A bitter Week 10 home loss left a bad taste in Baker Mayfield’s mouth, and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback hopes his teammates feel the same.
The Bucs dropped to 6-3 after falling, 28-23, to Drake Maye and the New England Patriots (8-2) in a battle of MVP candidates. After the game, Mayfield harped on a need to improve on third down and playing behind the sticks before issuing a stern message to the offense about their outlook for the rest of the season.
“Offensively, I’m hoping our guys do get pissed off about this,” Mayfield told reporters. “This isn’t the end of our season, I know that, [we] still have very important games ahead of us. But games like this, when you don’t win ’em, it should sting, it should really hurt.”
Mayfield did all he could in a game where Tampa Bay never led, posting a 28-of-43 outing for 273 yards, three touchdowns and no turnovers against a tough Pats defense. His stats were solid but to his point, the team’s inefficient play can’t be overlooked.
Despite winning the time of possession battle (32:25 to 27:35), the Bucs went 5-of-13 on third down, though the Pats didn’t fare much better (5-of-14). However, the Pats did do more with their opportunities, tallying more yards (435) on fewer plays (59) than Tampa (66, 371).
Only time will tell if the Bucs respond to their fearless leader’s remarks with a fury. But, for now, Mayfield and Co. will have the next week to ruminate on what went wrong Sunday before facing another MVP candidate next week in Josh Allen when they take on the Bills in Buffalo.
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