silver lining is that it’s only Week 7, leaving time to regroup — and perhaps this ugly night in Detroit will ignite a spark that gets the team back on track.