You hate to see it: A five-interception, six-turnover day from 2015 first-overall pick Jameis Winston drops the Buccaneers to 2-4 in a crucial NFC South divisional loss to the Panthers.

The game, played at London’s Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, ended 37-26, but it was never actually close. Winston’s first pass of the game, intended for Mike Evans, was picked off by Panthers cornerback James Bradbury and resulted in a Carolina field goal, foreshadowing things to come. The Bucs then went 3-and-out on their next three possessions.

Winston was picked off again early in the second quarter which set up Christian McCaffrey to score his second touchdown of the game. Right after the two-minute warning, Winston was sacked twice and fumbled on back-to-back plays, the second of which was a strip sack from Vernon Butler that was recovered by Carolina’s Bruce Irvin.

Winston had another costly interception early in the 3rd quarter that resulted in a touchdown to Curtis Samuel. He threw a fourth interception intended for Chris Godwin, and a fifth one on the final play of the game on a pass intended for Mike Evans in the end zone. Overall, he completed 30 passes on 54 attempts for 400 yards, and one touchdown, and his five interceptions resulted in 17 points for the Panthers.

“I’ve just got to protect the football for us to win the game,” Winston said. “This is all on me. Everyone else played good but me.”

It goes without saying that if you turn the ball over six times, you can’t win football games and Winston has been a turnover machine since entering the league. He has not shown any palpable progression throughout his career — His 48.2 QB rating this season is his lowest, and his performance today brings him to 87 career turnovers, the most of any quarterback in the last five years.

The Buccaneers banged-up offensive line was also exposed in the game: Winston was constantly under pressure from the Panthers defense and took seven sacks.

“Throw the damn ball away,” head coach Bruce Arians said of his QB’s efforts. “He avoided one; he might have avoided two. You ain’t throwing it anywhere – throw it away. He has a habit of trying to be Superman and that’s been a problem in the past. The fumbles haven’t occurred this year until today, but again, [it’s] trying to make something out of nothing and it’s just a matter of knowing when to quit on a play.”

Arians and offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich have time to evaluate their options over the next week during the Buccaneers Week 7 bye. They will undoubtedly discuss a change at quarterback before Tampa Bay’s Week 8 game in Tennessee. This would not be the first time Winston has been benched in his career. Former Bucs coach Dirk Koetter benched Winston in favor of Ryan Fitzpatrick during a four-interception game against the Bengals in 2018.