Tom Brady, Bucs Stun NFL Twitter With 'Total Meltdown' in Loss to Joe Burrow, Bengals

The story of Tom Brady's career will include countless chapters of individual and team brilliance.

Sunday's second half will not be one of those chapters.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers seemed to be in cruise control with a 17-0 lead at home against the Cincinnati Bengals. And then the visitors ripped off 34 straight points and left Raymond James Stadium with a 34-23 victory.

Cincinnati has won six in a row and is now in first place in the AFC North at 10-4. Tampa Bay is somehow still in first place in the abysmal NFC South at 6-8, but it is 1-3 in the last four and trending in the wrong direction ahead of the season's final push.

While this was billed as a potential passing-of-the-torch game between Tom Brady and Joe Burrow, the story was Tampa Bay's four turnovers in one of the worst halves of football an offense could possibly play. The turnover-fueled collapse opened the door for the comeback and drew plenty of reaction on social media:

It looked like Tampa Bay may have turned the corner during a first half that saw Brady throw touchdowns to Russell Gage and Chris Godwin while Carlton Davis III picked off Burrow.

However, this is what happened in the second half:

• Tampa Bay botches punt or fake punt snap; Bengals turn it into a field goal
• Brady throws an interception to Tre Flowers; Burrow throws a touchdown to Tee Higgins
• Brady loses a fumble on a sack; Burrow throws a touchdown to Tyler Boyd
• Brady fumbles on handoff exchange to Leonard Fournette; Burrow throws a touchdown to Ja'Marr Chase
• Brady throws an interception to Germaine Pratt

Just like that, the Bengals were ahead by double digits and never looked back.

Tampa Bay will look to get back on track on Christmas Day against an Arizona Cardinals team that is missing Kyler Murray, but Sunday's loss will surely linger.