TAMPA, Fla. -- The ground game was stuck in neutral, there was no pass rush and defensive backs were getting burned. But for Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach Dirk Koetter, interceptions from quarterback Jameis Winston were the biggest culprit in Sunday's 34-17 loss to the Minnesota Vikings.

It was Winston's fourth career game with three or more interceptions, tied for most among active NFL quarterbacks. That has to improve going forward if the Bucs want to be a playoff team and for Winston to realize his potential. For the immediate future, that has to improve if the Bucs defense continues to get banged up and can't come through the way it did in Week 2 with multiple takeaways.

With 4:02 to go in the first half and the Bucs trailing 14-3, Winston missed a wide-open DeSean Jackson in the end zone on a 34-yard post route. The touchdown with the extra point would have made it 14-10. Instead, it was underthrown and intercepted by Vikings cornerback Trae Waynes.

"DeSean smoked that guy and Jameis has got to get it out there for him -- plain and simple on that," Koetter said. "The second interception, we were driving, we were back within two scores, we were across the 50 on the plus-45 and it was a poor read."

"We had a good man-zone indicator there," Koetter said. "Jameis missed the read, tried to force it in there to DeSean, he had to step up, had a little bit of pressure, tried to force it in there -- just not going to work."

The third interception came at the 5:52 mark, on second-and-10, when the Bucs were down by 34-17. He tried to force it to Mike Evans in the end zone instead of checking down.

Winston was 7-of-12 for 67 yards targeting Evans, but their usual deep-ball connection wasn't there. Winston was just 2-of-5 for 31 yards and an interception on passes of 10 or more yards downfield. In Week 2, Winston was a perfect 4-for-4 with a touchdown and no interceptions when targeting Evans for 10-plus yards.

"Jameis made some really nice plays, some really nice throws, but just the main thing is as an offense we can't turn it over," Koetter said. "Those kinds of things have a tendency to happen more when you're playing from behind and you're playing in a more desperate situation than you would like to be."

The key is not forcing Winston to have to do too much, which is what happened against the Vikings. They were playing from so far behind and had to try to score quickly, so Winston wound up passing the ball 40 times. That usually doesn't bode well.

Since 2015, Winston has thrown 36 interceptions in games where he's had to pass the ball 40 or more times, tied for second-most in the NFL with the Jacksonville Jaguars' Blake Bortles.

Since 2015, the Bucs are 0-6 when Winston has had to throw the ball 40 or more times in a game and 3-13 when he's had to throw the ball 35 or more times. In games where he's thrown two or more interceptions, the Bucs are 1-9.